Brainvire Infotech Inc

BACKGROUND

Please provide us with a brief description of your company.

We’re running an online platform that acts as a foreign language online tutor through personalized learning, teaching materials, and various content in different languages.

What is your role at the company?

I'm the manager of international business relationships and IT operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address?

The primary business challenge was to automate the learning modules along with optimizing the website speed, ensuring the proper workflow of processes, and faultless user experience across the web platform. Ensuring technical and operational feasibility across all the modules made it more difficult to make a smooth flow and appealing UI. However, the team of proficient developers and analysts identified the challenges and did an excellent job overcoming them. They got to the core of our domain and understood our requirements well.

We’re targeting different language modules and thus, the customization was a challenge. The goal of the partnership was to frame our requirements that include 13 different modules of software within a specific time period. Two of the 13 modules were required immediately so that they could be used by users during initial testing phase.

What was your process for selecting Brainvire?

We’ve approached many companies along with Brainvire. They came up with a more detailed plan and solution compared to others. They went deep to analyze our requirements. We’re running multiple courses that have to be categorized and maintained within the specific language module.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their work?

Currently, we’re working with them for extending the website’s functionality by adding more language modules. They did a great job with the first two modules that we’d contracted for. We’re planning to add a few more into the site and we’re extending the contract with them accordingly.

They architected the whole system, developed our detailed workflows, and prepared documentation. They provided project management, issues management, template management, and integrated our site with third parties. They were always quick and responsive.

What is the size of the project financially?

The size of the project is quite big and it requires a complete customization as well. We've budgeted $50,000 - $100,000 in total. So far we’ve spent around $20,000.

What was the timeline of the project?

We’ve started a contract with Brainvire in December 2016 and it is still going on. The completed the initially contracted first two modules in August [2017].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are there any success stories or metrics you can share to indicate the success of the project?

We’re currently working with them and they’ve successfully completed two modules. We’re doing beta testing on our system and planning to automate more modules like this. They’ve always been there to solve the issues and to provide support. We’re expecting to continue working with them.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always on time and available to us. The responsiveness is pretty good and they’re honest about timelines and cost. Also, one of the team members is always there to listen via email or Skype. It was such a nice experience with all of them and I don’t seem to remember a single instance where any of my queries remained unsolved. I would surely recommend the Brainvire team.

Is there anything that sets Brainvire apart compared to other partners you may have worked with?

There are a few areas where the Brainvire team really stands out in my mind as the best choice for us. From the very beginning, they demonstrated a strong understanding of the education-specific requirements for our project. They managed the entire project and gave timely delivery of what they created. They reported on time and it was great to work with them.

The best thing which sets them apart from others is they dedicated the time to create a detailed understanding of what needs to be framed and what the ultimate focus should be of their work. They figured out how to achieve it, what we want, and so on.

We were facing the communication issues because we're based in Taiwan. But, they have done an extremely good job by thoroughly analyzing what we need. They ask questions, understand the answers, and come up with solutions. That’s the best part of the Brainvire. Also, the responsiveness of the team always made me think about their dedication. Overall, they’re the best!

Is there any area that they could improve?

They can handle large-scale projects with efficiency and they have subject matter expertise. It would be beneficial to us if they had a Chinese speaking facilitator who could bridge the communication gap. They’re great in every solution they’re providing. I personally recommend the company to anyone else who is seeking quality outputs. They've been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a diamond manufacturer, and we sell high value, real diamonds. I'm the head of system operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We wanted to have a mobile application for our diamond manufacturing business. This app is a general dashboard with search and results related pages. This is a B2B app; it's password-protected for our existing users and clients. Most of the clients are businesses in India and abroad. We ship goods throughout the world. Clients use the app to confirm the goods available on our website or mobile application, and then to remit payment. This app lets a client submit purchase orders online, bid online, make the formal invoice online to submit to their bank, and then they remit the funds and we ship the goods. They’re able to see our goods online and they get updates automatically through the app. If a certain type of good they are looking for is available, they also get notified.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We found them on Google and we ran an analysis of 10 companies shortlisted. We contacted three to four to evaluate more closely. We asked for a few samples and documentation from each of the companies. We asked for their contact details and everything, and then we found Brainvire at the top of these three to four companies, and we decided to pick them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have requested for Brainvire to create most of the frontend for both the iOS and Android applications. Most of the frontend, UI, and other design assets were made by Brainvire. The web API and web services were made in-house. We have database developers internally to work on that.

What is the team dynamic?

I was the product manager in charge for this project, and I was coordinating with Brainvire’s team leader and project manager. On the systems side, I also coordinated with the systems developer from Brainvire. They also provided a QA team that provided input online. We had a team appointed to validate our DevOps work.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent approximately over $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in November 2016 and finished in June 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are users connected to the app around the clock. Overall, 2,000 users are active on our website, but at any particular point in time at least 15 to 20 people are active. That is a lot considering this is a B2B app only and we give very few clients credentials.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed fine with respect to project management; no issues at all.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are professional people and have a good number and depth of resources. While working with them, we saw that they provide good documentation. They write proper comments in their code, and design-wise their work is also satisfactory. Overall, they were fine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should improve their process for handling change requests. The rest is all fine, no issues at all. They are quite expensive compared to other available resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and IT manager of our marketing company. We give free advertisements and space where people can host local ads in a 24/7 kind of environment. We currently generate revenue based on that model.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were in need of IT related help with SEO, along with some development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Brainvire worked with us on a LAMP [Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP] project where we set up certain queries.

Following this, we had a larger LAMP project where we created a website which users could post, collect, edit, and monitor data themselves. We were most interested in data collection in the backend so we could oversee growth, and provide users with geographical data.

Afterwards, we gave Brainvire another project, also with LAMP, that involved Google and third party APIs. We didn’t completely rely on Google because we had our own algorithm to analyze and collect data.

What is the team dynamic?

There was a total of six people on the team, including a senior manager, one developer, one QA, a local QA, and another person involved with management. Two of their team members were senior level and had 6-7 years of experience. They brought in another person after one had resigned, and they managed to transfer knowledge quickly. It worked out well, and I’m happy for that.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We had done a very small pilot project in the past that lasted about 3 months. They performed well, so we decided to go back to them for a bigger project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016, and they are currently wrapping up the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results have been good, and we currently have more than 10 million users. Hiring somebody local would have been difficult and time consuming, so we were pleased with their overall efforts in regards to what we were trying to achieve.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well, and they were constantly communicating and keeping us updated. They had a team working in a European time zone, so we were able to overlap our hours in the morning. We provided them with some project management tools because we had our own Browsix, which was used for encryptions and chatting. They also had their own tool which was integrated locally, so everything was fairly straightforward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was very impressed with their communication. I was afraid that working in different time zones would be difficult, but they put together a team to work around that issue. This allowed our team to communicate with them on a daily basis to go over stats and code. I was also impressed that that they brought us in to oversee their team’s process, and we plan on integrating that into our team here.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They do their code testing and uploads differently than we do, but we figured out how to transfer their code since we are doing all the integration with our team here. That was a bit of a challenge, but we worked it out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a food service distributor which means we buy products like Kellogg's fruit cereals or cereal bowls and we sell them in the school systems, hospitals, nursing homes, daycare centers, etc. We stock about 5,000 different products in our warehouses and deliver them by truck to customers.

I'm the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

Initially, we had some small, miscellaneous projects with our website to make it look better and more user-friendly.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I went to a Magento conference in Las Vegas because our website is based on Magento. There were all kinds of vendors like Brainvire there. They reached out to us prior to solicit their services. I had never thought about outsourcing offshore but I agreed to meet.

I asked for U.S. based references because I was a little worried about language differences. They speak English but it's not quite our English. I noticed on their list of references they had a lot of clients in Utah for some reason so I called there first. One of the people I called in Utah told me I would be an idiot not to hire Brainvire. He said he had referred all his tech buddies in the Utah area and so that explained why they had so many Utah-based clients. That conversation made more comfortable with the idea that Brainvire knew what they were doing.

Meanwhile, I was having issues with our vendor in Seattle that was "our agency" handling our website issues. They were taking forever to get to our projects and then when they did finally get to them they weren't doing them correctly. I decided it wouldn't hurt to bring somebody else in to look at some of these issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Right now we're working on a pretty big project with them. I'm trying to add 10,000 new products to my website. They're going to my supplier's website, viewing each product, writing a description, finding images of the product, and turning all of the content for the 10,000 products over to us to review. We make corrections to their descriptions and then they upload those products onto our site. They quoted 60 days to write those descriptions and finished right on time. Our issue is we don't have enough employees in-house to review 10,000 products in a short period, but they've finished their part.

In addition to that project, they're doing a lot of smaller things. For instance, they completely revamped the way our banners work. We went from having four banners on our website to having the ability to run six banners and we can now manage the banners ourselves because they formatted in a way that is a lot easier than before. They wrote an app that allows us to just check boxes when we want to run banners and make changes. That was pretty cool.

I can't even think of the number of other projects they've done for us, but everything they've done for us has been really good and really quick.

How much have you invested with them?

We started ramping up work very slowly in April. To date, we've spent about $40,000 with them. They just proposed to take over our SEO work on a monthly basis and that's going to increase our spend significantly. We're spending $5,000 a month on SEO alone and I think that will soon go to Brainvire.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working together in April of this year. We'll likely spend well over $100,000 annually with Brainvire.

How have they performed from a project management standpoint?

They've been great for project management. I've met with them face to face 2 times since April because they are they typically have 1 to 2 of the people that I met originally here in the U.S. going to conferences or meeting with customers. They really make the effort for face to face meetings even though they're based in India. That's been amazing.

They assigned a team to us. We Skype on a weekly basis with 5 guys on their team. One of those 5 is available virtually 24 hours per day, ready to take on any requests we have. It's been a completely different experience than anything else we've ever had.

We work with a project manager named Bhavesh Surani. He is working on another project for us right now where we're trying to automate our systems into our supplier's systems so that when we receive internet orders, an order is automatically started on the supplier's website that we don't have to create manually. The supplier gets the order and then we receive a tracking number that integrates with our Magento admin system as product is automatically sent to the customer. In addition to cutting down on errors on our side, this will make orders so much simpler for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have roughly 11,000 products on the site currently so we're almost looking to double our number of products with Brainvire's help. Additionally, we've been going through quarterly price updates, which involves going to the supplier's site, downloading price sheets from the supplier, comparing it to our existing price sheet, and making updates on the site. We recently asked Brainvire to take this on from another vendor we've been using. The U.S. company will take 10 hours to do it and Brainvire will take that much time or less, and at a quarter of the price. As a result, we're able to take on more projects and do more things. 

The thing they do best is customer service. They've bent over backward for us. They're 8.5 hours and I can send them a message about something at 5 PM our time, thinking they will be back to us tomorrow - and I'll get an answer within 15 minutes. I just don't know how they do it. They're clearly focused only on the U.S. and trying to take care of us so I appreciate it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What's stunned me the most, was how quickly they can complete tasks. For instance, I told them, "Sales tax rate codes in Georgia have changed in 20 different counties, can you upload the new rates for us?" About an hour later it's done. The same request would take our Seattle or L.A. based vendors 30-60 days, or not get accomplished at all without making the same request again.

I had worked with vendors from Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle for several years leading up to Brainvire. I didn't feel like any of them were taking good care of us at the end today. Those companies had a lot of turnover and whenever we got someone good, they'd be gone two months later and then we struggled through the next two or three individuals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're right on time, if not ahead of time, with any assignments. The only issues I've ever had with them is a result of English being their second language. Sometimes I think what we're trying to ask them to do and what they think we're asking them do are two different things. Those types of issues have been very small, though. When I bring it to their attention they always understand. So, I don't have any room to complain whatsoever about anything with these guys. They've been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of an online marketplace that houses sellers spanning multiple product types for a common customer base. They’re all new products, but they range from seller-made products to reselling known brands. We have authors and people that make their own jewelry, as well as people selling IT equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were having difficulty with our current developers when we approached Brainvire. The previous developers had built the basic structure of the site, but it became clear that the architecture wasn’t going to work well with loading a large number of products for an equally large seller base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a prototype for the idea of the marketplace. Brainvire provided a path to go forward by bridging the gap and fixing the previous developer’s issues. They redesigned the entire cloud architecture, and started making seller-based enhancements in order to accept large numbers of product uploads. They built some of the backend seller features, including the administration which makes it easier for users to manage products in their store.

The site is currently live and taking orders. We’re starting a second version with Brainvire which includes multiple upgrades for the site. We want to make enhancements to the bulk upload feature and bulk changes to product lists feature in order to optimize the seller experience. We also want to develop a standard API that we can use as a baseline for integrating manufactured products, which is a major task because we have to meet other API standards.

We’re getting really positive analytical data to direct our marketing attention.

What is the team dynamic?

We had only requested 1-2 people for the project originally, including a full-time developer and project manager. I’ve worked with 8-10 of their team members, and anytime something specific comes up, they don’t hesitate to bring in expert resources. Instead of just letting one of their developers figure something out, they save on time and cost by including their technical experts.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We had a common friend, and when he found out what we were doing with the marketplace, he recommended Brainvire. I work in the IT space and have worked with many companies that do development work. We looked into Brainvire’s past projects and talked to their past clients, then decided to engage with them from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spend around $75,000 so far, and we have $150,000 budgeted for the next round of development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since Brainvire came on board, we’ve gone from dozens of products to hundreds, and are actually approaching the thousands. We’ve also doubled the number of sellers, which is close to 200 now. I attribute this success to how well the backend works, which permits sellers to easily manage their stores, including products, shipping, and taxes. It’s very user friendly.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. We’ve used Pivotal Tracker, which is a Scrum based project management tool, to manage features and versions. Brainvire used it regularly, so we had no issues getting up to speed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done an excellent job of managing the expectations from a cost and performance perspective, including the addition of features and capabilities that wouldn’t be easily done. They provided a sort of feature map that shows what’s possible, then proceeded with the easier ones first. For the features we’ve decided to go forward with, the development time has moved quickly, from testing to live implementation. The entire process is managed very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They came in and had to work with somebody else’s platform, so there were some surprises along the way. They took a risk coming into a project like this, and managed it very well.

However, if they could explain the risks involved with coming into a project that’s under development, that would be a welcome improvement. We knew it was risky, but we didn’t realize the changes that would need to be made.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of Brainvire?

If there’s a mixture of technical features involved, do your research and make sure you understand what you want. This makes it easier when you’re figuring out price and timelines, because you know exactly what needs to be done and how long it will take.

A lot of people in IT get a proposal, and they understand the basis of it, but they don’t dig down into the feature sets and details. This can change a number of things in how the project pans out, and can also change the client’s expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a personal security emergency response business for the elderly. I am the general manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed Brainvire to build a mobile app to help engage our caregivers. It allows them to manage their account with us and gives insights into the activity that the system is performing for the elderly relative or older adult.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The only work they’ve done for us as of now is a standalone native iOS and Android app. The goal of the app was to bring some added value to our caregivers. We gave them carte blanche on design somewhat — we had some general branding guidelines and some very high-level flow diagrams, not wire diagrams.

It’s all API driven. They had to connect different APIs to a standalone database and then present that data in a very consumer-friendly UI that was intuitive. They focused a lot on cleaning up the APIs. The UX was important because we really try to live and die by having a really simple experience, whether it’s our call center, sales experience, or on our website. Getting that UX into an app was the first test for us. Brainvire took what we’ve done on the web and brought that into the app very nicely for us.

We engaged shortly after evaluating and documenting a statement of work. We worked on Android first. It was easy to get something out quickly and not have to go through all the roadblocks that come up when working on iOS. We got that done and then we could start testing it, giving feedback, and beginning to building up on marketing.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We met them at a Magento Imagine Conference 3-4 years ago and liked Chintan, the CEO. They had a lot of experience with Magento as well as across a range of software, which was compelling for us. We used that first engagement to try out the relationship and felt that they had good communication and good organization. They had a good understanding of what we were trying to accomplish.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2015 until June 2016. Currently, we’re evaluating other options to work with them further.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app isn’t on market because we had a shift in priorities—instead, it’s still waiting in the wings. We will bring it out, but we were trying to bring in other hardware and software solutions that would better complement it. 

Our director of sales and marketing was really impressed with the design and the UX they came up with, and he’s a real stickler for design. We were also really pleased with the interaction between the different screens and the menu system they came up with. We didn’t need to change it too much. The only issue was just the speed of the APIs, and we were reliant on that outside vendor to enhance that aspect.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with them. There’s pretty good communication and status updates. You could tell they were really trying to learn our business and dive into what we were trying to accomplish. The statement of work was thorough. We used a project management tool that I can’t recall the name of.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From what we gave them and what we ended up with, they did a good job of taking our vision and bringing it into reality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some general challenges when you deal with any offshore vendor when it comes to communication. It’d be great to continue to challenge them to be more fluent in English.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a California-based nonprofit organization that advocates for people with disabilities. We want to empower them in alignment with the UN Treaty of 2006 that 160 countries have signed. These countries have agreed to do whatever needs to be done to help people with disabilities live independently.

We try to inspire people to make more inclusive decisions for the betterment of people with disabilities. There is a huge opportunity for volunteers to make a social impact in the disability sector. Because the US has a lot of good laws already, our focus is primarily outside the US. If you look at other parts of the world, the quality of life is challenging for people with disabilities. We want to solve that problem by having volunteers on the ground speak up and become the voices in their communities. Volunteers can help improve the accessibility of public buildings and help people get employment or education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We are a small, young startup that had a website for the first 2 years. Eventually, we thought that a mobile app would be better than a website for getting people engaged, so we decided to have a mobile app developed for Android and iOS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our intention is to display accessible and inaccessible buildings on Google Maps, so we wanted the app to have a GPS feature. That functionality was important for us. If a volunteer takes a picture of a building’s accessibility, the app would populate the address automatically based on the latitude and longitude. Volunteers can crowdsource the pictures, and then that information will be available on Google Maps.

Similarly, we wanted people to be able to share information on social media. Not everything is accessible in America, though you’d think it would be. Last week, I took a picture of an Italian restaurant in Boston that was not accessible. I can share that information on social media so that others will know that this place is not accessible for people with wheelchairs. If you want to spread awareness, our mobile app is all about actionable advocacy. We allow people to take action by sending emails to the operators or owners of a building.

We have another feature called Pledge. I can send a Pledge request to all of the congressmen and senators who do XYZ for people with disabilities, and that information can be tracked. The way I see Pledge helping people is that more and more will be sensitized to taking action when they receive links from their friends who are also volunteers. That’s how we are spreading awareness. We are not here to do any negative advocacy. We want everyone to feel like they can do something, which is why the mobile app includes the Pledge feature.

As of now, there is no donation option in the app, but we intend to add that in the future. Last August, we never thought we’d be asking for money. However, when we looked at our expenses, we realized that the cost of building this type of app was not small.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with a project manager and developers. I could pick up the phone and call anyone.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I’ve known some of the people at Brainvire professionally for a few years, and they agreed to build the app for us. I said, “Obviously we will need your help because we need to make a very good tool that volunteers will use.”

How much have you invested with them?

I would like to keep that confidential, but you can imagine how much 2 mobile apps would cost. A mobile app could easily cost thousands of dollars.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to Brainvire about the app in August 2016. It has taken almost a year, but we are finished with the first phase of development now. There was a lot of work done in the last couple of months. We released the app last week on Android and iOS.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The iOS app went live Sunday, so we don't know how many have downloaded it so far. I think the Android version went live on Friday. We haven't reached out to many of our volunteers yet. We first want to make sure everything is working fine, so only a small group of people have it now. I’m actually going to look at the statistics today.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Good. Every week, they sent a time sheet of the work they had done and did proper issue logs. We communicated a couple of days a week via email, and they responded promptly. I have an advantage because I live in California — my evenings are their mornings, so we can have Scrum calls, Agile, whatever you call it, every day during that critical time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do things well. The app looks sleek with a good user interface — in fact, I’m surprised that it came out so nicely. They did a good job on the navigation, and I did not expect that. They must have a good graphics team. The feedback from my 20–30 volunteers during the testing has been good.

Brainvire’s communication skills are also impressive. They’re friendly and professional. They are always willing to take on an issue if there’s a problem on their end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of much Brainvire could improve. Our app is not a difficult full-time project. Because we’re a nonprofit, we spend our money as it comes in. The project has taken a little longer than I originally thought it would, but I can’t lay all the blame on Brainvire for that. The capacity planning was not done like it would be in a typical project, though everything went perfectly fine. I wouldn't say they’ve come up short on their side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a company that develops video game accessories and physical skins for controllers and consoles. We also make controller stands. We are an official Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo skins vendor. I’m the director of e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed changes made on our website, new features added, and databases connected.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I requested some custom changes and integrations on the website, including new features. We do B2B business and we requested some options to do bulk ordering. For the bulk import, they created a PHP system where customers can import an Excel sheet and convert it to order. I can import a PDF and it converts it to orders, too.

It then carries out the bulk import to a Magento platform. Since Magento is a SQL database and we used QuickBooks for accounting at the time, which isn’t MySQL, they had to create an immediate database in the middle to make QuickBooks connect with Magento. So they helped write a script that goes between them, as well as connect it to another site called OraTech for labeling and product packaging.

All of these databases had to be connected. When we update a product in Magento, it updates in QuickBooks and it updates in the main website backend. We use that for our factories in China to create labels and product information. They also maintain the website on a monthly basis.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I started with them about a year and a half ago when I was the marketing manager at a different company. They helped me with a website. It was an importer of wheel accessories and TPMS [tire pressure monitoring system] sensors from China. They helped me set up the website, API integrations, Wal-Mart integration, and customization with JavaScript. At the time, we used eBoundhost, and I asked them for software company referrals. They gave me 3, including Brainvire, and I contacted all of them. I read more about Brainvire and started with them. A month and a half later, they came and visited the office and the relationship started.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $25,000 by now.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s been a year and a half since I started working with them. My current company started working with them in February.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I use a page load time Chrome extension to measure the performance of the website. It was running at 11-13 seconds per page load. After their work, it went down to 2-3 seconds. They helped with the images and solved some caching issues on the server. They also fixed some of the JavaScript that the previous developer did.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked with the team on a weekly basis, mostly by email, and we used Trello to manage the project. I request changes to the site and they come up with the solution. They’re honest and on top of it. I worked with other developers in India and the U.S. in the past, and I was having a lot of problems. I would be paying an hourly rate for something that would never get done. With Brainvire, every week I get an Excel sheet with every project and how many minutes it took. They round up or down to 15 minutes in the course of an hour. I get to see exactly how much time they spend on what, and how much it costs me per project or per task. Everything has to be approved. We agreed on 40 hours per month; if it goes over, I have to re-approve.

They’re quick. They had 24-hour support right at the beginning because of what I needed. Of course, they’re in a different time zone. I’m in Pacific time zone. So up until 9:00 in the morning, they are still in the office and I can get a hold of them. Then they’re out of the office all the way until probably 5:00 or 6:00 in the afternoon and I can get a hold of them again. They offered to have a resource working during my business hours for an extra fee.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a growing team. I’ve met the owner; I’ve met the project manager. I talked to a lot of people in their office in India. They’re big. They can handle small and large projects, whether you are just with them for 1 person to help you fix an issue or to update a website, or for a massive project. For my project, a company in the U.S. gave us a proposal for $15,000 and a 3-month timeline. Brainvire came up at 2 weeks and quarter of that price, and they delivered on time and on budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Using Skype, we sometimes had issues because of the connection. It would be nice if they had a direct U.S. number or 1-800 number instead of calling using Skype or WhatsApp to communicate. Emails were great, but sometimes you just want to talk on the phone and explain what the issue is.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a strategy consultant for a few companies in the agricultural industry. I get their digital projects developed and out to the market. I've worked as a consultant for the last 8 months. For the 6 years prior to that, I worked as a business manager to a global agricultural brand developing that business across Asia/Pacific region.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Initially, I was looking online for some Symfony, PHP developers in India. Brainvire is one of many companies that came up on Google. I had email conversations with all of them. Some of them were declined immediately, others I tried to get a feeling of whether they would be able to deliver what I wanted. I shortlisted two companies after a few emails and phone calls. I had Skype conversations with them for a week to give them the project brief and to understand what they could do. Brainvire came back with a better response than the other people. Then I gave Brainvire a small chunk of work to really test them and they did an exceptional job. That’s when I said, “Let’s work on a long term basis.”

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project is a web based program applicable in the agriculture industry. It allows veterinarian clinics to record the activity of their veterinarians and their farmer-clients. It also enables the setting and automation of some actions. In simple terms, it’s like a calendar or a planner. It’s much more complicated than a planner though because you set up a clinic and each clinic has several registered veterinarians, and each vet has several registered farmers all in relational databases. Each farmer is unique. Every farming operation is different. Each farmer's setup has basic actions based on what’s relevant to that farm. There’s also a copy function so if you can replicate preset actions for one farm when registering a new one if they're similar. The initial developers who worked on this program couldn’t get it going and couldn’t develop all of the features that we wanted. They gave up and that's when Brainvire came in to help us bring all these features to life.

We just resolved a pictorial timer. Some actions could be words and some actions are connected to scientific graphs. It’s a program with five actions in it. The five actions have five graphics. All this has to be connected tightly and working together because they’re all time synchronized. One of the biggest troubles the previous developer had was getting all the actions to work together and sync with the provided dates and times. It’s a messy task. That’s one of the things that Brainvire has helped to make work.

Another example is the grouping function. We wanted to be able to group different actions on a particular farm. We never got that working with the previous developers. In the previous versions, it was working when you were trying to group 2 or 3 actions, but when you got over that, it usually didn't work. Brainvire designed some new feature so that you could literally bundle up any number of actions. There’s also a time function to it. If you change the first action date, it will consequently change all the dates on all the actions based on the previous set time difference. It is a very messy task, but Brainvire was able to figure it out and make it work. We are still on the development phases. We are 99% done with the version 1 of the program. Once it goes live, they’re going to maintain it, and eventually version 2 and version 3.

How much have you invested with them?

$7,000-$8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have 15-20 people ready to test the program in about mid-September so I'll better understand the impact then.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quite good because we’ve got a very good relationship. I tell them my idea and what the user experience should be when they’re going through a particular phrase, but I am unable to describe that in a technical way. That’s not my background. There are a couple of guys who I interact with regularly who go back and write down the technical side of it. First, they write whether it’s going to work. Second, they write how it’s going to work. Then they put a timeframe to it. Some of the tasks could be two days and some of them could be 20 days. There’s not one major project. It’s a group of several tiny projects. Once they give the timeline, it moves fairly quickly. Most of the time they deliver the timelines they have promised. Sometimes it goes for another two days more than the originally agreed timelines, but that’s okay because things don’t work as planned all the time. There are no big project management hurdles with Brainvire. We don’t use a project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The main thing is they were able to fix those bugs in the program that the previous developer wasn’t able to do. They made it work. If they could keep delivering the existing level of service, I would be very happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be even stronger on the technical side. I don’t know how many people were working on my project and I’m happy, but if there were more people working on my project, maybe there could be a better way of doing things in terms of how they could implement my ideas into the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief commercial officer at a company that creates and manufactures customized gift products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire Infotech?

We needed Brainvire to develop and maintain a platform that manages our whole manufacturing/production process. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve built custom software that is tailored to our needs. It manages our whole back office. Since we provide customized products, there are many factors involved in our manufacturing process. Brainvire developed a platform to manage this entire process from A to Z. We’re an e-commerce business, so we primarily use Magento and PHP. The back office handles everything for the actual orders through a Magento-based site. It runs our entire ordering process from when an order comes in until it’s manufactured and shipped.

The types of products we sell require many stages. Over time, we’ve built on the system in order to automate a lot of the manufacturing steps. We currently have multiple Magento e-commerce stores. Brainvire has been working on the website itself in everything from doing maintenance to adding features and new designs.

How did you come to work with Brainvire Infotech?

I believe they targeted us. At the time, we weren’t happy with our current developers. They approached us at the right time, and we gave them an opportunity. I wasn’t a part of the company at the time, but I heard that’s what happened. We gave them some small projects to start, and our relationship escalated from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together April 2016, and our partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The backend that Brainvire developed for us allows us to do our work in an efficient way. That lets us focus more on bringing in revenue and expanding our channels of income.

How did Brainvire Infotech perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, we are very happy. We communicate on a daily basis. I have direct contact both with the team leader and the developers themselves. When there’s crisis, we have ways of getting in touch with them, and they’re quite responsive. We use JIRA to collaborate, for the most part.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re consistently available, which makes them stand out compared to other companies. They make every effort to be there for me when I need them.