Otoloye Oyeniran(OT) is building solutions at Wajusoft

TL;DR: Wajusoft is a Software development startup that offers engineering-as-a-service. It is made up of a team of developers, product managers, and designers who build business-driven software solutions and offer other IT-related services. In this article, we speak to the startup's founder and discuss all things Engineering-as-a-Service, the purpose of startups like Wajusoft, and the future of Wajusoft and EaaS.

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Engineering-as-a-service (EaaS) is a method of outsourcing engineering and software development. Instead of going through the process of hiring, managing, and retaining engineers, you simply hire them contractually for the services you need. EaaS covers a range of services from business consultation to software building and management.

Founded by software engineer and Andela alum, Otoloye Oyeniran (OT) Wajusoft is in a slightly new niche in the tech space. What startups like Wajusoft are doing is saving you the trouble of hiring new teams and building ideas from scratch by offering you an experienced dedicated team of specialist software engineers ready to go and making it easier for your business to scale up.

With a focus on new business founders, Wajusoft wants to help business founders who are fresh in the field, with new ideas, to find their way.

According to OT for this interview,

“We chose that niche because they’re the people most easily misguided. They’re new in the field and may not know how tech works.” He says “Most founders don’t know what they want until they have somebody to play around their ideas with. That’s why we want to be like a partner to them, to help them understand that sometimes things make sense in theory but in practice are more difficult.”

Wajusoft takes a value-first-pay-after approach and this means they’re focused on delivering quality service first. They try to cover all tech and engineering needs beyond software development. Let’s say, for example, what you need for your new software is a product manager, if Wajusoft has one in-house, they’ll be loaned to you to show you how valuable a person like that can be for you. According to OT, Wajusoft takes a collaborative approach. They aim to partner with their clients and take a sense of ownership of the projects they lead, which leads to better outcomes.

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The value of EaaS

The need for engineering as a service has increased exponentially worldwide. As tech improves and increases innovations, companies now offer a range of cloud-related IT solutions and services. Companies that value speed and quality and are looking to optimize their services are taking advantage of the perks of software outsourcing.

In 2020, the global IT cloud services industry brought in combined revenue of $312 billion. Software as a service (SaaS) was the largest spending in this category with a revenue of almost $198 billion.

This data shows that companies are moving toward what current technologies and cloud engineering has to offer and pivoting to a more efficient and cheaper long-term model of creating test running, and managing applications and data.

The benefits of outsourcing engineering to companies like Wajusoft include fast-tracking your tech ideas by providing you with an engineering team ready to go. With this service, you can test-run ideas on a small scale and prove idea scalability without needing to hire and fire talent.

EaaS providers are not project-based but rather need-based so you have lower overhead costs. The costs for hiring, housing, and retaining engineers are reduced and you only pay for engineers for the duration you need them.

EaaS providers take advantage of the current tech options provided for work. People can work independently and remotely now with minimal tools. If you want to build an idea and tech talent is scarce in your city, you can take advantage of remote engineering services.

Wajusoft is Philadelphia-based but run by a team located globally. 50% of its workforce is on the continent and the rest in Canada, the USA, Netherlands, Germany, and the UK. With cultural communication being the only barrier to global work collaboration, Wajusoft is tapping into the current tech boom in Africa and working on improving communications between people in the same industry with similar skills and separate nationalities.

Wajusoft founder OT is intrigued by computers and the ideas they bring to life. This is what drives his interest in software development. With software development, you can think up an idea and with a few lines of code and some hours, said idea comes to life.

First going to the University of Lagos to study Metallurgical Mathematical Engineering which is a study of metals that combines mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, he took a hiatus from studying to earn practical skills and learn software development. Temporarily joined a startup in Lagos, Nigeria for work, where he got an opportunity to learn while also studying how the tech business works first-hand.

After trying and failing to get into Andela the first time, he was admitted into the program the second time and this, according to him, is where his professional software dreams were actualized.

Currently, OT doubles as Founder and CEO of Wajusoft and the VP of Engineering at PeopleJoy, a student loan management company. With years of hands-on experience under his belt, he believes that in a field like this exposure matters more than years of experience. He states that,

“Some people believe it’s the number of years of experience you have that makes you good. I belong to a different school of thought that believes that it’s the level of exposure or the kind of problems you’ve been exposed to that really makes you good.”

This is the edge OT believes he has had since he began this career journey. Coupled with being a problem solver, years of exposure to tough software engineering problems have not only improved his engineering skills but also helped him to develop beyond just technical skills and this he thinks is an area many developers fail to develop. Most developers, he thinks, relegate their people skills to the background but soft skills and communication are essential to running a business in this industry.

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The future of Wajusoft

Wajusoft which was founded in 2018 has a number of successes under its belt including building an employee recognition system for Recognize365 aimed at improving the employee experience and satisfaction and building a dashboard for Squlptr a location-based matching company that connects customers with plastic surgeons based on procedure and skill.

After having some success in building products for their clients, Wajusoft is moving towards building and shipping internal products aimed at improving the everyday lives of users.

“The goal is to build a suite of applications that can help people in their day-to-day lives, help with financial freedom and/or financial knowledge and similar products.” OT.

Actively in the works is an application for local artisans called Jama Jama. It is built to be an easy-to-use service to connect artisans to jobs locally and be accessible to the most basically literate user.

Engineering-as-a-service is the future. From hiring to training, managing, and providing benefits for employees, the cost of keeping engineering in-house for projects that sometimes only take 3–6 months is too much, especially for a modern job that can be done from anywhere.

“People are beginning to understand that they don’t really need to hire engineers directly because it’s tough managing engineers if you don’t have prior experience. It takes on average 35–40 days to hire someone as an engineer in this field from ads, to various interviews, negotiation to resignation from the previous place of work and onboarding.” OT says.

Wajusoft and other EaaS providers are taking advantage of current software provisions to meet engineering needs without needing to hire an engineering team.

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At Wajusoft we’re building bespoke software solutions that bring value to our partners while also improving the everyday lives of their customers. Book a consultation with the team today and begin your product engineering journey.

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