ISHIR

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital Marketing and products of a restaurant group.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an award-winning global restaurant group that offers contemporary dining in key cosmopolitan locations. Our portfolio includes five brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ISHIR to accomplish?

• We hired ISHIR to enhance and support our existing web applications by implementing new features, improving performance, and ensuring ongoing maintenance. A key objective was to revamp multiple existing applications and build a centralized portal to manage all applications from a single platform, streamlining operations and improving scalability

SOLUTION

How did you find ISHIR?

Referral

Why did you select ISHIR over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from ISHIR were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

The scope of work included the complete revamp of two web applications, focusing on modernizing the UI and enhancing overall performance. A major part of the project was the development of a centralized portal that allows seamless management of both applications from a single platform. Key deliverables included: 

Redesigned and optimized frontend for both applications

Implementation of a centralized admin portal for unified control

Feature enhancements such as dynamic content management, multilingual support, and improved SEO components

System performance improvements and responsive design for all devices

Ongoing support and maintenance to ensure stability and scalability 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project led to several measurable outcomes, including faster deployment cycles, improved application performance, and reduced support response times. The centralized portal significantly streamlined operations, allowing us to manage multiple applications more efficiently. Additionally, user experience improved across platforms, and internal teams reported increased productivity due to better system organization and accessibility. 

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

ISHIR demonstrated strong project management throughout the engagement. They consistently delivered tasks on time and maintained clear communication at every stage. They were highly responsive to our needs, quickly adapting to changing priorities and providing regular updates. Their proactive approach and structured workflow helped ensure smooth execution and timely delivery of all project milestones. 

What was your primary form of communication with ISHIR?

Email or Messaging App

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

What stood out most about ISHIR is their strategic mindset combined with executional excellence. They’re not just another development company; they act like true partners. From day one, their team took the time to deeply understand our business goals and helped us shape the solution, not just build it. 

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

No, everything was good. Working with ISHIR has been a standout experience. Their team brings proactive support, deep expertise, and a true commitment to driving our success.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our B2B marketing agency is a full-service agency and we do almost all of our own work in-house.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Although we do almost all of our creative in-house, there are times when we need a more technical web programming resource to assist us with an issue. We needed an intermittent resource that we could turn to periodically.

SOLUTION

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

We were approached by ISHIR, and were attracted to their very capable skillsets and the fact that they would work on our tasks "overnight" (due to resources in India).

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

Most of the projects were programming issues that could be accomplished quickly. We would submit the info via a Trello board and, if we needed to actually speak with someone, they were very responsive to work with us.

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

We have an account support contact, and various programmers have been assigned to various tasks over the past year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

What, to us, might be a complicated issue was proven to be simple for ISHIR. They made swift progress on any task we submitted to them. There were very few times that the issue was complicated enough that it required numerous iterations and only twice did we need to actually speak to someone.

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

We effectively worked with them via Trello

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

We loved that they were quick to pick up on what was needed and turn it around swiftly.

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

Sometimes issues could be communicated via email with the account support rep.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Executive Vice President in charge of Administration and Technology. We are a youth football and cheerleading league in the state of Texas. We are a 27 year old non-profit. The largest independent league in Texas and one of the largest in the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have a certification process to make sure the kids are the right age for the level they are playing or cheerleading. We also background the volunteers and make them take exams. This was all on paper and we wanted to go paperless.

We also cover the largest state in the country with teams all over and staff all over. We needed to be able to use a product that could work everywhere and with everyone.

SOLUTION

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

We initially started with a local company. But it became evident after several years that we were not getting a good product. We had to pay for things to be done for us each season. The company only assigned 1 developer to us and we never got the self serving modules we wanted.

Our President knew someone in his full time job that knew of ISHIR and I called them, told them my issues and the conversation on what they would provide me and the cost couldn't be ignored. So we signed with them.

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

They designed a system that allowed us to remove any need for paper for our certification process. The system collects images of the athletes and volunteers which I can use for digital IDs on game day.

It is connected via API to several third party companies allowing me to collect fees, run background checks, have volunteers take exams and volunteers and parents sign digital documents for waivers. We are constantly adding things that we would like to see and need.

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

There are 4-5 people assigned to my project including the

• project manager
•  2xDevelopers
• Quality Control
• UI developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We handle over 12,000 athletes and 3,000 volunteers through the system annually. It is web based instead of an app so that my parents, some not very technical do not have to load anything from a apple or google store.

Changes pushed take effect after a refresh or log out and then back in. We are paperless. Certifications have gotten quicker over the years with the things we've added. Prior to COVID we were taking pictures with web cams and saving them into the app.

Once COVID hit they made changes that allowed us to use zoom to communicate with parents and volunteers that allowed us to do the final certification prior to first game. They are always giving us what we want in a timely manner and with great quality.

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

When we started the product we had morning zoom calls multiple times a week. I was in Texas and the developers in India. They stated awake long enough to have our call and get answers to questions and for us to plan the next phase of the project.

As time went on and we got the product out for use, we switched to constant emails for all the adds and changes I wanted.

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

Despite not knowing a lot about American Football and especially cheerleading; and youth at that, they quickly picked up what we were about and what we needed. They were never shy about asking questions before spending time and money to do something so that it was right and done in a timely manner.

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

I don't believe there is anything that they can improve on. They have done everything we asked.

They make sure that when we go through out certification process in March and August that they have developers standing by each weekend in case I send an email that something wasn't working or we had an unexcepted issue with the GoDaddy servers etc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as the Engineering Head of a startup, based out of Indonesia, and we offer logistics solutions paired with technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ISHIR?

Our prime aim was to hire developers to augment our in-house engineering team.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed help of some engineers to work on our product roadmap in order to finish the development very fast to help us going to market faster.

SOLUTION

How did you select ISHIR?

We had got in touch with ISHIR through their website and they provided us with some of their best engineers to take care of the task at hand. We interviewed a few of them and on-boarded the ones we felt were capable.

Describe the project in detail.

We started off by developing wireframes for the website and application after brainstorming with the team. We had a leadership team that took care of the product but needed a solid engineering team to implement the features. We then began the development of each module.

What was the team composition?

Our team consisted of 1 Account Manager, 3 Software Developers who worked on ReactJS & Kotlin.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were looking for a talented team of developers who can work remotely, most importantly on a budget. With ISHIR, we’ve been able to concentrate on our available resources and carefully manage the business by taking it online at the right time.

We were able to add & remove engineers as per our requirement till the perfect team was built. All of this was during the uncertain times of the pandemic but they have helped us in every possible way.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They’ve been excellent so far. I stay in close contact with the team and they follow-up with updates on a regular basis. I am happy with the way they coordinate and plan as the team is quite responsible and flexible. Most importantly, they are mindful of deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their responsiveness and sense of urgency to complete a task is second to none. They are extremely responsible and experts at what they do, as reflected in their deliverables and commitments.

They’ve also been able to offer up some fantastic advice for some of our key decisions. It’s more like a partnership than a remote relationship, so that’s great!

Are there any areas for improvement?

At the moment, not really. From all my interactions and work with them, I’ve been completely satisfied with the level of guidance and information they’ve provided me with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-owner of Express Chiropractic & Wellness. We’re a chiropractic clinic focused on wellness and holistic living.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ISHIR?

We’re a small business and need to modernize our software and app. ISHIR is also helping us grow our digital presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are modernizing our software to meet the growing demand of our business. We’re in the first phase of software deployment and so far, they’ve added new functionality to provide more value to our end-user.

They’re also redesigning the UI/UX of our iOS and Android app to provide more information to our customers.

In the third phase, we plan to work with them on our marketing strategy.

What is the team composition?

There are a total of three people on our team. We work directly with Abhishek (Practice Lead – Business Analysis) and he is a fabulous resource.

How did you come to work with ISHIR?

I reached out to a couple of friends working in tech. We wanted to build a relationship with a strong, reputable company, but we also needed to maintain our budget. Through a referral, I found ISHIR. We interviewed several vendors but was happy with ISHIR.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since upgrading our software, we’ve seen a huge improvement in how customers can access their information. They’re extremely happy. Also, the trial version of the app is fantastic.

So far, we’ve been impressed with their resources and the quality of their work. We definitely plan to hire them for additional projects in the future.

How did ISHIR perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been fantastic. They are punctual, accommodating, and responsive. We have weekly progress calls on Skype, but also rely on instant messaging for immediate answers to our questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been most impressed with their customer service. Our goal was to establish a long-term partnership, and we feel like ISHIR can help us grow. They’re supportive and are looking out for our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not at all. They’re fantastic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very prepared and organized.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Novarc Technology is an industry leading Arc Welding system utilizing robotics and machine vision.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

ISHIR was engaged to annotate arc welding images for use in machine learning algorithms. The goal is to use the annotation in machine vision system to have a completely automated welding system.

SOLUTION

How did you select ISHIR and what were the deciding factors?

ISHIR was selected to work with Novarc based on their ability to collaborate with us and return the best possible annotations for what has proven to be very complex images.

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

We have worked collaboratively with ISHIR to provide images of welds at various stages of the process. The key deliverable is to be accurate in what are sometimes very difficult images to process. We train and test our model and come back with requests to do more images to fill in the gaps - these images are usually even more difficult to annotate.

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

I coordinate with two members of the team at ISHIR.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Its too early to completely say but so far the work provided has been very valuable. We are pleased with the direction of our system and are confident that we will achieve our objectives.

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

We are decidedly low tech and just communicate our timelines through email. We try to have a 5-7 day turnaround which has proven a challenge but we are gradually converging.

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

I think they are able to pick up what seems like an easy task (it isnt) and stay focused and take feedback. They worked with us and produce results that we need.

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

I think the only thing I can think of is that we could probably communicate better status of projects. Somehow we always need that 1 weekish turnaround and if its delayed then its better to return less but meet that deadline than to delay. I think maybe I havent been able to convey that properly to ISHIR.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a shop management software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ISHIR?

We needed a vendor to help us develop our software.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ISHIR helped us develop the software that we can use to manage the entire shop, including finances, marketing, and supply. They developed the UI from scratch and they used Angular, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for development. We worked in sprints, so we had a chance to test the software after each iteration and add new features based on the user feedback.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 4–5 people, including a UI designer, two UI developers, a QA specialist, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with ISHIR?

We met their owner at a networking event for group business leaders.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between June 2018–April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There were almost no bugs, which is impressive since it's a complex software. Every iteration was extremely stable and they delivered everything we asked of them.

How did ISHIR perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager was very responsive and got back to us quickly despite the difference in time. They always kept me updated about the project, so it was a smooth process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very honest and let us know if our ideas won't work, making sure we go down the right path. Also, they're friendly and easy to get along with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe it'd help if we knew what was going to happen in each iteration. If any bugs did sneak in or something got pushed to the next front, I didn't find out about that until the end of the sprint.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It'd be great if ISHIR sent out a monthly questionnaire so that their customers could easily provide feedback on various points.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a consultant for one of ISHIR’s clients. I was hired specifically to handle budgeting, scope definition, and outsourcing for this project.

The client is a foundation that provides consultation, jobs, and internships to young people who want to enter the professional market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ISHIR?

The CEO of the foundation decided to outsource development to India in order to work with a higher-quality team at a lower price. High-quality resources are scarce in the local market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ISHIR built a web-based app for the organization. The project was created to advise young people and connect them with recruitment teams. We had a database of 200,000 candidates and no good method for filtering them. Since the process was completely paper-based, we set out to build a system for managing candidates. Each candidate would have a profile. Recruitment agencies could easily access, filter, and hire them.

From the start, our requirement was to use Node.js, Angular 4, HTML5, and CSS3. Java, C#, and other languages are rather old-fashioned, and most of the applications on the market are web-based. Node.js is still being updated, unlike those other two technologies.

What is the team composition?

We currently have a team of five people: two full-stack developers, one frontend developer, one tester, and one project manager.

How did you come to work with ISHIR?

We contacted three Indian companies for the interview and quote, and ISHIR provided the best results. They had a decent price, but we also looked at their reputation and previous clients. ISHIR had some good clients and a huge team of developers. They also had offices in the U.S., which was another key differentiator.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the project has been $30,000–$40,000. We give their team bonuses for meeting quality requirements, so costs vary.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract with them in November 2017 and began development in January 2018. We plan to finish the first version in the next two weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve worked with ISHIR to define a set of metrics for the project. They have matched most of them, but they still need to improve in terms of code coverage, code quality, and unit testing. Overall, they’ve surpassed our expectations in every way. 

We are very happy to have hired ISHIR. It would have taken us six months to deliver the same work that they did in three.

How did ISHIR perform from a project management standpoint?

We use scrum methodology. ISHIR’s project manager is actually the Scrum Master, and I am the project owner. We wanted to use Slack for communication, but we settled on Skype, which is their internal tool. We use Google Drive and other project management tools for file sharing.

They are located on the opposite side of the Earth. We don’t have a big overlap, which makes time management difficult. They finish their workdays at the start of ours, so we only have a few hours to work together. This means that we have to plan the work for the next day instead of discussing what needs to be done for the current day. It’s an unusual way of working, but it wasn’t a big deal after we got used to it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The person leading a project is one of the most important parts of the engagement. ISHIR’s project manager is a very nice person who directs the team well. He makes them comfortable with expressing their opinions and worries. I am not sure whether all ISHIR’s project managers are this good, but ours is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

ISHIR could update their IT infrastructure and development environment and implement some continuous integration (CI) tools. There’s not much to mention outside of this. The answer depends on the customer. Everyone prefers different tools, so I can understand ISHIR’s side as well.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Interviewing the whole development team at the start made a difference for us. Anyone prospecting ISHIR should do the same to see if their requirements can be met. We only wanted senior developers, so we assessed the team for quality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an insurance group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ISHIR?

We were looking to expand our development resources without a dramatic increase in overall salary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ISHIR did web and application development for us, as well as database administration.

We have a real-time reporting system, which is a desktop-based app that processes tens of thousands of XML documents and is able to produce an output of relational SQL data within minutes of the original document hitting the XML data store. They used .NET and SQL Server as the two key technologies to develop the reporting system.

What is the team dynamic?

We had three developers, a project manager, and an overall relationship manager. Each of the developers had a long history with .NET, SQL Server, and data warehousing among many others. They are very talented people.

How did you come to work with ISHIR?

We did some online research, and ISHIR had a nice website that showed they cared about their name and brand. The communication team we connected with was really responsive and understood the challenges we were looking to solve. Overall, it felt like their infrastructure was in place where they could handle what we needed. We narrowed it down from about three on a short list, and ultimately ISHIR got the bid.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with ISHIR at least four years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have processed well into the millions of records for real-time translation. Between the source data being loaded and the reporting data being uploaded, the execution time went from about 45 minutes down to just over a minute and a half.

How did ISHIR perform from a project management standpoint?

I was in communication with them daily. We have an internal tool that we use for communication and visual context cards through videoconference meetings via Zoom.

Our client relationship and the overall contract negotiations were through ISHIR’s U.S. office, but most of the employees we worked with as developers were based in India. Even though there is a time barrier, exceptions were made for our particular team where they could stay in the office later to allow them to be available for our mornings here. As far as a language barrier, there are always going to be differences no matter whom you communicate with, but nothing prohibited the success of the team for the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The ISHIR team is willing and approachable to solve problems. The team we have built over the course of the years is dedicated to our platform and they have taken ownership of it. When you have a team that owns what they are doing, they will stop at nothing to make sure problems are solved within the system. The company solves problems that come up.

Some resources were replaced over the years, and they have been reasonable in working with us allowing us to interview candidates, and doing whatever we felt we needed to be comfortable.

They go above and beyond to make sure that their clients’ needs are met.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a full services IT support firm for small businesses, 50 desktops and less.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ISHIR?

Various custom application development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided programming services on ASP.NET applications. ASP.NET is the main one and we recently began utilizing newer, mobile tools, under the MVC pattern.

These custom applications run business processes from our clients.

What is the team dynamic?

We generally work with one dedicated, full-time resource.

How did you come to work with ISHIR?

I received a cold call from a sales guy during a time I needed their services and figured I'd try them out.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $100,000 by now.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work with them about 12 years ago and they’re still doing work for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provide generally good work at a good price over a long period of time - that adds up. If you want something built, they’ll build it.

They’ve had a positive impact on our business, definitely. We keep going back to them.

How did ISHIR perform from a project management standpoint?

They didn’t do much project management, just programming. We communicate daily by email. They have an office in Texas, but I work with their India people. That's why we do e-mail, it’s hard to understand their English sometimes and waking up at 2:00 AM to work live with them can be an inconvenience.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were around a long time ago and they're still around now. There are a billion service providers like them, so that says a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It'd be nice if they had better language skills. But, I want programming services. I don't need them to learn better English, I can deal with that part.