Tech Innovations Technologies Pvt Ltd

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a tech startup called Maybe* Technologies. We build solutions for businesses to more effectively handle social media and drive better results for their business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tech Innovations Technologies?

We needed an alternative partner to build our software deck.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I hired their software developers to construct our platform from scratch. Starting with a test project, they expanded their responsibilities and took over the core of our platform development. In the test project, they built a side feature as a proof of concept effort, ensuring they worked well with the team. 

After the initial project, we moved to the web, iOS, and Android apps, which are the core of our product offering. They’ve integrated data feeds from Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to make the software function optimally. Their team is in charge of that entire backend effort, running data processing from external sources. The apps are native, developed in Swift and Java.

What is the team composition?

There are about 8–9 people with different skillsets assigned to the project. We have a project manager and a tech lead that we speak to daily. There’s also a lead product tester and infrastructure specialist joining our meetings occasionally. It’s a blended team. 

How did you come to work with Tech Innovations Technologies?

One of our team members has worked with their owner before. He gave us an introduction and told us about his team in India. We hired them from there to handle the test project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $200,000–$1,000,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work with them started in June 2017, and the team is still working with us. We’ve actually expanded our resources with them as we’ve grown.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re a key resource for our team. We use Google Analytics and a few other tools to analyze customer usage. On those platforms and in-person, we’ve received very good feedback from our users. 

How did Tech Innovations Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack to communicate with the entire team throughout the day. In terms of our direct communications, we use the platform for project updates from our two main points of contact as well. Every day, we have a conference call with both our teams to get everyone on the same page.

Our project manager is very strong, using Trello to manage sprints and backlogs. He just provided us with a report on how we could be more productive and produce more reliable outputs together. They’re very proactive overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a strong commitment to delivering on the specifications we require, going above and beyond to meet our standards. That’s been consistent and strong, especially considering the time difference between the United Kingdom and India. They’ve been great at helping us secure clients. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off of the top of my head. When we visited their facilities, they were very hospitable. They’ve been easy to work with throughout the development. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get a good project manager to sit between your business and their team in India. With someone like that, you’ll best be able to translate the business requirements of your work into technical explanations that they can use to inform their development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Propeller (formerly VanCert) provides a software as a service (SaaS) job management solution that allows organizations with field-based workers to manage and distribute their jobs remotely, from the central office, using a web portal. Engineers in the field receive their jobs on a mobile app. They complete the jobs, log the materials used, take photographs, and generate digital certifications that are sent to the main portal in real-time. We sell the software to businesses in the U.K.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tech Innovations Technologies?

As we relaunched with a new brand, we are also releasing a lot of new, improved functionalities. We needed to completely reskin and refactor much of our existing website and mobile app. We have a team of in-house developers but needed additional resources to enable us to deliver all of the added functionality on time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tech Innovations have completed both web portal and app development for us. The initial work was .NET support, for which we had three specific projects. One of them was the complete reskinning of our web portal to align with the new branding. It was a major project that we expected to take about a month. We also had two specific pieces of .NET development—a task management addition to our current software and a job creation and editing functionality.

Because we were very happy with their work, we used them to redesign the mobile app as well. The Android work was based on an existing iOS app so it didn’t require any wireframing. We provided them with all the elements they needed for the redevelopment, including mockups of the layout. We’d already had a branding consultation so we also provided them with the colors and fonts. Along with the reskin, we asked them to improve the look and feel of about 15 pages.

They’ve also helped us with certificate design, which is something we’d always done in-house. We offer custom certificate generation for our clients who provide us with PDFs that are programmed into the platform. Ti Technologies has helped us with CSS and HTML templates.

We’ve paused development at the moment while we merge and test all the pieces Tech Innovations has been developing.

What is the team composition?

Their project manager is our main contact. I’m in direct contact with a lead developer, mobile app designer, and Android developer. We also work with .NET developers and a manager for the certificates, so around eight people altogether.

How did you come to work with Tech Innovations Technologies?

Previously, we outsourced Android development work to a different Indian company. It went okay but I wasn’t particularly happy with the collaboration, given poor communication. We knew we needed more development. Because one of our in-house developers had moved away, we deliberated whether to hire someone or outsource again.

At that time, I happened to receive an email from Ti Technologies’ marketing team. I reviewed their website, which looked professional. They had a broad range of development capabilities. I replied to the email and told them that I was open to the possibility of outsourcing but had reservations. I requested a call and they replied on the same day. We had a call the following day with two members of their team and a follow-up meeting with the CEO, during which we explained our needs.

They submitted a proposal for the initial proof-of-concept tasks and we were impressed with their approach. They provided us with CVs for members of their development team that they thought best matched our requirements. We decided to give them a try and have been happy with the results. We’ve since given them three additional projects which have also gone well.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our initial contact was in September 2017. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been very happy with what they’ve delivered—which has been extremely professional and of a high standard. Our lead internal developer has been very impressed with the quality of coding.

How did Tech Innovations Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate primarily via Skype and email. We share documentation through OneDrive.

They’re very responsive to our comments and feedback. They take any feedback onboard and have fixed bugs quickly.

Project management was one of the main drawbacks with the company we previously used but Ti Technologies has worked well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We met them in person last month, which was a nice touch. They were in Europe attending a couple of conferences. Even though we’re based in Manchester and they were down in London, they took a train to meet us.

Trusting developers with our code and the direction of our business is very important when outsourcing. They seemed authentic, genuine, and trustworthy—excellent development partners for the long term.

We’ll continue to work with Ti Technologies. It’s worked so well that we may actually use them when we need additional resources, rather than employ another full-time, in-house .NET developer. In addition to what I’ve mentioned about their quality, we’ve been extremely happy with the experience of working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re an extremely responsive and communicative group so clients should be as detailed as possible and ask any question. Ti Technologies is always willing to take onboard client ideas or feedback and get back to them. It’s an easy working relationship. I don’t have specific advice, but I think that someone who’s never outsourced before can be confident in Ti Technologies’ ability to provide a painless experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an independent business consultant working with startups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tech Innovations?

I hired them as the technology partner on behalf of my former company in order to outsource the website build we needed. We were just starting at the time and didn’t have an in-house team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tech Innovations took over the complete build of two significant web projects including a university student social network in the U.K. They undertook the full scoping, build, hosting, and development of that project, which was a large chunk of work.

We later developed another social network, this time for high-school students, with them handling the full development again. We provided wireframes done by a U.K.-based designer, which they turned into HTML.

The platform had fully-integrated personality quizzes for students registering on it, which helped them understand more about themselves through answering questions based on pictures. At the end of the quiz, their personality types would be mapped out and suggestions for particular universities and courses that they might find interesting would be given.

What is the team dynamic?

Tech Innovations assigned four or five members to the team. I communicated with an account manager and with Deepu Zacharia, their CEO, mostly through email, Skype, and Slack. I didn’t have contact with the developers.

How did you come to work with Tech Innovations?

When my startup client asked for help, the relationship with Tech Innovations was already in place.

How much have you invested with them?

The university platform investment was around £550,000, [U.S. $731,308] while the second one was between £140,000–£150,000. [U.S. $186,151–$199,448].

What is the status of this engagement?

The university platform project was started in early 2013, and it was launched around August of the same year. The second project occurred the following year and was launched around April 2014. I’ve been using Tech Innovations since leaving my former company on various other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After I left the company, it changed its focus and went into mobile app development, so the websites are no longer in existence. The first platform was similar to what Facebook was to begin with—something aimed exclusively at students. The feedback was that it was great for separating users’ university life from their personal one. The people going to the university don’t necessarily want their activity there to be listed on their public Facebook profiles since, for example, a future employer might find that.

How did Tech Innovations perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite being an outsourced partner, they’re still pretty much a part of the team. Language is always tricky when dealing with people from other countries, but I never had a major problem with them. They always delivered on time or told us beforehand when something wouldn’t be possible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their passion for getting the work right really stands out. I’m the kind of person that will only recommend a company if I believe they will do a good job, and I have no hesitations in recommending them to anyone. I know that they will deliver with a good price-per-value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their design capabilities, which is why we’ve used external designers. They don’t claim to be a web design firm, though—they’re a building company.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I’m the Managing Director for a woman’s online-only fashion retail store that was established about 6 years ago in Dublin, Ireland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Tech Innovations Technologies?

We needed a developer to help with frontend and backend development of our website.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We’re on the Magento e-commerce platform. We had a local agency do the markups and PSDs for our web store, and then Tech innovations Technologies custom built our blog functionality. They primarily worked on frontend tweaks, system upgrades, and a lot of backend functions that we didn’t have before. They integrated off the shelf extensions into the store and also built several custom backend modules to help improve our efficiencies and communicate with external systems. We started with a basic project, and then we did several larger projects. Last year they rolled out the full store upgrade both on the front and backend. They manage the site on a daily basis, and they’re on hand to fix any problems. They debug issues as well and are constantly trying to improve performance. In the coming year, we’ll be looking at refining and tweaking the website. We’ve got a good foundation, and they’ll just be improving functionality and adding a few more bells and whistles.

How did you come to work with Tech Innovations Technologies?

I found them on a freelance website.

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

Between $40,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them December 2014 and have been working together since.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Since we’ve gone live with the new store, we’ve seen our sales and conversion rates increase by about 50% compared to the same period last year. We’re at about a 2.5%–3% conversion rate, and we’re getting a lot more traffic to the store.

How did Tech Innovations Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent. Both our assigned project manager and the developer, who directly builds or fixes things, are on hand on Skype or email. They’re easy to reach if there’s any kind of emergency. For the large-scale project, they’ve got a good project management system, which we use to track bugs or implement features. I’ve built a relationship with them, and they know the system as well, which makes things easier. They look at the metrics to make sure things are actually improving when we do go live with a new feature.

What distinguishes Tech Innovations Technologies from other providers?

In terms of Magento, they know their stuff. They’ve built a lot of websites, and they’ve seen a lot of this stuff before. They’ve made a few SPO customizations specifically for our store. They adhere to design principles and performance.

Is there anything Tech Innovations Technologies could have improved or done differently?

I can’t think of anything. Everything has been smooth sailing. That’s why we have them do all of our development work.

Do you have any recommendations for others considering working with Tech Innovations Technologies?

Start small, build a relationship, and make sure the people they’re working with know what they’re doing. If somebody doesn’t have a technical background, have someone make sure that what the developers are doing is suitable for their store and e-commerce platform.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I’m the Founder and CEO of a start-up company, which provides a utility web-based app to increase employability for young people in education. The product has a suite of tools; a Digital Portfolio, CV Builder and Personal Statement Helper.

I’m the core of the company but have dedicated teams that I outsource to for design, development, and marketing. TI Technologies are the development arm, and within their larger company, they assigned approximately 12 members to develop my web-based app. Designer wise, there is an agency of about three or four that I like to use, depending on what is required, I get consultancy from two different individuals with expert knowledge of the education sector and I use a couple of trusted marketing agencies to run campaigns with.

So, it’s quite a large group in total, but I just connect with them when I need them and avoid huge staffing costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with TI Technologies?

I had some beautiful designs made for the tool but it was built by Drupal developers who basically just built a demo site for the purposes of attracting investments… with no usable database. (Error #1 as a fledgling tech entrepreneur!) It was never a scalable, usable tool and fell very short of my expectations. I learned a huge amount from this process about the importance of careful scoping to ensure expectations match between client and agency and to ensure you have an experienced Product Manager on your side who is focused on the business model. In larger and more experienced agencies this tends to be much more carefully provided. I also learned that just because an individual or group is good at one element (eg. design) does not mean that they are the right fit for anything else (e.g. development)... and sadly, it’s not important whether you like them or not- that’s not a reason to hire! I needed TI Technologies to rebuild what I wanted, from scratch.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

A big part of why it was easy to work with TI Technologies (aside from what lovely people they are) is because I had very extensive designs prepared and, essentially, a working prototype/ pilot for them to copy and to understand the user experience to rebuild the front end. It made communicating ideas so much easier than starting with just some designs down on paper. In the main, it was a straightforward development task because it was a case of copying the functionality on top, but building a foundation that wasn’t there in the ‘prototype’.

They also introduced a new utility tool which didn’t exist in the prototype, and they were great at interpreting just PSD designs for this, often flagging up potential issues and usercases which the designer had overlooked. The 3 builders for the 3 tools are essentially forms broken down into five horizontal sliding steps using smart type and drop-down menus. There are a few free text fields added in there that are mobile friendly. We have a help text box that is openable or closeable, if you want that as a user. Once you’ve filled in the form and all the steps, you save it, and it saves within the tool. You can also download it as a PDF or you can share it through a link.

The portfolio takes the same concept; adding information into a horizontal sliding form, but you can upload different types of digital content from links to videos to images to different file types. We also have a section where you can add a testimonial, quote, or reference from somebody that you worked on a project with. You save that and then your content appears on your wall- like a living, shareable portfolio. Another feature in that is the user can tag and categorize their portfolio posts as they build them. So from the Portfolio view, you can search and filter your content quite easily and then send a link which contains just that filtered set of content- to remove anything irrelevant for the recipient.

In the UK we have something called a Personal Statement, which is the official term for your application for University. To write your Personal Statement you need to follow certain guidelines and it needs to be in a certain order. Provided you’ve got content on your portfolio, you can easily search and source great examples that you just drag and drop into your Personal Statement. It’s an editing tool, but very visual and intuitive.

TI Technologies did some pretty cool stuff; enabling the user to scroll and select from a mini view of your portfolio and drag content directly into the Builder. The same principle applies when you save the final version of your Personal Statement. Then you can share it by a link to a teacher or parent to check over, or again, download it as a PDF.

There’s also a blog on the site, where we post teaching resources to help teachers learn how to kick start our web-based app in the classroom. 

How did you come to work with TI Technologies?

A consultant had worked on a fast growth app and found TI Technologies. They were a fantastic option for me because were able to rebuild what I needed really affordably.

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

About $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in the summer of 2016 and completed the work in January 2017. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We always get good feedback on the concept and the designs and our userbase continues to grow, with over 39% of traffic returning users.

How did TI Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very detailed in their scoping, scheduling and planning- always responsive and very patient. They were very welcoming and provided a great PM experience. They are so willing and hardworking. They were brilliant. I think people are nervous about outsourcing and have an image in their minds of what outsourcing to India looks like. These guys are extremely professional. Their work environment doesn’t look much different from ours in London. When I went to visit them in Kerala (which was a fantastic experience for me- professionally and personally), we were doubtless able to be more efficient in person than if we were handling it all over Skype and email. Deepu [Owner, TI Technologies] is a wonderful point of contact. He’s really personable, trustworthy, decent... and his English is very good. He speaks fluently, and has a lot of vocabulary; it’s very easy to exchange ideas. The team also have good English, especially the project managers.

What distinguishes TI Technologies from other providers?

Deepu was very keen to understand the business model- to constantly refer back to the bigger picture, and his team were always concerned with the quality of the data that the app would be capturing; essentially- they cared about my business… in a way that even I could lose sight of when immersed in the front end of the product!

They also take great pride in their work and their client experience. For example, I asked them if they could design an explainer video. Despite the lack of experience, (and they were transparent about this!) they put so much time and energy into it. The result was really not close to what I thought was going to work. When I told them it wasn’t working for me, they just scrapped it from the invoice. They had spent a phenomenal amount of time on it, but they wouldn’t dream of charging me for something that I wasn’t completely happy with. They will try anything and won’t charge me if they don’t get it right. It’s not fair of me to have asked them to do this task really, as it’s not in their skill set but they have such a lovely attitude to work and are really passionate about developing, improving and learning. The whole team literally worked all through the night to meet my deadline and adhere to the contract.

Is there anything TI Technologies could have improved or done differently?

I’d say the biggest disconnect was in design and perhaps in how up-to-date their approach to styling of UX is. I wouldn’t recommend using TI Technologies for full design, but they have a very nice team who can contribute on small changes. They could perhaps dedicate more time to researching and following current trends in European design aesthetic.

Do you have any recommendations for others considering working with TI Technologies?

They’re great developers. Sometimes you have to spend time explaining things which would be easier in person, with visual cues, and you need a bit more patience as a result, but if you want to use these great people, with all their talent, who live in a different culture, that’s what you’re going to have to do. So long as you have a very clear business model and set of designs, TI Technologies represent phenomenally good value for your business.