Mindfire Solutions

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Owner, CEO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I wanted to build a SAAS application for mental health providers and, since I have an IT/graphic design background, I wanted to do some of the hands-on work myself. I had been hiring individual developers to carry out the parts of the work I wasn't trained for. However, some were better than others, and also, as people would come and go, I'd have to take time for the hiring process of finding/interviewing new people, which has never been my favorite thing to do.

SOLUTION

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

I found Mindfire's website online and just from reading it, they looked like a company I might be able to do my dream with. They described themselves as dedicated to working with each of their clients to find the solution that works best for that particular client. Although they thought it a bit unusual that I wanted to work alongside my team - do some of the work myself - they worked with me to find a way for that to happen. Also, they totally manage the hiring part. Their developers tend to stay quite a while so there's not a lot of turn-over. But when I do get notified that a member of what I consider "my team" has decided to move on, they already have a new person waiting in the wings. There's no downtime. The original developer stays on long enough to train the new one and I don't have to spend my time on ANY of those kinds of issues. I've been quite pleased with all the developers I've been assigned over the years.

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

We started off with a storefront site, a web app, and a support site, using LAMP technologies. Over the years, we've added a mobile app and a webRTC product, so are now also using Symfony, NodeJS, Socket.io, Twilio, VueJS, Ajax, JQuery, Bootstrap, Laravel. They've also build other tools we need to run our company - an admin panel, a bug reporting tool, etc.

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

I started with two developers and have expanded to 4. We also keep a QA person on staff, who's been with us from the very beginning, so she knows all of our products inside and out. We've also had people who specialize in WordPress (for our store front) and graphic design from time to time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been able to launch several completely new, separate apps. Basically, if I can dream it, they can build it, which is EXACTLY what I've wanted. Each time we launch a new app or feature within an existing app, our subscriber base grows, as more and more people are drawn to what we're offering.

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

Without fail, every developer Mindfire has sent to me has been bright, kind, courteous, respectful and adaptable. I interact with ALL of them, which I love. They also communicate among themselves - even when things switched to remote work because of COVID. Basically, we've all been flexible - adjusting to whatever seems to be needed. I also frequently request input from the team on my ideas. They never disappoint. They often come up with suggestions to make one of my ideas much better. They're independent thinkers who also function well as a team. Doesn't get better than that.

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

I have loved the sense of having my own team - being able to work with them the way I see fit. Although higher-ups at Mindfire WOULD get involved if I needed that (and have, at times when I needed some expert opinions/guidance), most of the time, they stay out of my way and let me run the show the way I see fit. It's the perfect balance of having help/experience there if you need it and yet being allowed to do your own thing.

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

I recently asked for a change in reporting. In the past, 2 of the main developers reported to the 3rd one, who then wrote daily updates for me. I decided I'd rather get reports from each of them and have also asked them to be more specific. In other words, instead of saying, "Worked on eSign module" or "Worked on bugs" now they say things like, "- DB changes - new columns for saving type 3 and 4 requests - JS changes in Compose Email form for saving type 3 and 4 requests - Pagination in "Manage eSign requests" tool - UI - Working on SQL changes for implementing pagination for the requests in "Manage eSign requests" tool" or "Fixed bug #2515; still looking for a solution to bug #1222." We just started this new way of doing things this week, but so far, I'm liking it much better. It enables me to keep a better pulse on what each person is doing in a day.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

EdTech Company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Mindfire Solutions to accomplish?

• Software Engineering partner
• Technology troubleshooting

SOLUTION

How did you find Mindfire Solutions?

Online Search

Why did you select Mindfire Solutions over others?

• Pricing first our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Mindfire Solutions’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Web application Mobile application Custom software development

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Bug free software
• Met business needs
• Team available for troubleshooting

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

Yes, Super professional, dedicated teams.

What was your primary form of communication with Mindfire Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Trustworthy

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

They were exemplary.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a manufacturer of construction equipment. We sell spare parts and chemicals online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Needed a customized solution to replace shopify

SOLUTION

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

Long time history of projects. I knew when it had to be done right for future scale, Mindfire was the only choice.

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

Scope of work included a completely dynamic website for traditional communications and integration with our CRM. Second phase was full e-com for training school registrations and custom data collection first, then we completed with spare parts ecom.

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

We also created an APP once completed. We worked with 7-10 different professionals and experts during the course of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are now doing over $30k month in online sales and training registration and developing a large ratio of new customers from our expanded web footprint

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

As pro as it gets. We use software project mgt tools, and follow their lead. This is/was new for us, seems like old hat for MF!

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

The project leaders are as smart as I have encountered. The programmers are solid. There is never a question as to "how," just when we need it.

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

none

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO for a garage specializing in high-performance European Automobiles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

In order to optimize workflows and service riding we had to create a custom piece of software that is cloud-based and it's essentially a piece of CRM software. We did they design work and mind fire helped us build our software perfectly.

SOLUTION

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

I asked several friends in the software Adela development field for recommendations and they pointed directly to mindFire and as soon as we began working with them I knew that that was the correct choice to make.

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

They helped us develop a highly a robust AWS-powered website which runs our customers software.

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

Join our last update the software we work with approximately four people for all senior engineers from the company but overall we probably worked with about 5 to 10 engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

“Working with Mindfire Solutions multiple times has been a remarkable experience! Their ability to grasp and enhance complex designs and turn them into quality software was a superpower.”

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

The project management is intuitive fluid and highly responsive is it is basically Jura-based.

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

I have consistently been highly impressed by their communication ability and their ability to grasp very complex issues quickly and to foresee features trends.

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

Over the years I've noticed that they are constantly were refining heir techniques and skill sets so there really isn't anything that I can do to improve that they already haven't done.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was Vice President of Clinet Delivery leading the UK Client Services Delivery and IT Services functions, working for Blackhawk Network, a US based Credit & Gifting Card specialist

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Mindfore were in position when i joined Blackhawk Network in December 2012 They had been hired to provide support; maintenance and devlopment services to our iOrchestrate Marketing Channel Support and Rewards Platform

SOLUTION

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

Skillset, Cost, flexibility and collaborative working relationship

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

Full project lifecycle from Quotation thru pre-sales, specification, development, testing and implementation.

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

A fully sub-contracted support and maintenance team numbering from memory c.20 people at peak, from Project Manager through team leaders, technical support, programming support staff

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Good quality, on time delivery

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

Daily standups, with constant communication and joint team working throughout the working day.

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

They had the willingness to be fully flexible and to rise up to the challenges of some of our more unrealistic deadline requests.

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

no