SAPPHIRE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm working as an office superintendent in Shri satya Sai Education Trust, surat, one of the foremost and renowned organization providing education from Nursery to Std.XII (Arts /Commerce/ Science) to about 7000 students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

With an effort towards to our mission to make education live through the first E-School from Nursery to Higher in the state of Gujarat to know more about you can go through http://www.ssetschool.org/school/home/index/1. We hired Sapphire Software Solutions to add various modules as per our requirement of online examinations, online fee payment, payroll and account management, and easy handling with library modules.

SOLUTION

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

Found the company in a local directory, contacted them through the mail mentioned in the website, were very impressive with the quick feedback and the solutions given by them, and found the team to be very efficient with the deliverables we were expecting for us.

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

To adding various modules as per our requirement, for instant fee payment and secure payment at parents convenience, online examination as innovative MCQ based assessment with instant result analysis, to introduce payroll management with low level data entry, finance handling using accounts to reduce human efforts and errors, library management for tracking the issued books and sending reminders for return

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

There were 2 software developers a senior and a junior, a team lead and QA who worked on our project

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Each module was explained to us in detail. The software helped us manage our records easily, and in turn, saved us a lot of time.

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

Constant support from senior developer, weekly email report was given to us, and daily task accomplishment demo.

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

Great quality of work in scheduled time, and commendable support throughout the project and even afterwards, have a very welcoming nature

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

In comparison with others, found them to be good in terms of the services quality provided.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

In the initial years of 2000, when Dearth of educational premise panicked the residential of Talod, our widely experienced Principal Ratibhai Patel Sir, Vasant Patel and, Kirit Patel, together took a decision to establish an institution that imparts apt and constructive education for civilians of this town and villages at outskirt of the town. I'm working as an Administrator in this institution and handling all the administrative work. You can have a look at our company's mission here https://www.trinitytalod.com/

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

With the world moving online in response to the pandemic, to impart the theoretical and practical knowledge that tends each child to touch the untouched skies of success thorugh the innovative methods of online learning and Special arrangement of SMS through internet, we wanted Sapphire to create a customized application for us to help us achieve this objective with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vidyalaya.trinitytalo… taking care of all the requirements we need with this solution

SOLUTION

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

Before going through the process, we had a discussion with our board members to select the best candidate for this, the foremost criteria being to get the maximum value for the lowest possible cost and to be assured that we are getting the best deal, we had communicated with various other similar companies but we also didn't want to compromise in terms of quality, we asked to see samples of the Sapphire's previous work in the similar domain and found them to be major expertise and convincing outcomes.

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

For having no barrier to imparting education to the students in the Covid times, when going to the school for one to one learning was not an option, we didn't want the future caretakers to suffer and continuing their eduacation from the comfort of their homes, with the module where Teachers can conduct preschedule classes online where attendance of the students can be recorded and stored automatically and also assigning assignments to the students and with SMS module direct contact with parents and give information about any function, activity, exam schedule and result to parents.

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

We were happy with the choice of choosing an agency instead of an individual, as an agency will take of all your technical needs in a better way, we had a couple of enthusiastic junior developers who were very excited with this project, their senior team lead who guided them and from whom we received updates

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were impressed by the work of the junior developer working on the project, They do have very skilled engineers in their team, who achieved optimum level of performance, excelled at their technical coding skills and developed the application just right for our needs.

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

As we are not that technical, we contacted them using email where we were given instant replies. The project started with the general idea discussion, the deliverable we'd like from our end,with proposing a mockup, then wireframes and the final design and development of the customized application for our institution.

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

They showing faith in their Junior team members with giving them a project to show their ultimate skills which is rare to see and also the communication with them felt very genuine.

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

Nothing. They positively contribute to the overall performance of the company through their consistent and high-quality work

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our honorable Trustee Mr. Javeri established Smt. Vimlaben Sevantilal Javeri Secondary and Higher Secondary School also known as Vimla Vidyalaya in spring 2008 at Gadh. We wanted to define our culture with a modern school so it is built with state-of-the-art infrastructure with all modern amenities like smart class, computer lab, toy room, television room, kids play area, playground, and classrooms with CCTV surveillance system.

I am the principal head of teachers, staff, and students of Vimla Vidyalaya. Apart I take care of whole-school policies, implementation, technology uses, supervising, and any other needs and decisions regarding school.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Sapphire Software Solution provided us an E classes app which is one of the modules from their Vidyalaya white label app. We were looking for a portal that connects parents, teachers, and students in a respective group and shares necessary information.

And we are so happy now to have Vimla Vidyalaya E Classes app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vidyalaya.vimlavidyal…. It is amazing as the app has made a lot of workloads easy so that everyone connected with it can focus on other activities especially parents rather than engaged in schooling all the time.

SOLUTION

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

I was responsible to find a person or an agency to fulfill the needs and develop something that we can rely on. I ended up finding them on google search. I do remember we had a call discussion wherein they also browse our website which is totally under our authority now and also provide suggestions to modify it and good ways of growth through digitalization.

This was convincing and I made up my mind to hire the team for app development. Also, some other factors such as their background experience, the vision of building long-term relationships, and giving mental satisfaction to the project.

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

As requested, it is a simple app with the splash screen, login/Registration screen, and selecting the batch to take us to the portal, and according we can connect with the parents, and students. The first draft of the requirement, prototype, and design layouts were ready, the development process, and tested, and then upon everyone's confirmation, we published the app. The technology used was android mobile development tools like java programming, android studio, SMS integration, and so on. Not really into technology

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

There were more than two people involved, We used to deal with a senior guy. There was a senior programming language developer, web developer, and a lead person for any queries, they mostly used to demonstrate their work once a week or sometime after two weeks giving us access to their computer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their thoughts were clear about my staff requirement and that gave us a positive vibe through good comments and appreciation about the app from the user. The way they do the post-project reviews, to determine the strength and weaknesses of the project deliverables.

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

They established a relationship with us, approach for the requirement, team selection and execution, ppm procedures, and a workbook they used a lot to take notes. Most of the communication was through calls and visits, the last visit I remember technical team was to teach the app functionality. We were flexible and open for any delays as no event was affecting the timeline to complete the app.

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

Their skills, their prior accomplishments, and key personality traits to understand the requirement are impressive. They are good communicators, and heart winning part is I am not a technical person though I enjoyed learning new things and as a principal, I would like to implement those logical thoughts for my students.

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

Performance improvement was the last support that we ask them, I wonder if it could be something that we do not have to maintain regularly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Akhadanand Prathmik Shala is an educational institute having four sections: Prathmik Shala (primary school) established in 1969, Madhyamik Shala (middle school) established in 1969, Hindi High School (higher secondary) established in 1970. Hindi Vidyalaya.

I work in the department of administration taking care of all work regarding school activity, inquiry form submitted through website, parents who contacts through website, and if any query contact Sapphire Software Solution for support.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Lifestyle is changing and in this current digitization world we were looking for a platform which helps the parents to make their admission process easy and followups with the school including paying online fees and other school walking much easier than usual. So we decided to build a website: http://www.akhandanandschool.com/ with the help of Sapphire Sotfware powered development team.

SOLUTION

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

We found them while searching for the best website development company in Ahmedabad, our staff members also inquired regarding their price, service, alignment with client, and other factors. Also we visited their company for a quick demo.

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

What we need is to have all the information covered in a website that we used to manage through paper work and other marketing strategies, they help us to incorporate tabs such as home, institute information, all activity that we perform, how to contact us and other forms that are essential for initial approaches of parents. The best part is the activity tab which is now very much useful during this pandemic.

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

We were in the direct contact with the website developers initially designers, then we were introduced with the senior developer to explain him our needs remotely, and finally the support team who are with us until now. We are really grateful of them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since past two years we are getting lot of inquiries through website. We do not have to give orientation physically though parents are walking through the website and more and more approaches we are receiving throughout the lock down period.

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

We were impressed with the effectiveness of their workflow. They had clear roles, responsibilities, and challenges. Unlimited changes if needed and no surprises.

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

Their nature work, easy going, better understanding, vision in education, and regarding requirements of parents and staff, and not forcing already worked examples for design or development.

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

High quality work with a good price was our motto and we were expecting some short of cost-effectiveness though that could be something that we were thinking to be done differently though overall they fulfilled the requirement, they showed us confidence, having good knowledge and no communication issues.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

It is an educational firm, located nearby landmark Mahadev Nagar bus stop. I take care of all the activity of Sapphire Support. Most of the custom software modules were suggested by me. We are one of the top schools in the area and now with the help of Sapphire we are emerging towards digitalization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to manage student data and in addition needed alerts to send parents and students regarding all activity such as fees pending/paid, attendance(absence/present) and exam results/progress report.

SOLUTION

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

We have heard about the vendor since they are the top most custom app and software development company here. 

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

They gather the requirement, provide us the solution, and help us to route what exactly modules that we can have that will help our requirement, and developed software as per our needs.

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

The team was of main contact person who was responsible for task allocation to junior developers. Since juniors were only the key developers, we had more e-meet with lead person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have the support queries and solution sheet.

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

They were good, and they have given exactly what was on our minds. There were bugs initially but they helped to setup everything since it was under the maintenance package.

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

Their team work, someone is always available for us during the time of development and support also.

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

Yes, sometimes server traffic gets too busy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

A.L.G Crescent School is an education school founded in 1992. We are a part of Noorul Islam Education Society a linguistic regional minority institution imparting quality education. I am in charge as an operator of the module that we are taking services from Sapphire. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

I believe there was no challenges since there is no business with them, we run a school in education domain and they are our technical team and giving constant support

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

To integrate modules that help us to make the workload easy. It is used by the teachers, students, and administrator. We were more concern about the sms, biometric and payment gateway integration in the web platform.

What is the team composition? 

First quick off call with the entire team, and then I was in constants touch with the team lead and the project manager. At the time of demo there are two people visited us.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

We filled contact form on their website, since they are well reputed in the education domain with their serves, we decided to select them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can attach the support services given by them.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They were best with their services. From my point of view their outputs were way better than we expected.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their patients, understanding our requirement, updating us gradually and yes off course the support team. The support team had the best service throughout the journey.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Cost little bit, might not be anything else I believe.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Myself head of the Sheth M N HIGHSCHOOL PATAN. I take care of this software activity or concerns, initially freezing the requirement and now follow up with any support from Sapphire.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Manage student data for which we need custom software, they way better solution then expected, and also added few additional alerts for parents and students and teachers.

SOLUTION

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

Sapphire was our first choice based on having good ratings, being within our budget, meeting all of our requirements and understanding our needs.

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

Writing notes while listening to our requirement and convert that note into requirement gathering documents, I believe they call as scope of work document. This document they send us for understanding. Based on that document they provided the entire custom software to us.

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

After reaching out to Sapphire, team lead of Sapphire reached out to us to discuss project requirements and then we were able to make the software live with the help of developers and designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are taking constant support from them; they generate a ticket that helped us providing either solution or bugs. I can help you to attach the same.

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

They performed well since we set up a deadline and for which they worked evenings and weekends to meet our deadlines and deliver the project within the deadline.

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

We are very pleased with how Sapphire met our requirements, and they even added a few additional features within our budget.

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

As a result of Sapphire's software, we were able to achieve our desired results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Rachit Chheda , Administrative Officer at KPC English High School

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Integrate barcode system to books

SOLUTION

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

Got reference from a family member, who's school was using Sapphire's product Vidyalaya

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

Barcode integration to track the books

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

To make the process Tag and Track effortlessly with easy book allocation and quick returns. A Manager, 2 developers and a QA

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Great outcomes as got the service within time

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

the manager was very Cooperative, project management tool for proper updates on the project

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

We're very much impressed with their documentation and how they continuously supported us in the project. 

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

They are providing quality solutions and the price is also little high but justifiable with the quality.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Myself Dr. Gopal Joshi, Principal of BCA college, Rasana

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

They designed an application that could record in and out times of our employees and ensure proper time management system

SOLUTION

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

I wanted the application to be user friendly and record and manage data about employee accurately

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

Their marketing team had got in contact with us and we found their proposal to be effective

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

Develop an application to record the attendance of the employees by recording their punch in and punch out times and regularly update in the employee portal for easy management

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Really satisfied with the result, the goals we were expecting were accomplished with the application and it has helped in the management

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

I was in contact with the team leader throughout the project who updated us regularly, in addition there were 2 android app developers and a testing engineer.

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

We weren't aware of the technical aspects of the project, but they gave their best with all the suggestions. overall had a positive experience and looking forward to work with them again.

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

We got our services on time with good quality. They are great and nothing as such to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Shanti Niketan school in Kalol Panchmahal has an environment which is not only child-friendly but engaging for children to learn and have fun at the same time. I am the in charge of digitalization and also at the same time part of admin.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sapphire Software Solutions?

We would like to connect teachers and parents through some software so we can automate the education process. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Initially we took help from the Sapphire to get sms and email integration, gradually that got converted into a windows-based software with more features. Now currently also getting support, help through other facilities like to have a landing page on schoolsearchlist.com, pathtoschool.com, etc.

What is the team composition? 

We were in constant touch with the main lead person I remember, and once our expectation is done, they show us the demo and deliver the same. Now we are in touch with maintenance team.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

It being long time, that we hire them, may be through google search. Kalol is a small town back in 5 years, and the nearest place was their city so probably we search on google to find the software company.

How much have you invested with them?

It is from finance department, cannot really disclose it and rough total cost based on number of students every year and hard to judge since every year we have to keep on changing as per student’s capacity. Initially it was a really small amount that we invested and now the value is kept on changing and we are not really allowed to take permission of the total cost. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We get maintenance and support. Also help for any new updates that we are looking for, or any on demand services that we ask them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Probably all the list of tickets that they generate since we send them to finance.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great and did their best with any issues that we brought to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their standby for any queries or concern we take to them, also at the time of development I do remember they were having a lot patients in us since we are not so good in tech and they explain the present and future vision of the software and that’s what we are experience it so useful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not yet, didn’t notice anything like that.