Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called JJS Technical Services, and we are a distributor of industrial instruments’ protection monitors. Our products are used for personal protection in places like oil refineries and chemical manufacturing plants, or anywhere that dangerous gases could be present.

What challenge were you trying to address with Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.?

Our main challenge was that we had a Yahoo store, which uses a proprietary programming language called RTML. Finding developers for that platform was challenging, and we had a few other developers prior to Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. that weren’t able to deliver good results, so we were looking for alternative providers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a lot of programming on our site, customizing it pretty heavily and putting in features we wanted on the site that were more difficult to program on Yahoo's platform than they would be in other places. They were able to revamp things there, and they also created some new e-commerce websites from scratch for us as well.

I've found that they have a pretty wide-ranging skillset and we were also able to have them do some SEO and customized backend programming, as well as implement a CRM system on a server for us. They used everything from PHP and HTML to some Magento, Java, and JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

We usually work with the same two people. My guess would be that they probably have more people working on it in the background, but my points of contact are always one of two project managers with them.

How did you come to work with Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.?

I found them on E-Lance, which is now UpWork. I’ve used their site over the years, so that was my natural place to look for someone after the programmers that we’ve had here in the US. I looked at a number of profiles for developers and programmers that were familiar with the RTML Yahoo store platform and it seemed that Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. was just the best fit for our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we’ve spent about $70,000 with them in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from November 2012­–December 2018.

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

After we did the redesign on the website, we increased our revenue by about 35%, which was a dramatic improvement. Every time they’ve launched improvements, we see an increase in sales.

The other thing, too, is that because Yahoo’s platform has a fairly basic site search functionality, we had to implement a third-party site search there as well. After that, we probably saw another 33% or so increase in revenue. Between just those two it’s been a major impact, not to mention all the little things adding up over the years as well.

How did Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. perform from a project management standpoint?

We used fairly standard communication channels with them, through UpWork or whatever platform we’re on, but the project management has been absolutely excellent. It was a night and day difference between them and the company we had in the US. As soon as we started working with Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. their response to bugs or other issues would be to get them fixed within a day or two, and often even within a few hours. They’ll also frequently recommend things that are quite helpful and that we do eventually implement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The number one thing I like about them is that they’ve never left me hanging. They do exactly what they say they are going to in the time that they said they were going to do it. If anything ever goes wrong, there’s a sort of bond there that they will prioritize fixing it right away, and that differentiates them from a lot of other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have a really good system down, and my philosophy is that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would suggest that any of their customers take advantage of their wide-ranging skillset in order to get as much out of the collaboration as possible.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hitch Metal designs and fabricates custom and personalized hitch accessories for the automotive accessories market. We build products from raw materials to final production and currently distribute directly to the end-user. I am the CEO and General Manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire Allin Info Systems Pvt. Ltd.?

Hitch Metal hired Allin to design, build and manage our web and e-commerce presence from the ground up. There was no existing presence or model to build upon or reference. Our business was growing as they were building our platform and it required fluidity and foresight to keep development parallel and ahead of what was happening in our business. They customized the e-commerce site with myriad changes to be scalable and modular for future growth. Allin was rock solid in their delivery.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a powerful e-commerce site with integrations to all the external logistical, financial, and secure connections. We needed a customized product design page for users wanting to personalize the product to their vehicle and personal taste. Real-time information for customer service, orders, sales management, customer relations and reporting were and are critical. Allin built this site with Magento 2 hosted on AWS. This project is forecast to drive 80% of sales for the first 12–18 months.

How did you select this vendor?

We looked at three vendors in the web/e-commerce space to build our web platform. The other two vendors understood e-commerce but had trouble with pricing and understanding that we couldn't provide a static project diagram with all the required information up-front. The target was going to move around a bit until we were able to see it develop bit by bit (pun not intended).

We have previous web development experience with Allin and know the type of projects they are capable of producing. The level of communication and understanding how it needed to develop and work was kind of built-in. For the most part, I made the final decision fairly quickly once we received final information from all three vendors.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Develop and provide a comprehensive web/e-commerce platform from the ground up. Allin sent a Web Questionnaire for us to complete prior to project development. We provided detailed project direction and content to begin the project. Allin was responsible for and developed all facets of design, functionality, implementation, and completion of a comprehensive web/e-commerce platform. Once complete, we agreed they would also manage our SEO services too. 

What was the team composition?

Allin had a team of developers/technologists working on our project from the start. The team members had from 1–3 specialties depending on what was needed for the project - Design, database, e-commerce, research, hosting / web services and SEO experts. We mostly interacted with their project manager who was well versed and knowledgeable in all areas.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We're still early in its existence, so there are no real metrics, analytics or KPI information we can lean on at this time. However, we are seeing very positive results at this point. We are pleased with where we are relative to our content development and management goals we engaged with Allin for from the start.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Allin is located in New Dehli. Hitch Metal is located in California. For the most part we used Skype for Business and email to conduct our business. The time difference is a slight adjustment and I can say, when a response was needed to a question(s), Allin was on point with the response(s).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Even with the time difference, Allin was proactive, responsive, and available with information and development needed. We could discuss or send information for review and/or action with assurance the information would be addressed within a timely manner. If we requested work on an item that was outside the scope of work, and Allin could make it work without unbalancing the flow of development, we would usually see this work accomplished in step and within project parameters. This was impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If there is an area for improvement, it is written information. Sometimes the translation comes out differently than we would write it—a difference in language. However, impact is minimal as we provide the content needed for web and customer-facing platforms.