Brainvire Infotech Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large diversified financial services institution in India. We are headquartered in Mumbai and are a listed company. I’m the vice president in charge of application delivery across the organization, and I’ve been working here for the last 10 years. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We have gone to Brainvire for resource augmentation. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire has been tasked with maintaining a retail site specializing in coins, which had been delivered by another business partner. This was our biggest engagement in terms of maintenance services. Brainvire also developed a small website for us for a business that eventually closed. They have also undertaken a task-manager project with mobility components, which took 3 months to complete. That project was scrapped after we adopted WorkApps within the organization. It has all the collaboration tools and mobility components we require.

Brainvire has a varied pool of talent, but we’ve used them primarily for their PhoneGap knowledge, which is a platform for developing the same application on multiple mobile operating systems. We didn’t build native versions for our task-management project.

We have also leveraged Brainvire’s Microsoft technology knowledge, namely .NET and SQL Server. We have not used them for Java or other languages.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We made inquiries with a number of vendors. Our company has a risk-mitigation plan, so we don’t assign any particular vendor more than 10% of the total IT development spend. We heard about Brainvire from an existing vendor and made reference checks for the group.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire’s work has been around 25 Indian Lakhs or around $39,000 over a period of 3 years, across different projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire around 2012. Our last project, the mobility task-management solution, wrapped up 2 years ago. The website Brainvire built for us was delivered at the end of 2015. Currently, we are not using their services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We didn’t assign Brainvire very complicated tasks, outside of our commodities portal. They delivered well.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

When it came to the maintenance work, Brainvire took over and handled everything well, but we definitely had a challenge with ground-up development. The team sometimes overestimated delivery times. The delivery date for our PhoneGap project was delayed by almost a month, which was not acceptable to us, especially since we gave them the flexibility to come up with a timeline. I kept the entire management on our end in touch with our date for going live, so it was a very bad experience for me.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

Their support and maintenance services were very good.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

Outside of what I’ve mentioned, no. But, I would suggest that any prospective clients have interviews with Brainvire’s team.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Brainvire?

I have a long list of vendors that I periodically update, blacklisting certain companies. I have not yet blacklisted Brainvire, and they continue to be a group that we can use, but I would not call them our top choice. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We specialize in buying and selling other companies, particularly ones with an e-commerce focus. I’m the owner of the company, and I’m effectively responsible for a whole lot of everything.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were looking for a good developer who wasn't insanely expensive and could manage our day-to-day work. We wanted a company that had Magento expertise but could also expand into other areas as needed. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The work has been fairly varied. At a high level, our requirement was to make everything work, but Brainvire has been involved with UI/UX development, adding new features, integrating third-party work through APIs, implementing security patches, and everything in between. The team required a management understanding of marketing, light SEO, PPC, and so on in order to interface with our other resources, both internally and externally.

Our initial project involved integrating a skin and a couple of plug-ins for a site. There was an organic growth from that.

Our larger projects involve site management, so Brainvire's team needs to handle whatever I throw in their direction. We have at least one full-time resource for the LAMP Stack, specifically Magento, from Brainvire; they juggle people in and out as needed. Our project manager has stayed the same, except when he is on vacation. We've also tapped people for API and plug-in work, as well as custom coding which fell outside of UI/UX. This usually happens seamlessly in the background, so I don't worry about these issues very much. I mainly deal with the project manager. From this perspective, the relationship is more white-gloved on my end.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We were put in contact with Brainvire by our server company. They don't normally give recommendations, but their salesperson had other clients who used Brainvire in the past. One hugely different thing about them, compared to other companies we'd used around the world, is that we've met Brainvire's owners numerous times, around once per quarter. We’ve sat down for multiple meetings and met the project managers and everyone else on the team, without actually traveling on site. I've worked with companies based 10 minutes from my house and didn't see the same approach. This makes it feel a lot less like an outsourced relationship. Beyond this, Brainvire's owner met with our operations person on-site, even though we were thousands of miles away at the time. I don't think that most other companies are like this.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire's work has been between $30,000 and $40,000 overall during our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire 2.5 years ago. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

I don't review lines of code or anything like this, but one metric I've liked is Brainvire's ability to take care of problems. If something seems off, they will either refund or not charge us.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

If I have a problem with the project manager, I can reach out to the owner of the company and have a meeting about it.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

I’ve recommended Brainvire to a friend, and he was able to sit down and have lunch with the team two weeks later. This doesn't happen with most outsourced firms. Brainvire is an expensive developer relative to Indian prices, but we're getting experts in their field, which is unlike any other outsourced firm I've ever used. I’ve spent a lot of time and money around the world, and I know how groups will typically approach most projects. I've been happy with Brainvire to the point of telling friends that they can approach the company without the reservations associated with most Indian developers. This is not something nice to say, but I have had problems and wasted money in the past. I've also had the same issues with developers in California. Brainvire has given us a great mix of price, quality, and speed. We plan to work with them in the future for Magento or other projects.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

This is true for all outsourced companies: I wish that everyone stuck to a tighter timetable and estimated correctly every time. This is not a reasonable expectation, though. I've been on both sides of the table.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

InfoGain is a consulting company. We have offices in Mumbai, India, and the UK. I am a part of the creative team and work out of Las Vegas.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed additional resources for our projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire has provided developers for AngularJS, ReactJS and other libraries. They were able to provide resources on short notice, and we are happy with them. We haven't outsourced entire projects to their team, due to security issues. We do plan to do this, though.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I was looking for a local agency in Mumbai, which is where one of our development centers is located. I found Brainvire through a Google search and we started working together.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire's work has been between $40,000 and $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire almost three years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Brainvire's resources are working with our own, and the deliverables are good in terms of quality. We make sure to review the work periodically, provide feedback and give necessary corrections. We've found the approach to be comfortable, and we're happy with Brainvire.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They have very good project managers and a proactive approach. They follow up with us quite well. For more complex projects, we will keep Brainvire's resources focused on a single piece of work, but we also assign them different smaller projects.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

Brainvire's resources are trained in the newest technologies and are proactive in terms of communication. Even though they're a vendor, Brainvire feels like a part of our company.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve??

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any recommendations for others considering working with Brainvire?

Brainvire is a good company, with many quality people. I would definitely recommend them to anyone with a relevant project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are one of the top-10 road transportation companies in India, with three divisions, including a door-to-door delivery side and inventory management.

What is your position?

I am the director of the company. We are a family-run business; my father is the chairman, and other family members hold executive positions. I’m directly responsible for our express division. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

Our .NET 2.0 ERP [enterprise resource planning] had been developed in 2008 and needed to be upgraded in order to match new business models and challenges. We had an initial scope for revamping the system. After an almost two-year project with another company, they proved to be unable to deliver the project to us, citing that they had incurred a significant amount of expenses compared to what they were expecting to receive for the work. The development halted. Considering the efforts undertaken by our own team, looking for another software vendor was ruled out. No one was willing to put in that much effort, but we still needed to upgrade our ERP, so we used our in-house team for work on immediate business needs.

We eventually got in touch with Brainvire for the migration from our ASP.NET 2.0 system to the 4.5 version, as well as for the migration of our Microsoft SQL database from 2008 to 2012. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

There was an equal contribution from our side for initiating the project. We brought in our corporate IT manager along with three other resources from our side. Brainvire's director, Chintan Shah, was part of the project during the initialization stage, and they also provided a project lead and three .NET programmers. They used HTML designers on an outsourced basis. We had a review meeting at our corporate office every 15 days, discussing the progress of the project.

We had Crystal reports which needed to be converted into SSRS [SQL Server Reporting Services]. Ease of use and UX features also needed to be taken care of.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Our chairman was involved in the initial proposal meetings, and he found Brainvire through an acquaintance.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The proposed cost of our project was 1.1 million Indian Rupees [$16,000], but the total cost became 1.5 million Rupees [$23,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire in September or October 2015. The initial timeline was four months, but the deliverable was stretched to six months. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our ERP is being used extensively, with close to 700 users logging on concurrently for entries, especially around the afternoon. Downtime was one of our biggest challenges during the server shift. We only had a 3- to 4-hour downtime, which was scheduled on a Saturday to avoid interfering with our normal operations. Brainvire had a schedule buffer in place, and they ensured that our normal reporting process would not be affected.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire was meticulous in terms of documentation and reconfirmed everything with us to the point of repetition. We received two months of after-development support. The knowledge transfer to the actual programmers was good, and we only experienced a few bugs post-migration. Brainvire had a support system in place and delivered a satisfactory product.

What distinguishes Brainvire from other providers?

Because our software was built on ASP.NET and required a lot of custom coding, Brainvire was required to provide a lot of expertise for our data migration. This was the main reason for expanding our milestone on two occasions. Despite this, their results worked out well for us.

Is there anything Brainvire could have improved or done differently?

Communication, in terms of keeping in touch regularly and being crystal clear, would be an improvement point, as well as estimating project delivery timelines better. We originally estimated that our migration would be completed before March 2016 since the new financial year starts on April 1 in India. Because the project went longer, we couldn't meet that timeline and ultimately delivered in May. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Provogue is an Indian fashion group. We're not as big as we used to be but are still listed.

What is your position?

I was the CEO of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed help across various customer-facing IT needs, and we wanted to gain a better understanding of our retail stores’ performance. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Brainvire helped us build web portals and also implemented a number of sensible metrics into our supply chain, showing us how to manage our company and costs better. Brainvire developed systems that fit into our existing SAP backbone.

Brainvire also helped us understand customer buying patterns, allowing us to have better control of our supply chain and to predict which styles were selling fastest.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I am friends with Brainvire's owner and have helped him quid-pro-quo when he was looking to expand his business, his business model, and development in general.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first met Brainvire’s team six years ago, and we have been working together on-and-off since then. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have any numbers at hand.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire is strong on project management. Their owner is very hands-on, but they also have a solid team. We worked with them through our head office in Mumbai, and Brainvire was able to pull resources from their operations in the UAE and the US. Even though they have global resources, it felt as if Brainvire was working from our office. I was very pleased with that.

We have a very small IT group consisting of six or eight people. We outsource development to other firms, Brainvire being one of them. We have a supply chain of three people, and the senior person there interfaced with Brainvire's project manager.

What distinguishes Brainvire from other providers?

I’ve known Brainvire's owners for a long time and always admired them. They had a different avatar initially, which was migrated into Brainvire in a quick and efficient manner. The company is well-connected globally, and they work very hard. I can highly recommend Brainvire’s team as human beings.

Is there anything Brainvire could have improved or done differently?

I imagine that Brainvire has 300 or 400 employees worldwide, at the moment. Brainvire's operations are at a relatively small scale, which is accurate for the company in the scheme of things. They are able to network globally well, so even though it's a modest scale compared to Accenture, for example, Brainvire does have a global perspective through an efficient, smaller team. I felt that we were getting the latest tech at our fingertips, wherever it was being developed. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are focused on the giving economy, providing ways in which people can be brought together around an e-commerce platform.

What is your position?

I am in charge of the frontend interface design, as well as company marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were looking for help putting together the e-commerce side of our business, as well as help around custom programming for some of the pillars we're creating within the app and website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Brainvire is building our app and website, which will allow our company to work with different organizations, including e-commerce platforms and different online business directories.

The platform has evolved into a lot more than a Magento-based e-commerce site, which was the starting point. We have combined with another company, which is building cashback and other programs. There is a lot of integration between our e-commerce site and the other company's platform. Brainvire is helping us on that front as well.

Our partner company is combining its PHP-based solutions with other systems like Magento, in order to create one backend interface. With it, we will be able to signup organizations looking to sell products on our site, and there will also be a directory portion through which they will post information and send out mobile notifications.

All of these components, including our mobile app, will be integrated into a Yelp-style site featuring reviews for products and businesses. The review portion is being developed by Brainvire, as is the app. I believe that it's using AngularJS on the frontend.

The cashback element involves building out something beyond a standard Magento plug-in. Brainvire will be developing a custom piece using PHP, Magento, and Symfony.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Brainvire was recommended to us by a friend of the owner. He had done some work with Brainvire before, and they'd also worked with a few other decent companies in Salt Lake City. Upon that recommendation, we chose Brainvire.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Brainvire's work has been between $75,000 and $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire in March 2015. The development is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There's been a hold up on our end in launching the product. We were planning to do it in November 2016, but we've added a number of new components since then. We haven't fully launched anything yet.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire has been good to work with. We've had a good experience in showing them what we want and having Brainvire execute on those directives, whenever they were given clearly and specifically. We use Teamwork for project management.

What distinguishes Brainvire from other providers?

Brainvire has been good at pushing the project forward and keeping it moving. They're proactive in the communication.

Is there anything Brainvire could have improved or done differently?

Brainvire could improve in terms of communicating back their full understanding of the system, making sure that, when a directive is given, it is fully understood before going forward. There may have been a communication difference between us and them at times, in terms of the actual understanding of what we wanted to do. Requests were usually spoken rather than written down, so things were perhaps not as clear to Brainvire as they could have been.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a digital interactive agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

There are big projects that I can’t do in-house, and I needed to find a partner to handle those.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed iPhone applications and advanced websites. I started working with them on a smaller scale and then ramped up the work after seeing the quality they delivered. They’re experts at iPhone and Android programming. They’re very good with Magento and WordPress. There’s nothing they can’t do.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

When I first found them, they gave me a confident feeling. It’s difficult to find a company that is accountable when outsourcing.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

We spend about $250,000 annually.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with them for over 10 years now, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They get done what I need to be done. If I ever have a problem, it’s resolved.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a project manager who oversees the work. Brainvire also provides support from the team lead, supervisor, and even the owner. People get things done because there are layers of accountability, and I really like that.

We use different tools on which I assign them a project with a priority, and they respond back. There are issues now and then with the time zone difference, but we work those out. I primarily like to do sprints, but sometimes I do have milestones to give them based on my clients’ needs. They’ve been great at hitting those milestones.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

They’re especially strong in iPhone apps. We’ve transitioned a number of e-commerce websites into custom iPhone apps.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

I wish they were in my time zone, but I couldn’t be happier with the quality of their work. They’re the only offshore team I use on a regular basis.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Tent and Table. We manufacture and sell commercial-grade and residential products for party and event rentals. Our sales are primarily B2B but we also have business to consumer sales. We have a dedicated sales team and several online selling channels. These include 2 BigCommerce sites, 2 Magento sites, 3 eBay sites, 1 Amazon site, 2 Walmart sites, and 1 Rakuten site. We are located in Buffalo, New York.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed development support for our 2 Magento sites, tentandtable.net and zoomblowers.com. Our main Magento store and main selling channel online is tentandtable.net. Our dedicated sales team works out of the administrative backend of the site to do quotes and turn those into orders. Because we’re using an open source system, we had incredible difficulty getting things installed and tested correctly. Prior to Brainvire, the site would go down continuously. We were on a Nexus shared server at the time and we were having server issues. There were a lot of functions that we wanted Magento to do but we couldn’t find the right people to install it, test it and get it working. It required a lot of customization.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After we hired Brainvire, they took on the problems one by one because there were so many issues. At first, we were sending them projects as needed. Eventually, we decided to have a resource agreement where we were locked into 40 hours a week. They provided 2 resource teams for our needs. As a result, Brainvire could get work done overnight. They took things from development to production. They tested everything on the development server and used GitHub to record everything properly.

Brainvire cleaned up our site and customized it so that the extensions we needed worked properly. A lot of our work requires a tremendous amount of customization. Even though we can find extensions that work for us in Magento out of the box, they don’t work the way we need them to. They will install it and do the extra customization work necessary at a really excellent rate. If we discover that it’s not really what we need, they make changes to them.

Brainvire also helped us with some complex security issues that came up in Magento in the last 1 ½ years. They took care of installing all the patches and doing all the testing. They moved us from the Nexus shared server to a dedicated server with eBoundhost, which they have a connection with. We were able to negotiate a nice rate for that. They’ve helped us with our BigCommerce, eBay and Amazon sites as well. Brainvire handled digital marketing, email marketing, and Google AdWords. They customized a shopping cart with one-step checkout for us, which has made a huge difference for our customers.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We found Brainvire at the Imagine conference around 2 years ago. We ran into them at their booth. At that time, we were using a company called Blue Stingray who is in the United States, but we were unhappy with that relationship. It was expensive and we had other issues with them. I met Chintan [Shah, CEO] and Bhavesh at the conference. I primarily dealt with Chintan. I asked him to send me a proposal and he came to Buffalo and met with us. We started giving them small tasks and then we increased the work. After 3 months, they were our exclusive development support for Magento and still are today.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

In the last year, we’ve spent close to $100,000. The investment with them is probably 1/5 of what I would have had to invest in another development company for the same work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Over the last year, our online sales have gone up well over 150%. I directly attribute that to the sites working well. Brainvire’s work allows us to customize the way we wanted to. I’ve been able to communicate with them without being charged for it. We are able to discuss strategy and planning with them.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

We had good communication through JIRA. They do things ad hoc or through a resource team. With the resource team, our contact never changes and the project can get done faster because they’re dedicated to our project. Even though they’re from India, they communicate well. We talk on the phone or Skype. We have quarterly face to face meetings with Chintan and/or Bhavesh. Even when I call during their nighttime hours, they’ve been responsive.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

Brainvire does a good job with digital marketing and responded to extreme issues. If something comes up that’s extremely important and is affecting our ability make money, they respond and fix it very quickly. They communicate with the server company and other third-party vendors to make sure the fix is in place properly. Brainvire will problem-solve with you. They’re not afraid to tell you that the way you want to do something is not correct and they’ll give you a different solution.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

I’ve talked to them about having a more dedicated presence in the US. They have an individual in New York that is on call during off hours. But I’ve never had an issue getting things accomplished when I need it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of Indian operations for an Australian company that mainly provides healthcare technology solutions in Australia, New Zealand, India, and the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire Infotech?

We hired Brainvire to build an iOS version of our Android app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire Infotech recently developed an iOS app with the latest architecture for our online portal, Manage My Health. Our own team had developed an Android version of the portal, but we don't have internal resources for iOS, so we outsourced to Brainvire. Our product is a self-service app for patients where they can schedule appointments and review and upload electronic medical records.

How did you come to work with Brainvire Infotech?

My CTO and development team in India coordinated with Brainvire on the required specifications for the project.

How much have you invested with Brainvire Infotech?

I think we’ve invested about $20,000 with Brainvire.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working together about eight months ago, and the project completed in December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Brainvire Infotech perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire has a lot of good technical guys as far as the iOS apps are concerned, and they are good at working on specifications that are clearly articulated. Unfortunately, my team is currently having trouble getting the basics from Brainvire. I also think they have grown too rapidly, and the quality of their senior members has been reduced. It seems like communication is becoming a challenge between the senior and junior members of their team. To communicate about the project, we use our own internal portal and Asana for task tracking. We also are normally Microsoft partners.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire Infotech?

I found Brainvire’s value to be their most impressive quality.

Are there any areas Brainvire Infotech could improve?

There was no value added to this particular project, whereas on past projects they have made suggestions and added quite a lot of value. I think Brainvire is growing too fast, and it’s diluting their creativity. They are becoming a kind of code factory rather than an innovative lab.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Brainvire Infotech?

Make sure you have clear specifications going into your project with Brainvire.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an advertising company and e-commerce website providing services for local merchants and vendors. Our front-end piece involved selling products to online customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We decided to make some modifications and upgrades to our old website. Website development has been a thorn in my side ever since I started the company 3 and a half years ago. I've worked with many different web developers and it seemed that I never got what I was promised. It was always tough being able to hold people accountable when working with outside agencies. I was taken advantage of several times through changing estimates and work not being done.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire built a custom website from scratch. It has an e-commerce front-end that is similar to many other companies. In terms of the backend, I wanted the ability to control as much as I could without having to hire a provider. Brainvire's platform allowed us to control 90% of our content.

A key difference for our site is that we track how our customers find us. We had a hierarchic database built-in. Customers are generally referred by others, so we look at the accounts that generated those referrals, going multiple levels down. We have a royalties structure by which customers are paid based on the people they refer. That is tracked several levels down as well. A part of this commission goes to our vendors and a part of it goes to our own company. We can pay up to 5 people for individual purchases, so there are many technicalities involved.

Brainvire used the Magento platform for our site but the rest of it is custom PHP. Its original construction required around 4,000 man-hours. I maintain 2 full-time resources from Brainvire for continued website maintenance and development. We also have 1 part-time SEO person. 

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Brainvire was recommended by a friend who'd worked with them in the past and thought that they were a good company. The reason I hadn't worked with a non-US company before was a fear of scams. I didn't want to wire-transfer money to an account in a different country and have no recourse. Brainvire had a business presence and license in the US, outside of Chicago. Their owner also makes regular trips to Utah, my home state. We were able to have a conversation in person, look at their referrals, and sign a contract with a US-based company. This made it a lot more comfortable.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire's services has been between $100,000 and $200,000 for the initial build. Maintenance has a cost of $7,500 per month. By comparison, some US companies quoted us 3 times as much for the same work.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Brainvire in December 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don't have any specific numbers to share yet. We have been beta-testing the site for the last 6 months, making sure that it's working properly and getting feedback for the improvements and changes needed before going to a larger scale. We've realized that we need some additional tools, so it's an ongoing process.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire uses the Atlassian suite. I am able to create tasks for the team through it and have updated statuses for anything being worked on. We can post attachments, screenshots, and other material on it. It's been a good system, allowing us to work on an additional 135 tasks since the completion of the website.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

I have access to my resources from Brainvire and they have an excellent response time. Other developers I've used in the past acted as if they could get to me when they wanted to, as if they were doing me a favor by responding to an email. Brainvire's team immediately addresses my concerns. Any miscommunication was fully assumed and fixed right away. As far as getting the job done, Brainvire has been fantastic.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

I would appreciate having a better understanding of exactly what my monthly bill entails. Brainvire does give me weekly updates of what tasks were worked on, but, not having a tech background myself, I don't have a clear understanding of their reports. Otherwise, Brainvire has been great.