Leveraging the digital age

In the year 2000, only a handful of custom software development companies were doing business in the United States. Yet it was a time when the demand for tailored business solutions was beginning to climb, with dozens of dot-com companies entering the market and ecommerce adoption gaining ground.

Recognizing an opportunity, the founders of Chetu Inc. launched their customized software development company that year. Today, after nearly 18 years of providing enterprise-grade software solutions to startups, small to midsize businesses and Fortune 5000 companies, Chetu is preparing to launch its 11th North American office. "Chetu helps businesses accelerate the development of desktop, mobile and web-based apps using a fully dedicated workforce of on-demand developers," stated Tobias Briegal, Chetu's National Accounts Manager.

Headquartered in Plantation, Fla., Chetu now operates 14 locations worldwide. The privately held company is a six-time Inc. 5000 honoree and remains wholly owned with no venture backing. Chetu noted that it has completed over 15,500 unique software solutions and development projects since opening, and it supports businesses in more than 20 different industries.

Passion for excellence

Chetu said it operates exclusively as a work-for-hire firm, which means clients always own the intellectual property developed by the company's 1,200 software engineers. Each engineer and the team members supporting them are in-house staff, a practice representative of Chetu's hiring strategy. "Chetu's hiring model brings a different level of accountability to the marketplace," Briegel said. "We never use contracted help and can therefore offer a different level of commitment to clients that many other software firms cannot."

Every new engineer Chetu hires is expected to meet a minimum qualification requirement of three years' prior comparable experience. Since most engineers work their way up the ranks, the average experience level in Chetu's engineer pool is now greater than 10 years ‒ a factor that has helped Chetu achieve one of the lowest employee attrition rates in the software industry and several recognitions as a best-in-class workplace, according to Chetu.

The company noted that new projects are assigned to a team that includes a project manager, team lead and the developers; the work is 100 percent performance based; the entire group is dedicated, functioning exclusively as a local work-for-hire team; and, in most cases, programming is done remotely, but it can also be handled onsite if a project or client warrants it.

According to Briegel, these practices are the success factors behind Chetu's offerings of fine-tuned technological expertise and specific domain experience, along with Chetu's service-based culture that stems from a passion for excellence.

Payments software veteran

Chetu pointed out that it holds a strong support presence in the payments industry, including terminal and device partnerships with Ingenico, Verifone and Equinox, as well as programming for stand-alone POS solutions such as Clover and Dinerware. Project teams are also called upon to develop loyalty, rewards, kiosk, cash register and other closed-loop systems, along with automation for alternative payment products such as cash advance systems.

As reported by Chetu, the company's engineers have supported several payment gateway integration projects. Chetu-developed code also powers a growing number of contactless payment methods. These include near field communication, peer-to-peer, mobile and e-wallet solutions, as well as cryptocurrency platforms. In addition, the company's programming expertise helped support the EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) migration in the United States by way of Chetu's payment device and processing partnerships.

Poised for the future

With the rapid pace of payment technology advancements, Briegel expects the payments industry will be a primary focus for Chetu throughout the next few decades. He also foresees new opportunities arising that will involve more seamless integration efforts between payment data and functionality, and cloud-based enterprise business applications. "As additional cloud-based solutions emerge for managing inventory, sales and customer service, there will also be a greater need for online software integrations with POS and ecommerce applications," Briegel said. "Chetu is primed to lead this effort."

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