Iotasol

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Strytex provides a governance, risk, and compliance administration managed service. We act as the internal auditor for small businesses and departments within large corporates. I am the Managing Director

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had already developed a complex and sophisticated compliance administration platform on Azure. In 2019 my developer decided to close down his business and so I need to find a new organisation to take on the ongoing software development as well as any bug fixing on the existing platform. I'm not a technology person and so I also needed an organisation that would manage the Azure environment for me and be a true business partner.

SOLUTION

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

I went to tender and went through a tender process. Because this was taking over an existing platform, I met all the organisations that made the first round of the RFP to explain the situation warts and all. Iotasol came back with:

• (a) the best migration path for the source code
• (b) the best process for handling all ongoing software and database development
• (c) provided me with the highest level of comfort that all would be smooth sailing

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

This project is all about ongoing software development rather than a single one-off project so I was looking for a long-term technology partner. Iotasol not only provides the full suite of software development capabilities but they also manage my complete Azure environment for me. In addition, Iotasol provides ACTIVE support. Iotasol came to me with recommended changes to improve efficiencies and reduce subscription expenses. Iotasol are true business partners, not just software developers.

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

Being based in Australia, I work with the Managing Director and the project manager here in Australia. For software development projects we also have project review meetings where we conference in the lead developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Most importantly, none of our clients are aware we changed developers, the software has not crashed, the Azure environment has caused no problems, Iotasol have reduced my monthly hosting costs by 10% and provide me with monthly status reports.

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

Communications is excellent. Having a team in Australia has been extremely beneficial.

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

Iotasol are active business partners, not just software developers. They are interested in the success of Strytex, not just issuing invoices for software development.

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

Not much. They have taken over an existing platform in a highly professional manner and have really got to understand the code. I could not have asked for anything more.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an e-commerce retail app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Iotasol?

We needed someone to build our technology and retail platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Iotasol essentially acts as our technology partner to build our website from the ground up. Their responsibilities also include backend development, database management, and features integrations.

What is the team composition?

I’m mainly in contact with two partners from the Australian and New Delhi offices.

How did you come to work with Iotasol?

We came across Iotasol through a networking event three years ago, where I was introduced to Ravijeet (Managing Director).

After hearing their pitch along with other development companies, we chose to work with Iotasol because they were high-level practitioners in the startup space, and we wanted to work with a startup rather than an already established company.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested around $20,000 AUD (approximately $14,100).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product they developed definitely serves its purpose well and Iotasol is very agile in developing our business.

How did Iotasol perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication between our companies is really good, as the team takes on a very hands-on approach to the management of the project.

We utilize Trello and Asana as our main platforms for management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with Ravijeet’s multi-dimensional capabilities and development agility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could maybe improve on the communication between the Australian and Indian offices. Because of the time zone differences, we have to align our schedules in order to work with them properly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It would highly depend on your needs, so I would suggest communicating your goals with their team accordingly. If you’re looking for a startup that will grow with your business, then I suggest partnering with Iotasol.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

MyCISO is a SaaS provider aimed at making Security Management Simple. I am the product owner working with the project sponsor to bring the vision to reality.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We brought Iotasol on board to not only build a complicated multi year project but also act as the technical solution architects. This meant bringing the Iotasol business leaders in to our core project team.

SOLUTION

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

Given the size of the project over multiple years we knew we needed a partner not a simple vendor relationship. The team would become part of our own with multiple dedicated resources. The real deciding factor was the engagement from the partners leadership team, we were looking for strategic input on top of production work.

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

The MyCISO platform is a custom SaaS product from the ground up. It deals with multiple user levels, Salesforce and Chargebee integration, email and SMS capabilities on top of a hardened security infrastructure.

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

Iotasol have provided up to 10 team members at points during the project flexing down to 6 when required before back up again. They cover the full spectrum of technical roles from architecture and strategic input through project management and all levels of development plus testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team have become an essential part of our plans moving forward. We are already working together on new releases and product streams.

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

Iotasol utilise Teams and Clickup. It has been smooth running. Teh impressive part is that more than 6 months in to the project the two business owners still join our weekly status call.

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

Iotasol are our team now, I cannot imagine building out our product without them.

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

No, we have been really happy with the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO - Carers Couch is a virtual support provider connecting carers to a wide range of available support and services. We work with various community support groups and local service providers so carers can quickly and easily get the support they need.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

App Development - Carers Couch app was developed to help the carers to care for their loved ones diagnosed with cancer.

SOLUTION

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

This app offers the carers to build a circle with their support crew and also allows them to connect with other fellow carers in the community and seek professional help within. It also helps monitor and tracks their patient's progress and further share the information with their support crew.

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

We had a series of discovery meetings to discuss goals and objectives. We developed wireframes and provided Iotasol with a framework. Within a few months and several workshops, we re-created the exciting wireframes and added the UX/UI design. Great teamwork, cooperation and we were part of the dev sprints, UAT and beta testing. the Carers Couch App got launched on the google and app stores successfully. 

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

The team included a Project Manager, Business Analyst, UX/UI Designer, and 2 x Full Stack Developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered as planned, on time, within the budget and all change requests were, estimated and priorities in collaboration with Ravi and the team. 

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

The Iotasol team is highly motivated, creative, proactive, very responsive, and reliable. We used Trello, email and phone for our sources of truth and communication. Everything was delivered on time with some reasonable delays which are very normal when running IT projects of this size and complexity. 

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

Skills and expertise can be sourced and trained - but respect, trust, a humble and joyful team, environment and genuine care for the client and outcomes are what mattered for me - and that's what Iotasol delivered apart from JUST an app. Since, we have been running multiple projects toegther.

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

With every company or individual, there is always room for improvement but I can highly recommend working with Iotasol due to the mentioned reasons.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co-owner of iBAG intelligent drycleaning and FreshPOS dry cleaning software. iBAG is a pickup & delivery dry cleaning and laundry platform servicing offices, apartments and homes Australia-wide. FreshPOS is a tech company focused on building smart tech-solutions for dry cleaners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IOTASOL PTY LTD, and what were your goals?

We wanted to build a mobile app so that our customers could book dry cleaning collections, manage account details and have a seamless experience. Initially the project was intended to be an integration into some existing software. After consulting Iotasol they made it realistically achievable to build our own order management software, customer app and driver app to create a customised end-to-end solution.

SOLUTION

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

We had looked into outsourcing development overseas to benefit from a reduced development rate, however, we were hesitant due to numerous horror stories we had heard. The benefit of dealing with Iotasol is that they have local project management in Australia, whilst the development house is overseas. This gave us the best of both worlds.

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

The scope of work was to build a platform which managed the entire life-cycle of a dry cleaning order. The result was firstly defining the requirement for a customer app, and courier/driver app and then an order management system which became a Point-of-Sale retail system. These are all bound together by cloud-based servers hosted on the Azure platform and settings for all of these platforms are managed via a web-based portal.

We opted for full-stack development. The project is built in .net The first step was to build the POS, as this was to be the hub of the entire system. Key deliverables here was achieving a user-friendly interface and avoiding the cluttered and unappealing POS systems currently on offer in the dry cleaning and laundry industry. The system needed to be stable, and fast, allowing for repeatable actions and generating orders quickly.

1. Admin Panel - This module is used to manage all the backend business information like services, prices, employees, reporting, current inventory etc. This is built in ASP.NET and Angular.
2. POS Software - This module is a custom point of sale software for shop fronts for taking in and delivering customer orders. This pulls all the data from the admin panel and is used by front office employees to manage orders from multiple counters. This software in Electron JS.
3. Customer Mobile App - This is a customer facing mobile app which end customers use to request laundry pickup and track the status of their orders. This is built in Ionic and is available for download from both google and apple app stores.
4. Driver Mobile App - This is an internal mobile app for drivers and enables them to load completed orders and chart a route for their deliveries and pickup. This is also built in Ionic.

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

Locally we dealt with Ravi, the owner of Iotasol and head project manager. IN the last year we have also had Basil managing our project as a project manager. Beyond this, there have been numerous developers, UI/UX designers and testers that have worked on the project. Most have been able to pickup where others have left off and continue the high standard of work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In order to launch the system we needed to complete all 3 platforms and the web-based admin portal. After about 14 months of development and alpha testing we launched in February 2018. Completing Beta testing by mid-2018 we then launched the software interstate to our partners and began to onboard them and all of the established 8-10,000 customers onto the new platform throughout the next 12 months.

General feedback was that the apps are user-friendly and intuitive. The POS is also well regarded by the dry cleaner partners who use it and rate it well amongst others on the market. In terms of pickup & delivery features it is ranked above anyone else on the market. As a result of the new platform we have secured new business relationships as the brand is perceived as being tech-forward in an industry that typically is not.

Having the ability to build custom solutions, carry out integration projects and develop new features when requested is a strength of the project.

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

The project managers have been very easy to communicate with and have used various tools over the journey to communicate timelines & milestones. Local project management has meant we’ve always been able to pickup a phone, and if not able to talk immediately, get a call back the same day. Communication tools including Trello, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp and obviously email have helped us keep on top of everything.

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

Their ability to coordinate overseas from Melbourne has been impressive since day one. The process is seamless and truly allows local businesses like us to leverage on the savings of developing software overseas, but having local project management. Thus far no feature implementation, or new project has been too difficult, with a solution always reached and implemented to achieve the right outcome for the platform.

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

Given the size of the project and our inexperience in running a project such as this, and Iotasol’s inexperience in building a POS or dealing with the dry cleaning industry, probably a bit much was left up to the developers interpretation.

This meant having to rework a few things and also some UI/UX decisions that were purely “practical” in their implementation as opposed to “intuitive” and “pretty” which is the standard people expect of apps these days. Having said this the team has expanded their own capability with UI/UX designers who have significantly contributed to improving this aspect of the platform.