20 January 2025
Business
Customer success story:
illumin + Brainence
We’ve brought 18 top talents on board to strengthen illumin’s development team. In this interview, we explore how our partnership with illumin drives results.

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Industry
Media and advertising
- Service
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Client location
Toronto, Canada
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Team composition
13 Java and React developers, QA, DevOps, and Big Data engineers
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Technologies
Java, React, Big Data, DevOps
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Team location
Lviv, Ukraine
Our collaboration with illumin has been strong from day one. Based in Canada, illumin is a journey advertising platform that provides the perfect space for journey planning, execution, and reporting. They contacted us to hire a dedicated team of developers to support their in-house expertise and fill in talent gaps—and we’ve hired 18 different experts since.
In a recent conversation with illumin’s Chief Information Officer, Adriaan van Heerden, we discussed how our dedicated team had become an integral part of illumin’s development efforts.
With Brainence, we gained access to a trusted partner and talent pool we simply didn’t have access to on our own.

Adriaan van Heerden
What challenges led you to seek external development support?
There were several factors that drove our decision to diversify our resource pool. While we are fortunate to have some of the best engineering talent in Toronto working with us at illumin, we recognized the need to broaden our reach and tap into global talent. Great talent is not confined to one geography, and expanding our horizons allows us to bring in diverse expertise and perspectives.
Ukraine, in particular, has always been a highly technical and valuable resource hub. It has become a critical pillar of illumin’s resourcing strategy, enabling us to access additional skilled resources that complement and enhance our Toronto-based team.
How has Brainence’s dedicated team contributed to your product’s development?
The team members from Brainence are fully embedded within our engineering squad and operate as an extension of our own capabilities. Many of them have been with us for several years, during which they’ve developed a deep understanding of our strategy, business, technology, and ways of working. This long-term collaboration has allowed them to add significant value on a daily basis, and they’ve been instrumental in building and evolving our illumin products over the past few years.

Why did you choose a remote team over expanding in-house?
For us, it’s never been a matter of choosing between expanding remotely or in-house; instead, we’ve focused on growing both areas simultaneously. Over the past few years, we’ve expanded our internal teams while also building strong remote teams. At illumin, we take a multifaceted approach to attracting top talent, which includes sourcing highly skilled and motivated individuals from around the world, regardless of their geographic location.
Need to boost your development team?
Brainence can quickly source, hire, and integrate top tech talent into your team. Reach out, and we’ll find the perfect fit in no time.

How was the onboarding process for the Brainence team? What steps ensured they integrated smoothly with your in-house team?
The onboarding has been smooth, at least since I’ve been with illumin. The fact that we’ve had such a long-standing relationship and the number of Brainence team members who’ve worked with us has provided the Brainence management team with an in-depth understanding of our internal processes, as well as what’s needed for a soft landing when new team members join our teams.
This extends further because knowing our technology stack and ways of working has enabled Roman [Brainence’s Account Manager] and the team to match the resources that you’ve got, that would best fit our culture. And in doing that, we’re making sure that we get the right people for the right teams within illumin. I believe that’s been a big contributing factor to removing friction in the process of onboarding new people.
What’s been the most valuable part of working with Brainence?
The track record over the many years of our relationship has made Brainence a valued partner to us. An in-depth understanding of our strategy, as well as the contributions the Brainence team can make toward it, is key for us here at illumin.

How has your relationship with Brainence evolved over the years of our collaboration, and how has the team adapted to your growing needs?
We’ve seen the relationship with Brainence grow significantly, especially when looking at the range of resources we’ve been able to access through this partnership. Currently, Brainence team members are embedded across every single technology stack within illumin. Beyond that, the collaboration has extended into other disciplines that support not only product development but also our operational practices, such as such as quality assurance and DevOps support.
Through Brainence, we’ve expanded our resource pool to include QA automation engineers, enabling us to enhance our QA automation coverage significantly. Additionally, partnering with Brainence for DevOps resources has provided extended engineering support, particularly offshore. Having a DevOps engineer based in the same location as many of our engineers working on illumin products has been instrumental in driving efficiency and collaboration.
Explore the full case study
The collaboration between illumin and Brainence shows how tapping into global talent fuels innovation and drives product growth. By building a dedicated team that seamlessly blends with illumin’s in-house experts, we’ve helped them scale. Dive into the full case study below to learn more about the journey.

Setting up a dedicated team of senior tech specialists
Retail [2]
Java [1]
React [6]
Dedicated teams [1]
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The most impressive for me was the ability of the team to provide first-class development and meet all the deadlines.
The team proactively comes up with solutions and is eager to deliver high-quality development support.
I was blown away by the knowledge that Brainence has about web app development, UX and optimisation.
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