INP-Software

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a software company, and we provide specialized software to retailers. They’re pretty much retrospect to electronic POS, computerized cash registers, and stock management reporting solutions with a specific focus on integrating with other systems like e-commerce packages, warehouse management systems, accounting systems, and ERP systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with INP-Software?

We sell three different software solutions that allowed us to create customizations, extensions, and plug-ins. We were aware that every single retail business would be different. As a result, we offered a customized approach to our external stakeholders.

In connection with that, the specific needs we wanted to address were defining what our customers need. We also wanted to have the ability to develop extensions or customizations that were needed by our external customers despite software developer costs being high in the UK.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

INP-Software’s work initially started as a simple Delfi development and expanded further into a custom software development project. We started with a monthly basis engagement where we had two full-time developers from their team. 

Then, 3–4 years ago, the need arose to integrate one of our retail systems with a Magento e-commerce platform. The brief was to create the functionalities that would end up in our retail system. After four years, we had a product that was selling worldwide. The one core feature we worked on was integrating credit card software from both WorldPay and Verifone. They integrated two pieces of software that were responsible for taking credit card payments. It was also important that it was PCI compliant in the UK.

Another project that they did was a tool that was lightweight, easy to install, and very similar to an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool. There were many of these on the market but they were usually very expensive and take a long time to set up. The brief was to give us functionality where we could pick up data and transfer it to a file or database. We started developing that about nine years ago and we’ve continued to develop it. We’re also posting data into platforms like Shopify.

What is the team composition?

We work with two full-time developers from INP-Software for over a decade. One of our full-time developers has been working with us since 2017.

How did you come to work with INP-Software?

My contact in the US put me in touch with them. We were able to get very good developers for quite a lot less than developers we would've gotten in the UK. We specifically needed people who could develop in Delfi. INP-Software was also able to provide developers that spoke English and people that could start right away. More importantly, they were very flexible.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2008, and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've provided two developers that feel like they’re part of our company, and they've been producing high-quality work. Getting resources at the skill level they’re at has been very useful. I didn't expect that we’d have them working permanently but it turned out that way.

Above all, they’ve given us the ability to work with high-level clients such as some of the top retailers in the UK. We appreciate that we can throw lots of new things at them and they just deal with it. When we've moved onto different solutions, it didn't become a problem that we were dealing with different APIs and programming languages.

How did INP-Software perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t rely on them for project management, but we communicate via Skype and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive, and they provide us with developers that know what they’re doing. On top of that, the team knows the software solution that we sell. They understand our retail system and how our external customers operate. With their support, we keep adding features and that wouldn't have been possible if we haven't been satisfied with their developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm satisfied with everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you’re able to communicate in the language you want to. That’s made a big difference for us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Arachno GmbH. With two business lines we produce software and organize subsidies for german SMEs which help to create innovative products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire INP-Software, and what were your goals?

I hired one of INPs programmers for enhancing an existing web scraping solution.

SOLUTION

How did you select INO-Software and what were the deciding factors?

As i remember correctly INP-Software found me. Their track record was impressive and the sales person understood the problem very quickly.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The webscraping system is a combination of Selenium with PHP. A simple kind of "programming language" had been developed to have a universal tool to handle complex scraping tasks like building up groups in Xing for marketing reasons (login to Xing, do a search, vary the search by PO Box Numbers (to circumvent limitations set by Xing), send a personalized message to 50 search results each day which went as far as using face recognition of profile images to generate a correct german subject like "Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Müller".

As we got more and more customers for this marketing solution the software had to be enhanced so that it could make better usage of time and resources on one machine and could be spread to multiple systems.

How many people from the INP-Software team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There was one programmer fulltime working on the problem and a project manager who was nearly invisible as there were no problems.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The problems were solved. The programmer did a really good job. As this was not a standard problem like creating a web application or smartphone app there was, of course, a steep learning curve for him to master. But he did it and added his own ideas which were real enhancements.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

As mentioned above the project manager had been a bit superflous. As i was the developer of the system i myself had a lot of Skype sessions with the programmer in the setup phase. No communication problems the whole time.

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

They are working as a good team. Sales, Project Management and Developer where always on the same information level. The developer fit very well to the project. He developed the needed non standard skills very fast. They were good people that provided good communication and good results.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No. I was totally satisfied and happy with the result.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company provides web-development and digital advertising services as well as training for those who are willing to join it companies. My responsibility was IT edicational prject ITHUB

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire INP-Software, and what were your goals?

To insure outstaffing services related to the project

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Having investigated the market we have chosen the company which offered value for money and besides it has good reputation our clients as well

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

website development using Loravel framework. The front-end part as wellas server part was developed by 3 people involved in the project

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

3 full-stack developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Tasks fulfiled in time with very good quality within the budget agreed

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Scrum technology was used in time management. Communication was via Slack

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

Value for money, fast work and knowligeble managers and employees

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No. Everything was great.