MantraSys

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former CEO of a legal collections software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with MantraSys?

We were making a transition from a tech space COBALT legal system to a .NET legal system. MantraSys was hired to assist with coding and product testing. In addition, they worked as an advisor on the database schema and the table layout.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Mercury LoadRunner, and various testing software to build our new platform. In addition, they worked within our policies and guidelines for development procedures, codes, and standards. We did a C++.Net and VB .NET program, and it was written in an advanced SQL database, which had over 300 tables.

The lead on this project sat in on our committee meeting once a week to assist us in design questions, and also to develop various implementation and design plans. He also tested and completed the bug resolutions and led our team in the testing on the product frontend and backend.

What is the team composition?

We always had at least 1-2 people on site, and sometimes that team was as large as 30 people. These were both developers and testers who reported to our lead architect.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $3.5 – 4 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've worked together from 2012 – 2015.

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

Our CFO and lead architect tracked their success. When you look at the quality of the testing, stability, balance, throughput testing that they did for us, it was very good. We had very few issues once the product was out and operating in the field.

How did MantraSys perform from a project management standpoint?

I would rate them an eight out of 10. The only issue I had was at times there was a  language and comprehension barrier that got in the way of them interpreting the design documents properly.

There was a noticeable difference between our requirements and what was actually coded.

When issues arose, code-related or design-related, they were extremely responsive. They worked through weekends and odd hours to meet a deadline in case we had problems. They were very available and the team leaders they assigned were willing to tackle even our most complicated architectural issues that effected the throughput and stability of the product.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a timely response in meeting deadlines. Having experience working with companies around the world, their ability to ramp up and meet deadlines was phenomenal. Of course, they fall behind, but it's never at any cost to us. If they misjudge the quantity of work and have to add additional people to meet the deadline, we were never billed for that. When we were trying to deliver this to the market, we were one of the first with a browser-based collection system. We wanted to meet our expected delivery date because of the competition; they were very instrumental in helping us meet that date.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Placing more time upfront in understanding the industry would be useful for them going forward. Each state in the federal government has various tangle-web of laws, which I think they underestimated. They could have easily asked more questions or done more research on what those parts entail. I will give them a big plus, however, because they recovered quickly by sending 1-2 senior-level workers to our company to understand how the flow of data should work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to explain your industry and have them research it before putting it together. Having a detailed RFP is important too, with specific deadlines. It's also important to make them a part of any steering committee, action committee, or code review, to hold them accountable for any events that take place in that meeting.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former manager of a company that develops software solutions for call/contact centers.

What challenge were you trying to address with MantraSys?

We wanted to rewrite our call center solution in a .NET framework to scale it from 10 or 20 agents to 200.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The solution was an enterprise application with a lot of coding in the business engine. Hundreds of agents can now dial in and use predictive dialing to work through the giant list of phone numbers. MantraSys also integrated us with interactive voice recorder capabilities (IVR).

What is the team composition?

We had two developers to start, a senior developer and a team lead. Then, we ramped up slowly to our peak of 10, which included eight developers and two QA people.  

How did you come to work with MantraSys?

They came as a referral from one of our partners.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $260,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2014 until the solution launched in November 2016. They also did a couple of things in the months after the launch.

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

They were very good. They told us a month in advance of any delays, and the one delay was because we requested some extra features. The management was good, and the app is still running in many call centers.

How did MantraSys perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, we had someone on-site. Along with receiving daily email updates we also had access to the project plan and an online portal to track it. We could log on 24/7 and see who had worked on what and what they’d accomplished. MantraSys kept our login active for six months after launch so we could revisit documentation and any feedback we’d given them.

They also came into our office for monthly steering meetings to discuss what they’d worked on in the past month and what was planned for the next month. This made my job easier as a manager since my superiors could come in and ask them questions themselves.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was precise, which helped them be on time; there were no surprises. If they were going miss a deadline, we knew a month in advance. They also gave daily updates, and, if I ever had a question, I could find the info online. They’re also technically superior. They came up with different ideas to solve our business problem and put their technology behind it, rather than push their technology onto us.

Additionally, the founder of Mantra knew how larger projects were done. It’s easier to satisfy small projects (under $10,000), but it’s another thing to do multiyear projects. You need a different set of skills and qualities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They made the budget and the final deadline. Managing a project over two years and meeting the deadline is not easy. But, they did it with good quality, so I can’t think of anything they should really change. They could probably be on-site more, but that’s all I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to their solutions. They have good practices in place and know how to manage a project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a snow software company that provides the ability for our clients to capture real-time data that is being captured out in the field. With this process crews can take photos for beginning, ending or damage documentation protect the clients and their company.

For what projects/services did your company hire MantraSys?

MantraSys helps to maintain the source code and when needed add additional information or code that is need in both the ios or android system making our company and clients business run smooth.

What were your goals for this project?

To provide our customers and their crews and/or vendor with easy to use access with our mobile app.

How did you select this vendor?

The vendor was selected by my former boss who worked with MantraSys before.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project was to add additional filters to our existing mobile app or both the ios and Android phones.

What was the team composition?

We had two individuals who were our main contact however, I do not know exactly how many people were working on our project.

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

In the snow business crews are constantly trying to keep up with following snow and weather condition. With the ease of the new filter it is easier to perform service from one location to the next. Office personnel do not need to create a route for individual crews using the new filter. The new update allows for faster uploads and fast invoicing to our clients and helps in all liability issues that may arise from a slip and fall claim.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager was always quick to respond and meet our needs. if he was not available his counterpart was there to answer any questions I may have.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There was no middle man, I do not know who owns the company but when the assigned a project manager to deal with he was all there for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only area is on both part which is a minor language barrier. It became much easier when creating a video outlining our problem, then they were quick to react because the video explained the issue.