QED42

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an electrical company with a dedicated team of 9,100 people at more than 130 sites around the world. I'm the platform owner of the Drupal web projects in nVent.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

As part of our digital transformation in nVent, we are building our corporate and the brand websites in Drupal. The goal is develop/enhance/support and maintain all the websites in the Drupal(Acquia) platform. Also to support future enhancements/acquisitions under this platform with integration with other platforms like P360, Salesforce, etc.,

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

QED42 has worked in other projects with nVent previously. I got to know about it from my colleagues. I interviewed the candidates referred by QED42 and was very satisfied with the candidates I was provided.

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

We use JIRA for our project management. We use scrums for our sprints which is of every two weeks where we assign tasks to our developers and track everything there. Every bi-weekly we release code to production. All our websites are built using Drupal 9 and is built and maintained on the Acquia ACSF/ACE servers.

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

Three people have worked with me on the project. Their positions being Back-end/Front-end Drupal developer and QA.

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

As we use JIRA for our sprints and project planning which is of bi-weekly. We track team velocity which is measure of the total number of tasks(in Hours) committed into the sprint vs completed at the end of the sprint.

Till now the review is very satisfactory for the QED42 developers. The response we got from our shareholders and segment leaders are very positive and they are happy with our performance.

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

We use JIRA for our project management. We use scrums for our sprints which is of every two weeks where we assign tasks to our developers and track everything there. Every bi-weekly we release code to production.

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

QED42 has a large pool of resources and a great feedback approach.

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

Only one area where I think I was struggling to get a resource was QA which should have some expertise or have relevant experience in the Drupal technology. Other than that I'm satisfied with the resources I have got.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Lead, Digital Consulting

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

Design and Development for Drupal applications

How did you select QED42 and what were the deciding factors?

A full range of services and their established relationship within the Drupal community

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

We needed to create a Drupal website from scratch. In the design phase, there was creative exploration which led to logo and design comps. Approved comps led to the development of the Drupal application. We split this into site building and theming. We then established the hosting and built a DevOps platform for deployments and automatic updates. Finally, we entered the content.

How many people from the QED42 team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Five different people: two designers, two engineers, one PM.

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

I was deeply impressed how quickly they worked and with how high the quality was. It was built well and they delivered as expected. A lot of this was able to happen with a high degree of autonomy and minimal feedback through technical and website reviews.

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

Work was planned in a backlog and performed iteratively to gather feedback at various points in the process. Communication was primary Slack, commenting on tickets, and email. They are well-organized and professional in all phases of the project. They delivered faster than expected, which was surprising as corners were not cut on quality.

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

They are very flexible to work with you in creative ways when needed. Also, as mentioned, they delivered a high quality product that met the standards set by the open source community. They did not need much guidance as they knew what was needed and they met it without hand holding.

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

Incorporating higher fidelity content earlier in the process could have helped to clarify some of their design direction. But, it was readily explainable and easily corrected.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

The Bombay High Court instructed the Government of Maharashtra to give this project to IIT Bombay. The dissemination of the latest acts to the general public had large delays due to the asynchronous nature of the publication and approval process. This makes it difficult for the courts to rule judgements based on the latest acts and policies of the government. IIT Bombay designed workflow and outsourced complete development to QED. This includes, workflow automation and management, UI/UX design for online editing, conversion to XML standards for export and import, formatting for publication, as well as public view.

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

• Talented team with quality experience in web development
• Open to working with academia and new technologies
• Flexibility in working hours and easily approachable
• Responsive to suggestions and corrective actions

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

• Development of a system for data-entry of Bare Bills (new bills) that can convert to various formats (print and web)
• Must be capable of concurrent insertion/editing of different paragraph levels by different persons (similar to the real time collaboration in google spreadsheets where each cell is locked by the person editing it, but other collaborators can edit other cells)
• Sections and paragraphs must be numbered according to standard conventions.
• Must allow for footnotes and margin notes (see sample Bare Act attached)
• Must allow for entry in any language of choice, at least English and Marathi must be supported for the language of the content.
• Must be saved in an XML format with appropriate annotations
• Must provide a PDF output in the format of Bare Acts (sample attached) for proofreading (double spaced) as well as final format.
• Proofreading PDF must optionally show revision edits (difference between current and previous version of the proof). Eg. what was included or replaced and what was deleted. Must allow for version control (like git) commits at the level of changes to a paragraph.
• Cover page must contain metadata information (dates, status, revision overview, digital fingerprint, etc)
• Must provide a stylised HTML view of the act for the use on mobiles or tablets in the Legislative bodies (Assembly and Council)
• Must allow for a secure and authenticated workflow management between various divisions: LJD, Printing Press, and Legislative Secretariat Workflow must adhere to the current process (described in the as-is schematic)
• Workflow must provide user level audit trails of changes made to the document
• Web portal for public display of approved Acts
• Approved Acts must be displayed in an HTML view (responsive)
• Various pages and sections must be easily navigable (particularly for large acts)
• References to other sections of the act or other acts must be correctly hyperlinked
• A fast and predictive semantic keyword search must be available across all acts in the system.
• Portal must also provide a facility to upload existing acts (PDF version) that have been created outside the new system.
•  The search facility must also index the content of the PDF files

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

One Solution Architect, One Technical Architect, Three programmers One Designer

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

The project deliverables were slightly modified in due course, as per the change requested by the Maharashtra Government. QED accepted these changes and provided the solution in time. The solution is not yet deployed due to reasons of delays in procurement of the hosting architecture from the government side and due to the pandemic of 2020.

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

Agile, regular meetings with daily standups and weekly reviews with solution architect (during the critical phase of development)

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

They're a flexible, open, and talented team.

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

None I can judge

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our organization, Ashoka, Innovators for the Public, is a 40 year old Non-profit organization that was started in Washington DC, but we now have offices in 30 odd countries and a presence in over 90 countries. I am in charge of web development of multiple websites that we create, manage and maintain for our work globally.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We started using QED42's help when we needed a dedicated senior backend person to maintain the existing Drupal 7 website and to chart out the migration plan of our website from Drupal 7 version to the Drupal 8.

How did you select QED42 and what were the deciding factors?

We looked through multiple vendor options in India and QED42's involvement in the Drupal community and good reviews from other developers in the community were the deciding factors for selecting QED42.

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

Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 migration

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

Permanent basis: 1 Senior Backend Developer and Architect 1 Mid level Front end developer 1 Mid level backend developer Temporary short term projects: 1 Mid level Backend developer 1 Senior JS architect 1 Junior JS developer

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

Traffic 43.6% higher traffic in May-Sept 2020 (122,967 vs 85,632 in May-Sept 2019) SEO/Organic Search 15% increase in organic search traffic in May-Sept 2020 (37,564 vs 32,745 in May-Sept 2019) AX Easier edits to metadata and Open Graphs for social media and SEO optimizations

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

Jira Teams Email and even whatsapp in case of emergencies

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

The readiness to help in multitude ways was impressive. Estimations Project Management Tips Short term projects

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

Nothing at all!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Project Manager at the European Bartender School (EBS), the world's leading provider of bartender courses. I am responsible for delivering IT projects to support our on going expansion.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42?

An IT project that expanded our current website into one that can produce franchise controlled subsites, giving franchisees an online marketing platform and control over their content. QED provided architecture / design guidance, development resource and QA / testing.

What were your goals for this project?

Business goal is to be able to quickly deploy websites for franchisee partners that they can use as a marketing tool.

How did you select QED42?

QED42 was chosen initially from a shortlist of 6 with some small project work. As they had proven to be very flexible and capable, QED42 was chosen for this larger project.

Describe the project in detail.

Main aspects were:

• Improve & simply user experience of our CMS.
• Create a method to easily deploy franchisee websites.
• Maintain integration with our other systems.
• Expand the current code base, not create another.

From the requirements provided by myself, QED42 provided a great proposal that covered all of the key aspects. With myself guiding / leading, QED42 developed, tested, oversaw migration and deployment.

What was the team composition?

With me as sole EBS contact point and project leader / technical consultant from the EBS side, QED42 provided a team consisting of account manager, technical architect, 2 back end developers, one front end developer and a QA tester.

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

Whilst we are still to deploy this phase in anger (awaiting business go ahead), so far extensive testing has proven that the development has been accurate and fulfils the requirements. All goals have been accomplished and EBS are happy with the result.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication with QED42 is excellent. If they have doubts or queries, they ask to ensure they fully understand the requirements. If potential issues arise, they raise them so we can arrive at the best solution together. Regular and on topic update meetings proved to be highly beneficial.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I required to have more technical and procedural input than would be considered normal from QED42's perspective. They were highly flexible in this regard and adapted perfectly to how EBS would like to run / control certain aspects of the project. On top of this, they maintained a very high level of professionality throughout the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I'm always of the opinion that we can always improve. In this case I am nit-picking, but potentially the only thing would be to maybe improve sprint delivery definitions. But this is an exceptionally minor thing in this case.

Please describe your company and your position there.

This site is your non-partisan, one-stop portal to help you stay informed and get involved. By offering a unique way to participate in the political process, Votesane empowers democracy in a new way. Our site features news, data, and insights into Congressional members, political candidates and timely issues, and enables you to donate directly to the candidates and issues you care about. I am a founding member and the CTO of Votesane

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We hired QED to augment and help manage our development process. As a start up, we worked with a shoestring budget and a small staff, QED was the answer. Our goals were to update our site and continue changing and evolving. For a number of years now, QED and their team of professionals have helped to revamp, rework and process change requests on an ongoing basis.

How did you select QED42 and what were the deciding factors?

Our original introduction was through a mutual colleague. We opted to go with QED as the team was knowledgable, professional and capable. Additionally, the team was solutions focused and didn't try to upsell or over engineer based upon what we needed at the time.

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

We worked with QED to identify the project requirements as they stood, identify key areas for improvements, transition from older technologies into more modern approaches and have been able to consistently update and evolve following the ever changing flow of the American political populous.

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

We've worked with three different project managers and numbers developers including a 2 primary backend and 2-3 front end developers that have fairly consistently been allocated to our taskings.

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

The QED team has been very successful in helping us to maintain uptime and availability through a couple of election cycles as we constantly work to evaluate and identify where we'd like the next generation of the site to go.

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

We've operated in an agile approach during our entire engagement with QED and have appreciated the flexibility of this approach as we are constantly in flux. Its greatly contributed to the success of projects and our ability to meet scheduling goals

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

QED is a personality driven team. They have the right people and personalities aggregated to create a cohesive and effective team.

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

My only concern is retaining institutional knowledge and consistency in staff. Over the years, turn over is going to happen. We've been through a few different team members and there is always a little ramp up time when transitioning. The team typically handles it well and more than accounts for the inconvenience of it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of a retail clothing delivery company. We provide delivery for retail stores to local customers.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We hired them to create an e-commerce platform that would allow customers to shop their local stores online and receive it same day.

Our goals are in going but initially we needed a platform for stores to upload their products, manage stock and fill orders. We are currently working on an upload that builds off of the initial project with added features like customer memberships. Our goals have been met so far.

How did you select QED42 and what were the deciding factors?

A trusted friend recommended them several years ago. We initially went with a different company based in my state of Louisiana but the project was dropped by several teams due to lack of time.

Dipen reached back out to us a year later and it was perfect timing to find a new company to build it. I wish we would have chosen QED42 the first time around but overall, I’m glad we ended up finally choosing them.

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

I’m not very technologically versed in languages of IT work. They have made the best of my limited knowledge and are very patient with me. My best description of our product is that we decided to build a web application that mirrors food delivery services in many ways.

We started with the MVP that did the basics of what I needed to be able to do...store load items and fill orders...customer able to shop and create accounts. Our phase 2 includes bulk uploading and customer memberships.

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

Two main people I worked with are Somedetta and Anand. Suma would be what I would call the project manager or leader. Anand is a developer. There are other people that work with me from time to time but those are the main people.

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

While we are still building our system and helping our company get off the ground, our stores that have signed up and experimented with it are happy with how easy to use the system is.

Most of our stores figured out how to load products on their own. Customers that we show are happy as well and can not wait for it to be in their city. We are awaiting the start of our Phase 3 which will help us integrate with platforms such as Shopify and Lightspeed.

Store feedback as been that integrating would be a helpful feature. We are excited to be halfway that point. Any delay of the project has been on our end. We are happy with how fast they work with us to get us our product.

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

We email regularly. We have frequent calls over Zoom to talk in depth or review work. They have even schedule two extra calls when I had trouble understanding something.

Both calls produced positive outcomes and understanding of what I was struggling with. And once again, I am not amazing with technology. Their willingness to help me understand things has been a massive help to us.

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

How fast they get a finished product to me and also a very generous price considering the depth of this project. As a start up company, I appreciate an affordable price.

We are very aware that the quality of their work goes above and beyond what my budget has been. Everyone we have worked with has given me their opinions and advice on each part of the journey. The consulting aspect they provide has been a blessing as well.

An extra opinion or idea is helpful on a project like this. I’ve even leaned on them for their personal opinions in some areas that I couldn’t decide on. And once again, they have helped me understand easily how to navigate everything they have built for me.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I cannot come up with a single area that needs improvement. I believe they do their job well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an online real estate listing site in a Latin American country, similar to Trulia or Zillow in the U.S. We bring in all types of selling areas within the real estate industry to our site in order to connect them to buyers.

What challenge were you trying to address with QED42?

I’m not a technical person, and didn’t have a team of good programmers in place. I started the project in 2013, and found Drupal to be the best fit for my project out of all the CMSs [content management systems] I looked at. QED42 works with Drupal, and I’d also checked out Drupal’s website to see all the vendors they had. I’d initially worked with companies in San Francisco, Denmark, and a few other European countries because my project didn’t start for the real estate system. It was, at first, a classified site similar to Craigslist.

The previous vendor did the work as I asked them to, but I had a few problems with them. The architecture they designed wasn’t very well-built, and it was, overall, too complex.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I traveled to India before doing anything remotely and meant Dipen [CEO, QED42] and his team in person, and I was very impressed. The company was very professional. It was very well-structured, and they had good engineers working for them.

We sat for six hours and discussed the project, and decided that I needed to pivot my entire startup idea onto something more focused. A simple classifieds website would be too hard to succeed with, so Dipen, being a technical person, helped guide me with his general business knowledge and experience. He assisted me in getting into the real estate business, and then we started working on the brand new website.

They used Drupal and many other services, depending on what the requirements were. In my case, they used Ionic to build the mobile app, which is a framework that helps build and deploy apps simultaneously to both iOS and Android platforms. They used many Google APIs for the real estate industry, including Google Maps. We also have a chat feature in the app for sellers and buyers to communicate. We also used Google’s Firebase system. For the frontend development, we used AngularJS. For app analytics, we’re used Localytics and Google Analytics.

Within six months, we had an MVP [minimum viable product] built. We had a mobile app which I didn’t have before, along with a very good site and product.

What is the team composition?

Dipen gave me extra attention, and I was present in India when he assembled the team. He accompanied the project from the start, not only as the project manager, but also as a point of escalation. They assigned two people on QA, and 4–5 engineers for building. There were also two UI designers who were very good. They scaled the team as needed.

How did you come to work with QED42?

I had the option to change vendors, so I interviewed others associated with Drupal. I wanted to work with a company in India because it would be easier for me to visit them, unlike the previous company that was based in the U.S.

I went to the directory online, and ended up interviewing 6–7 companies. When I came across QED42, I had a feeling they would be better because they immediately offered to do a free site audit. They checked everything and came up with a solution, and Dipen listened to my requests. Afterwards, they explained the programming issues to me in a way I could understand. Dipen really took his time and was patient with me.

How much have you invested with them?

I've spent in the lower six figures range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working on the website in October of last year, and the project was completed in June 2017.

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

They helped me bring the product to life. My country is not a big market, but we’re growing at a rate of 300–400 new properties per week. The success of the company is our responsibility now. I have plans to enter a second phase of development, but I’m going to wait until I reach certain milestones. I want to get feedback from customers so we can develop new features to improve the product.

How did QED42 perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. We were connected all the time through Slack and Jira. They utilized Agile methodologies, and managed all the sprints. I’m still in touch with the whole team, and when I send a message, they respond quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of people who work with them is impressive. I’ve had experiences working with other vendors, and it’s very different depending on whether there are in-house engineers or an outsourced team. When QED assigns a team to work on a project, they are invested in the timely release and good development of the product.

If there are any issues, I am confident talking to them. They solve my problems immediately. I have confidence and peace of mind with QED because of their team and attentiveness.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have experience with two or three vendors, and out of those, I’ve had the best experience with QED42.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They brilliantly handle many types of customers, including enterprise companies and startups. I noticed that they like when a customer knows what they want, and when they’re invested in their own product and success. I suggest going into as much detail as possible. They’re going to work with their clients to arrive at the best possible decision. Once a new technology is adapted, it’ll be used for a long time.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a marketing executive at Ginesys. We provide a futuristic retail software to Indian retailers.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42, and what were your goals?

We got our new website developed from another company, who couldn't perform complicated tasks, as a result many of our requirements were kept on hold. These development requirements were necessary for our website to perform better.

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

We selected QED42 because of their quick responses and the willingness to go that extra mile for client satisfaction. They are very knowledgeable in the tech they deal in.

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

The scope of work depends on the requirements we raise, it is an on going project. Tech we use is Drupal.

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

2 Developers and a Sales Manager looked after the project. Junior developer Alphons was assigned to our project full time. Special appreciation to Alphons for his efforts in delivering the best. Sreenandh and Mohit too were very helpful:)

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

Yes, the site works smoother now.

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

Regular communications and updates on Slack made the process effortless.

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

Their professionalism was exceptional. Enthusiastic approach backed with technical knowledge.

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

A little bit of internal communication can be improved. Otherwise, they are good:)

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work as a program assistant for South Asian Workers Center in Boston.

For what projects/services did your company hire QED42?

We had problems with our website as it crashed and we couldn’t access for a while.

What were your goals for this project?

To keep our website in order and function well.

How did you select QED42?

Recommendations

Describe the project in detail.

The website wasn’t working at all and there were more issues coming. People couldn’t access anything.

What was the team composition?

We reached out to them, and they instantly started working on it.

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

Everything was done smoothly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Communicative

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that we know.