Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Saint Gobain India Private Limited is a leading glass manufacturing company in India. We make various types of glass for Facades, interiors, etc. I work in the facade glass business, supporting architects, consultants, and developers with glass selection.

My designation is Design Manager, and I lead the technical team at Saint Gobain, supporting customers in terms of glass selection.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd?

We have a customer tool for visualizing our products on their buildings, called GPL. It involves the usage of multiple images and product properties. We were looking for an interactive mode to use renders in order to present our product solutions to customers. The software is basically a visualization and presentation tool for our key account managers to communicate the aesthetic intent of our façade glass products. 

We were in need of a solution for simplifying our internal process. We used to send emails with large files, which were followed by presentations. Instead of that, we wanted to have an interactive app that could show how different products would look on a building.

Our backend technology for developing images was already there. Hakuna Matata helped us create an interactive interface to display those images along with product properties and benefits.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hakuna Matata developed the interface using Electron and AngularJS. The output included a web application, which is an internal tool restricted to our sales and key account management. Hakuna Matata also developed an iOS application that allows users to compare two images by sliding left and right. It also has a filter for picking products. It’s basically an e-catalog that is more interactive and easy to use.

What is the team composition?

I had a main point of contact at Hakuna Matata, who gathered my requirements and communicated them to his development team. Anand (Business Development Director) supported us with the project delivery and business aspects.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd?

I’d worked with Hakuna Matata on a smaller project, and I was quite happy with the service they gave us, so we chose them for this project. We initially found them online, browsing for development companies in Chennai.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was 1,500,000 Indian rupees (approximately $20,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We first worked with Hakuna Matata in late-2017. This particular project ran between October 2018–January 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any internal quantitative metrics, but the quality of Hakuna Matata’s UI work was very good. They were sensitive in recording all our requirements, and they were quite interactive with us in terms of converting those requirements into an interface.

We wanted users to have a comfortable experience, and I think we’ve achieved that. Hakuna Matata has done very good development on their side.

How did Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd perform from a project management standpoint?

We stayed in touch very well. Our teams had regular calls for status updates, and my main contact gave me status reports over email. They had a project management software in place, but we mainly use email internally, so we stuck to that. We had no problems with that part. There were some intermediate change requests from us, but Hakuna Matata was still able to meet the deadline. They did a great job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very sound technically. If I had a problem, I could confidently call them and describe it. They’d take some time and come back with their understanding of it, a couple of proposed solutions, and time and budget estimates. Hakuna Matata’s technical strength is their biggest plus point. Our experience with them has been very positive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve performed well so far, and we’re looking to engage them in other projects as well. What they provided was a perfect match with our requirements. I don’t have anything for them to improve, and I think they should continue doing a good job.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

My advice is for customers to be clear on what they want. If they know what they want and communicate it properly, I’m sure that Hakuna Matata will do a good job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

IXF Technologies is into creative solutions which are off the shelf. I head the company as Director - Business Development (MEA)

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd?

We hired Hakuna for a CC project where the entire development of the technology was required which consisted of Content Management System, Content, Design and implementation as well.

What were your goals for this project?

To provide unique designs for all the kiosks and also content part. Hakuna developed excellent content which matched their expectations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We based our selection on certain criteria, development team Brain pool in the company, previous projects, Teams involvement with our team, knowledge on the development platforms.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed the entire application platform and the content for the same. It being a government project further in-depth details cannot be shared on a public platform.

What was the team composition?

The team comprised of Developers - UI/UX, backend application, Content creators, project management.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The size and the success of this project gave us a big reference in the line of business we are in. We got other orders based on the performance of this project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

A team was provided here by Hakuna, who worked alongside our internal team and we had both an internal project manager from their end and our own project manager addressing the client.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciated their support, flexibility, and willingness to find out solutions where ever we were struck.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Marketing of their brand has to improve as they are more concentrated on technology than sales. Its a good philosophy but to sustain and grow they need to reach more bigger markets and at a faster speed than they are current moving.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacture off highway trucks used in mining industries and I was looking after the Digitization projects to improve productivity and to leverage technology

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Hakuna Matata Solutions Pvt Ltd?

For digitizing and to capture the production and productivity details of all operators in shop floor. For that we hired Hakuna Matata team

What were your goals for this project?

Need to capture the details from Shop floor and to provide the management a dashboard to on shift basis to understand the progress and the performance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We weighed options with 2 other similar players in the industry and HMS seems to competitive and good in lead time and hence we finalized them

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They visited us regularly and understood the processes completely and worked with our core team members and completed the project to our expectations and requirement which is functioning quite satisfactorily

What was the team composition?

A project lead from HMS has been identified and a team from CAT has been linked to them. Around 6-7 people (not sure) worked from HMS to complete this project to deliver the intended results.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team is very young and talented and was very accommadative to our requirements. we had regular updates from the team about the progress and the stage wise presentation was done at our premises to check for the correctness. The results were very good it resolved our long pending issue of manual capture of data and it eliminated post processing of data after manual capture of data.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was very professional and regular updates from the team about the progress . A job well done by the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are very much supportive and very patient to listen to all our requirements and and is very professional in dealing with the team.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No such areas as of this project is concerned

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lean process manager of Alstom, and we’re a US conglomerate involved in transport, healthcare, heavy boilers, and energy connectors, among other things.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

We have multiple SAPs [Systems, Applications, and Products Software] or Oracle-based ERPs [Enterprise Resource Planning Software] for our accounting services, and also some non-strategic ERPs which are not SRP [Services Resource Planning Software] or Tally-based. We wanted to have a tool where invoices could be received, scanned, and processed in remote locations for all of these non-strategic ERPs. The tool would allow invoices from places like South Africa, UAE, and Egypt to be processed and paid for from a center based in India.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a tool called ICAN that operates as the interface between the ERP and the remote locations. We came up with all of the requirements, but they were responsible for executing the project. The tool is basically a scanning solution which has multiple workflows inside of it.

There are similar tools in the market, but they are much more expensive and require multiple invoice assessments. The tool Hakuna Matata built for us is a one-time investment, and the development cost is kept to a minimum because there is no monthly maintenance invoice.

This was our first project with them, and we’ve since worked on other projects together. All of the tools they’ve built for us are HTML and Flash and operate within the VPN server. They also helped with some application development.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

They were already working on the project when I started working for Alstom.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $27,000 over the course of the relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2010, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have saved a lot financially, and our work has improved because of the tool they built for us.

How did Hakuna Matata perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. They have a tool where we can receive status updates and make comments, and they follow an Agile methodology. They show us a design, we sign off on it, and then they continue to the next stage.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We are extremely pleased with their work. It was not a big investment from our side, and all the requirements were very small. Their quality is definitely good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been doing a good job. Their resources have consistently changed over the last 8 years, which is a part of the business, but it's caused a lot of attrition and also some analysis issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders, and we’re a startup company with an app in which people can have one-on-one discussions with experts, celebrities, and other such figures.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

We wanted to develop an Android mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hakuna Matata developed a prototype that was very good, and then a wireframe that matched our requirements. After we approved the wireframe, they did the development. I wanted the latest technologies including Node.js and CouchDB and I wanted it hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). They brought in a User Interface (UI) designer who knows AWS. They provided both design and development services for the app.

What is the team dynamic? 

I worked with their business analyst and tech lead who is the same person. He’s been on the project throughout.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

I was searching for someone with experience in the technologies I was looking for. I was also concerned about the UI piece and wanted the best UI designers. Hakuna Matata provided a prototype before they start developing, and that was one thing I liked. We had an idea but we didn’t know what the screens should look like. Their prototype helped us to visualize the app better.

How much have you invested with Hakuna Matata?

We spent 14 lakhs ($21,900).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the end of 2015. The project is finished but we are still tweaking some things. The feedback about the app has been good, though we missed some requirements from our side. They wanted a review to be implemented, but we haven’t done it. There are a few things we’re still working on.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t started measuring the success of the project.

How did Hakuna Matata perform from a project management standpoint?

They met the deadline. They suggested that we use Zoho for project management, but I didn’t feel it clearly showed the progress. Their technical team and design team were amazing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The communication could have improved. I already gave them feedback about that. Sometimes I had to reach out to them to find out what the status of the project was. If they had provided regular updates it would’ve been better.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

Their design team, business analyst, and technical team are excellent. We have to make frequent contact with them to find out the status, but other than that, they’re excellent. At the end of the project, make sure you get the proper documentation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company provides a mobile platform used for peer-to-peer ridesharing. With Uber, the people driving the cars are professional drivers, but in our case, they are regular office-goers who are looking to carpool on their daily drives. We specify when and where they have to meet their partners. The registration is only done through LinkedIn, following the basic assumption that a person going to the office every day will have an account on that platform. We can thus have one-touch registration and obtain the full public profile of a person. Even before getting into their car, the rider will know who the driver is, and vice versa.

There are carpooling needs all over the world, but the process involves a lot of hassle, coordination and security concerns. We are trying to remove all these issues so that more people will start offering rides in their private cars. We have launched the service in Mumbai, and are trying to expand and popularize it through using various mediums.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

Neither I nor my co-founder are coders. While I took care of the product part—how the app would look and work—the coding for it was done by Hakuna Matata.

Our challenge is getting people to know what LiftO is. This requires a lot of digital marketing and activation events in various places. Uber is aggregating taxi cars, while we are aggregating private ones, in order to reduce traffic and pollution. Even so, we are closer to Uber than to carpooling. I am a co-founder of the company, in charge of the product side.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hakuna Matata handled the entire server-side programming in Node.js and was actively involved in developing the route-matching algorithm, which ensured that we could pinpoint meeting locations. They have planned for the scaling of our user count, and have developed the iOS and Android applications. Hakuna Matata was responsible for the whole UI/UX of our apps. As a product manager, I could list the features I wanted, but the design was handled by their team.

The route-matching algorithm was one of our most challenging features. BlaBlaCar is the biggest platform in the peer-to-peer ride-sharing space, but it has an extremely bad algorithm. Ours is in the lines of Uber, not in terms of scale, but definitely in terms of logic. If 1000 people are offering rides, and 1000 are asking for them, matching them together equates to 1000 multiplied by 1000, and figuring out which combinations are good matches.

There is a limitation to the matching radius, requiring that riders walk for no more than 500 meters or 4-5 minutes. Hakuna Matata handled the development of the algorithm quite well, even under all of these constraints.

The UI/UX design was the second challenging part. It’s a complex tool which needed to be simple to use from a user perspective. Hakuna Matata’s UX designer did this quite well.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

Before selecting them, I had talked to 8-10 other groups. We had to develop a robust matching algorithm, so I gave each vendor the task of coming up with an idea for it. Only 3 of them were able to come up with a solution, out of which Hakuna Matata was first. They were also cheaper than the other options. The company has a problem-solving person in the team who can devise algorithms for the issues his team comes to him with. This played a crucial part in their work.

How much have you invested with Hakuna Matata?

The development and change-request cost was $50,000. After the launch in October 2015, we continued to pay Hakuna Matata $5,000 per month. The total cost was around $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Hakuna Matata in March or April 2015. The Android application was launched to market in October of that year, while the iOS one was launched in February 2016. They continued to maintain the application on a monthly retainer basis until July 2016. We have taken over the work, and our internal team is currently managing the whole show.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have received a lot of praise on the apps’ UI/UX design. People do not get to know the backend matching algorithm, but they can see the frontend. What our app can actually do is owed to the matching algorithm.

Users haven’t complained about wrong pickup or drop points, which means that they are satisfied with the backend part as well.

We have made some mistakes, but they were on the product side, not the development side. We need to continue developing new features and improve the product.

How did Hakuna Matata perform from a project management standpoint?

We were just starting out, so our group was not very organized at that point in time. I used to send out emails to everyone involved in the project and received replies from them. Hakuna Matata assigned a project manager, who was in charge of communicating the team’s perspective to me. He was a combination of project and product manager, and we got along well and had quality conversations.

What did you find most impressive about Hakuna Matata?

Hakuna Matata’s work has contributed a lot to our success. Our challenges are in terms of product and marketing, and their team has been completely involved in the development of our application for iOS and Android. We would not have been able to launch our platform without them. Until we put together a tech team, Hakuna Matata was the group managing the whole show, from the tech side. They also understand what is happening on the ground, and are proactive. On many occasions, they came to us with suggestions for improvements and told us when we were doing something wrong. It was a good partnership, and having one-way communication wouldn’t have led to such good results.

Are there any areas Hakuna Matata could improve?

We were not fully-satisfied with the quality of the iOS developer. It’s possible that that person was junior, but they were not as good as the Android and backend developers. We asked Hakuna Matata to change him, and, after it was done, the quality improved during the last few months. Other than that, everything was fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

As a co-founder, I built an MVP [minimum viable product] that was the first on the market. Then, I transitioned to more of a business development role.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata Solutions?

We had an application that we needed to build for feature phones, which were phones before iPhone and Android phones. We wanted to build an application that used text messaging technology to connect with various web services like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn without needing a data plan.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I worked with them for 6 months to develop the MVP. We had requirements that we'd put together in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. They were working with me to make sure things were getting done. I was testing with them in real time to be sure the requirements were met.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata Solutions?

I started the relationship when they had just formed their company. I had met with the CEO and, at that time, it was just him and a couple other partners. I was looking for a software developer in India because I had a very modest budget. They were very aggressive in wanting to work with me compared to other agencies I contacted. They were very competitive on price and were very diligent in their work.

I had contacts with many different technology outsourcing companies in India. They were one lead of mine, and I found them by word of mouth. I made a cold call to them. Three months in, I met them in person. They looked like they were a solid company, and we brought them in on a retainer basis.

How much have you invested with Hakuna Matata Solutions?

The cost was between $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with them April 2006 and ended the relationship January 2012. I am currently not working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were a young company in terms of their experience in technology. Their model is pretty interesting. Their cost is pretty competitive because they brought on second-tier engineers. I think they did good work. There were many challenges with project management and bug testing, but they were very hard working. They were very committed to keeping us happy, but they did have learning curves along the way, and they learned much through the process as well.

How did Hakuna Matata perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great in terms of project management. It was a combination of Agile and Waterfall, but there was no real set structured project management process. They weren't charging us like a big company that had a refined process. I would say it was an interactive kind of project management where, in time, it was refined. Eventually, in 2009, they brought on a project manager to lead the group, and that made it easier to manage the team.

What did you find most impressive about Hakuna Matata Solutions?

They are very hard working. They seem to want to go the extra mile for the customer, which means they work late nights and weekends. Their greatest asset was their work ethic.

Are there any areas Hakuna Matata Solutions could improve?

They could have brought on some more senior technical resources that the junior engineers could lean on for help. They probably have that now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is called Simplogy Web Business Pty Ltd. It's a small digital agency in Sydney. We work with clients who need help in the digital marketing space. We primarily help these companies determine a strategy for maximizing their digital presence, but we also can help implement our recommendations if the clients need that as well.

What is your position?

I am the director of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

My work with Hakuna Matata was focused on a side project of mine. I had an idea to build a website that would assist people looking to advance their professional development. The website would offer recommendations on skills and certifications they should receive based on their career goals as well as courses and tests that would help them attain those certifications. I didn't have the resources to build the website on my own, so I enlisted Hakuna Matata's help.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The website was built using JavaScript, and they built the entire thing including a WordPress blog.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

Hakuna Matata actually approached me first. I'm not sure how they found out about me, but I've done some work in India as a lecturer on digital strategy at several Indian universities, so maybe it was through that. When I first sat down with their directors to talk about the project, I was impressed with their knowledge of technical processes, and I was happy about the fact that they were a small company, which meant I would get personalized and customized support.

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

It was around $30,000, which I think was a very good price considering the work I received. I think part of the reason they gave me such a good price was they were hoping to develop a long-term relationship with me, which I am absolutely open to.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is wrapping up in the next couple of weeks [January 2016]. The timeline is longer than I initially intended, but that is entirely my fault as I could not consistently give the project the time it needed for them to keep it on schedule.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I'm happy with the work they've delivered up to this point. With any project, especially those that are completed with an offshore company, you're going to have some mistakes and bugs that slow things down but, in general, the project went very smoothly. I should say that things went a lot faster when I had the opportunity to visit them in their Chennai office. Overall, I would rate them as an SEI CMMi level three company in terms of their processes.

How did Hakuna Matata perform from a project management standpoint?

I managed the project myself.

What distinguishes Hakuna Matata from other providers?

A few things stand out to me. First, they are very dedicated to their work. When I would give them a task the turnaround time was always very fast. Second, they have very highly advanced technical skills. It was quite an advanced stack that Hakuna Matata was working on, and they mastered it. When I showed their code to a few developers in Australia, they were all very impressed. The code was reasonably sized and very elegant.

Is there anything Hakuna Matata could have improved or done differently?

I really felt they could improve on their processes and templates. I brought many of those things to the table, and I wish they had a little more in place on their own.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're an international e-commerce company with offices in Brazil and Poland. We're primarily focused on selling health supplements, including beauty and weight-loss products.

What is your position?

I'm the chief technology officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

We needed developers and QA [quality assurance] testers to help with the development of our custom e-commerce platform. We have a very unique type of platform with a layout tailored for specific products. Our primary need was for skilled Java developers.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Since we created everything from scratch, we had to implement the checkout flow code. We made it partially here, and partially with their help. They eventually dealt with all our code, and we have a big infrastructure. We also have a distribution system with several companies, so we have an e-commerce page where customers can see the product and go through the entire buying process.

In order to do that, we had to integrate various payment methods. We had to create some back-end support. We accept several payment methods. The easiest to deal with are credit cards, but we have other local payment methods common here in Brazil. These require us to check, from time to time, to see if they actually have been processed. All of this is integrated with anti-fraud and with our tax processing.

Hakuna has not done all of this work on their own since part of the system was built by our team here, and part of it by Hakuna. But, they have worked on most parts of our platform. They've helped us on the front end. They contributed to the checkout flow, the card processing, the logic, and so forth.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

We have a front-end developer here in-house who used to live and work in Australia, and he had previously worked with Hakuna Matata. We needed more people to boost the deliverables in IT [information technology], and he referred me to them. He told me that from what he could see, they did a good job with front-end deliverables and that I might want to talk to them. That recommendation was well timed since at the time I was looking for outsourcing help.

I looked at their proposal to see if they could do what we needed. I talked to them, and their proposal was fine in terms of money. A full-time resource in India was cheaper than I would have had to pay here in Brazil. This was the starting point for our partnership.

We started with one Java developer. I had a simple project for a new client so I had them write the code on that, and that was their first trial. After they completed the code, we carefully reviewed it, and it seemed just fine. The quality was good, and it was well structured, so we decided to give them a more complex project.

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

I don't have a total amount available. They charged around $2,200 for the two resources we had for eight months. For the five months before that when we only had the one resource, the charge was $1,200.

What is the status of this engagement?

We are no longer in business with them. There was no specific time limit for our relationship, and it wasn't tied to finishing any particular project. We worked with them for more than a year, and the relationship was fine. We expanded our work with them after six or seven months to include a QA resource. Now, I'm trying to bring in house all of my development resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from your work with Hakuna Matata?

When we provided them with the correct instructions, Hakuna Matata always delivered exactly what we wanted. When they had the proper information, they would do everything right. However, due to lack of instructions on our part, they sometimes did not have the proper information, and we wouldn't get what we wanted. They try to deliver on what you ask. Even if they don't really have all the information they might need, they try to implement something and deliver it for you just to make something happen. That was very interesting.

I noticed they have very distinct development and QA teams. We had hired both of them, and I thought that they would be more careful about the quality of the code. We had some troubles and bugs toward the end of our work with them but, honestly, I think that's because we only had two resources from them. We didn't hire a full team, and we didn't hire any project management from them. They offered to do that, but we tried to manage the work here ourselves, and that didn't really work well. If you give them the proper attention, they will certainly do a good job.

We had to move from one domain to another, and doing that usually causes the links to break. We created a company that would be our URL partner, and that would actually translate to a final link. We had Hakuna Matata build the site for that company, and that is currently the site that receives the most hits. It is all their code, which was well designed and the architecture was excellent. We're receiving more than a million visits on that site.

Is there anything Hakuna Matata could have improved or done differently?

We had some problems with quality toward the end of our work with them. We started to find some bugs, and we had some problems with communication. It was getting more difficult for me to find the time to give proper attention to them. I would suggest that their QA team make sure their work quality is good before sending it out.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We’re a company that crafts custom software solutions for enterprise customers.

What is your position?

I am the head solution architect and co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Hakuna Matata?

We needed to be able to design, develop, and deploy multiplatform, mobile applications. They needed to be able to run in propitiatory iOS and Android formats, and also have a more open wide-screen HTML5 based version, so anyone could access it through the organization, regardless of the platform they had available to them at the moment.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We were developing a mobile sales effectiveness tool. We started out by getting the design architecture right for the iOS platform release. This application already had a solid design from the backend, as well as from a user interface standpoint. What we needed was a group of people who had the technological expertise to be able to validate those requirements and designs from an iOS development platform perspective, and get the product to market. We needed them to assure us that what we were looking to do was, in fact, feasible, and be able to spearhead that entire development effort; everything from the planning through technical, staffing through testing and quality assurance as well.

How did you come to work with Hakuna Matata?

I’ve worked with several offshore organizations over the years. I was looking because I still hadn’t found a good relationship. There are a lot of challenges to blending teams, especially when you’re looking at offshore considerations, whether it’s how you manage timetables so that folks are available to communicate live when you need to, or how to articulate when you have questions that need answering. It’s a very difficult process.

So I was in another one of these cycles where I was researching, and I came across the name Hakuna Matata. I was intrigued by their name, and I wanted to know more about them so I got on the phone right away and had a great conversation about personal vision and motivations. We really connected with each other.

Most, if not all, of the prior relationships I’ve had in attempting to do offshore work have been very mechanical, which works in with simple projects. But it doesn’t work when you’re going to have an ebb and flow in scope, timing, and requirements. That’s usually when these relationships break down. It was really smooth with Hakuna because we were able to connect as people first.

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

Overall, project cost was probably in the range of $250,000.

Can you give us an idea of the schedule or timeline of the project?

We had put together a pretty aggressive development schedule of a calendar year, which had three specific phases in it. We wanted to deploy our iOS interface first, and then deploy our HTML5 generic interface. While that was happening, we could work out the kinks in the iOS interface, so that by the time we were done, we would be able to really hit the ground running in developing the Android version.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One of the first things that was hugely important to us in selecting Hakuna was that we needed to find a team that was going to be willing to work with a development methodology approach that was not scrum, or agile, but a hybrid. A key piece of that, and the way that I like to get things done, is deploying a ticket tracking system. It was really critical that we had a daily cadence of live conversation across the pond, where the point person from both sides was going to be able to have that live conversation and basically do the sprint for the day. This meant that every day we were going over, what’s been done, what’s in process, and what’s stuck. So we always had the most accurate and up to date information about the project.

These guys were wonderfully responsive in implementing a process like that. More often than not, the other offshore teams I’ve worked with, for a variety of reasons, weren’t comfortable with a number of those variables. They weren’t necessarily comfortable with getting on the phone and speaking that way verbally. Often they weren’t comfortable utilizing a ticket system; if they attempted to use it, they weren’t sure what to write in it, so the information wasn’t necessarily actionable.

With these guys, we would never have an open queue of more than a dozen, what I would call priority 1s. Priority 1 doesn’t mean the world stops and things aren’t working, it just means that these are the most critical things for us to work on next. I never saw more than a dozen at a time, and each time I’d get up the next morning and look at the list, we were back down to three or four.

The fact that they would put together some testing support on their side also lightened the load on our side. We weren’t losing a day every time they did something where we’d show up the next morning and say, ‘No, this isn’t quite right.’ They were already taking the first cut or two at the testing. Their efficiency, in terms of the timeliness and response allowed us to meet our own deadlines and deliverables with respect to client work, which was really powerful for us. We never missed a delivery deadline together. We never had delays that put project success at risk.

What distinguishes Hakuna Matata from other providers?

At Hakuna Matata there is a real, true, personal interest their entire team shares in your success as a client. There’s a lot of lip service paid to that idea in both the American and worldwide IT services market; Hakuna Matata is one of the few companies anywhere that actually works like that.

These guys understand what relationships are, and they understand what custom technology is, and not just for some person that’s looking for an app. They get it at an enterprise solution level, because that’s the kind of work that I brought to them each time. That’s very had to come by. It’s really easy for enterprises to get sucked into the myth of just going out to any freelance website and find some hack to do something. If it messes up, I’m paying next to nothing so I can afford to pay five people to get it kind of wrong until I get it right. Anybody can try and do that, a lot of them do, and most of them end up far away from their goal. These guys really put in the right time upfront to ensure our success, and our client's success.

There were plenty of experiences I’ve had, as I was looking for good relationships, where you basically get the door opening offer. However, with many of these, you end up feeling like a hostage. It sort of numbs you into this cycle that looks never-ending. That wasn’t the case with these guys. I was able to say very clearly what we were looking to do, and they told me what it was going to take. Even when there were situations where it was going to end up taking more time or money, they were always honest about the situation, and I feel that stand-up character very much deserves to be rewarded.

Is there anything Hakuna Matata could have improved or done differently?

It’s often challenging to be able to keep tabs on what the availability schedule is of team time, being able to have the visibility of who could be available this month versus next month or whether there are pre-scheduled vacations. That kind of coordination is something that I think we all can do better on.