About SolutionsHub with Serhii Korovko, Product Manager

As a world-leading IT company, EPAM has not only provided services to numerous clients but has also created a wide variety of ready-made software solutions that can improve and speed up the digital transformation of companies on their way up. The SolutionsHub site catalog was created in 2019 to serve as a single source for all IT professionals to search and request EPAM solutions.

We've talked to Serhii Korovko, SolutionsHub's Product Manager, who has been investing all his experience and expertise for the last three years in making SolutionsHub a useful and well-rounded place at which EPAM solutions would become more visible and easy to reach.

Read on to find out how best to use SolutionsHub and how you can benefit from it.

Why SolutionsHub?

Since it was created more than 25 years ago, EPAM has conducted many service projects in which we have created intellectual property (IP) for our clients upon their request. All these projects provided us not only with experience and skills but for some of the projects, the rights for the created IPs stayed with EPAM. In 1998 the first EPAM internal product called PMS, later renamed PMC, was created and it was used for managing costs and reimbursements. Telescope AI, one of EPAM's biggest and most mature products was created in 2010 and after that, the company decided to create its own portfolio of products.

Since then, the portfolio has been growing steadily making it possible for our clients to use already existing solutions instead of making new ones from scratch. Accompanied by the assistance of our expert teams the solutions meet their needs in a more efficient way. Also, we see our rich portfolio as a huge benefit that gives us a considerable advantage over the competition and that’s why we decided to collect them all in one place.

What is SolutionsHub?

SolutionsHub is the place where all the solutions created by EPAM are listed and where our existing or prospective clients can research them and check what we are ready to implement, customize and provide to them. Each solution has its own page with all the important information. Visitors can easily see what the key features of a solution are, what makes it different from other similar solutions, what the most common use cases are as well as many other facts that help potential customers create a clear picture of the solution. After that, they can request the solution right here from SolutionsHub and get any other particular information.

Who is EPAM SolutionsHub made for?

SolutionsHub is a valuable resource for people performing different roles in companies that are looking for technological solutions. These are some of the most common visitors to our website:

• Managers - looking for solutions that can meet their business needs. They can see here what's unique about EPAM, what makes it different, and what benefits the cooperation would bring to their company.

• Analysts - looking for solutions that would help implement all the requirements in the most efficient way. Here they can find all the specifics about each of them and see which one fits best for them. They learn about top-class and battle-tested solutions and in cooperation with our solution experts work on defining the specific needs and customizing them.

• Engineers - looking for solutions to solve the technical issues and needs, that can speed up their work or improve the existing infrastructure they already have. Various technical details provided about EPAM solutions help them decide which solution can do exactly what they expect to get.

What is a solution?

A solution is an intellectual property that can cover particular technical or business needs. It’s the form in which we offer our IP. Solutions listed on the Hub are the most mature IPs created by EPAM available at the moment.

Every solution listed on the Hub has its own dedicated solution team responsible for successfully covering all incoming requests related to potential solution customization, installation, explanation of technical details, or any other solution-related clarifications.

What types of solutions are there on EPAM SolutionsHub? What's the difference between them?

There are three main types of solutions:

1. Product. It's a complete end-to-end solution for business and technology problems and needs. Business users such as managers and analysts examine these in their attempts to find the right solution to secure growth and prosperity for their products.

2. Accelerator. These are production-ready reusable components such as libraries, connectors, or models, solving existing engineering problems. Their main aim is to improve the existing situation for already implemented customer infrastructure. It's basically a working code that can be added to the existing ecosystem for the client. IT specialists are the ones interested in these solutions since they help improve their work and make it more efficient.

3. Service. We bundle our service capabilities for digital transformation by performing different kinds of audits, assessments, or testing. For example, Product Management Maturity Assessment is a solution that we offer as a service to companies that need unbiased assessment from a third party to make sure that they're going in the right direction. We provide product maturity assessment by checking whether they have a proper marketing strategy, whether they have demonstrated significant growth, if they're using proper metrics to evaluate that and how the business goes generally.

In addition to stand-alone solutions, we also offer solution packages. Some solutions work better in conjunction with other solutions. In this case, we draw our potential customer's attention to this and highlight that implemented together they would provide better benefits in total.

What are the criteria for a solution to be published on SolutionsHub?

We have a series of assessment activities for every solution. We try to understand what business needs our potential customers have and how the solution can meet these needs. Then we determine if it can be classified as a stand-alone product, accelerator, or service. After that, we determine numerous other facts such as what life cycle stage it's in, if it has got a defined payment model, complete documentation, an active team working on it, and all other parameters that tell us if it's mature enough to be listed on SolutionsHub.

At the moment we have more than 95 solutions and we keep investigating other candidates. By providing our feedback and pointing to the gaps candidates have, we encourage them to improve their intellectual property and maturity level.

What industries are the solutions focused on?

We have numerous industry-agnostic solutions that can be used in different industries because we create IPs that can be reusable and adjusted to meet various needs. However, we do have solutions that are mainly related to specific industries such as Automotive or Life Sciences. Most of the Life Science solutions are open source and related to genomics and DNA investigations and research. We also have solutions dedicated to financial services, trading, and real-time computing. So main industries in EPAM focus are Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Life Sciences, Retail & CPG, Software & Hi-Tech.

What are the most popular categories the solutions belong to?

We put all solutions in specific categories. We're flexible with introducing new categories if necessary, so that the visitors can easily find the solutions they're looking for. So depending on what a visitor is interested in, they might search through different categories such as EngX, Analytics, or Migration&Modernization.

What license types are there and what's the difference between them?

Our solutions are also divided into two main categories depending on the license type:

• EPAM license solutions - clients need to pay for them, they need to obtain an EPAM license to use them.

• Open-source solutions - publicly accessible solution code contributed by EPAMers. We have more than 60,000 employees in EPAM right now and approximately 50,000 of them are production specialists. A lot of them work in open-source communities contributing to existing or newly created solutions. We create expertise competency centers around all solutions to make sure that even open-source solutions can be customized and adjusted to the specific client's needs.

How can I start using open-source solutions?

It's quite easy. When visitors find an open-source solution they think might be useful for them, they submit a request and in the confirmation email, they receive a link to the GitHub repository and can start using the solution on their own. If they plan to use the solution for business purposes and they want to get additional support from EPAM, the solution team might contact the requestor to establish further communication. They work on understanding what the client's needs are and how the particular solution can cover these needs for the client. If the solution’s capabilities and business needs match, the Sales/Account Management Team representatives proceed with further negotiations.

Where can I find the price of EPAM solutions?

For some solutions, there is a bundled price. However, the majority of our solutions are scaled. So, for example, if we need to conduct a cyber security audit for a company, the price can't be the same if the company has 50 or 500 employees since the scope will be significantly different. That's why the prices are discussed during negotiations. First, we need to clearly understand the scope in order to make estimates from terms and cost perspectives. Only after that, we can provide a few price proposals.

How to get additional information about solutions?

Each solution has its own dedicated page on the SolutionsHub website where all the main features and benefits of the particular solution are explained. Also, at the bottom of each of these pages, there is the ‘I have a few questions’ button that the visitor can use to ask any related question.

How can I request a solution? What's necessary from the client's side?

This is also very fast and easy. If a visitor finds a solution they think might be useful for them, they can request it using the ‘Get it now’ button. They fill in a very short form providing basic information such as name, surname, and email address. The solution team checks publicly available information about the requestor’s company in order to better prepare before reaching back to them. If the solution team realizes that cooperation might be fruitful, they contact the requestor and continue discussing the specific needs. If it turns out that the solution can meet the business needs of the requestor’s company, the Sales/Account Management Team representatives take over the communication regarding all the details and the final offer.

How long does it take for a solution request to be processed?

The SolutionsHub team receives solution requests on a daily basis and we make sure that the requests are answered in a timely manner. Although EPAM is a big company and some solution teams might be overloaded with existing customers and tasks, we always strive to apply a customer-centric approach, and by responding to the requests within 2 to 5 working days give our potential clients the highest priority.

Are there any constraints for requesting products from EPAM?

For open-source solutions, there are absolutely no constraints. These can be used even for educational purposes. However, some other more complex solutions are meant for medium to large businesses. For smaller businesses, the price might not be acceptable. EPAM makes considerable investments in order to create high-quality solutions and that's why they can't be classified as low-priced ones. On the other hand, we are proud to say that they are best in class in respect of the functionalities, differentiators, and benefits users get, as well as the overall experience.

How can I get a DEMO? What demo formats do you provide?

After sending the request for a solution and during the initial communication with solution owners, clients can request any additional items including demo sessions and agree on all the details related to them such as where and when the demo is to be conducted.

As for demo formats, they might be different for each solution. These are the most common ones:

• Sandboxes - potential clients can be given trial access to the sandbox environment so they can use and try these solutions on their own.

• Demo-video - you can find these on most SolutionsHub pages dedicated to particular solutions. It presents the main features and lets potential clients get a more precise vision of what the solution is like.

• Video-call demos - solution owners demonstrate the solution in a live video call scheduled and prepared in advance so that special attention is focused on the features and benefits that might be useful to that particular client.

EPAM solutions and the expert teams behind them have helped hundreds of companies so far in their attempts to become better. We make a change for our clients and contribute to their growth by implementing all the acquired knowledge and experience in the most professional manner. So if you and your company are trying to accelerate development, test, or deploy your technology products, EPAM most certainly has already got a solution that can do it for you. You are at the right place - SolutionsHub is where you should start from. Choose a solution that will take your company to the next level.