At YLD, one of the ways we work is through an embedded teams model, where the team is shaped around client requirements, not fitted into a fixed structure. It's a model built for partnerships that last, and NewDay is one of the clearest examples of what it looks like in practice.
At NewDay, we started with a small team of software engineering consultants, brought in to support a specific project. Over two years, the partnership grew to 60 consultants across multiple disciplines, all hired to match NewDay's changing needs. Five years on, the team is embedded across NewDay's product design, engineering and data work.
A team that scales with the client needs
Some of the engineers working with NewDay today have been there since the very start, gaining deep knowledge of the business. That means new joiners learn the systems from people who already know them, not just from documentation, so the team can grow without slowing down or losing quality.
Over five years of our close partnership, YLD has helped introduce frontend-driven development, integrating React and Node into the tech stack, while overcoming challenges in building an advanced digital-first platform. Our team also supported the rebuild of NewDay's Design System and worked alongside NewDay's customer channels team on consumer facing products.
Most recently, YLD supported one of NewDay's biggest technical undertakings: building Stratus, NewDay's own card processing platform, and migrating 2.4 million customers from Argos, one of NewDay's retail partners, onto it. The move brought account management, transactions and fraud detection in-house rather than relying on a third party, and meant scaling Stratus to handle the added traffic while connecting it with Argos's systems, all without disrupting a single customer account.
“The biggest challenge of the last year has been our migration of the Argos portfolio from Argos Systems onto our own, Stratus. YLD has worked with us in a number of areas to get this done, and has been a huge partner in that accomplishment. It's not just people that help to get the work done, it's the partnership and understanding what the work is and the passion to really understand the problems and help be part of the solutions.” Gareth Tupper, Director of Engineering, NewDay
The success of our partnership is driven by a dedicated Client Partner, who knows NewDay's business and owns how the relationship works day to day, and a Practice Lead, who handles technical leadership from onboarding to setting engineering goals. We use our regular internal sessions to connect consultants across all teams for knowledge sharing and collaboration, making sure we prevent silos, and that consultants get maximum exposure to the whole product.
"YLD has helped us find the right support within our teams. We've got many team members, we see them as part of the team. We've learned from them, they've learned from us, and I think that the quality of people that we have within the teams is just fantastic." Simon Williams, Head of Engineering at NewDay
Close partnership through in-person visits and community events
The relationship is supported by regular visits to our YLD Portugal locations that include team workshops, business reviews and reports, as well as the opportunity to bond as a team and share cultures. We've brought NewDay into initiatives beyond delivery, collaborating on our community events: ReactJs Girls, Design Systems London and YLD Innovate, inviting leaders to be part of a bigger network of YLD partners.
The relationship extends past project work to continuously build a team that feels like part of NewDay's organisation, embedded in daily work, and also part of our wider community initiatives: the things that make YLD so special as a partner.
"I think, in the end, this creates an environment where everyone is focused on doing the right thing. It doesn't really feel that we are just focused on delivering things, but also on working together as one team." João Garcia, Head of Engineering at NewDay
Watch the video below to learn more about the success of our partnership.
