What are exactly the products and the customers of EPAM? This article is a rare opportunity to unveil the mystery and get valuable firsthand insights. We have visited the event called Liberty Global Day and met the team of Liberty Global. The company is an international provider of internet and telecommunication services and a longtime customer of EPAM. Together with our team, we’ve discussed several projects and talked about the Belarusians who work in the Netherlands.
What is Liberty Global?
Liberty Global is the largest provider of cable internet outside of the USA. It was established in 2005 via the merger of Liberty Media International, Inc. (LMI) and UnitedGlobalCom, Inc. (UGC). The company’s strategy is based on investment. It purchases and integrates new businesses. Today, the company owns providers in six European countries but the brand itself is lesser known. The company makes noticeable purchases to boost its popularity. Among those are a motorship championship called Formula E, that was acquired by Liberty Global in 2015, and Formula One that was acquired by the company’s subsidiary, LMI, in 2017.
The products of Liberty Global
The company produces two types of products:
1. Entertainment products. These are web apps and mobile apps that provide on-demand content (a catalogue of movies and series) and linear content (streaming TV, TV channels). There are not so many platforms that give access to both types of content simultaneously. There are practically no competing apps. Liberty Global also offers set-top boxes that can be considered entertainment products too.
2. Connectivity products. These are the products that have something to do with internet, such as single port modems and mesh networks for homes and offices. The company has created a special mobile app to effectively manage internet using various configurations. This app can also be used to connect devices to public networks. Liberty Global has many internet access points across Europe, and clients can connect to Wi-Fi when travelling to countries where the provider is present.
In numbers, there are around six million clients who consume video content, nine million families who connect to internet using the providers of Liberty Global, one million clients who use the TV platform, and one million clients who use mobile apps.
What services does EPAM provide to Liberty Global?
Aliaksandr Astapenka, Senior Manager at the Liberty Global, EPAM Netherlands
EPAM has been partnering with Liberty Global for more than six years now. We started as a small team in Amsterdam when the company launched its first mobile applications. Today, we work with many products and projects of the client. We develop a video platform, mobile apps for iOS and Android, apps for Windows Native, and web apps. We also do a lot of work on creating video content and connectivity and building a data platform.
Kiryl Kukhavets, Delivery Manager, the Head of the Front-end Practice, EPAM Netherlands
It’s easier to say what we don’t do. We develop end-to-end solutions from back-end development and to testing. This is one of those cases when we do everything by ourselves. Basically, EPAM acts as a product company here. For sure, the customer has its own vision, but it does give us certain freedom.
The next generation of TV
The flagship product of Liberty Global is the platform called Horizon TV. Essentially, it’s a set-top box that upgrades your TV to become a smart TV. Horizon TV has its own specific features that make it distinct among its competitors. For example, the developers integrated Twitter into the platform in 2016. Customers got the opportunity to add live tweets to the screen.
There is a separate team called Horizon GO Web. It develops a web app that allows you to watch your favorite TV channels via a browser. The developers have some free time for experiments and creativity. For example, the team has managed to launch Chromecast on an old TV produced by Vityas in 2002.
Aliaksandr Karlovich, Lead Software Engineer, Technical PM/DM of Horizon GO Web
It all worked out just fine. We proved that a smart TV can be produced by Belarussians. These days, the industry becomes more and more accessible. We strive to make any content available to as many people as possible on as many devices as possible. Despite the growing popularity of these devices and video content in general, the technologies and video streaming are moving towards a unified network. Today, streaming is getting more interesting and less difficult thanks to one common principle: you can launch Chromecast, a web app, and mobile software using the same technology.
Maksim Shastsel, Lead Software Engineer
Web apps are popular these days. Statistically, people consume more and more information. It means that the demand for any content-streaming app will grow. We have one million and a half unique users in a month. Today, the trend is shifting from basic consumption to getting comfort and new experience out of watching a video. How fast and easy is my access to information? What and how many devices do I need to get information? Can I sync these devices? What is the content quality?
Telemetry and data analysis
Liberty Global is a major company that is constantly evolving. Employees should keep up the pace and always improve their services. These changes can only be useful if decision making is preceded by thorough analysis.
Kirill Lis, Senior Manager, Technology Consultant at the Data Analytics Practice
Understanding data has benefited business a lot. Now, we have a data base and more complex reports. We’re getting closer to making pretty accurate predictions based on these data. For example, there’s a signal that informs how traffic is consumed and transferred via backbones. There’s a lot of equipment involved. And each piece of this equipment generates a signal. We’ve developed a solution that tracks any deviations. Since there are too many signals to track them manually, we tried to optimize the process. The solution can tell you when and where a deviation may appear before it does. Our product can’t fix a problem by itself yet, but it can inform you on the problem and where it is.
Development reliability
The developers of Liberty Global pay special attention to quality and reliability of the system that they develop.
Uladzimir Mihura, Solution Architect, the leader of the SA practice, EPAM Netherlands, the Head of Development on the Liberty Global Project
Reliability is the key component of quality that everyone talks about. The further we go, the more we interact with computer systems from day to day. It has already become an indispensable part of our live. A power cut was a normal thing 50 years ago. What a catastrophe would it be now, if we were left one day without electricity, internet, and gadgets. The same can be said about the systems we build. If they stop functioning amidst some cataclysm, that would be a serious issue.That’s why every team member is so important. We won’t be able to build a reliable system without people. Its quality depends on how tired our engineer is, how they reacted to a specific alert, how they addressed it, and so on. Our people should maintain the system, know its specifics, assist in working with it, and constantly study its functionality.
Why Liberty Global?
Every team member has shared their personal story about how they started to work for the customer. Some people have been working on the projects for Liberty Global for more than five years. They say that Liberty Global knows how to maintain interest in their product and helps engineers to evolve and be proactive.
Kiryl Kukhavets, Delivery Manager, the Head of the Front-end Practice, EPAM Netherlands
This company has had a very strong influence on my career. I got there as an ordinary engineer in 2013 and rose through the ranks to become a delivery manager. During this period, I had an opportunity to work on three different projects but for one customer. Usually, when you have the same routine all the time, you start to long for changes. Liberty Global always come up with something new that can’t stop fascinating me. The technology stack, the platform, and the people are never the same. A new project seems like a new company.
Kirill Lis, Senior Manager, Technology Consultant at the Data Analytics Practice
You should know how to navigate among conflicting parties, analyze tasks and needs, and use them to create a solution that will satisfy everyone. Nobody shows you a roadmap. There’s always a lot of work to do, and it’s an interesting challenge.
Aliaksandr Astapenka, Senior Manager at the Liberty Global, EPAM Netherlands
My engagement with the customer started three years ago, I had already worked with start-ups and had some prejudice towards corporations. I thought that they were too stiff to adapt. But then I began to work with Liberty Global where 20000 people were not afraid of challenges and changes. At first, I was surprised. Almost every year here starts with internal restructuring and adjusting of the strategies for projects and the company as a whole. The specialists of Liberty Global are very dynamic and often make decisions that I’d call risky. But the readiness to make mistakes at any level is what gives them an edge.
Uladzimir Mihura, Solution Architect, the Head of the SA practice, the Head of Development at Liberty Global
I have a really funny story about my job. I like jogging. I used to jog down the Maksim Bahdanovic street when I lived in Minsk. Six years ago, I decided to take part in a marathon. I don’t know why, but I registered specifically for the one in Amsterdam. I guess I thought it would be cool to see the city. When I was preparing for the marathon, one good friend of mine offered me a position in one EPAM project for Liberty Global. It happened so that I passed all the interviews and moved to Amsterdam right on the day of the marathon. I started as an architect on the Horizon GO project where we were engaged in mobile development. Then, I was promoted to an end-to-end architect. After the reorganization of the company, I was asked to lead back-end development. I’m still here because I’m really excited about the domain, the specific nature of some of our products, and the cheerful international team. There are the Poles, the Belarussians, the Dutch, the Brazilians, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the French working together and creating great things. Maybe, the teams of Netflix and Amazon do better products, but we do unique products.
Aliaksandr Karlovich, Lead Software Engineer, Technical PM/DM of Horizon GO Web
It’s a very interesting domain. We work with internet and media services that are a part of our daily live. Everyone watches TV in some way or another, even if they claim they don’t. Someone watches a classic TV, someone uses mobile apps, someone binge-watches YouTube, and someone prefers Apple streaming. It’s all can be considered new forms of a good old TV. For five years, I’ve got used to the customer so much that it’s really the bond now. The best thing is to know that the products I develop are used by people from all over the world, even by those I know. For example, the relatives of my wife have our set-top box and the mobile app. I enjoy collecting user feedback when visiting them.
What’s so special about the Dutch workstyle?
Uladzimir Mihura, Solution Architect, the Head of the SA practice, the Head of Development at Liberty Global
If you compare the workstyle of EPAM Netherlands and the workstyle of EPAM Belarus, you won’t find any difference. We all work a lot. If you come to visit the office of Liberty Global after 6:00 PM, you’ll see only EPAM specialists. The Dutch work less, just as other Europeans. There’s a very popular local proverb: “If they tell you something will be done today, then it will be done in a week. And if they tell you something will be done in a week, then it will be done in a month”. The Dutch always joke about how no one seems to work in this country. But at the same time, goods are delivered, trains and buses depart in time, and the system works just fine. It’s incredible!
EPAM is not just about working in an office in your home country. It’s about international opportunities. You just need to know how to use them.
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