Inquisitives

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Reform Education Publishers is in Pakistan, and we are publishers of Quran education. We have four offices, including one head office, and two division offices. Our goal is to make sure most of the Muslim children from this area know how to learn and understand the Quran. We have 160 employees, and I’m the CIO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inquisitives?

We needed to implement Odoo ERP [enterprise resource planning] in our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have almost 10–12 modules of Odoo in our system, including sales and custom models that we take to other locations all over Pakistan. Our marketing officers use the Android app to direct when they go to schools. Inquisitives provided us with 4 CRMs [customer relationship management] that are attached to our Odoo ERP, and we have almost 160 users.

We’re using a content module, project management module, CS module, and Odoo’s CRM module which is in sync with our own CRM module. Furthermore, we are also using the leaves, attendance, and payroll modules so we can report things. Inquisitives provides a lot of dynamic reports, including PDFs. They had both a standardized and customized approach, and they provided a demo in the fourth month. We went live this month, so all together, development took 6 months.

Currently, we are using fleet management modules for our 12–15 cars and three motorbikes for employees. We have an online events module, a Quran database with Google, and a Quran address book. We can track our expenses, and we also have recruitment forces and instant messaging features. The project has been good for our company.

How did you come to work with Inquisitives?

Inquisitives has been working in the Pakistan market for 15–17 years. They developed many different websites, and we worked with them at my old company as well. They provided good support and quality, and whenever we communicated with them, they came to our office to cover any issues.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $12,000–$13,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them six months ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our entire team is satisfied. We have 5 major departments, and everyone is able to contact Inquisitive through phone or email if they need them. We have a big team using the ERP, and almost 95% of them are online on a daily basis. The team comes and works on different modules, and our team is trained to use the ERP, so we have a good response.

How did Inquisitives perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. We conduct monthly meetings with every region and assign tasks from events to messaging, and we even create a group in which we download all of our meetings and schedules. After we download everything, we create and assign tasks in the project management module. Each task has scheduled steps, and once the order is complete, the assigned person will move onto the next task. We have an overview in our Kanban, so we can see everything easily.

They also download every communication, and whenever a team member completes something, they’re able to email and forward is to both us and Inquisitives. We have efficient reporting with them. They signed a requirement document when they started the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re experts in their line of work and in ERP implementation. They have an excellent team, and our collaboration is friendly. The best thing about them is that they deliver exactly what they promise.

In Pakistan, many of the vendors start projects, and then they become stale. We have been very disappointed in the past because we felt like we couldn’t rely on anyone. With Inquisitives, they don’t delay modules or projects. They have a simple schedule, and they don’t ask for money before delivering. Other companies need 50% of the cost immediately, but Inquisitives only sends an invoice after they deliver the work.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I can advise that Inquisitives offers good services. Their first phase was the business analysis, where another company supports their team in terms of feedback. Afterwards, they will provide excellent service to their clients as long as the client’s team cooperates with their business analysis. When they come to understand their client’s business, they will meet individually with the project, commercial, and marketing manager, as well as the CEO, CFO, and CTO.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

mTech Consulting Services are partners with Microsoft, mainly for Dynamics products, and all our verticals are built on Microsoft Dynamics and connected too. We also have some local products to cover the gaps that we experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Inquisitives?

At times, our resources are preoccupied when a customer needs something. We use Inquisitives for their functional expertise, business analysts, and documentation services at those times.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide development services. They work mainly on Dynamics AX, but they have provided us Dynamics Quick Prints services for some customers and some verticals we needed to build on SharePoint.

We go to a company we work with, record interviews, and share with the analysts. They helped us to build a prototype as well as the proof of concept. Sometimes they help us with project implementation, such as loading the data, customizing the functionality, building the security models.

They also provide certain customization tools that are not part of a standard product or sometimes the products that are not localized. Dynamics is more of a global product instead of a local product. They are helping us with certain things which are required by the local market, rather than the international market.

What is the team dynamic?

We work mostly with their managers. I think they have five to six developers working. They communicate directly with us if there are any issues. Their business understanding is good. It doesn’t take us long to explain things to them. They have already worked on other ERP [enterprise resource planning] solutions. They know the processes in our industry. We have a level of comfort working with them and giving them our requirements.

How did you come to work with Inquisitives?

We’ve used many companies in India and other countries, and we have our own offshore companies as well.

How much have you invested with them?

The projects range from three days to six months. After implementation, there are things they customize and features we ask them to build. For instance, we asked them to build integration between SharePoint and AX. The projects range from $45,000 to $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started building small pieces to test them. They did some work in 2015, but we didn’t engage them then. In 2016, they worked more frequently with us, and in 2017, they were fully onboard. We built a level of trust over the years, and have given them larger projects over time.

The product has been delivered and they are still supporting us. We always have some customization requests, maintenance, and new reports. We are keeping them on as partners since it’s better than bringing someone new onboard. They have the experience that we need.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Whatever deadline we have, they have to complete the work a week ahead, as we have our own internal QA even though they do too. We believe we are responsible to our customer. We have an understanding that when we have a job, they provide documentation and a scope of work that covers exactly what we have from the customer. Even if they are working on part of the project, they are looking at a piece of the whole picture. We add them to the project scope, so they will understand the whole scope of their work. There are things our team or other offshore teams are doing. We push them and follow up to make sure they have a formal understanding of the project.

How did Inquisitives perform from a project management standpoint?

We have found them to be very compatible to our needs. They are flexible to work on weekends and keep us posted. A couple of times we had tough deadlines and they work with us as hard as we are working. We document everything. They help us by reviewing the documents that we’re going to share with the customers while scoping the projects on the technical side. We don’t have to get a lot of resources. They have the background we need, and that’s different to other partners we’ve had.

We had Skype meetings to communicate. We also use remote connections like WhatsApp and AnyDesk. Sometimes we aren’t working at the same time, so we have certain groups that are scheduled to answer any questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For any offshore development, the key is communication. If you lose anything in the communication, that can upset the whole project. We always try to be demanding in our requirements and I believe that’s the right way to keep someone delivering quality. Team building takes time. The good thing is they keep the team leads who are managing with us. They don’t come in with someone new and we have to start over. The last two and a half years, we’ve dealt two people mainly.

They know what we think and how we are building the pricing. Sometimes pricing is tight, and we have to talk about that. So far, they’ve understood the commitment we have to our customers. A firm has to prove themselves first, and then they can receive more and more projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is always room for improvement, as if you stop improving, that’s the beginning of the end. They need to do more in R&D [research and development] and start advancing on their strengths. As partners with Microsoft, we get updates on the hybrid solutions, Office 365 integration, and Dynamics. We always push to do R&D because that’s how you sell when you are selling .NET products. We always have the potential to improve and so does Inquisitive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For Dynamics, they are a good resource. They’re good in business analytics. We have recommended them to some of our peers in the UAE.