Parsys Media

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an online wealth advisory platform. Using our website and web app, clients can buy mutual funds in India.

What challenge were you trying to address with Parsys Media?

We needed external resources to build our website from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Parysys Media was responsible for building our website from the ground up using our technical specs. It was an investment website that would integrate with the Mumbai Stock Exchange’s mutual funds platform. This would allow our clients to buy and sell on the Mumbai Stock Exchange.

During the scoping process, we spoke on the phone and also met them to go over the project point by point. We provided 14–15 pages of documentation, which covered our home page, the different sections within that, the contact us page, login page, blog, and more. The site would have a lot of APIs, so the tech stack needed to include JavaScript with AngularJS on the frontend and Node.js on the backend.

Although we gave them thorough requirements, they only wrote down a few items in the contract, so we asked them to represent our entire technical document. This took a few days, and we even paid extra because they needed additional resources to handle the contract.

They eventually gave us a quote for PHP and Java and contacted us regularly during the development process. However, once we paid the project fees, they stopped responding to our calls and didn’t share the project structure. In the end, they failed to complete the site.

What is the team dynamic?

I spoke with two people, including their co-founder and a developer.

How did you come to work with Parsys Media?

They responded to our job post on Freelancer.com, were local, and seemed genuine. We had an initial meeting to go over our needs and agreed on a price. But, once we paid them, they said that our requests were outside of the statement of work (SoW), despite the fact that we’d presented a clear document from the beginning. They didn’t complete anything, even after 15–20 days, and stopped responding altogether. Eventually, I had to cut my losses.

How much have you invested with them?

I paid 50,000 Indian rupees (approximately $704 USD at the time), but the total price would have been 130,000 Indian rupees (approximately $2,000 USD). They convinced us to pay them directly rather than going through the Freelancer payment system, which had set milestone payments.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them in April 2018.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

I couldn’t afford to waste any more time, so I had to cut my losses and find another development firm. Now, I have a website, web app, and Android app.

How was project management handled?

We met face to face twice, and they showed me their credentials. At the time, I felt they were authentic people trying to do part-time work. The team supposedly consisted of a project manager, two developers, and a frontend specialist, but we didn’t interact with anyone aside from one of the developers. He said they were working on the project but couldn’t deliver in the end.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

No, they didn’t complete anything.

In what specific areas can they improve?

I couldn’t say.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an IT services company based in India. It was a startup when I started off and now we are an employer of 150 people. We focus on ASP.NET and SharePoint. We have our Indian clients and also clients in the US and the Middle East, but since we are located here, we primarily cater to the Indian market. We are slowly expanding.

I am a Team Lead; I have my own team here.

What challenge were you trying to address with Parsys Media?

We have a pre-sales specialist team and they have a lot of access to our document management system. Our software specialists coordinate with the pre-sales team via our document management system. That system has been delegated to Parsys. Then we also have our time booking system with Parsys. Parsys is doing other things for other people in the company, but this is mainly what they are doing for my team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

From my knowledge, they have portals which are based on Java.

How much have you invested with Parsys Media?

I don’t know about those figures. This pricing model is working out for everyone. They have flexibility in terms of pricing; they are quite agile in that regard I would say. We have support services that we routinely pay for when we are initiating a new portal. We pay them an implementation fee as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing since 2014.

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

I was facing a lot of problems before Parsys Media. We had another internally developed software that we were using. The document management system that I am talking about is quite huge. It maintains a lot of historical data that is really important for us. We were facing a lot of trouble accessing it, and soon we made a plan to change. Then, Parsys Media came and had it running very quickly. I don’t think there were any problems from the independent analysis we did. I don’t know how Parsys overcame the issue, but it’s great now. Even the number of simultaneous users with access has increased. Before, if even one person was signed in, there would be problems for anyone else who wanted to sign in. Now, two or three people can remain logged in without any problems. They are adding more and more features.

The best part is their technical guys are well trained and they suggest more enhancements that you can add yourself, which I have not seen another vendor do. You get whatever you ask for, but when they see something, they make suggestions. That is good, so it’s working really well for me now and I’m sure that will continue.

How did Parsys Media perform from a project management standpoint?

The best thing about them is that they provide a dedicated consultant. I think they call them a software specialist; he or she is the one who looks into maintaining the portal. We’ve been working two years with them and I don’t think we’ve faced any issues.

What did you find most impressive about Parsys Media?

I have a direct comparison with my past vendor, which was not working well. Parsys is doing well. I think that’s really important, delivering the project and then maintaining it.

Are there any areas Parsys Media could improve?

As of now, nothing is coming to mind. I think their approach is good.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of a finance-related company called DreamLadder Capital. 

For what projects/services did your company hire Parsys Media?

We wanted to develop a website with several API integrations.

How did you select this vendor?

We got their contact through freelancers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Parsys Media didn’t complete even 5% of our work. Both Ashish (CEO, Parsys Media) and Vartika (HR recruiter, Parsys Media) are fraudulent people. They asked me to take the work outside of the freelancing platform that we were initially using, and once they received the initial funding, they averted all our calls.

After some time, they came back with the excuse that the work I was asking for was outside of the scope of the project.

What was the team composition?

They do not have any good developers.

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

We had to move on to another vendor after sending Parsys Media an initial payment. Their strategy is to take the money and run.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their service is pathetic. This should serve as a warning to potential clients.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I can't name anything.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They should shut their shop down.