Ahy Consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of an agency that focuses on website development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ahy Consulting?

We needed a partner to build a website for a company that makes 360-degree cameras.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had to both build the design for the site and also migrate information over from a Django-based system to Gentoo. Ahy provided good architectural decisions for the AWS architecture, and there was also a bit of Magento development. The team even provided some e-commerce consulting during the project, too.

What is the team composition?

Ahy’s principal and I worked closely together to deliver the solution to our client. Ahy generally provided 3–5 developers for each phase of the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

That project was from August 2016 to January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We managed to do the migration with zero downtime, and all the products and orders retained the same functionality. Sales grew on the new platform, and our client was able to do things they couldn’t do on the old platform.

How did Ahy Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We ran an Agile methodology with sprints that focused on different priorities at different times. Ahy and I communicated by phone, chat, and email. We also used a Jira ticketing system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered high-value products and made sure that their efforts align with their client’s. They put the client’s goals front and center and tailor their approach to find the best solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They're easy to engage with. Just come knowing what you want, and they’ll find a solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I founded and run a company that creates animated products and services—mainly videos for large conglomerates in India and internationally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ahy Consulting?

We have a platform that curates hotels and home-stays across India, and is searchable by keyword, location, activity, and category. Each property is professionally shot on video so that users can see exactly what it looks like.

We designed the website in-house, but partnered with another firm to do the backend technology. We had issues with the company we hired and brought Ahy in to help us solve those problems and take the site live. It had previously been live, but had numerous bugs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ahy took five or six months to sort out the bugs. Then, we gave them the new pages for the site, and they customized the WordPress platform we had been using to fit those pages as well. They then set up an admin panel we could store user information upon login; made the site mobile-responsive; and improved the search functionality.

The video piece came from a Microsoft Azure platform. They migrated everything to YouTube and optimized it on the server side to work faster. They also made everything on our animation site more secure.

We also outsourced our iOS and Android apps’ backend coding to them, which is where the problems started. The project timeline was three months. Ahy promised to deliver every few weeks for over a year. Finally, they said they couldn't complete it, but still demanded payment prior to releasing the code. Even when we did pay them, I followed up repeatedly to get what was promised from them. There’s been minimal communication as to when we can expect what was agreed upon, and we finally received a half-baked handover 8 weeks after we paid them what was agreed upon.

What is the team dynamic? 

The founder was suddenly unavailable and we had to deal with a junior customer service executive who subsequently quit. We later found out that he wasn't even a permanent employee, but had been hired to handle a few projects including ours.

How did you come to work with Ahy Consulting?

The founder of Ahy was recommended to us by the person in charge of our SEO. She had worked with the founder in another organization and recommended him. Since I trusted her, I also trusted her recommendation.

How much have you invested with them?

Between all of the projects we’ve worked with them on, we’ve spent around 1 million Indian rupees (approximately $15,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2016 and post the issue with our app (which closed in April 2018), we have not worked with them and don't intend to.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

They did a good job with our travel listings site, but it was fixing bugs that proved problematic. For the other project, where they actually had to build everything, the work took five to six times longer than they estimated. There was very little attention to detail and not much input from their side about how we could avoid pitfalls going forward or how we could enhance the product. We had to keep suggesting things.

Since they have given us the run around we can’t trust them. Because of that, we’ve hired a new team and needed to assign extra money to our budget for reworking what Ahy was supposed to complete. 

How was project management handled?

They communicated with us via email and phone calls, but the overall project management was very poor. The founder would refuse to take calls with me to address the myriad issues even after we offered to accept literally any time slot that worked for him. He kept demanding payments for milestones that he claimed he had met—but with so many bugs, they clearly were not met—and threatened to stop working if we didn't pay because he had cash-flow problems. He would only come on the phone to demand payment. Never to solve issues - these were handled ineffectively by a junior person on his team.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

The founder is very knowledgeable technically; he can take a problem and find a good solution. He doesn’t have the bandwidth to oversee everything the team is doing, and I don’t have confidence in his people or in their overall ability to overcome challenges. Whenever the founder handled something personally, it was done well; whenever he wasn’t fully engaged, there were inordinate delays and the work was poorly done. Plus, he refused to communicate till it was convenient to him (which could be weeks or months). 

In what specific areas can they improve?

They need to be more transparent about which people are working on the project, what their level of expertise is, and what exactly they’re handling. Otherwise, there will be unreasonable delays, as happened here. They need to communicate, be honest and refrain from dishonesty or hiding facts.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Ensure that the contract (a) requires the founder to spend time on the project; and (b) builds in penalties for delays.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CXO of Everest

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Curated Outdoor Marketplace

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Ahy Consulting to accomplish?

• Platform Development

SOLUTION

How did you find Ahy Consulting?

Referral

Why did you select Ahy Consulting over others?

High ratings, Great culture fit, Company values aligned

What was the size of Ahy Consulting’s team?

6-10 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Ahy Consulting?

Virtual Meeting

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Rebuilding our backend and front-end e-commerce multi-vendor ecosystem.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Project Timelines
• Core Vitals
• Communication Clarity

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Harpreet and his team are true collaborative craftsmen. That ability allowed us to quickly pivot and solve massive results. Furthermore, the teams' ability to communicate complex DEV work in a common language for non-developers allowed us to form tight-bound relationships that deeply benefitted our brand ecosystem.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team keeps a solid roadmap fueled by a culture of transparency, design-thinking and creative problem-solving.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Ahy Consulting could have done differently?

Nothing. We really enjoyed our relationship with Ahy Consulting!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Benotac is an Apple Premium Reseller operating in Spain since 1992

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ahy Consulting, and what were your goals?

• Website Development
• To find a trustworthy and knowledgeable partner who could do all things related to website development on Magento

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Main deciding factor was Mr.Harpreet Singh - we’ve been aligned since our first conversation, both in terms of business values as well as the vision of the project.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The technology we use is Magento. The scope of the project ranged from technical SEO implementations to module installments.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 people: Mr.Harpreet and Mr.Ameer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Projects are managed on Trello board, and the general time frame for deliverables is within reason. Response time on matters is quick, specially on urgent matters. Quality of work is top-notch, and deployments protocols are very strict to ensure proper implementation of changes.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Main communication tool is Trello. Their team is very attentive on the platform, and both sides diligently follow all tasks.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Mr.Harpreet - he’s a gem of a person and also a very knowledgeable on all e-commerce related matters.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

So far, no complaints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

HTcourses.com is an online academy for continuing education of heat treatment professionals. We help Heat treatment professionals gain specialized knowledge from industry experts, that too within the comfort of their own office or home.

The specialised industry focused training helps heat treatment professionals to improve their processes, quality of heat treatment, reduce rejections and rework costs, improve customer satisfaction and enhance their career prospects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AccruePartners?

Our major challange was to find a website development company having experience & capable to develop a good web portal as per our requirment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Fantastic work! Having Ahy Consulting on the team made a huge difference. Thank you for being so flexible.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It’s really admirable how Mr.Harpreet Singh (brain of Ahy Consulting) handled our project through from conception to completion.