Customer Stories / Financial Services

2022
Paymerang Logo

Paymerang Upskills Employees on AWS, Reduces Deployment Times by 4x, Achieves Data and System Resilience

Paymerang sent 15 employees to the AWS Training and Certification course Developing on AWS and achieved a 4x reduction in deployment time of services.

4x

reduction in deployment time

Improved

employee satisfaction and retention

5x

reduction in recovery time 

Resilience

of data and systems achieved

Overview

In order to sustain its momentum, growing revenue 50 percent year over year, financial technology company Paymerang needed a way to prepare its employees to use the cloud to provide better products and user experience for its customers. Paymerang was rapidly scaling its cloud footprint, having already adopted over 50 services from Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company turned to AWS Training and Certification, which helped Paymerang’s employees learn from AWS experts, advance their skills and knowledge, and build their future in the AWS Cloud. This is achieved through a combination of virtual classroom training, digital certifications, and more. As a result, Paymerang reduced its deployment time, increased the scalability and security of its services, and developed better products to continue growing.

Paymerang employee sitting at a desk smiling at camera with computers in the background.

Opportunity | Embracing the Cloud on AWS

Founded in 2010, Paymerang provides finance automation for US midmarket companies in industries like healthcare, education, hospitality, and more. “We help customers in several verticals simplify their accounts payable processes by eliminating routine tasks, paying their suppliers electronically, and earning cash rebates in the process,” says Jason Losh, director of enterprise platforms at Paymerang. The company also helps customers automate invoice approval, read data from invoices, and flag invoices for possible fraud using products powered by AWS services. Paymerang started its cloud journey in 2015, migrating to the AWS Cloud. The company decided to go cloud native and, over the next 2 years, built its infrastructure as code, going serverless to gain on-demand, scalable compute power. Today, the company uses over 50 AWS services. 

In 2020, an increased demand for finance automation grew Paymerang’s business revenue by 50 percent. With 100 new employees onboarded in 2021—45 percent of the employees as of 2022—and the shift to working in the AWS Cloud, Paymerang knew it needed to invest in employee skills and turned to AWS Training and Certification. “The world of cloud is evolving quickly. We realized that learning and development need to be in the DNA of the company,” says Nasser Chanda, CEO of Paymerang. “We built a full-fledged learning and development team that is represented across technology, sales, operations, and finance personnel. We’re all in on learning and development on AWS.”

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By upskilling our team on AWS, we’re able to iterate faster. Our engineering team is able to release features quickly, gather invaluable customer feedback, and make further refinements to delight our users.” 

Nasser Chanda
Chief Executive Officer, Paymerang

Solution | Reducing Deployment Times and Achieving Data Resilience

The first step in upskilling its employees was implementing an AWS Learning Needs Analysis survey. By working with an AWS Training and Certification specialist, the company completed this role-based survey with 29 employees. Based on those results, Paymerang decided to provide 15 employees, approximately 40 percent of the research and development team, access to a 3-day virtual classroom training course called Developing on AWS, which trains individuals on how to use AWS services and developer tools to develop secure and scalable cloud applications. These employees learned how to programmatically use AWS services to build web solutions and gained a basis for understanding their work on the cloud. “When they came back, we found that they were knowledge experts, ready to share what they had learned with others in the organization,” says Chanda. Paymerang has enrolled in 20 courses so far in 2022.

During the course, employees were encouraged to take one of two AWS Certification exams, which validate technical skills and cloud expertise. The first, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner – Foundational, helps organizations identify and develop talent with critical knowledge related to implementing cloud initiatives and helps employees be productive across all projects at the company. The second, AWS Certified Developer – Associate, helps organizations identify and develop talent with critical skills for implementing cloud initiatives and is intended for those with one or more years of hands-on experience working with systems on AWS. With more of its employees gaining AWS Certifications, Paymerang could promote talent density across its workforce, meaning more of its employees would excel in cloud projects. So far, three employees have passed certification exams, with another eight expected to do so by the end of the year.

Paymerang received multiple benefits from the upskilling and certification of its employees. “By upskilling our team on AWS, we’re able to iterate faster. Our engineering team is able to release features quickly, gather invaluable customer feedback, and make further refinements to delight our users,” says Chanda. “Deployment times have been reduced by four times. We’ve also reduced our recovery time objective by approximately five times while achieving data and system resilience. Our people are learning, developing, and growing, and that’s resulting in better code and better deployment.” The increase in knowledge of AWS services has given the Paymerang team the confidence to pick the best tools for the job and create architecture for its software that is scalable and easily deployable.

The company also saw an increase in personal growth metrics for the IT team with training. By giving employees a life cycle of training with a 3–5-year vision of their future with the company, the effort led to an overall happier workforce and a great return on investment for the cost and time of training.

Outcome | Investing in the Future of Employees

Paymerang plans to continue investing in its workforce and will send another 25 employees to participate in AWS Training in 2022. Planned courses for Paymerang employees include Architecting on AWS, which teaches how to identify services and features to build resilient, secure, and highly available IT solutions on AWS, and Systems Operations on AWS, which teaches systems operators and anyone performing systems operation functions how to manage and operate automatable and repeatable deployments of networks and systems on AWS. 

“I think they could be our future cloud engineers. We’ve had employees move from working the help desk to implementing cloud solutions to becoming cloud engineers,” says Chanda.

 

About Paymerang

Paymerang was founded in 2010 and provides financial automation services like reading data off invoices and paying vendors electronically to midmarket businesses across the United States, including those in the healthcare and education industries.

Paymerang employees photographed from above, waving at the camera and smiling.

AWS Services Used

Developing on AWS

Learn how to develop secure and scalable cloud applications.

Learn more »

Architecting on AWS

Learn how to design good cloud architecture with Architecting on AWS. Through a series of use case scenarios and practical learning, you’ll learn to identify services and features to build resilient, secure, and highly available IT solutions in the AWS Cloud.

Learn more »

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - Foundational

This credential helps organizations identify and develop talent with critical knowledge related to implementing cloud initiatives. Earning AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner validates cloud fluency and foundational AWS knowledge.

Learn more »

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

This credential helps organizations identify and develop talent with critical skills for implementing cloud initiatives. Earning AWS Certified Developer – Associate validates the ability to write and deploy cloud-based applications.

Learn more »

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