Survin IT Solutions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO of the company and we run an online job board in the United Kingdom. There are different generic jobs that people can apply to and be hired for.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Survin IT Solutions?

We hired them to build a website from scratch. We used different companies for different portions, just to keep the competition up. We don't have any in-house developers so all of the technical work had to be done by outside experts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We've used three of their developers exclusively for backend and front-end development. The site is built on WordPress so, for the most part, they’re using PHP and developing on WordPress, which was a mutual decision based on our objectives and functional requirements. 

How did you come to work with Survin IT Solutions?

We did research on them online, checking prices and their portfolio. The price was the main factor. A local company will charge a lot more because of expensive labor. They’d delivered good projects in the past, and we found the price to be very competitive.

What is the status of this engagement?

Since the site launched, we made some changes together according to our requirements. The site was completed at the end of 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of users give us their feedback. It’s one of the reasons we have continuous development going on. If we get negative feedback, we will learn from it and make improvements. Most of the time, it’s positive. There are no complications or mission-critical issues that have come up with Survin. 

How did Survin IT Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of the time, what they deliver is what the customer required. They do give their own input as well. Individual users will like different things, so, if something is missing, we will request it and they’ll deliver. We were not using any specific tools to help oversee them, just Skype and phone calls when needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very accessible. They’ll always reply promptly and have solutions for all our problems. I would rate them very high.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My brother is CEO and I'm the strategic adviser for a startup called Call The Doc. I'm helping him in terms of brainstorming, strategizing, and coming up with different potential options on how to customize the experience.

We are developing a custom healthcare information solution that helps patients arrange their appointments and follow-ups with physicians and other specialists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Survin IT Solutions?

From a technology standpoint, we wanted to leverage any of these vendors that had some extensive experience working with mobile application development. The mobile application that we wanted to create is supposed to run across multiple different platforms. Developing iOS and Android versions were our top priorities. That's why we were looking at all these different vendors, and that's why we got Survin involved.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with the technical requirements and fleshing out our scope. It was more of an agile approach. It was very collaborative. One of the reasons why we took that approach was because we were looking for an SMA from a technology standpoint, as we didn't have that experience. We were looking for someone who could provide their input into building out the actual requirements. Then, we would review them from a business perspective and provide them with our recommended changes and then move forward. They handled the complete implementation.

How did you come to work with Survin IT Solutions?

We came across them online. We figured that would be the best place to start. They were just one of a whole bunch of different companies that we researched and contacted.

What is the status of this engagement?

They have completed the initial development phases. The iOS development is complete, and I think the Android development remains in progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They're pretty much on target based on the requirements we set at the beginning. Once we looked at the initial version, we wanted to customize it further from a user experience perspective. We provided them with additional feedback and they were able to incorporate that as well. Overall, the experience has been good. I don't have any specific metrics to share, and I'm not even sure we have any.

How did Survin IT Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

My brother was more involved with the management of their team than I was. They had a project plan using Microsoft Project. They were also maintaining project plans on Excel spreadsheets. As far as I know, they always came in on time with their deliveries.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The thing that was helpful was the knowledge and experience that Survin has with mobile development. I know they would have specific technologies that they worked with for the iOS and Android apps. Even that was helpful because, for us coming from a business background, it was helpful – they were guiding us from a requirements perspective and helping us think through it from a technology standpoint. That was crucial because we would never have considered the technical limitations of business requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The initial scoping effort - that's on both of us. That is what we were struggling with originally but then it got better. It was difficult to get them up to speed, but eventually, we came to an understanding and they could move forward with the actual development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We worked on two separate sites together, each of them with a different business model. I would say the consumer products website would be more relevant for this interview. Basically, it captures social media content from various Instagram users and arranges it in a feed-like arrangement, based on the culture or the theme of these given users. What you get after all that, is a broad or a new type of platform, but just based on Instagram content only.

I’m the founder of the startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Survin IT Solutions?

At this point, I don’t even know that I would call it a business, just more of a platform and then see where it goes. At the moment, we don’t have any revenue. Right now we’re just trying to grab the attention of the people that might be interested in a website like this.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their role was huge. I am a designer, so all of my skills lie in the Photoshop area, and how things are going to look visually. Basically, I just told them how I want it to look, which was very simple. There are three people working there. One guy handled the frontend, he worked with HTML and CSS to get that part functioning. From there, they put in the functionality, which included all the application program interfaces [APIs] with Instagram. We were getting ready to work with Twitter and Facebook as well. They basically built the functional elements, so I just told them what I wanted it to look like and how I wanted it to operate.

The technologies they used, to my knowledge, included PHP and Java. The site was developed on their server to get it going, and then we implemented it live, using HostGator.

We were able to get the platform to work really fast. Fetching the Instagram posts and data with them takes a lot of power. We were actually able to accomplish for the database to fetch the posts and store them, and they can be displayed on call much faster than if they were being fetched as the user loaded the site. I think that was the biggest obstacle that they were able to solve really efficiently, using the database. All the posts are ready to go when the user wants to call them, or load the site. It calls them right from the database, rather than fetching them on the spot, which would take a longer loading time.

Regarding the team that was allocated to the project, I was in contact mainly with Chena. He was more on the project manager standpoint, and then the frontend guy on their end, as far as just the frontend functionality. I think they had one guy also for APIs as his main thing.

How did you come to work with Survin IT Solutions?

I actually posted on Elance what I was trying to accomplish, and I got contacted by Chena very quickly via Skype. You get contacted like that all the time when you post on a freelance website. You have to vet all the proposals you get because some people do a crappy job, or want to get paid and you don’t hear from them again. I was able to get on a call with him right then and there. He definitely knew what he was talking about.

He was willing to get things going on a small basis, just to prove that he’s personally invested in this and that I can trust him. We were able to do a few small development projects, just to build the trust between us. He was very attentive, and I could see that they were really in this for the long run, and they’re not going to falter on anything. After a few calls and a few small projects, then we went ahead and began the major work.

How much have you invested with them?

For that particular site, it was about $2,600, and I think I spent another $2,500 on the other site, which is down at the moment.

What is the status of this engagement?

The last milestone completed with them was in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quotes were accurate on the amount of work that they put in. Everything came out the way I expected and the way I had described to them. I think that on a cost basis they’re very fair, especially compared to a lot of the other developers in the market right now.

How did Survin IT Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always able to deliver the assigned work on time, within the specified budget and without any major defects. We didn’t use any specific project management tools or bug trackers to oversee their involvement. We worked through Skype and Elance for documentation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes it was tough to deal with the time difference. I was either staying up really late or waking up really early. I would like it if they could be more flexible in that respect. Sometimes I was only able to get in contact with them for a few hours a day. Having more overlap would be helpful, but with time differences there isn’t much you can do there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My agency designs websites and I'm the owner. We do print, web, and photography as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Survin IT Solutions?

I mostly do the visual design for the websites, and then I need to hire somebody to put it together, handle the development of the backend and then the implementation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for the all of the functionality on the website I had designed. I create my designs on a template that uses Joomla. They have done some modifications to the dashboard menu and corrected some basic bugs that I had discovered. I believe they assigned two developers to my project, and I didn’t need more than that. I guided them throughout most of the process and they made some good suggestions along the way.

How did you come to work with Survin IT Solutions?

I found them on Elance, where I posted a description of the project. They submitted a proposal along with a bunch of other firms. I found them to be the most responsive, clear and reasonable in terms of pricing and timing.

How much have you invested with them?

It was a small project of about $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They completed their first project with me, which took about four days. There’s a high possibility that I’ll have them work on my next project as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were good in English and they were attentive throughout the development process. They put the project together very quickly and definitely know what they’re doing from a deployment standpoint.

Their work wasn’t really something that my end customer would identify unless it was broken somehow so I wouldn’t get feedback there. I’ll be working on doing some changes, so the next project will probably be more visible. Overall, I was impressed by their approach and their dedication throughout the development process.

How did Survin IT Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed their work on time and within the budget that was agreed upon. We used Skype and email for communication.

It was always good to divide the project into sections, and give clear instructions, so there was no confusion. There was no problem in this area when working with them. They understood exactly what they needed to do and didn't require any micro-management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s very common that a lot of Indians have very strong accents, and they cannot be understood. Chena speaks really good English and it’s very clear. There was no need to have him repeat what he'd said to me. That’s a good quality that you don’t necessarily find much in India.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could probably follow up more after the project is done. I think that would be good for them.