Dev Technosys

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a new organization. We’re developing a new classified online portal - a system for clients. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

We needed them to develop the front and backend of this system. We interviewed quite a few developers. We had a business plan of what we needed the system to do and they fit the bill. They came off with a good strategy and timeline of getting things done. We awarded the contract to them to develop this e-commerce website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used AJAX and then MySQL for the database backend, and PHP as well. I’m not exactly sure of all the details that they used. Those three came up in the studies when they were giving us the background on what they’ll be using.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

We basically we posted a project description on Upwork. Through that system, we interviewed different providers. They were the ones that were able to meet the timelines that we wanted. They were the best to understand the specifications that we laid out and came up with a game plan for us. Pricing wise, they were pretty reasonable.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

The project cost was between $50,000 and $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing, we are in the testing phase. We’re pretty much towards the end. They’re doing testing, and the next phase is going to be for them to install it on our servers. Then it’s going to be handed over to us. I know they’ll be providing support for the first three months until we upload all the content and the rest.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As far as working with them, I found that communication was pretty good. They’re very responsive, so that was one good thing, and they met all the milestones and timelines that were set out. We’re still in the testing phase, I’ll know more when it’s up and running.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well. They assigned one guy in the beginning and he was our point of contact during the design process. Then it was handed off to another manager for development. There was always a person being in touch with us, and a second person from whichever phase the project was in. I have no complaints.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

Nothing really. I don’t have a benchmark to compare them to. This is not really our business. One positive thing that really stands out was their communication initiative as far as keeping on top of the project. They were hassling me for feedback and also testing and reviewing the progress. I never had to go after them and ask what was going on. They kept on top of me and got me engaged and involved. They also made sure I was part of the design and development process. I really liked that.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

Not really. I don’t have anything outstanding that would jump out at me as a business. That’s why we kept paying them. We never held back any money. They did what they promised they were going to do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm 20 years old, and I haven't even filed to become a business yet. ARPY is to help Call of Duty players interact with each other. I will be the owner. I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

I was having problems finding a local developer that was cheap enough, had good quality, and that was willing to listen to all the different wacky ideas I needed. I have a script editor in there, and people need to be able to put in an audio recording.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It's a mobile-optimized web page.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

I found them on Upwork. I looked at some of the previous work they did. I got on a call with the business analyst and talked to her over Skype. Just working with her, hearing her speak, and her sending us the spec – we were completely bought in.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

It was from $50,000 to $60,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I've shown it to a couple friends, and they like how it looks. The script editor, in particular, is a weird addition. I don't know if there's anything out there that exists, people think that's cool. I've gotten comments on their good English from the business analyst. I had people trying to download the app when I was giving a demo presentation. They really liked the way it looked.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

It's been good.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

I've spoken with a few other companies. What I've noticed is their English is good. They're flexible with calls. I can schedule a call for pretty much whenever, and they're available. They report back updates that they've made on the app pretty much every day. I think I get an email about every morning and every night. Their communication is great.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

The testing – I'm doing the testing myself, I've closed 300 bugs on my own. Sometimes, there are obvious little things that they should've caught.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My team and I are doing several different things in several areas. We try to both expand our knowledge in different areas but also use the knowledge we've gained in this industry to construct new industries. We're working on everything from real estate to fashion. It's a wide range of businesses. We used DevTechnosys for development on the tech side of it. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

We were looking for a development company that could take on a challenge that we haven't seen anyone do before. We tried to make a design for the fashion industry that included everything from user experience and the process for the customer and the website to quite a vast number of 3-D graphics in a user-friendly way. We have been working on this for quite a long time. We interviewed several development teams and individual developers. Many of them said they understood the task, and we've done tests with them to make sure they understood. When we see results, quite often the results are not as we expected. We were very happy when we found these guys. They had good input on issues. They could suggest the problems we are looking at. We don't have experience from the development side. We have business experience, but we're not as involved on the technical side. That's why we needed someone to do what we wanted to do but also give us comments on how we could improve our way of viewing the problem. They were the experts. We said we wanted someone who was an expert on this and someone interested in doing what we wanted to do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We're working with them on several tasks. It's an ongoing process. It's everything from web design of the landing page and user friendliness and layout and design of the web page but also back-end like customer management systems and all that and all the way to the 3-D graphical design. We found them to be very competitive and have managed well so far. They haven't done any mobile development, but I'm sure they will. If we're going to do this for mobile apps, then they are definitely the guys that are going to do it.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

We interviewed several different developers and firms. Many of them said they understood the task. When we tried to make sure they did understand, they were quite perplexed. Many of them showed they hadn't understood the task. With these guys, we realized that they actually understood the task in a much deeper level and weren't afraid of giving comments on suggestions on how it could've improved the procedure I was planning to do. I told them quite early that I want someone who's an expert in this because I'm not. I want them to be open-minded and tell me what they think about things. They definitely have done that, and that's quite a rare ability for many people in that part of the world.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

We are not done with a project fully. For sure, we will hire them for continuous things when this is growing. So far [as of October 2016], we've spent around $10,000. I'm anticipating it will be in the $10,000 to $50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project's ongoing. Now, they have a short break in the development process because we need to sort out things with producers. They've been responsive to my questions and requests. They've been very responsive and helpful when discussing how to proceed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is up and running, but the core of the business is not available for customers yet. We don't have any metrics from there. The only thing I could define is how I would grade service from them, which I'm very happy about. We feel these are the right guys to work for us for this kind of project and we're happy.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

It's been very good. We started with a sales manager working with us at the beginning of the project. We very rolled over to more project management people and their development team smoothly. They have been presenting the whole team for us as well as been very helpful in the discussion process. I'm not very familiar with development. I tell them I'm new to this area. They understood that and approached me in the tasks in a way that I could still be involved because I like to be involved and understand things.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

They weren't the cheapest option but they were the ones grasping the task, and they could describe it to me before they started. Not many people could do that that I interviewed before. I think they're unique to understand the tasks and actually give feedback to the person ordering the tasks and do what we tell them to do. They have helped me to improve the concept of what we're going to do. They definitely bring more value than I paid for.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

It could be aligning in the beginning what the project would include. I'm quite sure that was mostly on my side. I asked them several times to change the product description. My view on the concept has changed. They've been very flexible at doing that. That's a good thing rather than bad.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We do a variety of things within motorsports. Our involvement with Tarun is web development for two sites. We are producers of motorsports programming as well as an educational program where we furnish race cars and production services for a public school system in Florida. They teach kids math and science, engineering technology, even music and journalism as it would apply to motorsports. Tarun’s company takes care of our websites and updates.

I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

We hired them to do web development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we met them we already had a basic web presence. We were looking for a more efficient means of getting updates. We’ve been working with them for six or seven years.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

We connected with them through Elance. One of the things that we were looking for is somebody that we could communicate with via Skype. A lot of the providers would only want to do things via email. They’ve been really good with communication. We’ve had a good relationship with no hiccups.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

Initially, they did an overhaul of both sites as well as some reconfiguring to make it easier for them to work on the site. It was between $8,000 and $10,000 when they first took things over. Then there’s been ongoing fees. Over the years we’ve spent between $40,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing. We’re speaking with them now about totally rebuilding both sites starting with Gordon Motor Sports since it’s a little dated. We’re looking to have some ability to control edits on this end so we can keep it more up-to-date when we do events without having to send them instructions for an update with race results and that sort of thing – we want to do it right as it happens.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I know our clients as well as race fans and people that follow us all like the website. Racing websites in this country, other than some of the large-scale ones like Indy car and Nascar, typically are fairly basic. They really like the fact that they can go to our site and watch the kids racing. We’ve got around three years of races posted on the site. Relative to the racing venues’ website, we hear quite often that our site is much nicer than the actual racetracks that we run at.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

The only time it gets complicated is sometimes on edits when we try and do it by email. It’s easier to get on a Skype call and explain as we’re going down the pages of the edits. Sometimes, writing the instructions can be a little cumbersome. They are patient and they’re fast. Overall, we haven’t had any issues with the workflow. Sometimes it’s just easier to speak about things, and again, that was one of the criteria we were looking for, mainly because writing detailed instructions about the changes we want can take a lot of time on this end when we just want to say, “We want to move this over here and have the picture alongside with a small caption”.

They’re nine and a half hours ahead of us, and even though we may have to speak with them late at night, it pays off in that they can then quickly do the edit without any hiccups.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

We’ve dealt with some providers in the past that if you ask for something from a navigational standpoint, they make it out to be a real big deal. These guys can edit navigation and put up new pages really quickly on a fairly tight budget sometimes.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

The one area we’re working with them on is graphic and photo editing, where we’re trying to work on a new product for our racers where we key out the background and put a picture from a race event and turn it into a promotional piece for the drivers and the teams. Technically they have it down, we’re just trying to establish styles. Racing is a niche culture and what looks cool to us over here is likely quite different than what looks cool to people in other countries.

BACKGROUND

What is your position?

I am the Managing Director of Ciovita.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

They created a customization tool that allows the user to customize and buy T-shirts for your team with the team name and the team member as well. The tool allows the user to customize the T-shirt according to their needs. This was the business challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I allowed them to develop a website for me. They developed a customization tool using HTML5 and JavaScript.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

I posted my requirement and I communicated with the DevTechnosys team.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

It was around $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been running my business for the last few years and I feel like we have a good market value. It was already popular and I’m getting good traffic.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

If you want good development, then you should move to DevTechnosys. No one can meet any person’s expectations because it grows and grows, but DevTechnosys did very well and did work to my satisfaction. They were always there to prevent any kind of issue or bug. I’m very happy with them.

What did you find the most impressive about DevTechnosys?

I can say they completed my project on time. In the IT sector, only a few companies are able to deliver your project on the timeline. They always delivered the expected experience on time.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

DevTechnosys developed my tool using HTML5 and JavaScript. This is working very nice and for my user’s experience too.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have about three or four employees, and we thought we wanted to grow, so we wanted to use some sort of technology to make that happen. We were only selling in a brick-and-mortar storefront in New York. We wanted to grow, and we found DevTechnosys to help us with the technology side. I'm the founder of multiple companies we use DevTechnosys for, but primarily an electronics company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

Primarily, we were trying to build a way to manage our inventory and alongside that a custom e-commerce website – not using any sort of template or anything like that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had great contact with two of the employees [at Technosys], Tahreem [senior information technology business analyst] and Satyendra [Soni, chief technical officer], giving me updates. When they update me, it's their night, so I get the notification in the morning. Every morning for the past two months, I've been waking up to their updates, so they were very helpful. They did the PHP coding.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

It was through a freelancer website called Upwork. I've used them multiple times for other freelance graphic designers. I was first thinking of picking a company in the United States to help us with this, but I wanted to compare pricing to overseas. Tahreem was the first one to contact me. She just sent me a proposal explaining what they were going to do for me. It was very clear just to pick them.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

It is from $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We're working with them on a new project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We only implemented this a couple of weeks ago [September 2016]. I can tell you that our workload has been much less because of the technology. Many things that we had to do by hand we now have computerized. I'm sure my employees can attest to that fact.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

It was through an Upwork messenger. Every morning, I woke up to updates from either Tahreem or the tech manager.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

It is their customer service. If you send them an email, they respond right away.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

Not really. Their English was amazing. I was very surprised.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Social Innovations Partners does early stage incubation acceleration. This case is in reference to Parent Reading Coach, which is an education technology early literacy company/application that we were working on. I am the Chief Executive Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

We’ve done a lot of work in the education spectrum from kindergarten through 12th grade. Across the United States, especially in urban areas, you find that 50% of kids aren’t reading at grade level. This solution puts the tools into the hands of students and parents.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the coding.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

We’d worked with a different group before them, which didn’t work out. We posted it on Upwork and they were one of the groups that responded. We did a two-part interview process to understand who they were and what they could offer, after which we selected them.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

It between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It was completed last week. They’re doing more work on a per-hour basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We set milestones in terms of the different stages. When they completed the milestone the funds were released. I don’t have metrics. After they completed something, they would test it, I would test it, and if there were any issues, they would solve it. One of the reasons we picked them is due to their attention to the details of what the initial scope was. The other company didn’t take the time to understand in the beginning.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

Excellent. I’ve had some horrible experiences. From the original sale to the management of it, communication was the best I’ve seen. The response time was extraordinary. They’re great at staying on tasks and delivering on deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

They provided proactive communication and updates in the project.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

Not really. They scoped it out well and asked questions before the engagement was finalized. Because it was so well scoped out, things flowed very well. Any changes would have been things I should’ve done on my end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

It's a firm that offers computer service. We do computer repair and sell computers. We're also selling home web pages. We do web pages on our own, or we look for people who do it for us, and we resell it. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

When we do web pages on our own, we don't do very many features. It's just done for small businesses. What we wanted to have from DevTechnosys is a web page with many more features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

What we wanted from them was just the functionality of the web page. They gave us the code, and we wanted to do the design ourselves with our graphic designers. They did a root design because you have to have some placeholders, but they didn't make the real design like it will look in the end.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

I was looking on the Internet, and I found Upwork. I've tried several people on Upwork for this job, but some of them didn't seem to be qualified, and others didn't want to do the job when I described it in detail. I ended up with DevTechnosys.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed two weeks ago [September 2016]. We're testing it now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are happy with the work they did.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

We made a description of the functionality first, which took some time to define all of its needs, then they gave me a rough idea of cost and time. They started with a rough design first and then started with the functionality.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

There was one thing I liked very much, before they even started to work, was that they tried to design every need I had in great detail. I liked this because I know that if you are working on something and then you find some misunderstandings, it's much more work to redefine it or repair it.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

Sometimes, understanding each other wasn't easy because my mother language isn't English and their mother language is not English, either. It took some emails to find out what the other one wanted to say or ask.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sugar Lime is a digital marketing firm. Our company is situated in the UAE [United Arab Emirates], and we want to establish one more in Romania. We have had 15 plus team members in our team, and our core apps and websites have been for UAE and the global market.

I’m a Managing Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

The biggest issue was building our platform from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had three websites developed from scratch, and we wanted our websites to have a similar functionality to what our competitors’ websites have. We wanted our design to be very simple and more attractive, and also faster as compared to our competitors’ websites. We wanted from them solid website development and solid design, and we also wanted branding material from their end.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

When I began managing the company, they were already our complete development partners, so in this I do not have much of an idea. When I joined the company, my other team members suggested I work with them. Once I started to work with them, I found that they are very good.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

My project cost was $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed approximately at the end of May 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the beginning, they were a little bit slow, but within a couple of weeks, they were able to give us a few mobile variations and website design variations from which we needed to choose. All of their designs were very beautiful, and it was very hard to make a decision on which one we needed to choose. The initial color scheme and layout of the rest of website was designed nicely. We are making a good profit from our website.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

Their turnaround time has been quite fast. Their prognosis has met all of the timelines they set for themselves, and they have also been productive in identifying bugs and areas in which our platform could be improved from a business continuity sense. They have been attentive to detail and added suggestions for improvement. They are very responsive to design and development.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

Every part was executed as expected. We had no issue during the process. There will be some bugs, but we had a good result. They are still providing support to us. The personal attention that we have gotten from their project manager has been appreciated. Overall, we had a good experience with them.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

I think they are already doing a good job according to our and our clients’ expectations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're developing a crowdsourced social media platform for search and couponing. It's a live website and live iOS and Android apps. I am the director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DevTechnosys?

I hired another company for the website and had that all built out and launched. Then, I put out the bid for the Android and iOS applications and a little website clean up here and there. DevTechnosys won that bid.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I needed a complete custom iOS and Android app built from scratch, not based on anything that's existing out there. I told them to take the web application PHP, JSON, HTML5 stuff out of my website relational SQL [structured query language] database in the back-end and turn that into the Android and iOS apps.

How did you come to work with DevTechnosys?

When we started to launch this, we did it through what is now Upwork and read through their profile along with the competition. The decision came down to previous work demonstrated and price.

How much have you invested with DevTechnosys?

It was from $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I am still working with them [as of September 2016]. Although the apps are published and in my inbox and in final state, they're keeping in touch with me.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the challenges of my app that they were able to overcome is understand that I have a database that has 300 categories, 1,000 subcategories, and multiple thousands of items, which are brands like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, every food and restaurant, every sports team – anything that's a commercial product in my database. They developed a very unique app to scroll through all that data very quickly in an iOS and Android format so that it's not drop-down boxes. It's not the traditional way that you would view that data. I did it with a sliding interface. You slide through the first categories, and you slide through the second categories, and you slide through the options and find what you want quickly in alphabetical order, which I think makes the app more fun and more user-friendly. They developed that just based on me asking them to do something cool.

How did DevTechnosys perform from a project management standpoint?

They are hyper-communicative. There were times where I was the slow-going end of the deal because they would publish a version or questions, and I would get back to them as timely as possible, and then they'd do it again. I guess I would call it DevOps-like mentality on their part – continuous feedback and process improvement. The project manager was always very over-communicative.

What did you find most impressive about DevTechnosys?

I felt their flexibility and hours was better than other companies I've worked with overseas. They were willing to work with me during United States 9-to-5 hours. They were willing to work with me late at night and were always flexible in scheduling. Other differentiators might be access to engineering resources. It just seemed like I never had to wait. It seemed like my project was always a priority for them, or they had resources ready for it whenever I needed them.

Are there any areas DevTechnosys could improve?

I don't think so compared to their peers. If anything, their English skills and translating are what I would say. It seemed like maybe English was not their first language, so I'd have to correct things on that. I think that's very typical, so I wouldn't ding them on that by any means, but it's just something that I noticed.