Mind IT Systems

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the sales director at an industrial automation company in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

We wanted to develop an application to build web pages that get embedded into industrial controllers. They’re dashboard pages which can control and monitor industrial equipment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had the idea in my mind, and they were able to get it on paper. They developed the complete application that’s hosted inside the cloud. They used JavaScript and MySQL.

What is the team composition?

There were four full-time developers, one project manager, and one part-time person.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

One of my friends is friends with one of the co-founders and gave a strong recommendation. Their initial presentation and the way they understood my requirements gave me a lot of confidence.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $52,000–$55,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January until April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With this tool, we’re entering a new market on the borders of industrial IoT. We’re getting a good response from our existing customer base.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent. They used an agile approach. I had access to one of their project management tools, and I could see the progress of the project. I never felt lost in where the project was going. I have no complaints on how they managed the project. It was delightful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In addition to their impressive project management, they had a good grip on what needed to be done. Their design approach and understanding of the project was great. I had a great experience with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it went very smoothly. Few projects go this smoothly, but my project did.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear understanding of what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of business intelligence at Play Games 24x7 Private Limited, a mobile gaming company. We have three main games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

Finding development resources is competitive in the mobile gaming industry, and an even bigger challenge is finding quality resources. We didn’t have enough resources to fulfill our business stakeholders’s requirements, such as providing reports, in a timely nature.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind IT Systems develops using the Apache Hadoop framework. They’ve integrated AWS services like AWS S3, AWS Glue, AWS Athena, and Amazon EMR. The team queries data using high-level language.

What is the team composition?

One project manager oversees five SQL developers.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

We wanted to outsource development work that we knew would be high-quality. My team worked with a couple of other vendors that didn’t produce great work; then, my company’s CMO referred us to Mind IT Systems.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018, and the work is ongoing. We have a three-month contract that we keep renewing with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their resources have helped us enormously. There are no backlogs of reports that we have to give to our twenty-five business stakeholders. With Mind IT Systems’s help, we have our queue under control.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management meets our expectations. Mind IT Systems’s turnaround times are brilliant. We deploy Tableau to visualize and publish data or provide data information to stakeholders.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mind It Systems doesn’t feel like an external entity. Their commitment and the ownership that they take of their work is equivalent to that of someone on my team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They need to pass knowledge onto any resource that is taking over for them. They could host knowledge transfer sessions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have one single point of contact. Interview that person to see how well they can handle the engagement. If you don’t have the right person, the engagement will be unsteady.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Gazelle Information Technologies, a supply chain company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

Our core strength is in functional supply chain management. That is to say, we understand all of the functions and processes in a supply chain, consulting our customers during the process setup.

However, we lack good technical architects and developers who can convert those processes into digital solutions. Mind IT Systems serves as our development partner to create various supply change tools.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the years, Mind IT Systems has completed five development projects for our customers and are now working on a sixth. 

The first project was a subscription-based inventory management system that would manage the entire supply chain process. This ranged from purchases and warehouse management to in-house inventory shipment. Their team developed the solution using web-based, open source technology, and we hosted it on Azure.

Other major projects involved developing a series of optimization tools for our customers, all of which were integrated into Oracle ERP. They built a container optimization tool using Java, an extraction tool that would draw data from multiple systems and input it into Oracle, and a tool that could extract that information to generate analytical reports for users.

Currently, they’re working with us on an AI project around AR. We’re processing images and videos using certain models so that the output will be more intelligent.

What is the team composition?

They have a couple of technical architects who have been on the team since the start of our engagement. Their technical architect translates and divvies the work to the rest of the developers, though I’m not sure how many resources there are in total.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

We found them through a common network of friends. They had a good technical grip, proving capable of converting our customers' functional requirements into solid IT/software solutions.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of the work that we’ve asked Mind IT Systems to do has delivered value to our end customers. For the container optimization software, our objective was to reduce our customer’s costs by filling containers more effectively. After using the software, our customer had far better savings thanks, in part, to Mind IT Systems’ good coding.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Our customers have a lot of requirements, which Mind IT Systems manages quite successfully. They use various tools to mitigate scope creep and track changes using Jira. This helps them complete work within the agreed timelines without any bugs or defects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have domain expertise in supply chain and can manage the scope of work very effectively.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be nice if some of their key team members worked alongside us. They complete most of their work off-site on their own premises.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software development company working in the AI, robotic process automation, blockchain, and e-commerce areas of product engineering. I manage our offshore operations and delivery. I’m a co-founder and the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

We try to stick to our core competencies. Our customers require complex skills, and we don't want to keep everything in-house. We work with partners like Mind IT in areas outside our specialization. They give us access to skills that we might not use again. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind IT has lent their domain knowledge to e-commerce, product management, and healthcare projects. They’re mainly skilled in Microsoft technologies, including .NET, Azure, AI, chatbots, and cloud services. 

For one project, we developed a management system for a large hospital chain. We worked with Mind IT because we didn't have expertise with those systems or customers in that part of Asia. The system they developed covers front-office, in-patient, out-patient, and blood-bank management, as well as invoicing and insurance.

Another client is a large company that maintains 23–25 websites for each product segment. We built a unified product management solution for them. We architected the system, and Mind IT built and implemented it. The solution didn’t change the look-and-feel of the sites, but improved their maintenance and update capabilities.

Mind IT also developed a Microsoft system to manage approvals, surveys, and performance for a credit union provider. They built a unified solution for every compliance requirement in workforce, performance management, and survey administration. We handled the account management and architecture, and Mind IT handled development, quality management, and program management. 

What is the team composition?

We usually don’t work with more than seven to 10 people. I once engaged with two teams, which included 15–18 Mind IT employees. We have fixed-price projects. We’ve verified their software developers, but my critical contacts are the program, quality control, and account managers. 

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

Their co-founder was my employee, and I mentored him during their growth and establishment. We understood his values and knew he would build a company with the same culture. We're incredibly proud of companies that come from our ecosystem, and we support them as much as we can.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Mind IT around one-and-a-half years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Each project has an extensive scorecard for each project for a variety of aspects. These include the quality of code, the quality of the UI/UX, the automation of quality control test cases, the deadline and budget adherence, the program management and customer communication, and the customer satisfaction and willingness to refer. Based on these parameters, I’m extremely happy with Mind IT. One variable is sometimes lacking, but they do fantastic work. 

Since Mind IT came from our system, they’re extremely aware of the scorecard. They know that we care about the value we create. They follow this matrix, since it’s linked with their payment. It’s a great way to ensure that my customers receive value.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Cost and time overruns are common in IT projects, but Mind IT sticks to their word. Their responsiveness and communication skills are amazing. I’ve seen them reply to customer emails during the night, even though they aren't required to respond that quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of our key reasons for working with them is that they provide a turnkey experience. My job is to deliver projects, not monitor them. If I assign a job to Mind IT, it will be done well without my involvement. They're a one-stop-shop that not only does the work, but also proactively engages with customers to ensure they’re happy. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve had challenges with personnel and skill management. Mind IT tries to stay ahead of the curve, but technology moves quickly, so they constantly train and hire new people. I communicate proactively about projects so they can build their skills in time. If a project arrives on short notice, they require more time. They communicate honestly about this, and we’re confident in their ability to deliver.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Maintain communication with the core team. Don't approach them for work that isn’t within their core competency or domain knowledge. Unlike other companies, Mind IT doesn't claim to offer every technology.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an education technology company offering two products: a learning management system and a video conferencing tool. The learning management system is being rolled out to smaller institutes, large universities, and private tutors. The video conferencing tool can be used by institutes and corporates. I'm the CTO and I head the engineering team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

We were working on a project with the local government. We were trying to change a couple of things on its existing platform and were looking to make a lot of functionality enhancements. It was written in .NET and we were struggling to scale it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind IT were involved in a range of areas. We were trying to bring in a mix of more modern frontend technologies to the platform, combined with the backend we already had. We considered using AngularJS as we also wanted to improve scalability by integrating different caching technologies. The platform was hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and we were trying to make use of the ElastiCache service within it.

We were also trying to make use of the NoSQL database for some parts of the application. The platform had used SQL Server as a relational database.

What is the team composition?

We worked with senior developers and architects from their team. We combined our efforts on the project. Mind IT helped me achieve the vision I laid out for them.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

I had a previous relationship with a senior person from their team and I knew what they could deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost around $95,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Mind IT in September 2016. The project was completed in January 2018. The platform is live and has a large user base.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to hit the timelines we set and build the product we wanted. We had some internal time pressures, but Mind IT reviewed our plan and highlighted the places where the deadlines weren’t realistic. They didn't compromise on quality at any point.

We were trying to scale the platform by making changes on the backend and API sides, but the frontend had to be changed in a way that did not end up disrupting the platform generally. It was important to ensure that these architectural aspects were kept intact. Introducing defects into the frontend would have equated to missing our timelines. Mind IT’s architect successfully focused on keeping the impact to the backend APIs at a minimum.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

They were strong in terms of project management, compared to other companies we’ve worked with. They helped us create estimates and put together a plan, determining whether our goal could be achieved in the time we had. They brought in their own experience to validate our requirements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood our vision quickly and we felt we could rely on them. As the main technologist of the company, my biggest challenge has always been to find people who can deliver changes quickly and understand business implications. Mind IT did that, and they added value to our project. They took ownership of the project, bringing project and architecture managers to the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO for a digital and social media marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

One of our clients needed an IT solution for their ERP (enterprise resource planning) system—they wanted to track and manage the delivery of their product. We don’t provide IT solutions, so we began looking for a partner who could solve their problem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client had a manual system in place with a few automated components. Mind IT built an entirely automated solution that integrated with the client’s ERP system. We helped with some of the design work before delivering the final product to the client.

What is the team composition?

They had four developers, a QA analyst, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

We’d worked with them before and knew they’d be a good fit for this project. We needed a reliable partner who could provide a full solution.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $60,000–$65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client is happy with the end product, which has automated their entire process and integrated with their ERP system. Even the drivers are happy with the solution, which doesn’t always happen. Mind IT increased efficiency and refined delivery management. They eliminated unnecessary paperwork and reduced costs by optimizing scheduling-related work.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

Mind IT did all of the project management. They tracked the progress and let us know of any issues that came up. Everything was delivered on time, even though the client changed a few project components.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered a good-quality product on time. This client was important, so we needed an IT partner we could trust to build an effective solution.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you let them think for themselves, instead of just telling them what to do, they’ll do great. Make them a part of the decision-making process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Prabhat Prakashan. We’re one of the leading publishing houses in India and we publish books in both English and Hindi. Our backlist consists of more than 5,000 titles. We’re currently working with approximately 1,000 distributors and have a team of over 100 employees. We offer books in both print and digital form.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

We were struggling to grow and realized that our scalability was decreasing. To change that, we needed a way to utilize our content and overcome administrative challenges like picking authors, finalizing agreements, proofreading, choosing a distribution network, recovering payments from channel partners, and setting up employee policies. Another challenge we faced was processing real-time data. With around 5,000 titles, our SKU number is significant. Maintaining an optimum inventory required a mechanism by which our distribution partners could see live data relating to what books they could order. It became clear that we needed a tech-based solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind IT developed our B2B distribution app for iOS and Android. They also handled the frontend design. Initially, the cost seemed high, so we had a lot of internal discussions on whether or not we should move forward. At the time, distributors were sending us orders through WhatsApp and email. Mind IT convinced us that having a separate B2B app would be more efficient. Now, if a distributor wants to order books, they use the app to browse our inventory and place an order. It’s a streamlined experience.

They’ve also helped us in the digital rights area. We wanted to have an e-book platform through which we could sell products directly to consumers. Since our catalog is so large, we considered building our own digital rights management (DRM) platform. Mind IT developed that solution for us.

They have also implemented Robotic Process Automation for ensuring that all our online titles, which can be posted by multiple parties including many of our distributors, have correct information. They have completely removed our dependence on having multiple dedicated people just for this task. Scale of the challenge can be understood by the fact that there are over a hundred distributors which have the ability to upload titles online with access to our 5000+ SKU’s. So there could be multiple copies of the same title across multiple portals and to maintain correct data for all these listing permutations is a huge task which is now completely automated.

Mind IT Systems is also helping us in managing our Sales Personnels, including their planning, expenses and reimbursement cycles. Branch people can now do approvals for such requests. This system is both web and app-based which provides a lot of ease to our salesforce as they can handle these things now from anywhere. 

They’re currently in the process of creating our internal inventory management system. It’s an AI-based solution that will display real-time organization data and be used by our team to supply orders.

What is the team composition?

Mind IT assigned 6–7 people to our project, consisting of a mix of developers, along with one project manager.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

One of my friends had previously hired them to develop a food delivery solution for his restaurant business. He was impressed by their work and recommended them to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $85,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Mind IT in July 2016. They’re now working on the AI inventory management system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The DRM platform took time to develop but the result has been good and it’s been working well. We’ve recovered the project cost through the sale of e-books. The feedback from distributors regarding the B2B app has been excellent. Distributors receive incentive when buying a book through our app and can view live data. As a result, we do business with lot more distributors. We’re the first Hindi publishing company to develop an app like this and that’s influenced the local industry. The Sales Personnel System is working really well and branch operation heads are happy with it. Due to RPA utilization in monitoring and correcting online posted content, we are now able to use a five-member team on other issues. This team was earlier doing the online data checking only which is now completely automated.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re not a tech company, but Mind IT expertly guides us through each process. Their team is brilliant and they make a conscious effort to push projects forward. We mainly communicate using email, WhatsApp, and Skype. Project Management is done via Atlassian. Our offices are close by, so we also met in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We initially thought they were on expensive side but our opinion altered when we saw the kind of value which they bring. As the engagement progressed, we  liked their collaborative attitude and willingness to cover items outside of the initial scope. Ability to deliver is outstanding and that is a clear difference. Value which they bring and create is tremendous and they were able to alter our traditional way of workings to become technology-relevant. They’re a problem-solving team that maintains quick communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have been working together for two years and I can’t identify anything they could’ve done better. I’ve learned that their pricing is fair considering the scope of work they cover and their expertise. They just make things work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of technology for an education company. We provide technical solutions for the education sector, specifically for schools in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind IT Systems?

We started building our product in 2010 with our in-house team. As we moved forward, we had trouble handling all the technical aspects. We shifted our focus to having a technical partner because our architectural design was inefficient. We had a separate instance running for each school. Whenever there was small changes or bugs, we found it difficult to update them all.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Previously, they've created end-to-end solutions using a .NET framework. Presently, we're creating a complete ERP solution. We want two modules as part of the solution and are providing ideas to Mind IT Systems to use as references. They are developing the first module for the education-sector institute which collects fees from the students. Then, their team is to develop a second system to capture all that information related to the payments.

They are also developing an Android mobile app for us. We will eventually build an iOS version as well. The app is to have the same functionalities as our web solution. They are gathering the requirements from us and designing, developing, and conducting initial testing (leaving the final testing to us).

Since we started our project almost ten years ago, the code has gotten pretty complex. Thus, they are handling the documentation of our code as well. We are ramping down on our in-house technical focus and shifting all our technical work to Mind IT Systems. 

What is the team composition?

They provide us a project manager who coordinates and gathers our requirements. During module development, they provided 2–3 specialists depending on the task we were working on. They now provide technical support and a team of three specialists.

How did you come to work with Mind IT Systems?

I knew about them from their past work. When we started outsourcing, I had them in mind and we explored two other options. We chose them because of their approach to solutions, how they responded to us, and recommendations from other companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $70,000–$75,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in June 2016 and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our multi-faceted architecture is now on a single server, serves all our clients, and is more scalable. We were spending a lot of time maintaining the school servers, but now we can easily update our systems through one platform. Architecture is scalable.

Half of our efforts used to be for handling our technical issues. Now, we can now focus on our marketing, sales, and handling operations, as they ease our technological concerns. They are always suggesting the latest technologies and have in-depth knowledge of the market. They keep us updated on the latest technologies and document the code.

How did Mind IT Systems perform from a project management standpoint?

They update us weekly and we always know what's going to happen in the next step of the project. They’re communicative and have an excellent workflow process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness and communication impress us. They always keep us updated on the project and the latest technologies. Their team is hardworking and we’re happy to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Almost 10%–15% of the time goes into documentation. It’s a good thing, but sometimes it can be a little tiring. Otherwise, it’s a really good practice and helps a lot. Our experience overall has been good with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell them your problem and they will take it from there. Trust their expertise. Their project heads are excellent and take responsibility.