SynapseIndia

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an independent nurse practitioner, helping to care for geriatric patients at the nursing or long-term care facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Synpase?

I had done a doctoral thesis developing a tool that can be used for patients with wounds in long-term care setting. I needed a software program to document clinician's assessments on wounds, so I was looking for a company to create a mobile app for me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided them with a paper tool and explained what layout I was looking for. They developed an app for both iOS and Android based on the original paper tool. In addition, they provided the design work: they gave me different options to choose from and guided me in the right direction. I wanted to call the app "Sage" and  use the sage flowers in the background, so they developed the screens to reflect that.

I see a lot of the same patients from week to week, and the app allows me to input the information and then go back and make changes or print a report for a patient's chart. It saves time, and makes the clinician's work easier. 

We're working on a website now, which will be used as a marketing tool to inform people about the app and its features. 

What is the team dynamic? 

I worked with a designer, a back-end developer, a programmer, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with them?

I used Upwork to solicit the project to several developers. Synapse had the most expertise and the background in medical documentation, so they were a good fit for me.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

I started working with them in February 2016, and we still work together.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I used to do a dictation service, which was very costly, but with the app there won't be any fee because I will input the information and print it at the facility.

The app (both iOS and Android) is getting ready to launch, so it hasn't been utilized in the public domain yet.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive, professional, and timely. We use Skype, email, and phone to communicate. We prefer email since they're in India and I'm the United States.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very knowledgeable about the product. I had no IT experience, and they guided me through the entire project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear vision of what you need, and Synapse will be able to guide you and give you suggestions on how to market it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a tech company that works with trading-type businesses in the financial sector. We develop trading and marketing platforms, B2B products, backend membership websites, landing pages, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SynapseCo?

We initially hired SynapseCo to develop a web-based app for one of our partner companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had somewhat of a prototype for the app already, but we decided to make it for a single client instead of the whole market, so SynapseCo took the functionality and concept of the initial app and built it for one user.

We've also had them build some custom functionality for our traders, custom e-mail solutions, and some backend widgets, trade boards, and plugins. These are all on a WordPress site, and I believe SynapseCo uses PHP, Ajax, Laravel, and HTML. The projects are all for different partners, and everything SynapseCo makes is mediated through us.

What is the team dynamic?

We’ve had as many as six people on our team. The composition changes sometimes, but we usually have WordPress developers, a couple of designers, a backend expert, and then some SEO experts and content writers. We tell SynapseCo what skills we need, and they put the team together.

How did you come to work with SynapseCo?

We researched several different vendors before finding SynapseCo. Our initial project was the app, but they did so well that we began to give them steady work for other projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent well over six figures so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together for about a year and a half.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They deliver their products on time and perform at the same level or better than our in-house team. Any new projects go to them first because I know they’ll do a great job. Normally, I'm very thorough and picky when it comes to working with a third-party vendor, but SynapseCo has consistently impressed me.

How did SynapseCo perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of our communication is via Skype, but we also use email, screen shares, and phone calls. We talk with them every night.

The team they provide us has changed a few times, but it’s probably been about 90% consistent so far, and whenever it does switch, we’ve never lost any quality.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For an overseas company, they’re timely and easy to work with. They deliver on their promises, and their skillsets make them an invaluable partner. I can trust that they’ll do the job well and be honest about their capacity and limitations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time difference and language barrier have sometimes been a challenge, but that’s not necessarily their fault. We’ve managed to work through any miscommunications, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do your research and be clear on your expectations so that everyone is on the same page. In long distance partnerships, it’s critical that everyone understands the project or else the timeline can be severely delayed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company sells school clothing to schools in the UK.

What is your position?

I am the senior partner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We needed help in developing our website. We didn’t have the ability to do the work ourselves, so we had to outsource the work.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of your involvement with SynapesIndia.

SynapseIndia has modernized our website using the Magento platform. We have had about six developers from SynapseIndia assigned to our project, and we interact with them directly. One developer is assigned to maintaining our cloud server and other resources working on different sites for the company.

At the moment, we’re running a project that will combine three sites into one administrative panel.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

I found SynapseIndia through Upwork, which was called oDesk at the time. I considered some UK-based companies in the beginning but chose SynapseIndia out of several candidates. Up to that point I had used several developers for website work, but I ultimately decided to use only SynapseIndia in order to maintain continuity. Introducing new developers at that stage would require training them from zero.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost with SynapseIndia has been between $3,000 and $4,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first got in touch with SynapseIndia two or three years ago, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

SynapseIndia is a good and thorough development agency.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

SynapseIndia has come to understand how we expect them to work. We have daily contact through Skype and can easily give them instructions. If SynapseIndia’s team is unclear about anything, they will let us know. We also collaborate through the Upwork platform and work on an hourly basis. Upwork is good enough for us, so we don’t use any specialized project tracking tools.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

SynapseIndia works well as a team. They work well with each other and their clients in order to provide the best possible solution. It’s better to work with a team that has the cumulative expertise and knowledge in order to get the best result. Previously I worked with a different company for server maintenance, but getting two companies to talk can be difficult, so we decided to move that task to SynapseIndia, so they could manage the whole lot.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

SynapseIndia should make sure that their resources have a good grasp of the English language, given that they’re dealing with English-speaking clients. We have been able to get through to them, but it’s sometimes better to talk to a vendor in our own language.

RATINGS

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a startup developing a data-feed marketplace.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company. Because we are so small, I basically manage everything from the product, to the business development, and the operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We wanted to save money by outsourcing development. The idea was to find a reliable partner that could support our development tasks and also scale their involvement when the time came.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

SynapseIndia developed various modules for our company and also helped us with project management. We also have an e-commerce presence for which SynapseIndia has built backend software like inventory management integrations with distributors and marketplaces. We mainly use open-source software like Magento. SynapseIndia has developed our solutions using MySQL, PHP, and more recently, Java.

At its peak, our team consisted of 4 developers from SynapseIndia. We interacted with them directly.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

SynapseIndia was one of the biggest companies on Elance at the time. The cost was a major consideration when making our choice. We considered around 10 other candidates, and initially started working with two of them. We ultimately switched to SynapseIndia exclusively.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost so far has been above $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have an ongoing engagement with SynapseIndia. I plan on using them for many years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

SynapseIndia did a very good job of developing our marketplace integration software. They delivered the work in a reasonable amount of time and always checked if everything was working properly. We run many scrum jobs, and any problems are addressed without delay. SynapseIndia's team will usually have overtime until everything is working properly. Their commitment level is always 100%. SynapseIndia's team is also very polite, respectful, and professional.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of scheduling, we've only had minor issues. We don't use any specialized project management tools because our management does not require this. Documentation and feedback are provided by myself directly. I give SynapseIndia small tasks, instead of overall projects. They report to me twice a day by either email, Skype, or phone.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

SynapseIndia is a serious company, compared to some of their competition. I worked with other developers who always found reasons for delays, sometimes lying. SynapseIndia focuses on my project and gives me access to the resources I hire.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

Whenever we have issues or delays, SynapseIndia simply gives me discounts. At times, I was not charged for a week's worth of work when their developers needed more time to do research. SynapseIndia has always accommodated me and made sure that I was happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an e-learning specialist company for repair stations. Our company is a subset of the Earle Aviation administration, issuing licenses for mechanics.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

I was looking for programming talent which we lacked in-house. The ability to have access to resources on-demand was important. There weren't enough programming requirements in our company as to justify a fulltime team.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

SynapseIndia has worked with us as an external resource. They represent our sole programming capabilities. SynapseIndia has worked on PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript applications. We also worked on one project using Apache Flex, and have used them for small CSS and HTML modifications to our website, in order to make it responsive. Our focus has been on PHP, in which SynapseIndia is very good.

There have been 2-3 developers assigned to our work, but we've primarily worked with only one person for the last 8 years. Specialized projects, like the Flex one, have required different persons. We also brought in CSS and HTML designers for our website work. We haven't used any quality assurance resources.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

I went through a bidding process and reviewed two candidates, SynapseIndia being one of them. They proved to be much better from a working relationship standpoint. I didn't consider local companies due to cost. Given the ad hoc nature of our work, local availability was not very important.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The average annual cost is around $8,000-12,000. The total cost has been around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working together for 8 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Expertise has been shown repeatedly by SynapseIndia. They've been helpful with design and coding, as well as with changes to our website. SynapseIndia is very responsive in this sense.

Defects are problems that are never addressed or are outside of the scope of what can be done, which has never happened with SynapseIndia. If we run into a problem, they will fix it, so it's never been an issue.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been better than myself in terms of responding to progress checks. Communication has always been done verbally and with occasional screenshots for what needs to be changed in terms of visual design. SynapseIndia has allowed us to work in this way, without any issues. Because I constantly deal with the same person, I haven't had a need to use specialized project management tools.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

Since I've worked exclusively with SynapseIndia for a long time, I don't have many points of comparison with other competitors. I've found that their level of communication has been extremely good and has allowed me to rely on SynapseIndia for programming. We've underwent a series of small code changes which have progressed over almost 10 years. The application has changed in ways which couldn't be predicted in the beginning, but SynapseIndia rolled along with this. They've shown flexibility and adaptability.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

I'm very happy with the relationship. We've settled into a very smooth communication routine, so there are no problems in that regard. In terms of programming skills, I definitely have no issues with SynapseIndia. Whenever I needed additional expertise on top of the PHP work, the company itself has stepped up with programmers who could provide the service. Upsurge capability is a good advantage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a video based platform, a community for sharing videos.

What is your position?

I'm the founder of the startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

I'm a designer myself and I needed engineering help for making the site. I was basically looking for someone to take my visual designs and implement them. It needed to be cost effective and the level of service had to be very high as well as reliable.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The website was built from scratch. Technology-wise, it was pretty basic. It's Linux-based, developed using PHP and I chose my own hosting. In terms of architecture, they pretty much came up with all the ideas. They worked on a lot of the application program interface [API].

I had one developer assigned for my project. Aside from him, there was an overall project manager, one designer for HTML structuring, and one engineer.

I chose Amazon Web Services [AWS] for hosting, and that required high technical skill for installation. AWS has a lot of different elements and components, which were beyond my knowledge. They have a small team specialized on that.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

I conducted interviews with at least three other companies, and in the end, I chose them. My choice was based on a combination of accessibility, cost and previous experience.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We've spent over $30,000 overall.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

In terms of outside feedback, I don't have a whole lot. My own feedback is that they're average to good, engineering-wise.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job in terms of cost effectiveness and delivery. You will always have technical difficulties. Because we are in a very resource-controlled environment at this point, we do our best with what we have. I do all illustrations myself, and the engineers make up 60-70% of the project. Communication with them is generally very good.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

Not that I don't think highly of them, but they don't really work on a project. They maintain the relationship at asking if everything is okay.

When it comes to design, they're not really what you're looking for. They do not have the right resources for creative work. If you're looking for good, organized, engineering work, they should be able to support your need. I ended up firing the designer assigned to us because the work was very lousy and unorganized. I didn't think they knew what they were doing. In the first six months, I was not able to go to the backend and look at the code. I could look to the CSS, but had no access for making corrections myself. I would give them a design and it would come out totally different. The current designer is more organized and generally better. I wish I'd had him from the start.

The problem is that it's very difficult to go back and fix things. It's very time-consuming. This is my one bad experience with them. Again, in terms of engineering, they're very good and efficient.

My recommendation for future clients is to treat Synapse as a production shop for more technical work, and to steer away from using them as a creative or strategic partner. If you're just looking for something very ordinary, it would be okay.

Our business concept has been done before, but it's still different from anything out there. This became a challenge. I'm the designer myself, and I have very high standards in terms of what I'm looking for. Something being two pixels off from what I wanted is a problem. If you have very high standards, you should have an in-house designer to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an online aggregator of food products – an online farmers' market. We have created a back-end that allows 750 vendors to put their items up in one convenient place. We then help them sell their items.

What is your position?

I am one of the founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We needed Synapse to help develop the functional back-end for us. We use mostly off-the-shelf components that we've heavily modified to allow us to have a vendor portal. We were having difficulty manipulating that package in a way that we wanted.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We used Magento primarily. We've also found a few different bolt ons, so to speak, for vendor logging in and the portal part. Then, it was rebuilt from the ground up for our purposes.

There are too many modules to mention that were used in our platform. One of the bigger things we had them do is to create custom shipping modules. Also, a custom login portion that allows us to manage not only products, but vendors and customers at the same time. They've done some extensive work on the shipping module. I don't think anyone else had what we were looking to do.

They've created and remodified geolocation modules for us. They've reworked some of the standard Stamps.com, FedEx, and UPS modules in order to work within our paradigm. They did work on our online credit card processing, and created a revenue calculator in the back-end for our vendors. They've also done some extensive SEO [search engine optimization] and Google work for us. They weren't the first developers we've used, but they've been with us for 18 months so far.

Individual developers come and go, based on our individual projects. We run one or two projects at a time and, based on the need, I will pick out what the next thing to work on will be. We've only done a soft launch so far. Most of our activity so far has been building up our vendor base. We need products to sell. While we've done that, we've been live testing. We've done some marketing, but we soon realized that we needed to work more on the kinks in the back-end and in getting vendors.

Right now, we're implementing a different type of Apache Server, which is faster and more tailored toward Magento. Within that project, we've had multiple people work with us. Generally, we have one project person and, depending on our needs, we'll hire through them. At this launch, there were probably six developers we worked with. They've been a one-stop shop for us.

We work directly with the developers or directly through their project manager, depending on the technical knowledge level at our end.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

We'd gone through a couple of different firms in New Jersey and New York City. We didn't really like them. I'm a developer by trade and reached out to some friends that had done offshore projects. SynapseIndia came up. They weren't the first we used. We tried two other companies and gave them each a small sliver of work. Of the three, we liked SynapseIndia the most in terms of interaction, how they worked, and cost structure.

What is the status of this engagement?

Primarily, we work with them project by project. We've used Elance and eWork. I've talked to my project manager about their involvement, and recently they've been giving us feedback regarding what they could do for us. I will weigh that against what the other founders think and pull the trigger if we think it's right.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Since they operate as an extension of our team, we don't really have any specific metrics tied exclusively to them. Our own staff has been very impressed with their reliability and the consistency of their work. We rarely have issues with bugs discovered after launch.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

They've mostly delivered on budget. The few exceptions have not been their fault. The scope of the original project was not done correctly.

They've been really good at setting up times that are convenient for both of us, so we could have real-world communication. We talk through Skype every morning.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

As great as their communication is, there occasionally will be an issue because they are in India. They should get some more native English speakers even though they generally speak the language. The project manager's English is fantastic. When it comes to speaking with some of the programmers, though, things will get lost in translation. That's not really their fault because they don't typically send clients that far down the rabbit hole.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is called Mortimer James Media. We offer learning through media. We have also built a couple of software products. Much of that work was done by SynapseIndia. I also work in a couple of companies where I help outsourcing some of their work. For that, I use the companies I'm familiar with.

What is your position?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We've had a WordPress site for about a year. We wanted a new theme. We were using WordPress and other software for learning management, and we were getting a little tired of most learning management systems not having any CMS [content management system] capabilities, specifically being able to create a site for learners, before they even logged in – basically, a home page with marketing elements. Then, they would be shown the learning management part. We designed a concept for creating a learning management system in WordPress, and we hired them to do the development work – creating the actual theme, and a couple of plug-ins.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

I would say, from the time we started, until the theme was completed, maybe three or four developers worked with us.

We initially branched out to them for design work. We had done initial designs and, during the development process, the initial ones weren't cutting it for us. They weren't visually appealing any longer. We asked them to do some of the other design work as well as the development. There's also been a ton of testing they did for us from both database quality assurance, to user testing.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

I already had accounts on various freelancing sites, such as oDesk and Elance. I had already encountered them through propositions for other jobs that I had posted. I put them in my favorites list and when it came to this bigger project, I preferred to have a bigger company, where I knew that I wouldn't be depending on one or two developers, who might change their whole life, and not be developers anymore. A bigger company could offer me developers and, if those developers left, they could throw others into the project. Since I already had a history with them, and their proposal for this project looks good, we made a deal.

We hadn't considered other companies. Every time that I post something on one of the freelancing sites, I will get many proposals and check them over. When it finally comes down to whom I decide to go with, there specific arguments: if I'd done work with them in the past, or whether I'd put them in my favorites list, their portfolio, the reputation they have on the site – whether it's three, four, five stars – and their specific history with the tools that I need them to work on. In this case, with WordPress, it's PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and such.

It's very nice to have a tool where me and my team can get in a room, throw it up on the TV, and go through 10 to 20 proposals, weed some out, and narrow it down. Typically, there are that many good ones. It's a testament to say that they rose to the top of a big list.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was between $120,000 and $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They completed the most recent milestone for us this week [December 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have several instances of our LMS running at the moment. The busiest three have more than 5,000 visits per month from learners.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the reasons I liked them from the start, and I continue to like them, is that they work really hard to make sure that communication is not an issue. If anything, they overcommunicate. Ultimately, I like that. I would rather know ahead of time, than trying to pull it out of them, if something is delayed, or isn't going as planned. There's daily communication, including updates. They will initiate either a phone call or a Skype IM session if there's something they're not sure about. For the most part, we prevent any problems or rework by making sure everyone's clear about what the plan is upfront. I'm very happy about the way in which they manage their projects.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

I've worked with lots of other freelancers and contractors from India, The Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. Many of them do great work, but they don't communicate, so sometimes you're left hanging with regard to how far along they are, and when the piece you're waiting for is going to be sent. Often, those people do send it on time, and it's good. Still, when you don't know, you start to get a little anxious about whether they're still working on it. With SynapseIndia, I get those regular updates, so I know exactly where they are. It makes it easier for me to send that information along to our team and our stakeholders.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

They work on daytime hours in India. That was my preference at the beginning. There are many people who will work overnight for them so that they're available during daytime in the United States. I've had good experiences with that, but I've come to see that, working that schedule night after night messes with your body. I preferred that they would work during the day. However, since I also use them to support the learning management system, such as if someone would send me a ticket here during the day, I would like to know that there's someone awake there to handle it if there's something I'm not able to troubleshoot locally. We haven't crossed that bridge yet, though, so I'm not certain they offer 24-hour support.

The other thing would be their use of English and grammar being a little bit off. I would recommend to anyone to work on that constantly, to make sure they sound as professional as possible; especially with someone in the U.S. who might be less forgiving with the way a foreigner speaks. Right now, I'm stretching to find areas of improvement, really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We manufacture and sell jewelry tools. We focus mostly on metal stamping, for people who make stamp metal jewelry. We actually make metal stamps that they use, and then we make all the blanks and everything that they stamp onto. We use retail and a wholesale approach.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We previously worked with another company, who had built out the wholesale site for us on Magento, and then our retail sites were all on Network Solutions. We wanted to migrate them to Magento, so I hired Synapse to build out the retail sites onto our existing instance of Magento. They also built another whole site off the wholesale one.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We designed the site and provided them with all the PSDs [Photoshop documents], and they just built it out off that. That was pretty much their function. We had three people working on our website, and there was a project manager. There were other people that I think would get involved here and there, but it was mostly the same two or three people every day.

They've been helping us to optimize the site a little bit with performance speed, trying to improve the page load times. As far as testing, we've been doing that in-house.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

The wholesale site had a lot of customization to it, so we wanted to do that one here in the United States, with Pixafy. The guys overseas are a lot cheaper, so I just wanted to identify a good overseas company. I looked in some different places, I think the main one was Elance. I was looking for the top Magento developers there, and I found them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I would say it's probably between $10,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They completed the initial project at the beginning of August [2015]. We're currently building a wholesale site for the retail side, so they're working on a new site for us. After that, I have another site I have to build onto. This will be a long-term engagement. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The only thing I can think of is maybe the number of deliverables we had with them. The primary measurement has just been how close they could get to our drawings and our specs. The overall success of the site really doesn't have to do with them, as far as improving the conversion rate or something like that; that's more on us. I can't say I have any real metrics. Anecdotally, we've definitely been pleased with the engagement. We find them easy to work with, and they've always stayed on top of things.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

As far as budget, they were very affordable. I was happy with the cost. We did it on an hourly basis, and that seemed to work out well. As far as scheduling, there were no hard deadlines for this one. It took longer than I expected, but I don't think it was really their fault. I know from doing other projects that these things tend to drag on, so I'm not going to get on them for that. SynapseIndia was very responsive throughout the process and always gave me a heads up when things weren't going to be delivered exactly on time. Plus, they always included an explanation. It wasn't like, "Hey, this is going to be late." They gave us constant updates.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

With Pixafy, it was always hard to get their attention. I had to fight with them for them to work on it. These guys are almost like overstaffed. It was almost like they're sitting around waiting, getting on me to give them stuff to do, so that was a good thing.

Is there anything SynapseIndia could have improved or done differently?

I would just say the only thing that was a little frustrating was getting the site to our specs. We held them to a really high standard and, in the end, they were able to do it. We wanted every pixel on that site to be as we had it in our PSDs. For the most part, they were able to do that. There was a lot of back and forth on the front end sometimes, and it got a little frustrating. In the end, it turned out fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a billing services company for medical health care. In the past, it has entirely been paper driven, where we collect the routing slips, input the appropriate codes, and upload them for the recipient, primarily in the province of Ontario, Canada. We are making a shift, though, moving towards making an application with a mobile app, which simplifies the process for the physicians to enter that information, and that's what we're using SynapseIndia for.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the project leader for the development, so I look after all development activities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with SynapseIndia?

We had the initial development done by a company in Washington, D.C. We weren't very happy with them, so we repatriated it through various references to SynapseIndia. I've been working with them now since early August of this year [2015]. We were at the early stages of the development of the system, so we had a beta version available, but there was more to be done within general function and also in the very specifics and the rules behind billing. I've been working with them to get delivery of those particular features.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We have about one and a half people working on our project, not including a project manager. They do have a project manager but, in fact, I have not really had a conversation with that person. We were interacting directly with the developers.

The core technology is the MySQL database plus the PHP front-end. We have mobile apps, which are hybrid, and we use Cordova to configure them for iPhone. It's derived originally from MIT, and Sun Java incorporated with the ones who actually commercialized it. Not many people use it, but since Sun Java is the company that did the development first, we've been using that still. It's an open source technology.

How did you come to work with SynapseIndia?

The owner of this company is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization. The person who actually is the CEO of SynapseIndia is also a part of that organization. They tend to favor their own members first, so my owner recommended them. I've had conversations with them and talked to them, and I was pleased with what I heard. I parceled up the initial development to be in small enough packages that I could assess their abilities, and that's proven wise.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We tend to run about $750 per week. I think we're starting to look at maybe $6,000, so it's not a great deal.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been going through a series of milestones, and the most recent one was last week [October 2015]. We've been reaching milestones, I would say small development packages, once per week on average. It's a rapid development method we're using – very agile.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't actually track specific metrics on an administrative level, but I do have them from an overall point of view. I typically want to see a deliverable once every week, and I am achieving that. In terms of quality, since I'm doing the testing, I pretty well have an idea of what I want out of the assistance, so I tend to be pretty happy with what's coming out at the moment. I'm not using other metrics because the team is small enough, and our delivery is not a huge one. We've elected just to go with those simple metrics.

I have to admit, I was more than happily surprised with their work. I've worked with offshore companies before and found that they are typically affordable, but you tend to have to be very careful about how you specify, what you say, and to make sure that when you have conversations, both sides fully understand what's being said. I've had three people work with me from SynapseIndia, and I found that they speak very good English, so I have no problems with misunderstandings.

The second is, they seem to understand what I'm saying fully. They're very capable of conveying their questions and concerns, and they tend to be pretty forthright with areas where further clarification is required. A tendency could be, "Well, you only told me to do this." Whereas they are pretty engaged in terms of the fundamental process by which the application is going to be worked.

There seem to be many festivals going on in their region right now. Of the three developers that I work with, one of them will actually go off and a second will fill in. Their team structure is such that the person who fills in has been doing work on it prior to that, so they're fully informed, the handoff is well done, and there's no drop in pace whatsoever in taking on that added responsibility. I've been pretty happy with that.

How did SynapseIndia perform from a project management standpoint?

I've had offshore experiences before, so instead of giving them a lump sum of requirements, I've given them a roadmap with the specific development items that we would have in mind. Then, I specify further as we would get closer to each milestone, and give it to them. I actually have a daily call with them in order to clarify the requirements and answer questions, and that's gone extremely well.

I tend to participate and do the user-acceptance testing of what they've completed for me, so I'm pretty intimately involved with what they're doing. In that respect, they don't need a project manager, that's pretty well done by me. I haven't used any project management tools, except for tracking on a spreadsheet. It's not complicated enough to need Microsoft Project or anything like that.

What distinguishes SynapseIndia from other providers?

SynapseIndia is very good at documenting what they do. We have a method for exchanging documentation and information. They submit progress reports once a day, so I get to see what they've been working on. We have a call once a day.

Is there anything Synapse India could have improved or done differently?

I don't think so, the reason being is that it's not complex work. Some of the requirements are complicated, but they are such a small team, I don't think there's much that can be improved on. The only other area we're going to be delving into is, we're going to have them help set up our production cloud environment as well. The only thing I'm going to keep in mind is how coordinated are they between their development and infrastructure people. I haven't seen much in that regard yet, so there's not much to comment on.