Project Summary
Each year, Kaplan trains more than 100,000 students to communicate in English and prepares students for English-speaking degree programs. KITE™ is Kaplan’s global English language assessment system for all Kaplan programs, as well as for commercial clients globally.
X-Team helped Kaplan open opportunities for institutional testing that were previously impossible.
The Client
Kaplan Inc. is a leading international provider of education and career services with over 10,000 employees. They provide English language education in schools and university partnership programs in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.
The Challenge
As Kaplan expanded its digital offerings to better serve students across multiple regions, the company needed a highly skilled and adaptable team of software engineers. Despite investing in local offices and recruiting efforts, Kaplan faced challenges in finding the right engineering talent that could scale with their rapidly growing product needs. In particular, Kaplan needed engineers who could help build and maintain their global English language assessment system, KITE™, as well as integrate new tools into Kaplan Professional’s customer-facing technologies.
The Services
Kaplan turned to X-Team to find highly skilled software engineers who could seamlessly integrate with their teams, despite geographic and time zone differences. X-Team built a strategy that focused on sourcing developers capable of supporting Kaplan’s diverse product lifecycle. X-Team’s developers were selected not only for their technical expertise but also for their ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with Kaplan’s product teams.
Results
Fostering Agile Development Across Regions
X-Team’s partnership with Kaplan helped create a lean and efficient team capable of supporting Kaplan’s expansion into four major geographical locations: the U.S., Australia, the U.K., and China. X-Team touches all four of these regions and all the Kaplan teams in those locations.
With X-Team’s flexibility, Kaplan was able to scale their teams dynamically, reducing the strain of managing a co-located staff. The ability to access highly skilled developers regardless of location allowed Kaplan to maintain momentum, even when team members were traveling or working across different regions.
Continuous Learning and Growth
Danielle Chircop, Product Director at Kaplan, highlighted how X-Team developers always seek to learn and improve. This is something that translates in the work they provide for Kaplan and contributes to the success of their projects. X-Team didn’t just follow orders — they engaged with Kaplan’s leadership, asking the right questions and helping refine the development process along the way.
Seamless Scaling to Meet Evolving Project Needs
X-Team played a crucial role in helping Kaplan overcome hiring challenges, scale their software development, and maintain agility as the company grew. By structuring workflows to allow for seamless collaboration, Kaplan was able to tap into a global talent pool and achieve significant progress on their product development goals.
“I’ve never met a team of people who work as hard as X-Teamers do.” — Danielle Chircop, Product Director, Kaplan
