Saigal Media Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Synergy IT is an IT support company providing managed services and custom software solutions for clients. We handle networking infrastructures and other tasks of this sort. We are a partner of Microsoft and Cisco. We deal mostly with small and medium-sized customers in the greater Toronto area and across Canada. I am the marketing and accounts manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saigal Media?

We have worked with Saigal Media on products for end-customers, but also on in-house solutions. One of our clients required a comprehensive solution for the legal services industry. His team was on the road a lot, so he wanted to create an app where scans and other documents could be uploaded.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Saigal Media created the app as well as a site for our client. It's a complete system which can handle all customer document and invoicing management. It has multiple user interactivity for everyone in the organization. The solution made it easy for users with limited knowledge to simply signup and upload their material.

How did you come to work with Saigal Media?

We have been in business for 20 years, so we have many contractors and collaborators. Saigal Media came as a reference from one of our contacts. We went through a screening process, reviewing Saigal Media's work, which included clients like Yahoo!. We gave them a trial project which came out well. One of the things we liked about Saigal Media was their responsiveness. They were always willing to come to our office and discuss projects.

How much have you invested with Saigal Media?

The cost of Saigal Media's services has been between $50,000 and $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Saigal Media 2-3 years ago, and have an ongoing collaboration. Saigal Media is one of our main partners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Saigal Media has taken the initiative for anything that we require. As an end-client, we want to have limited involvement in the work being done by Saigal Media. Although I'm a software person, I'm also tied up with other projects. Saigal Media is able to start from zero, creating instructional documents and wireframes, without having me to jump in. 

I didn't receive a lot of feedback for the app built by Saigal Media, but it has been stable so far. The customer received what was promised.

How did Saigal Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Saigal Media took the initiative for everything related to the work, building detailed proposals and handling project management for the development team. Whenever we've needed Saigal Media, they were there for us.

What did you find most impressive about Saigal Media?

Saigal Media is proactive in identifying any possible problems and keeping us informed.

Are there any areas Saigal Media could improve?

The project timelines could be improved further. Saigal Media has a pretty busy team.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Saigal Media?

I've been happy with Saigal Media's work, so I would definitely recommend them to customers looking for mobile or web applications. Saigal Media's programming skills and speed are good.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We offer a valet parking service, like what hotels have. Clients pull up to our parking lot and have their cars signed off to a valet agent, who will drive them to the airport, help them with luggage, and drive the vehicle back. When customers come back from their trip, we will wait for them at the airport and help them again with their luggage, drive them to our lot, and get them on their way. I am a co-founder of the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saigal Media?

Someone was working on our initial website and mobile apps, but they weren't able to make it happen. We already had leases in place and were losing a lot of money on our cars because we had no web presence. No one could make a reservation because the process was all online; the phone ones were few and far between. Finding Saigal Media was a dream come true for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Saigal Media developed our website as well as our web, Android, and iOS apps. They also created additional features on top of our request; for example, our car tracking functionality also allows for taking pictures, which is useful for assessing any damage and was a big bonus that we didn't have on the backs of our minds. The backend system is well-organized and easy for anyone to use, even without much computer experience. Many of these things have helped initiate training and made our business easy to run. We have a huge admin panel allowing us to see everything within a few clicks.

We had a 2-month initial timeline, but Saigal Media promised to deliver in 4 weeks, cutting our project run in half right away. Saigal Media's response time was immediate as well.

How did you come to work with Saigal Media?

My partner found Saigal Media through the web. We had met many companies before that had promised the world. We had also spent a lot of money on another company that wasn't able to deliver but also didn't give us our money back. We met with Saigal Media's principal, who offered a time scope and vision for our project. Saigal Media met all our targets, and working together was amazing.

How much have you invested with Saigal Media?

The total cost of Saigal Media's work was between $40,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Saigal Media since August 2016. The initial project has been completed, but we're also looking at building a driver app, where our employees could log in and perform administration tasks on their side as well as review what phase their current customers are in.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Getting our web presence was the main goal. Many people only download apps when it's beneficial to them, so our web app was essential. Saigal Media could deliver it in 4 weeks, half the estimated time. It allowed anyone to log into our system, which is what enabled our company to take off. Without it, the company's direction would have remained stationary, and we had started questioning if it made sense to continue. It's a good thing that we could find Saigal Media and that they delivered.

Users are happy with the app for the most part. We've found that more people are downloading the iOS version than the Android one, but this is more of an indication of what phones people are using. Most users overall are using our web app.

We plan to continue working with Saigal Media on the driver app, and once everything is integrated, we plan to push the apps more on the marketing side of things.

How did Saigal Media perform from a project management standpoint?

Saigal Media was professional and on-point. They had a plan broken into action items, which is something that other companies were lacking. This showed us that Saigal Media had experience with this type of work, and we'd recommend them to anyone.

What did you find most impressive about Saigal Media?

I liked Saigal Media's ability to remain connected. If we needed something, Saigal Media responded well. In the past, we found other developers to be inaccessible at times when we needed them most. Like with anything new, we did have issues, but Saigal Media was quick to make changes and respond to our concerns.

Are there any areas Saigal Media could improve?

I can't say anything. Saigal Media has exceeded our expectations. We couldn't have asked for a better company to work with.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Saigal Media?

If the client has an idea and wants to hire a company to build it, Saigal Media is the right partner. There were many things we didn't think of, and Saigal Media was there for us in those moments. As business owners, we often want answers right away. Saigal Media made notes of our concerns and got back in time, as opposed to agreeing to everything we asked for off-the-bat. Many developers will mainly try to exploit financial opportunities, but it wasn't the case for Saigal Media.|

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Toronto Mobile Listings is a real estate technology company. We have designed 2 apps for iOS and 2 backend platforms for them, meant to extract information and divide it in whichever way we want. I am the chief executive officer and president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Saigal Media?

We identified a void in public-facing real estate information, compared to what real estate agents had access to. Our main challenge was that we didn't know how to decode the Toronto Realtors information feed, which is now known as TREB IDX. When the database was initially made public, it was quite garbled and couldn't be used for website apps or anything similar.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Saigal Media helped facilitate the logic and code for our solution. The beginning part revolved around deciphering the mess of code that the Canadian Real Estate Board was providing and putting it into a form that could enable a feed. There were perhaps 3 people at the time who could take on this task, and Saigal Media's principal was one of them. They've been able to build out custom platforms exactly how we wanted.

Saigal Media has created APIs between our apps and the platform. We use Infusionsoft as a CRM [customer relationship management].

How did you come to work with Saigal Media?

I happened to come across Saigal Media through one of the heads of the Toronto Real Estate Board.

How much have you invested with Saigal Media?

I estimate that I've spent $10,000 or more on Saigal Media's services on a yearly basis. They're competitively priced, and I know that I've been able to do the same work for half of what someone else would have asked.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Saigal Media almost five years ago. Technology work never ends, and we've kept improving our system. I've focused on what I could do in order to make the information more valuable, rather than working on a cosmetic level.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Saigal Media is good at what it does. If the team doesn't have a solution, they will search for one, which has made it very easy for me to approach different ideas. If there were ever problems, Saigal Media was fast in understanding and solving them. Their customer service is great, and Saigal Media's team has been shockingly kind.

I had the opportunity to sell the platform to RE/MAX Canada, where it would have been used by 10,000 agents, each one having a rebranded version of the master platform.

I was able to raise $130,000 in 2015 for the app. It has ranked in the top 100 Canadian lifestyle apps within the Apple Store, and it's probably within the top 10 in real estate segment. We receive 3,000-4,000 downloads per month and have never had a problem with the app breaking down. From the data we've generated, I could keep 2 brokers busy with leads. I'm looking to take on a good chunk of the Canadian real estate market, which would not have been possible if I didn't have Saigal Media's intuitive understanding and their ability to work out details with me.

We applied augmented reality to the app at a high level one year ago. It was a functional piece of technology, but it never took off within the Canadian or US spaces.

How did Saigal Media perform from a project management standpoint?

I've generally dealt with the partner members of Saigal Media. The work delegation has been smooth. Saigal Media also has a team in India, and it was great for me to have them working through the night on a solution.

What did you find most impressive about Saigal Media?

I appreciate the honest and forthright attitude of Saigal Media's principal. If something cannot be achieved, if it's simply not advisable, a waste of money, or if there are better alternatives, he will let me know.

I've referred Saigal Media to a handful of people, who have all been satisfied with the company's work.

Saigal Media is the perfect company for smaller-level entrepreneurs with limited budgets. Programmers can be strange beings, and some are unable to communicate in plain terms. Saigal Media is on a different level, and their principal has been a middleman for me.

Are there any areas Saigal Media could improve?

I wouldn't use Saigal Media for graphics, but they excel at backend programming intricacies.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Saigal Media?

Saigal Media is good at explaining how things can work and extracting information from the customer. People can have broad and basic requirements for websites, but they don't consider how the page will scale. Saigal Media tries to understand long and short-term goals and meet people in between.

We've worked on a project for a large Canadian real estate publishing group, subcontracting Saigal Media for programming. For such a large company, our client was cheap in many areas. They needed to understand that the work would evolve one year from then and not cut corners. Some programmers' social abilities are not great, but Saigal Media is an exception.