Brainvire Infotech Inc

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of Indian operations for an Australian company that mainly provides healthcare technology solutions in Australia, New Zealand, India, and the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire Infotech?

We hired Brainvire to build an iOS version of our Android app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire Infotech recently developed an iOS app with the latest architecture for our online portal, Manage My Health. Our own team had developed an Android version of the portal, but we don't have internal resources for iOS, so we outsourced to Brainvire. Our product is a self-service app for patients where they can schedule appointments and review and upload electronic medical records.

How did you come to work with Brainvire Infotech?

My CTO and development team in India coordinated with Brainvire on the required specifications for the project.

How much have you invested with Brainvire Infotech?

I think we’ve invested about $20,000 with Brainvire.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started working together about eight months ago, and the project completed in December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Brainvire Infotech perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire has a lot of good technical guys as far as the iOS apps are concerned, and they are good at working on specifications that are clearly articulated. Unfortunately, my team is currently having trouble getting the basics from Brainvire. I also think they have grown too rapidly, and the quality of their senior members has been reduced. It seems like communication is becoming a challenge between the senior and junior members of their team. To communicate about the project, we use our own internal portal and Asana for task tracking. We also are normally Microsoft partners.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire Infotech?

I found Brainvire’s value to be their most impressive quality.

Are there any areas Brainvire Infotech could improve?

There was no value added to this particular project, whereas on past projects they have made suggestions and added quite a lot of value. I think Brainvire is growing too fast, and it’s diluting their creativity. They are becoming a kind of code factory rather than an innovative lab.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Brainvire Infotech?

Make sure you have clear specifications going into your project with Brainvire.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're an advertising company and e-commerce website providing services for local merchants and vendors. Our front-end piece involved selling products to online customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We decided to make some modifications and upgrades to our old website. Website development has been a thorn in my side ever since I started the company 3 and a half years ago. I've worked with many different web developers and it seemed that I never got what I was promised. It was always tough being able to hold people accountable when working with outside agencies. I was taken advantage of several times through changing estimates and work not being done.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire built a custom website from scratch. It has an e-commerce front-end that is similar to many other companies. In terms of the backend, I wanted the ability to control as much as I could without having to hire a provider. Brainvire's platform allowed us to control 90% of our content.

A key difference for our site is that we track how our customers find us. We had a hierarchic database built-in. Customers are generally referred by others, so we look at the accounts that generated those referrals, going multiple levels down. We have a royalties structure by which customers are paid based on the people they refer. That is tracked several levels down as well. A part of this commission goes to our vendors and a part of it goes to our own company. We can pay up to 5 people for individual purchases, so there are many technicalities involved.

Brainvire used the Magento platform for our site but the rest of it is custom PHP. Its original construction required around 4,000 man-hours. I maintain 2 full-time resources from Brainvire for continued website maintenance and development. We also have 1 part-time SEO person. 

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Brainvire was recommended by a friend who'd worked with them in the past and thought that they were a good company. The reason I hadn't worked with a non-US company before was a fear of scams. I didn't want to wire-transfer money to an account in a different country and have no recourse. Brainvire had a business presence and license in the US, outside of Chicago. Their owner also makes regular trips to Utah, my home state. We were able to have a conversation in person, look at their referrals, and sign a contract with a US-based company. This made it a lot more comfortable.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire's services has been between $100,000 and $200,000 for the initial build. Maintenance has a cost of $7,500 per month. By comparison, some US companies quoted us 3 times as much for the same work.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Brainvire in December 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don't have any specific numbers to share yet. We have been beta-testing the site for the last 6 months, making sure that it's working properly and getting feedback for the improvements and changes needed before going to a larger scale. We've realized that we need some additional tools, so it's an ongoing process.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire uses the Atlassian suite. I am able to create tasks for the team through it and have updated statuses for anything being worked on. We can post attachments, screenshots, and other material on it. It's been a good system, allowing us to work on an additional 135 tasks since the completion of the website.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

I have access to my resources from Brainvire and they have an excellent response time. Other developers I've used in the past acted as if they could get to me when they wanted to, as if they were doing me a favor by responding to an email. Brainvire's team immediately addresses my concerns. Any miscommunication was fully assumed and fixed right away. As far as getting the job done, Brainvire has been fantastic.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

I would appreciate having a better understanding of exactly what my monthly bill entails. Brainvire does give me weekly updates of what tasks were worked on, but, not having a tech background myself, I don't have a clear understanding of their reports. Otherwise, Brainvire has been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bragshare is a social media company offering a platform akin to Facebook but focused on a more meaningful product, which offers more discovery, beyond users' social networks. We allow people to bring in information about themselves and their past ancestral data, putting it on a unique timeline. I am the president of the company, and I'm also in charge of all technologies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

The company is composed of myself and my business partner, who is not a technologist. We needed help to develop our platform.

We wanted to create a scalable and unique social platform. We initially engaged a company in the Philippines for creating a timeline, but soon figured out that that wouldn't be enough.

The challenge was creating a more significant social media experience, elevating it and bringing it to the public.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire has created our entire platform. We started out with some basic ideas, working with Brainvire's team on creating our requirements document, and getting a feeling of what we should expect regarding design and launch the product. Given that I run 2 businesses, Brainvire's help was essential.

Brainvire took our ideas and came back with an incredibly digestible and rich set of requirements documents which helped us know that they knew what our vision was. We also needed to consider the technical and scalability requirements.

Brainvire chose the Symphony platform, which is a robust solution for enterprise levels. It would satisfy our needs for future growth.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I had worked with Brainvire for another company, where they were the technology provider. I got to know Brainvire's principal and their team. When I got the opportunity to spend my money on a project, Brainvire was the company I chose.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

The cost of Brainvire's services has been around $80,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire around 2 years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Brainvire managed due-dates very well and had a good understanding of our scope. Even with scope creepage, Brainvire was consistent at hitting our milestones.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

Brainvire used Jira, which is the gold standard in the industry. One point of frustration, especially for my business partner, is that, after getting our documents, Brainvire went dark for a while. This told me that they were developing what was supposed to be done. After the first iteration, Brainvire got to a standard Agile approach, with sprints every 1-2 weeks.

The advantage and disadvantage of working with a company in India is that they're awake when you're asleep, and vice versa. We had late-night calls, and would wake up to completed changes.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

I have worked on some large software projects. Brainvire was excellent at setting expectations, not only for the team but also for clients. They made sure that we were satisfied with what was launched.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

Scope creep and cost expectations could have been managed better, but we didn't experience any major budget changes. Whenever it did happen, Brainvire was equitable in managing it, even removing some items.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our organization is a 10-year-old company that was born as an ISP [internet service provider] but has branched out into IPTV [internet protocol television] and mobile phone and accessory store services for the US military overseas.

I am the chief information officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire Infotech?

We are developing some custom systems for selling our service and bundling packages across multiple systems, and we also have a few other new services as part of the mobile business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They set up our backend server to handle the point-of-sale system and our e-commerce site for instore pickups for the customer. They’ve completely developed our portal that sells our ISP and IPTV services to customers as well developed our TopUp server. Almost all the code has been in PHP per our request. The POS [point of sale] system is based on a Magento platform that they were able to customize for us. They’ve also done Symphony framework which was per my lead developer’s request. We have a Scrum manager that’s managing Brainvire’s team. Our mobile store needed to find a POS system that would work with all the countries we were in. Brainvire took a base Magento system and did the customizations we needed to get online within 6 weeks.

How did you come to work with Brainvire Infotech?

When the need came up for development, we tried to hire a couple of developers but the workload became too big. We were tasked by the chief executive officer to find an offshore company that was good. The lead Scrum master and I interviewed 40 different firms from India and even went to India to see some of their offices. We chose Brainvire because of price and size.

How much have you invested with Brainvire Infotech?

We’ve spent around $350,000 per year with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Brainvire almost two years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The portal system has been launched for a year and we’re still making changes.

How did Brainvire Infotech perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very responsive and delivered what we asked for. We had a couple of resources we needed to change because of lack of performance, and Brainvire responded immediately to that.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire Infotech?

There have been times that we’ve had problems, and even though they had already completed 40 hours that week, they worked on the weekend and didn’t bill us for that time. They’re very responsive and value our relationship.

Are there any areas Brainvire Infotech could improve?

In the beginning, the invoicing could have been clearer, but they’ve corrected that problem. Because we had several projects, we wanted to know how much we were spending on each project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a marketing company. We drive traffic to a bunch of different advertisers' sites, helping them acquire more customers and sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We had Brainvire help with different websites we needed to be made. We also started selling our products, so we had to make some sites for that. We also had them help us with pre-sell pages to help pre-sell people before they land on a certain advertiser’s websites and making some software for us which we use in the background to help us with marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the initial project, they were making a product for us to help clean people’s personal computers. They had to have a lot of coding language just to be able to create that and get it accepted by Microsoft as a viable program and not a malicious program.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We did a lot of research looking for a company to build some software and ended up finding them that way. It was basically dumb luck. I kept searching and searching for someone who might be able to help me out the project, and they were responsive when I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

Roughly around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

From December 2014 to July 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have had quite a bit of success. They made us a skin cream site where we sell skin cream. They also made us another software that helped us to validate our data better. People would give us their name and email, and with the software, we can tell from their first name if they’re male or female. It helps us better target them with advertising. That was a great success.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good as far as coming up with initial plans. They were very good about keeping their schedules as far as what we had laid out, and the completion of certain milestones that we needed to be completed. In the project management part, they had one person that I talked to who was able to answer all of my questions to help the project go along smoothly.

We did have a couple of hiccups going through, but they were always very quick to make sure I was satisfied as far as having the product work as I wanted it to.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

They’re very good at communicating and making sure you’re satisfied with their service and work.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

Being available at certain times throughout the day could be better. There was a huge time difference between here and where they are. That would be my only complaint.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

ProMonetize is a data monetization company. More specifically we help companies generate more revenue primarily from their email list, but we also generate leads for companies as well mainly through email and media buying. I am the CEO [chief executive officer] and owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

They have helped us with multiple projects. Initially, they built a lead and data management software for us, but we have also used them for website creation and some advanced integration with some of our different APIs [application programming interface] that we work in with our clients. We’ve worked with them on several different projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial software that they developed was collecting data. People would come to our website, they would download our product, and basically that product was a speeding up your computer type of product. Essentially, they built that entire software. We then sold ads, that clients agreed to see occasionally if they didn’t do the paid version of the software. That was the first project that we used them for. That’s not in our main wheelhouse, but it was a project we got to partner with because of the data monetization side, which is what our business does.

The next project that we have done with them was they built out one of our websites that was a site that generates leads for financial service companies like insurance and mortgages. We had to do some advanced integrations with these companies. This was done so when somebody enters their information onto our site, that information gets passed in real time to the financial institution, and there was a bidding process that they would bid on. The highest bidder would get that lead essentially, and there were some advanced integrations that they had to do to make that work.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

It basically was a referral. One of my clients who we partnered on a project with was using them for one of his projects. We were doing a project together, which was the lead and data management software, and he had used them. He had done some research on some of the companies they had worked with before and that we were familiar with, so that’s how we ended up working together.

How much have you invested with Brainvire?

We have spent between $80,000 to $100,000. Their cost initially was a bit higher than we were expecting, but after we had crunched the numbers and the potential revenue, we made it work.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in 2014, and our relationship is ongoing. For the most part, we work with Brainvire on a monthly basis for maintenance at this point.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We make tens of thousands of dollars a month with one of the sites that they built and manage. We market it, but as far as the development of it, the integration of it, and the automation of it, that was their success. We had a tight deadline that I was trying to meet for it, and they were able to meet it without a problem.

We have another project that they’ve helped us build out, and that’s going to be another big revenue generator for us over the next 6 to 12 months. In the end, they are the ones who have helped get that off the ground. They’ve done really well from a customer service standpoint and a fulfillment standpoint. We’ve been very happy with them.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They have done very well. The CEO of the company, Chintan, has literally flown across the world to meet with me when I was on a business trip just because we had done business with him. He goes out of his way to make sure that we’re happy. We’re taken care of. The project management team is on top of what they need to do, so it’s been very good. If there were any issues, they were on top of it, and we’ve had success with utilizing them.

What did you find most impressive about Brainvire?

I would say the technical stuff; they do really well. As far as the integrations, making those updates, the software creation, things that I didn’t even know were possible, they were able to do. That’s their strength. Technical-wise, which is the main thing for us, integrating and making sure everything’s tracking properly, they’ve been fantastic on that side of it.

Are there any areas Brainvire could improve?

From a design standpoint, that’s not their core competency. When we’ve had sites developed, we will bring on a designer. They would make the mockups in Photoshop, and then we would tell them to make it look like that. It’s not that they can’t do it, but if I was saying here’s what we need and I don’t give them any actual physical images and things like that, it’s not going to be a mind-blowing design, but it’s not terrible at the same time. It’s more functional than a wow type of thing. A lot of our sites don’t need that, but when we do need that, we will bring on a designer, and we can give them creative licensing because that’s their bread and butter; they’re creative more than technical. From our experience, Brainvire is much more technical than they are creative.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company and your role?

We’re an investment company that focuses on financial transactions for large institutions. We provide financial services and investment products for clients. My role with the company is to handle all technology needs related to our core competencies. We’re involving a lot more technology than most traditional firms in this field. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were trying to address?

The challenge was to build, launch, and maintain a product that we can use to introduce our investment products to our customers as well as update information about those investment products over time.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of the project?

The project involves architecture, design, and development of software using a PHP framework called Symfony. The experience has been great. They also host and manage a staging environment where we do integration testing. They’re also responsible for all functional units and integration testing of the software development.

Brainvire Infotech manages the entire life cycle. I function in the role of the release manager. I am responsible for taking anything that they have and pushing it out to production. They are also responsible for administration and operations of my IT [information technology] environment for this particular application.

How did you select Brainvire Infotech as your solution partner?

I knew I wanted to use Symfony and PHP. I went through a number of various different forums and communities. I have a lot of experience with vendor selection. I found Brainvire through those means and compared them against four or five competitors around their processes, how do they do development, and services offered. I was looking for a one-stop shop covering everything that I described.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms or work-hour figure?

I have between one and three resources working for me at any given time. That’s about $35,000 to $40,000 per year.

Is this ongoing or are there any plans to stop the engagement?

I don’t have any plans to stop.

How long have you worked with them?

Around 13 or 14 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

We have launched our product and we have won substantial business. The amount of investment that’s under management has grown substantially, I would say the amount has doubled since we’ve launched this product. It’s been very positive. Brainvire is one critical piece of our success. In part, they’ve enabled us with the technology and with the product, but our company executed it. We asked them to build something and they built it and, as a result of them giving us what we wanted, we’ve been successful.

How well do you think Brainvire Infotech performed overall?

Overall, it’s been positive. I haven’t second-guessed my decision. We’ve gone through a couple of different team members so far, primarily because people grow in their career and they get promoted, so new people get added to the project. Transitions were a little rocky to begin with. But, it worked itself out. I thought it was handled well when I brought up issues. Resolutions to those issues are pretty good and I can escalate all the way to the CEO. The CEO travels quite a bit. When he comes to the U.S., he’s always willing to do meetings on a quarterly basis, just check the status.

In terms of what else I might need going forward, it seems like they would be able to address my needs If I need to add several developers overnight, they have a bench of people that they can offer clients.

When working with Brainvire Infotech, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve used?

It’s hard to say what’s unique about them given that I’ve seen so much, and I’ve seen everything that they have elsewhere. Maybe the unique piece is that they have it all together.

Responsiveness, chain of command, tasks, and tracking software for the sprints and the organization of all the tasks that I give them is in place. All of these important elements are built into their process, they just expose an application to me to populate for them so they can do their planning and execute. Having all of that together and having a pretty solid process around how to communicate, how they engage, and how they deliver is very useful.

In retrospect, are there areas that you think they could improve on or that you would do differently?

We should have added more requirements up front. A lot of what they built is exactly what we asked for. We asked for something quick, we wanted to go to market fast. I wanted to be set up well, but automated test leads weren’t our primary focus when we first started.

Three months ago, we embarked on a project to add some automated test cases and user tests to make sure the system doesn’t have bugs. That’s something that nobody wants to do in the initial phase. Now, we’re feeling the pain of that, so I probably would have changed that process.

BACKGROUND

[The client runs an import and export business that relies heavily on technology. Brainvire Infotech has been working with the client for the past five years developing systems to improve the client's business.] 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What's the main goal when you engage with Brainvire Infotech?

Well, usually what I do is I start with an idea, and then I submit a request. Something like, “I've got this new platform I'd like to build,” or “I have a client that contacts me and would like to build a platform.” So, I'll engage Brainvire then, and we'll define the project, do a scope of work document, make sure that's all lined out, and then we'll do some visualization with the graphics department, which is the best I've ever seen in India as far as visualizing what the site needs to look and feel like. Then, we  put together a contract on each individual platform and go to town.

SOLUTION

What technologies do they develop in for you?

Apple and Android; then, on the website, everything's been customized. PHP from the ground up. Then, they've done Microsoft projects. I haven't run into anything that they couldn't do, but I haven't asked them to do anything outside of that.

Are you satisfied with all the work they've done?

Yes. I love them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Is there anything that you find to be unique or special compared to other developers or consultants that you've worked with?

Yes. I used to have my own in-house chief technology officer about engineers that worked for me. But, the thing that I've found about Brainvire is that each time I do a project, I get a project manager. That project manager is my single point of contact, and he speaks great English. He's always available for me on Skype whenever I need him. My hours are their hours. There was a project we worked on called Touch Bike. It was a PayPal system that we built. There were a couple of times when we were doing a shared server and the server had gone down. We couldn't access the demo, and I remember calling Brainvire in the middle of the night saying, ”We've got to get this up in 10 minutes. I'm sitting here in the boardroom, and these guys can't see the demo.” Sure enough, in 10 minutes, it was up and running. You just don't see that anywhere else.

That is pretty impressive.

Then, he pulls the guys out of bed. They work on holidays if they have to. I’m a difficult guy to work for, too, so it says something that they're still with me because if they tick me off, I would have fired them a long time ago.

Is there anything that you think they can improve upon?

I don't have any complaints right now because I don't sit back and look at where things may be improved on because we're just always going. I don't see any areas where they can improve. I think they're always improving. They probably sit back and analyze conversations and other stuff but from my end. I mean, they do everything I ask them to do and, if they can't figure it out, they'll fly a guy here to sit with me for a week. So, that’s something that I really appreciate.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Manager of TentandTable.com, LLC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell commercial grade party and event rental supplies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Brainvire Infotech Inc to accomplish?

• SEO

SOLUTION

How did you find Brainvire Infotech Inc?

Referral

Why did you select Brainvire Infotech Inc over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Brainvire Infotech Inc were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Ongoing technical SEO
• SEO content

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Organic Site Traffic
• SERP
• Conversion Rate
• Page Views

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

• Items are delivered on time. 
• Brainvire team is highly responsive through Jira and during weekly conference calls. 

What was your primary form of communication with Brainvire Infotech Inc?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The service we receive from Brainvire Infotech Inc is quick and accurate. They help us "connect the dots" with our dev team (also Brainvire.)

Are there any areas for improvement or something Brainvire Infotech Inc could have done differently?

Nothing major to improve from an SEO perspective

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of Center Target Firearms

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a firearm and accessories retailer brick and mortar and ecommerce. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Brainvire Infotech Inc to accomplish?

• Increase our web traffic

SOLUTION

How did you find Brainvire Infotech Inc?

Trade Show

Why did you select Brainvire Infotech Inc over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Brainvire Infotech Inc were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Our company was essentially starting at ground zero as far as SEO. Web traffic is the focus of our project. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We only have 2 months of data but are seeing great progress so far. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team is on their game. They work hard, are friendly and professional, and meet everything they say they will do.

What was your primary form of communication with Brainvire Infotech Inc?

Email or Messaging App

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

They have great attention to detail. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Brainvire Infotech Inc could have done differently?

I cannot think of any areas of improvement that I could suggest at this time.