"We combine our technical skills, industry expertise, and transparent Agile programming to advise and deliver solutions that delight our customers," First Line Software

In today’s fast-paced market environment, the usage and development of software are constantly changing. Such an environment requires organizations to adapt to the changes of software development and develop software in accordance with the clients’ specific needs and features. This has led many organizations to look for partners to help eliminate risk, reduce time-to-market and assist with web product development. And First Line Software does that with its decades of experience of building and managing highly productive software development teams. The company was founded as a full-service, global software development company designed to provide the comprehensive set of services required by customers from start to end of their technology projects. Its business model was built with the aim of nurturing customer relationships and converting them into collaborative long-standing partnerships by working with customers to solve their toughest business challenges. This business model goes beyond operating as a standard project-based software development business where companies simply take orders from their customers to build software according to client specifications.  First Line has achieved a reputation for consistently doing exactly what it commits to and with the highest standards for quality. “Our customers tell us we’re the exception when it comes to the quality of software we deliver and the on-time and on-budget delivery of their projects,” says Nick Puntikov, President & Chairman of First Line Software. “They haven’t experienced this level of performance with other IT companies. In fact, more often than not, it’s been the opposite – at their expense in time and money,” he added.

Highly skilled and stable team that drives performance

The executive team is comprised of talented, honest and hard-working individuals. They knew they needed more of the same but with varying skill sets and experience. Hiring an exceptionally skilled and loyal engineering force was a priority as was instilling the value of collaboration with customers to consistently achieve their business initiatives. Professional development and cross-training among the staff has been a key to building up the high level of skills and knowledge. This has prepared the team to meet the increasingly complex requirements of their customers. They are also working with customers to incorporate Big Data initiatives that will complement and magnify the impact of their Digital Transformation efforts. Currently, the team of highly qualified engineers represents 85% of First Line’s total staff of about 450 around the globe.

Finally, a look at First Line’s capabilities would not be complete without mentioning that First Line is an Agileshop. In fact, they have executives and team members who were some of the earliest adopters of the Agile methodology. “We believe that Agile is a key component in Digital Transformation as it allows customers to nimbly respond to emerging competitive situations and enhance the customer experience.”

Working with the mindset of shared responsibility of customers’ challenges and aspirations

Adopting a partner approach requires a certain mindset: focus on getting closer to customers, learning about their industry, anticipating their needs, responding to new requirements, and identifying ways to optimize project results. Throughout this process, the company looks through a lens that encompasses their knowledge of systems and best practices in other industries and the sheer volume of available modern technologies, plus their expertise in engineering and their broad portfolio of systems and applications. First Line customers have found it to be instrumental in achieving and exceeding their expectations.“Partnering also means we treat every customer with the same respect and priority – whether they are innovative startups or established enterprise-level organizations.”

Their approach to partnerships and collaboration has taken several forms. The acquisition of Solar is Development extended their capabilities in Healthcare IT and supports the business strategy to accelerate growth through acquisitions. As an Episerver Solution Partner, First Line collaborates with other Episerver Partners to pair its complementary expertise and optimize client implementations. Its expertise in Big Data has been elevated as active members of Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (or OHDSI), a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary collaborative bringing out the value of health data through large-scale analytics. 

First Line engages with customers across multiple industries and functions including Healthcare IT, Media, e-Commerce, e-Government, Finance, Logistics and Transportation, and Digital Marketing. It has accumulated deep knowledge in IoT and Industrial Internet, Wearables, Digital Transformation and Big Data. The company has been recognized with multiple annual rankings and awards by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), Global Services, Gartner (Cool Vendor in Applications Services 2015), Corporate LiveWire, CIO Review, Silicon Review, Ventana Research, and CNews.

Knowing the CEO, Nick Puntikov

Nick is a veteran entrepreneur and business executive with a proven track record in building successful global technology organizations. 

Nick earned his M.Sc. degree in 1983. Prior to starting his own business, Nick worked for the Institute of Linguistics of the Academy of Sciences as a researcher in the field of computational linguistics and natural language processing.

In 1991 Nick founded StarSoft, the private software engineering firm. During the next 15 years as CEO of StarSoft, he developed the company into a premier software services provider catering to clients in North America and Europe. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the company employed 700 engineers.

In 2007 StarSoft merged with Exigen Services. In his role as head of delivery in the joint company for the next three years, Nick was responsible for business development, managing customer relationships, and running the 1,500-staff operations in 10 R&D centers in 6 countries across Europe, Baltics and China.

Today Nick is the co-founder of First Line Software and serves as the company’s CEO. He holds a Ph.D. from the Institute of Informatics of the Academy of Sciences.

“In today’s fast-paced world, it’s vitally important to work with a proven, reliable partner you can count on to keep abreast of the technology, who shares in the risks as well as the successes, helping you to focus on the core business.”