Brainvire

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a small chain of audiology clinics, as well as a startup marketing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

I was looking to build a website and application for my companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, I had them start by building a WordPress website for me. I wanted to see what it was like to work with them before moving forward with the app for my marketing company. I was so pleased with their work that I decided to move forward with the app development.

The website for my audiology clinic needed to be formatted in a way that would allow me to easily update content myself once completed, and it also needed to be aesthetically pleasing. It’s not a website with the purpose of direct sales, but more of an advertisement with informative content. It needed to be well organized, have a good flow, and be easily updateable with a few new features to make it look high tech.

I had Brainvire develop an online hearing test for me, which is really unique. From a development perspective, there was a heavy amount of communication between myself and the team I was working with. They had to understand what it meant to test someone’s hearing, understand my vernacular, and how this all correlates with the software’s functionality. I gave them a little bit of information, and then they worked it out. They have been really good at handling anything I ask them for, figuring it out, then coming back to me with a solution.

The app has a lot of requirements, some of which are proprietary, but it’s also very heavy on the administrative side. Brainvire had already done a website for the marketing company, as well as an administrative site which allows someone to log in from the website itself.

The administrative site manages accounts and groups of accounts, salespeople, everyone who uses the app, and people who are licensed with the app. It also gives me complete control and transparency over everything that is happening with the app at all times.

The app needed to be integrated with Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as be able to capture images and video and seamlessly upload them. The purpose of the marketing app is to drive user-generated content. It is a B2B, software-as-a-service type of company, just in an app-based form, which is easier for people to use.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

Someone who works for me had used them for an operating system, and he recommended them. After talking to Brainvire, it became very apparent that they were confident and could easily handle my workload. They also offered the best price by far, and in the beginning, I used them solely for that reason. I had checked out 3 other vendors at the time and received bids for the project from each, but Brainvire’s price was dramatically less expensive.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $17,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app and websites are finished, but they aren’t live yet because I’m fine tuning some things.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed excellently from a project management standpoint. They were extremely well organized, and typically waited on me to provide information before moving to the next step. I was the slow point in the whole process. My communication with them was via email and phone, and we would Skype about once a week. Right after our Skype chats, I would receive an email recapping everything we discussed in bullet-point format, including what things have been resolved, what they were going to work on, and what information I needed to provide them with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design of the website was excellent, and they executed accurately the first time. They had given me a couple choices, and one was absolutely perfect and matched my vision beautifully. Their ability to perceive needs that I’m going to have for my software before I'm even aware of them was fantastic. They look ahead and plan things for me even though I haven’t planned ahead for myself.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did great, and I have no complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My background is investment banking and merger and acquisition advisory. My company, The Value Compass, is a financial platform that I’m partnering with Brainvire to establish. It will be a useful tool for businesses to determine and grow in value, and to position themselves for a potential sale.

The impetus for this project came about when I was working on a deal in Hawaii for a client who wanted to sell his business. I came across a property that was in the family years ago. I bought it and got it back in the family. I was going to subdivide the land, but instead, I ended up protecting it with federal, state, and county programs that had never been used in Hawaii. I established the protected lands as a model to advance land conservation and sustainability in Hawaii. Over the course of 5 years, I got a development plan in place using conservation easements. After that, I built a business model around how to best show the property in ways that get people excited about land conservation, and sustainability. We have a 4-prong approach. We do about 125 events a year, including weddings, corporate retreats, fundraisers, and birthday parties. We do therapeutic and leadership-based horsemanship programs. We work with Wounded Warrior Project and the military has a big presence in Hawaii. We work with kids with autism and kids with terminal illness on the horsemanship side. We have a farming component, fruit tree farm, avocado orchard, and an aquaculture site. We have a native botanical garden area, and we team up with the land that’s adjacent, for forest restoration work. Collectively, we’re just trying to tell a great story.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We had a real basic website initially for this business. As we grew and became popular in Hawaii, we needed to revamp and restructure the whole website. I had a vision and needed help determining the needs of the platform as far as technology goes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I approached Brainvire to assist with our website. What carries our business is the event side. It’s content- and picture-driven. We developed the site in a way that appeals to brides and people that are interested in parties and things like that. The current structure of the website is a million times better than what it was initially. We continue to work on improving efficiencies and content and things like that. It’s an ongoing project in terms of maintenance and smaller-scale tasks like conversion rate and traffic reports.

We’re working on the next stage now—an integration with other financial software. That’s a key component to our ability to really develop and enhance this platform. That integration is going to be critical for us, because it will give us direction as we put out all the values that the platform is meant to provide. I’m looking to Brainvire to take care of that and some other backend tasks, which is going to be a big value add for our business.

This was on the backburner after we built out the core architecture. I went out to Mumbai and visited the team after we finished our first project, then we were on hold for a little bit while I looked for partners and additional financing to build out the platform.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with a team of 4 or 5 guys during the majority of the architecture development and buildout. There’s been some turnover on his team. It’s been several years now and one gentleman I worked with closely is no longer there. I have a new lead who seems really good. I’m still getting comfortable with his financial expertise and they’re bringing in some other guys too that have some good financial expertise.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I was researching developers and programmers to establish an architecture for what I had envisioned for this platform. I visited different platforms that had a core infrastructure of some of the things I was going to need. Brainvire popped up on a couple of those sites. I also spoke with someone who mentioned their name. I met with about 5 different developers, mainly in the U.S. I then connected with Chintan [CEO/President, Brainvire] and had some great calls via Skype with he and his team. I was most impressed by the development expertise and the financial expertise. A lot of the groups I met with locally, in mostly California, had great development and programming expertise, but the financial side was not as sophisticated as I needed. That was the primary reason why I decided to go with Brainvire, based on a few select individuals that I interviewed and got comfortable with.

How much have you invested with them?

About $60,000 for this platform.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been careful about who to share it with. I have one client that’s used it and has been happy with it. What we’ve discovered is that we want to steer it towards more of an enterprise-scale platform instead of a platform for the basic, individual consumer. Once we get through this next phase with the financial software integration, my goal is to test it with at least 6-12 clients.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

I was initially concerned about communication since our locations were on opposite sides of the planet, but there were no issues at all. However, I am a little concerned moving forward. As we get into the more complicated issues and finalizing things like integration, I want to make sure the team remains intact and the communication is good.

If we have really good traction with this and we get into various industries, we’ll probably need more of a local presence. That’s something that’s on my mind. As far as the initial buildout and architectural development, I was really pleased. There were no issues.

We had a regular schedule; communication was always good. Some members of the team communicate better than others; we have had to repeat ourselves sometimes. For the most part, the points of contact and the lead programmers were very good. I had hundreds of different PowerPoint slides and all sort of spreadsheets and things that we worked through together. Most of the communication was via Skype and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work ethic stands out most to me, and they’re proactive with communication. I set a timeline and I set different thresholds we had to hit to make sure I was comfortable moving forward. They hit all those, sometimes ahead of schedule and beyond my expectations. The question moving forward is just being able to consistently do that. So far, it’s been good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For both platforms, sometimes moving too quickly on something can work as a disadvantage. They could benefit from being a little more thoughtful about feedback and tasks, and really taking the time for quality control and reviewing before delivering the results to the client. Oftentimes, I receive something that I really shouldn’t have seen until it was reviewed by a higher level. It was nothing major, but there were little things that could have been dealt with internally, had the right eyes been on it.

Do you have any recommendations for someone who’s considering hiring them?

Get a thorough understanding of the members of the team that will be providing the services. Interview them, talk to them, and get a sense of availability and scheduling. You need to talk to the people who you will be working with daily and get comfortable with them.

Moving forward, as I think about things, I’m going to need a more local presence here because we need 24/7 support and face-to-face contact to really get into the depths of a buildout. For what I needed to date, it’s been perfect.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CSO [chief strategy officer] of a company that manufactures computer tables and desks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We wanted to mimic an existing platform that we’d built 10 years ago with an entirely different team. The goal was to make it as easy as possible for our sales and support teams to interact with customers, no matter where they came from and how they interacted with us. While we had multiple websites for different brands and product lines, we were using the same in-house sales and support teams. The challenge was to clearly identify where each customer came from so that we could respond accordingly and brand our message for each scenario. Unfortunately, our system was outdated and needed a massive upgrade.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brainvire integrated a custom CRM [customer relationship management] system with a new Magento 2 website; both were being developed simultaneously. They focused on the CRM since we had a different team for the website. Initially, Brainvire worked on the old system in order to become familiar with it. Since it used custom PHP code, they continued development in PHP for the new version. They based the new system on an open-source version of SugarCRM, which they modified heavily.

We gave them a fairly long list of requirements. For example, we asked them to rebuild the features that we were using and disregard the others. Since we had standard online leads, it was important to maintain our email lists and marketing. Our sales and support teams needed a simple way to respond via email, so Brainvire tweaked the system so that it sent messages from a specific brand email address instead of the generic parent company. They also included chat and rating functionality.

What is the team dynamic?

We work with Chintan [Shah], the owner of Brainvire, and Maharshi [Pancholi], our primary project manager. At any given time, there are at least 5 persons copied on our emails. If someone didn't reply within an hour or two, another member of the team would. They also communicate directly with the team who handles the Magento site. Aside from our in-house head of development, three to four people from our company are heavily involved in this project. It's a global team, and everybody communicates with each other for the most part.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I don't know where the original contact came from. Our CEO referred them to me, so they were in contact with our company before this project. They had a large portfolio that demonstrated the past work that they had done. They spoke intelligently and their price was right. After a few conversations with Chintan, I felt confident about hiring them. They felt like the best choice.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we've spent about $30,000 on their services, but it'll be around $50,000 by the time everything is done.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2017. Brainvire’s side of the project is very close to completion, with the CRM undergoing final testing at this point. I'm sure we'll find some bugs, so we’ll probably need to do some revisions. The Magento side is not yet finished, which has delayed the CRM side as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thus far, Brainvire succeeded at everything we've asked them to do. While there were some hiccups here and there, that’s normal in development. It's not yet live, so our sales team and support team are still using the old system. However, the new system has been tested by the people involved, and they would all agree with my feedback.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They do well in terms of project management. They stay on top of things. Any errors I've seen have been minor and fixed pretty quickly.

Overall, it’s easy to communicate with them since they are quick to respond. We use Slack and email a lot since I prefer communicating in writing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very cost-effective considering what we've asked them to do. They are very capable, and I trust them with our data. It’s nice that they are patient. They understand the technology, so they can quickly explain things when one of my staff needs help.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For the most part, I don't have any complaints. The only issue I’ve ever had is their accent, which makes it hard for me to understand them sometimes. I don't really blame them for that, but it's a challenge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company that develops mobile applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

Since I’m a novice in programming, we were looking for a third-party programmer for our work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an event-based photo sharing app that allows you to share photos with anyone who is at the same event you are, whether you know them or not. It has a lot of moving parts and I had used multiple third-party providers for this application. When I gave the project to Brainvire, I had the basic foundation established but needed to bring it over the line. However, I didn’t want to use the people I was using before mostly because of the cost.

Brainvire did everything from applying their expertise by writing the code and putting my ideas into a code format, to beta testing the application once the code was completed. They also helped me get the app out into the stores.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I had looked at a couple of different companies, but I got their name from a referral. After speaking with Chintan [Shah], the CEO, we established the relationship.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Brainvire in April 2017 and the project was completed in August of the same year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has been in stores for about three weeks. We’re currently in the marketing phase right now, but over the last three weeks, we’ve gotten about 160 downloads.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well and were in constant contact with me. As most of the operation is overseas, we had a lot of Skype calls, phone interaction, as well as emails back and forth.

We had two different statements of work that we focused on. The milestones for the first one were a little bit behind, but that was due to us constantly making changes and fine-tuning what we were asking them to do. There were also a couple of things that I thought were easier to do but turned out not to be so simple, which pushed things back a little bit as well.

Once we had the beta done, did some testing, and got some user feedback, we created another statement of work for some modifications to the app. They were right on time with it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything I asked them to do was done, and in that regard, I consider it all a success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really.

BACKGROUND

Please provide us with a brief description of your company.

We’re running an online platform that acts as a foreign language online tutor through personalized learning, teaching materials, and various content in different languages.

What is your role at the company?

I'm the manager of international business relationships and IT operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge that you were trying to address?

The primary business challenge was to automate the learning modules along with optimizing the website speed, ensuring the proper workflow of processes, and faultless user experience across the web platform. Ensuring technical and operational feasibility across all the modules made it more difficult to make a smooth flow and appealing UI. However, the team of proficient developers and analysts identified the challenges and did an excellent job overcoming them. They got to the core of our domain and understood our requirements well.

We’re targeting different language modules and thus, the customization was a challenge. The goal of the partnership was to frame our requirements that include 13 different modules of software within a specific time period. Two of the 13 modules were required immediately so that they could be used by users during initial testing phase.

What was your process for selecting Brainvire?

We’ve approached many companies along with Brainvire. They came up with a more detailed plan and solution compared to others. They went deep to analyze our requirements. We’re running multiple courses that have to be categorized and maintained within the specific language module.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their work?

Currently, we’re working with them for extending the website’s functionality by adding more language modules. They did a great job with the first two modules that we’d contracted for. We’re planning to add a few more into the site and we’re extending the contract with them accordingly.

They architected the whole system, developed our detailed workflows, and prepared documentation. They provided project management, issues management, template management, and integrated our site with third parties. They were always quick and responsive.

What is the size of the project financially?

The size of the project is quite big and it requires a complete customization as well. We've budgeted $50,000 - $100,000 in total. So far we’ve spent around $20,000.

What was the timeline of the project?

We’ve started a contract with Brainvire in December 2016 and it is still going on. The completed the initially contracted first two modules in August [2017].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are there any success stories or metrics you can share to indicate the success of the project?

We’re currently working with them and they’ve successfully completed two modules. We’re doing beta testing on our system and planning to automate more modules like this. They’ve always been there to solve the issues and to provide support. We’re expecting to continue working with them.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re always on time and available to us. The responsiveness is pretty good and they’re honest about timelines and cost. Also, one of the team members is always there to listen via email or Skype. It was such a nice experience with all of them and I don’t seem to remember a single instance where any of my queries remained unsolved. I would surely recommend the Brainvire team.

Is there anything that sets Brainvire apart compared to other partners you may have worked with?

There are a few areas where the Brainvire team really stands out in my mind as the best choice for us. From the very beginning, they demonstrated a strong understanding of the education-specific requirements for our project. They managed the entire project and gave timely delivery of what they created. They reported on time and it was great to work with them.

The best thing which sets them apart from others is they dedicated the time to create a detailed understanding of what needs to be framed and what the ultimate focus should be of their work. They figured out how to achieve it, what we want, and so on.

We were facing the communication issues because we're based in Taiwan. But, they have done an extremely good job by thoroughly analyzing what we need. They ask questions, understand the answers, and come up with solutions. That’s the best part of the Brainvire. Also, the responsiveness of the team always made me think about their dedication. Overall, they’re the best!

Is there any area that they could improve?

They can handle large-scale projects with efficiency and they have subject matter expertise. It would be beneficial to us if they had a Chinese speaking facilitator who could bridge the communication gap. They’re great in every solution they’re providing. I personally recommend the company to anyone else who is seeking quality outputs. They've been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a diamond manufacturer, and we sell high value, real diamonds. I'm the head of system operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We wanted to have a mobile application for our diamond manufacturing business. This app is a general dashboard with search and results related pages. This is a B2B app; it's password-protected for our existing users and clients. Most of the clients are businesses in India and abroad. We ship goods throughout the world. Clients use the app to confirm the goods available on our website or mobile application, and then to remit payment. This app lets a client submit purchase orders online, bid online, make the formal invoice online to submit to their bank, and then they remit the funds and we ship the goods. They’re able to see our goods online and they get updates automatically through the app. If a certain type of good they are looking for is available, they also get notified.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We found them on Google and we ran an analysis of 10 companies shortlisted. We contacted three to four to evaluate more closely. We asked for a few samples and documentation from each of the companies. We asked for their contact details and everything, and then we found Brainvire at the top of these three to four companies, and we decided to pick them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have requested for Brainvire to create most of the frontend for both the iOS and Android applications. Most of the frontend, UI, and other design assets were made by Brainvire. The web API and web services were made in-house. We have database developers internally to work on that.

What is the team dynamic?

I was the product manager in charge for this project, and I was coordinating with Brainvire’s team leader and project manager. On the systems side, I also coordinated with the systems developer from Brainvire. They also provided a QA team that provided input online. We had a team appointed to validate our DevOps work.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent approximately over $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in November 2016 and finished in June 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are users connected to the app around the clock. Overall, 2,000 users are active on our website, but at any particular point in time at least 15 to 20 people are active. That is a lot considering this is a B2B app only and we give very few clients credentials.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed fine with respect to project management; no issues at all.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are professional people and have a good number and depth of resources. While working with them, we saw that they provide good documentation. They write proper comments in their code, and design-wise their work is also satisfactory. Overall, they were fine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should improve their process for handling change requests. The rest is all fine, no issues at all. They are quite expensive compared to other available resources.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and IT manager of our marketing company. We give free advertisements and space where people can host local ads in a 24/7 kind of environment. We currently generate revenue based on that model.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were in need of IT related help with SEO, along with some development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Brainvire worked with us on a LAMP [Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP] project where we set up certain queries.

Following this, we had a larger LAMP project where we created a website which users could post, collect, edit, and monitor data themselves. We were most interested in data collection in the backend so we could oversee growth, and provide users with geographical data.

Afterwards, we gave Brainvire another project, also with LAMP, that involved Google and third party APIs. We didn’t completely rely on Google because we had our own algorithm to analyze and collect data.

What is the team dynamic?

There was a total of six people on the team, including a senior manager, one developer, one QA, a local QA, and another person involved with management. Two of their team members were senior level and had 6-7 years of experience. They brought in another person after one had resigned, and they managed to transfer knowledge quickly. It worked out well, and I’m happy for that.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We had done a very small pilot project in the past that lasted about 3 months. They performed well, so we decided to go back to them for a bigger project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2016, and they are currently wrapping up the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results have been good, and we currently have more than 10 million users. Hiring somebody local would have been difficult and time consuming, so we were pleased with their overall efforts in regards to what we were trying to achieve.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well, and they were constantly communicating and keeping us updated. They had a team working in a European time zone, so we were able to overlap our hours in the morning. We provided them with some project management tools because we had our own Browsix, which was used for encryptions and chatting. They also had their own tool which was integrated locally, so everything was fairly straightforward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was very impressed with their communication. I was afraid that working in different time zones would be difficult, but they put together a team to work around that issue. This allowed our team to communicate with them on a daily basis to go over stats and code. I was also impressed that that they brought us in to oversee their team’s process, and we plan on integrating that into our team here.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They do their code testing and uploads differently than we do, but we figured out how to transfer their code since we are doing all the integration with our team here. That was a bit of a challenge, but we worked it out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a food service distributor which means we buy products like Kellogg's fruit cereals or cereal bowls and we sell them in the school systems, hospitals, nursing homes, daycare centers, etc. We stock about 5,000 different products in our warehouses and deliver them by truck to customers.

I'm the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

Initially, we had some small, miscellaneous projects with our website to make it look better and more user-friendly.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

I went to a Magento conference in Las Vegas because our website is based on Magento. There were all kinds of vendors like Brainvire there. They reached out to us prior to solicit their services. I had never thought about outsourcing offshore but I agreed to meet.

I asked for U.S. based references because I was a little worried about language differences. They speak English but it's not quite our English. I noticed on their list of references they had a lot of clients in Utah for some reason so I called there first. One of the people I called in Utah told me I would be an idiot not to hire Brainvire. He said he had referred all his tech buddies in the Utah area and so that explained why they had so many Utah-based clients. That conversation made more comfortable with the idea that Brainvire knew what they were doing.

Meanwhile, I was having issues with our vendor in Seattle that was "our agency" handling our website issues. They were taking forever to get to our projects and then when they did finally get to them they weren't doing them correctly. I decided it wouldn't hurt to bring somebody else in to look at some of these issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Right now we're working on a pretty big project with them. I'm trying to add 10,000 new products to my website. They're going to my supplier's website, viewing each product, writing a description, finding images of the product, and turning all of the content for the 10,000 products over to us to review. We make corrections to their descriptions and then they upload those products onto our site. They quoted 60 days to write those descriptions and finished right on time. Our issue is we don't have enough employees in-house to review 10,000 products in a short period, but they've finished their part.

In addition to that project, they're doing a lot of smaller things. For instance, they completely revamped the way our banners work. We went from having four banners on our website to having the ability to run six banners and we can now manage the banners ourselves because they formatted in a way that is a lot easier than before. They wrote an app that allows us to just check boxes when we want to run banners and make changes. That was pretty cool.

I can't even think of the number of other projects they've done for us, but everything they've done for us has been really good and really quick.

How much have you invested with them?

We started ramping up work very slowly in April. To date, we've spent about $40,000 with them. They just proposed to take over our SEO work on a monthly basis and that's going to increase our spend significantly. We're spending $5,000 a month on SEO alone and I think that will soon go to Brainvire.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working together in April of this year. We'll likely spend well over $100,000 annually with Brainvire.

How have they performed from a project management standpoint?

They've been great for project management. I've met with them face to face 2 times since April because they are they typically have 1 to 2 of the people that I met originally here in the U.S. going to conferences or meeting with customers. They really make the effort for face to face meetings even though they're based in India. That's been amazing.

They assigned a team to us. We Skype on a weekly basis with 5 guys on their team. One of those 5 is available virtually 24 hours per day, ready to take on any requests we have. It's been a completely different experience than anything else we've ever had.

We work with a project manager named Bhavesh Surani. He is working on another project for us right now where we're trying to automate our systems into our supplier's systems so that when we receive internet orders, an order is automatically started on the supplier's website that we don't have to create manually. The supplier gets the order and then we receive a tracking number that integrates with our Magento admin system as product is automatically sent to the customer. In addition to cutting down on errors on our side, this will make orders so much simpler for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have roughly 11,000 products on the site currently so we're almost looking to double our number of products with Brainvire's help. Additionally, we've been going through quarterly price updates, which involves going to the supplier's site, downloading price sheets from the supplier, comparing it to our existing price sheet, and making updates on the site. We recently asked Brainvire to take this on from another vendor we've been using. The U.S. company will take 10 hours to do it and Brainvire will take that much time or less, and at a quarter of the price. As a result, we're able to take on more projects and do more things. 

The thing they do best is customer service. They've bent over backward for us. They're 8.5 hours and I can send them a message about something at 5 PM our time, thinking they will be back to us tomorrow - and I'll get an answer within 15 minutes. I just don't know how they do it. They're clearly focused only on the U.S. and trying to take care of us so I appreciate it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What's stunned me the most, was how quickly they can complete tasks. For instance, I told them, "Sales tax rate codes in Georgia have changed in 20 different counties, can you upload the new rates for us?" About an hour later it's done. The same request would take our Seattle or L.A. based vendors 30-60 days, or not get accomplished at all without making the same request again.

I had worked with vendors from Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle for several years leading up to Brainvire. I didn't feel like any of them were taking good care of us at the end today. Those companies had a lot of turnover and whenever we got someone good, they'd be gone two months later and then we struggled through the next two or three individuals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They're right on time, if not ahead of time, with any assignments. The only issues I've ever had with them is a result of English being their second language. Sometimes I think what we're trying to ask them to do and what they think we're asking them do are two different things. Those types of issues have been very small, though. When I bring it to their attention they always understand. So, I don't have any room to complain whatsoever about anything with these guys. They've been great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of an online marketplace that houses sellers spanning multiple product types for a common customer base. They’re all new products, but they range from seller-made products to reselling known brands. We have authors and people that make their own jewelry, as well as people selling IT equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We were having difficulty with our current developers when we approached Brainvire. The previous developers had built the basic structure of the site, but it became clear that the architecture wasn’t going to work well with loading a large number of products for an equally large seller base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a prototype for the idea of the marketplace. Brainvire provided a path to go forward by bridging the gap and fixing the previous developer’s issues. They redesigned the entire cloud architecture, and started making seller-based enhancements in order to accept large numbers of product uploads. They built some of the backend seller features, including the administration which makes it easier for users to manage products in their store.

The site is currently live and taking orders. We’re starting a second version with Brainvire which includes multiple upgrades for the site. We want to make enhancements to the bulk upload feature and bulk changes to product lists feature in order to optimize the seller experience. We also want to develop a standard API that we can use as a baseline for integrating manufactured products, which is a major task because we have to meet other API standards.

We’re getting really positive analytical data to direct our marketing attention.

What is the team dynamic?

We had only requested 1-2 people for the project originally, including a full-time developer and project manager. I’ve worked with 8-10 of their team members, and anytime something specific comes up, they don’t hesitate to bring in expert resources. Instead of just letting one of their developers figure something out, they save on time and cost by including their technical experts.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We had a common friend, and when he found out what we were doing with the marketplace, he recommended Brainvire. I work in the IT space and have worked with many companies that do development work. We looked into Brainvire’s past projects and talked to their past clients, then decided to engage with them from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spend around $75,000 so far, and we have $150,000 budgeted for the next round of development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since Brainvire came on board, we’ve gone from dozens of products to hundreds, and are actually approaching the thousands. We’ve also doubled the number of sellers, which is close to 200 now. I attribute this success to how well the backend works, which permits sellers to easily manage their stores, including products, shipping, and taxes. It’s very user friendly.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. We’ve used Pivotal Tracker, which is a Scrum based project management tool, to manage features and versions. Brainvire used it regularly, so we had no issues getting up to speed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done an excellent job of managing the expectations from a cost and performance perspective, including the addition of features and capabilities that wouldn’t be easily done. They provided a sort of feature map that shows what’s possible, then proceeded with the easier ones first. For the features we’ve decided to go forward with, the development time has moved quickly, from testing to live implementation. The entire process is managed very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They came in and had to work with somebody else’s platform, so there were some surprises along the way. They took a risk coming into a project like this, and managed it very well.

However, if they could explain the risks involved with coming into a project that’s under development, that would be a welcome improvement. We knew it was risky, but we didn’t realize the changes that would need to be made.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of Brainvire?

If there’s a mixture of technical features involved, do your research and make sure you understand what you want. This makes it easier when you’re figuring out price and timelines, because you know exactly what needs to be done and how long it will take.

A lot of people in IT get a proposal, and they understand the basis of it, but they don’t dig down into the feature sets and details. This can change a number of things in how the project pans out, and can also change the client’s expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a personal security emergency response business for the elderly. I am the general manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brainvire?

We needed Brainvire to build a mobile app to help engage our caregivers. It allows them to manage their account with us and gives insights into the activity that the system is performing for the elderly relative or older adult.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The only work they’ve done for us as of now is a standalone native iOS and Android app. The goal of the app was to bring some added value to our caregivers. We gave them carte blanche on design somewhat — we had some general branding guidelines and some very high-level flow diagrams, not wire diagrams.

It’s all API driven. They had to connect different APIs to a standalone database and then present that data in a very consumer-friendly UI that was intuitive. They focused a lot on cleaning up the APIs. The UX was important because we really try to live and die by having a really simple experience, whether it’s our call center, sales experience, or on our website. Getting that UX into an app was the first test for us. Brainvire took what we’ve done on the web and brought that into the app very nicely for us.

We engaged shortly after evaluating and documenting a statement of work. We worked on Android first. It was easy to get something out quickly and not have to go through all the roadblocks that come up when working on iOS. We got that done and then we could start testing it, giving feedback, and beginning to building up on marketing.

How did you come to work with Brainvire?

We met them at a Magento Imagine Conference 3-4 years ago and liked Chintan, the CEO. They had a lot of experience with Magento as well as across a range of software, which was compelling for us. We used that first engagement to try out the relationship and felt that they had good communication and good organization. They had a good understanding of what we were trying to accomplish.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2015 until June 2016. Currently, we’re evaluating other options to work with them further.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app isn’t on market because we had a shift in priorities—instead, it’s still waiting in the wings. We will bring it out, but we were trying to bring in other hardware and software solutions that would better complement it. 

Our director of sales and marketing was really impressed with the design and the UX they came up with, and he’s a real stickler for design. We were also really pleased with the interaction between the different screens and the menu system they came up with. We didn’t need to change it too much. The only issue was just the speed of the APIs, and we were reliant on that outside vendor to enhance that aspect.

How did Brainvire perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with them. There’s pretty good communication and status updates. You could tell they were really trying to learn our business and dive into what we were trying to accomplish. The statement of work was thorough. We used a project management tool that I can’t recall the name of.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From what we gave them and what we ended up with, they did a good job of taking our vision and bringing it into reality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some general challenges when you deal with any offshore vendor when it comes to communication. It’d be great to continue to challenge them to be more fluent in English.