Innoware

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of finance at SOS Children’s Villages Georgia, a nonprofit organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innoware?

In 2021, we implemented a new system with Microsoft Dynamics 365, and we hired Innoware for modifications to the reports in the system and integrations with our local revenue service.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Innoware is integrating our system with Georgia’s revenue service so that we can input electronic invoices. The team has also transferred attachments from the revenue service into our system. They’ve modified our Microsoft Dynamics 365 system regarding fax transactions and physical inventory reports.

The biggest project is integration with the revenue service, which will be completed in 1–2 weeks. Now, we’re negotiating with them to modify the system regarding petty cash. 

How did you come to work with Innoware?

A local company advised us to contact them. We first talked to a local IT company when we first investigated our local market. When we described our requirements to them, they told us Innoware would be the most appropriate company for us because they had a lot of experience in this area. We contacted them, they made us an offer with the pricing, and we signed a contract. 

How much have you invested with them?

The contract price was around €47,000 (approximately $48,000 USD). So far, we’ve paid €39,000 (approximately $40,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Thanks to Innoware’s modifications to the system, we’ve had time and resource savings of 40%–60%. Their work has also helped us enhance and simplify our business processes. Working with them has been really comfortable; their process is very good, and the team is all very open and provides advice. Overall, we’re satisfied with Innoware.

How did Innoware perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and Microsoft Teams when we have something really urgent. The team is very accessible, so our communication has been comfortable. Any delays we’ve had have been from our side because of our partner company — there have been no delays on Innowise’s side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide feedback in due time, and they’ve had no delays despite the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they need to improve. Although they’re a bit expensive, their work is worth the price. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend Innoware to anyone and will do so to my colleagues in other countries. So far, our experience has been really satisfying — working with them is excellent.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am an IT-manager in an engineering and manufacturing company Mirai Intex s.r.o. Our company has 150 employees and specializes in the design and manufacturing of turbo compression equipment and refrigeration machines for ultra-low temperature applications. I am responsible for the work of the IT department, including the maintenance of computer systems and services, the purchase of software, the development and implementation of new services.

For what projects/services did your company hire Innoware?

Our company is quite young (It was created in 2015). The first factory was launched for the mass production of our chillers in 2018. At the end of 2018, we made a decision to search for a software solution that would allow us to automate our business processes. We chose Microsoft Dynamics 365. In the implementation project, we decided to cooperate with Innower.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal of the project is to implement a ERP-system that will allow us to automate our business processes and centralized management of the company.

How did you select this vendor?

When choosing a vendor, we primarily relied on the recommendations of other companies that had experience implementing such a system. As a result, we negotiated cooperation with 3 companies. In choosing a vendor was attended by our key specialists in areas such as finance, manufacturing, and logistics. The main factor in choosing Innower, was their extensive experience in the implementation of such systems in similar projects.

Describe the project in detail.

The implementation project was divided into 2 stages. Each of the stages covers all the main business processes of the company: finances, production, sales, supply, logistics. It was decided that the first phase will be implemented by the basic functionality of the system. Each of the stages includes the following steps:

1. Interviews with key users
2. Creating of interview protocols and their coordination with key users.
3. Setting up a test version of the system
4. Testing the test base by key users
5. Training employees
6. Starting the system in production.

Consultants are directly involved in each of the implementation steps. For my part, I provide the preparation of working materials (gathering the necessary information), organize joint work between key users and consultants, etc.

What was the team composition?

On the part of the vendor, the project involves a sufficient number of specialists, in particular: the project manager, solution architect, technician, consultants in finance, logistics, production, sales. At the moment, the team of consultants involved in the project has not changed.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Currently, the project is not yet completed and is at the testing stage by our key users of the test version of the system (85%). The launch of the system is planned for May.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There is constant communication between our teams. At the interview stage, vendor consultants were personally present at our office for a week. Further communication was carried out through skype conferences. At the stage of launching the system, it is planned that consultants will come to our factory.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The main advantage of this company is the high level of their consultants. They have extensive experience working with large companies in various areas.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think that this company will be useful if its specialists study in more depth the specifics of the accounting and tax laws of a particular country. This will simplify the process of automating business processes related to finance.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a large group of companies in Ukraine, mainly chemical plants. I am the head of reporting and controlling for the group. I work in the corporate center for all of our businesses, many of which reside outside of Ukraine.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innoware?

When we took over responsibility from a different office in Indiana, the software being used was not very good. We decided that it needed to be changed, so we conducted some market research and found Innoware. They had lower pricing compared to other companies and could provide answers to our questions quickly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The implementation process was not a difficult task per se, given that we weren't using the full cycle of the software; instead of a production run, we use Microsoft Dynamics NAV for basic accounting.  

How did you come to work with Innoware?

We didn't have a complex reporting issue, given that our residents don't go through an entire production cycle. The solution needed to be easily taught to our members, it had to produce reports which were easy to understand, and it had to serve as one database for 100-200 companies.

The market in Ukraine is not huge, so we had a limited number of software choices. The software needed to be in English, so that we could implement it in Cyprus, thus limiting our choices even more. Because we have offices in many parts of the world, we needed flexibility in terms of implementation and maintenance of the platform.

How much have you invested with Innoware?

The cost of Innoware's implementation services was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Innoware 3 years ago. The software went live 2 ½ years ago, after a 3 to 4-month implementation process. After the implementation, we had many questions, so we maintained active communication with Innoware for the next 6 months. There was a short learning curve, and we learned as we went. Innoware did a good job in helping us. We are still working with them, even though we don't have a maintenance contract in place.

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

The system has been up and running for the last 2 years, which is good, but it has taken some time to onboard our 100+ companies.

We didn’t set any countable goals for Innoware in the beginning. The idea was to implement an accounting system which could give us access to numbers for our companies. That was a success story, given that we now have a system which can be understood by people who aren't familiar with our companies.

How did Innoware perform from a project management standpoint?

Innoware assigned 2 analysts who worked with us. The collaboration was good overall, but there were difficulties which came about from our dispersed locations. The finance and accounting team is in Cyprus, I'm located in Kiev, Ukraine, and Innoware's team also traveled a lot. Questions were communicated via email or over the phone, and we kept an online issue log, which was convenient.

It was easier for me to collect issues from our partner companies directly. I was responsible for technical tasks, so I needed to learn everything anyway in order to answer questions. If an issue was not very straightforward, I could communicate it to Innoware, sit down with their team, and discuss it.

What did you find most impressive about Innoware?

Innoware is good at keeping in touch with us, even though we don't have an active maintenance contract. I consider it to be very nice of their team to ask us how we're doing; it maintains a good client relationship, which isn't typical for Ukraine. Companies here usually want to make money fast and forget about their clients.

Are there any areas Innoware could improve?

At times, I've had to explain certain finance and accounting principles to Innoware's team, who looked at things more from an IT point of view. I am a financial professional and they're not, but I felt that they should be more involved in learning that side of the business. It's possible that I was a little too demanding around an issue which Innoware's team didn't have to know.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a tea manufacturing/exporting business selling to 70 countries around the world. We’ve been in business for 30 years. I’m the IT manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Innoware?

They support our accounting and stock control software in the UK and in our factory in the UAE [United Arab Emirates].

What was the scope of their involvement?

Innoware has developed new reports for us around accounting and stock control. They may add a field to a table or extract sales and purchase data in a new format. They helped us implement a plugin to [Microsoft Dynamics] Navision. It is called Business Analytics, and it takes data from various databases and puts them together to generate user-friendly reports. They helped us implement our Navision database in the UAE and get that up and running.

How did you come to work with Innoware?

Ten years ago, we were looking for companies that provide the same service they do. Those companies in the UK and Europe are very expensive. Innoware is based in Ukraine, and they were priced much more competitively. They had partnerships with Microsoft for supporting NAV. I believe we got references from other companies who said they could do the job we needed.

How much have you invested with Innoware?

We spend an average of €8,000–€10,000 [approx. US$8,500–$10,500] per year with Innoware.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them 10 years ago, and the work is ongoing.

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

In the time we’ve been working with Innoware, we got the UAE database up and running. That’s a much bigger factory than we have in the UK. We’re working towards getting the latest version of NAV. We want to convert our databases to SQL, merge two existing databases, and then upgrade it.

How did Innoware perform from a project management standpoint?

Innoware has done pretty well. We have a good relationship, and that’s gotten better over the years. They use Mantis [Bug Tracker] to communicate, and anyone is able to see the progress.

What did you find most impressive about Innoware?

It’s hard to pinpoint one thing because I don’t work with them daily.

Are there any areas Innoware could improve?

Innoware charges on an hourly basis, and when we get the timesheet each month, it’s hard to judge how long a particular job takes. It would be nice to have more transparency in what they’re doing and the time it takes. We have the impression that sometimes we’re paying for a resource to catch up when one developer leaves and another joins the team. They could also be tidier in the work they do so as not to take up too much space on the server.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Director of IT distributor. Value added distribution, box moving products, software and services.

For what projects/services did your company hire Innoware?

developing, implementation, support for ERP BI CRM B2B

What were your goals for this project?

development implementation support without breaking the integrity and work cycle

How did you select this vendor?

young intellectual team able to understand goals and be responsible for the implementation of tasks and agreements

Describe the project in detail.

from the base level step by step

What was the team composition?

team with specialists of different profiles working in a common schedule

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

realisation of the plan within an agreed schedule

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

development of a plan in the format of a gantt chart, regular reviews

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their fulfillment of obligations on time and with high quality is impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

no limits to perfection. further team growth