Technology

How MGA builds projects 5 times faster with GitLab

MGA successfully implemented CI/CD, improved software quality, created a knowledge base, and saved money by migrating to GitLab.

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10x
better success rate with CD than manual deploy
80%
time saved moving to CD
80 to 240
project growth to rate

About the company

Logical software enterprise

MGA designs and implements computer applications. They work with large and medium-sized commercial and industrial enterprises.

Founded in 1993, MGA created logical software that leverages the advantages of a relational database (Oracle) working on Linux. By 1999, MGA started outsourcing and providing bookkeeping services, HR, and payroll support to over 30 companies.

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Location: Poland

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Employees: 80 employees

The CHALLENGE

Lacking collaboration, support, and code quality

Before, MGA was using Mercurial and their teams wrote their own code. However, the development team tested out free tools that allowed them to make code reviews that enabled CI and CD.

It was a difficult process because they were not experienced in using the tools. There was a lack of support in getting up and running. Between Mercurial being too complex and developers having inadequate experience with CI/CD tools, MGA was facing significant challenges.

IT administrators were overwhelmed. The development team consisted of about 25 people with only 3 system administrators. Every IT problem that arose within the company fell to the IT admins to solve. There was no formal way to communicate between developers and IT, so bottlenecks were common. MGA was looking for a tool that would allow them to automate and streamline as many things as possible. They also required a platform that optimized collaboration.

The teams were also struggling with knowledge distribution. MGA had articles stored in their internal Wikis, in Redmine tasks, written notes, and some applications. Knowledge assets were unorganized and hard to find. New hires were left on their own to find documentation about the internal systems. MGA IT and developers were losing time and money without the proper tools to solve all their issues.

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The solution

A dynamic tool at a cost-efficient price

GitLab’s pricing plan was the best option for MGA and was a huge driver in their decision-making process.

MGA tested a variety of tools. After discovering GitLab’s easy user interface, they made the decision to migrate from Mercurial. Another selling point for GitLab was Deviniti, an accredited GitLab partner based in Poland. MGA needed Polish currency and Polish invoicing to proceed with the procurement process.

Before GitLab, MGA developers worked in small teams on small projects. As the company grew, so did the scope of the projects and the size of the teams. Nevertheless, the tools they had in place couldn’t accommodate the scaling. With GitLab, teams found the ability to plan a software roadmap and set timelines for projects.

Selected tool

Migration to GitLab

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    GitLab EE

    One solution, many possibilities

    • Automatic code scanners in CI pipeline
    • Improved overall collaboration
    • Increased operational efficiency
    • Deliver better products
    • Easy to integrate

    Get to know more

The Results

Better software, more developers, and a single knowledge base

80 to 240

project growth to rate

10x

better success rate with CD than manual deploy

80%

time saved moving to CD

30 to 60

number of developers growth

MGA took about a week to prepare servers to start using GiLab. Within a year the teams had migrated all of their projects from the previous solution. Prior to GitLab, there were three IT administrators and 30 developers. Now, there are over 60 developers easily supported by three IT admins and many more servers. There is no longer a bottleneck because the problems no longer fall on the IT admins.

Since starting with GitLab, projects have grown from 80 to 240. “Everything in projects that’s already started is done by CI and CD. We just solve some problems from time to time and teach developers how to use the tools that GitLab provides,”  Tadeja said. “We are more efficient, know how to write better code, and we can focus more on code quality than just simple tasks that can be automated.”

The level of software quality is improved since the teams are able to enhance the quality of code. “I believe we provide much better code quality and the most important thing is that we can collaborate in creating codes for bigger things,” Tadeja said. “Now we can review our codes and text notes and we can share it… I believe it really simplifies our work.” What’s more, onboarding has become more efficient because MGA now documents everything as code. Developers can now look at a CI configuration and from a YML, they are able to learn how things work. Every developer knows where to look for knowledge, which saves time and headaches.

With GitLab’s support, MGA has created better software at a faster rate with improved code quality testing and review processes. The IT and development teams have become experts in CI/CD. They achieved it by creating streamlined automation systems, keeping IT administration resources at a minimum and maximizing cost efficiency.

testimonial

What our client say

mga

CD has at least 10 times better success rate than manual deploy. We have projects in which automatic deployment has never failed.

Jakub Tadeja
Senior IT Administrator