Simplogics Solutions Pvt Ltd

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We created a small company in 2004, specializing in health care cost accounting. We know everything about the cost of diseases, treatments, and all related issues. The company has 12 full-time members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simplogics Solutions?

We create models that we then implement and build simulation tools, which change every day according to the outcomes we find. This happens at the speed of the technical revolution. We are physicians for the most part, and we have an analyst who handles everything.

Our challenge is to find people who are responsive and reliable on a daily basis. In addition, we teach every month through a learning system and need to be responsive and quick on that front.

We can’t suddenly decide to stop one model or one way of thinking. Our work includes understanding difficult issues like chemotherapy and nuclear medicine quickly and involves multiple applications from all over the world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The technology side is very simple. We use basic databases like SQL servers, ASP.NET and AngularJS. Most of the time, I will write the code myself, rather than doing a lot of explaining.

Since we have the knowledge of treatments and how that works all over the world, we take part in the conceptualization of everything. We us resources from Simplogics who are able to respond to daily challenges and work overnight to solve problems.

What is the team dynamic?

We have used four resources from Simplogics, who worked with our internal team.

How did you come to work with Simplogics Solutions?

We were looking for reliable developers who would provide real solutions, rather than creating more problems.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don’t remember the exact date, but we’ve been working with Simplogics Solutions since 2006. We are still a startup, so it’s difficult for us to know what the future holds. We don’t have competitors, but we need to find solutions for clients that are often difficult to please.

We have worked on 2–3 projects overall. We stopped working together for a period of time because they didn’t have resources with knowledge of certain technologies that we needed. Once they found and incorporated this new team member, we began work with them again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Put simply, if the deliverables didn’t work, we would no longer use them. We wouldn’t be wasting time with people who don’t meet our expectations.

Our customers are very happy. Our team is known for working quickly to resolve problems and responding immediately.

How did Simplogics Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate every day through WebEx and phone. There were no language or cultural barriers with their team in India. They’ve come to France for an in-person meeting already, and we plan to have another one, either in France or in India.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have worked to make us happy, which is the main point.

It’s not easy to find resources who respond quickly, without simply explaining to us what we should do. We worked with another remote company who was similar to Simplogics, but there was a difference: with this remote company, when we asked a question or gave an instruction, they asked us why we wanted to do that. My answer was always the same: “If you don’t want to do it, I will do it myself, or have someone else do it.” They would eventually agree but always tried to argue or come back in 15 minutes to say that the assignment was very difficult.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We learn how to improve together on a continuous basis.

Do you have advice for prospective customers?

Embedment is key, even for short-term, 3-4-month projects. We need to know the people, have discussions and understand their reactions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder of a tech product development company working in the Middle East market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simplogics Solutions?

We don’t have a strong tech presence in the Middle East, and don’t have the right knowledge set, so we were looking for a team which could support us on the development part. Based on research, we found out some details about Simplogics, and started working with them. We had worked with similar companies in India, but this was our first experience with this group.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The main task was the development of a particular product. All the goals were related to that product build and its soft launch. I cannot go into too much detail, since it hasn’t been officially launched yet.

What is the team dynamic?

If I’m not mistaken, there were around 4 developers from Simplogics’ side working on our project, aside from the project manager and technical architect.

How did you come to work with Simplogics Solutions?

We found them through a common network connection. Simplogics had certain capabilities and skillsets which were compatible with what we wanted, in terms of a product build. They’d worked on a few projects which were similar to ours, and had the experience of working with a particular skillset. Also, they were quite competitive from a price perspective.

We were looking for MongoDB and big data analytics knowledge. Simplogics had worked on this before, and it was exactly what attracted us to them.

How much have you invested with them?

At the end of the day, we were looking at the overall cost. Simplogics had a price of $16 per man-hour.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Simplogics around January 2016. Stage 1 is over, and we’re starting stage 2, for which we’ve signed an agreement with Simplogics.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main thing we were looking at was how quickly Simplogics would be able to deploy things, resolve bugs and technical issues, and get the product off the ground. This is the reason we’re signing up with Simplogics again.

How did Simplogics Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a bit of a challenge with the collaboration initially, since the weekends in the Middle East are on Friday and Saturday, while, in India, they are on Saturday and Sunday. We were limited to 4 days, but were able to work around that schedule. There were a few unforeseen delays in the project, but we were able to work through all of them.

We used Skype and Google Hangouts, but sometimes resorted to direct telephone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their experience was the main thing which pulled us in. We had been exposed to companies with different skillsets. Compared to them, Simplogics had good service, and the team was straightforward to work with. We actually visited them on-site. This would put them in a nice position, but, then again, most tech companies in India would have similar capabilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Some of the delays were unforeseen from our side, but could have been foreseen from Simplogics’ side. We still think that these are things which are learned from experience, and could have potentially been evened out, had they been watchful about it.

Advice for customers

Make sure that objectives are in place, and that you’re clear in terms of goals and achieving product builds. Also, make sure that the timeline is locked in advance, and plan for buffers.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on April 17th, 2018 by the client. New content is below.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Simplogics Solutions Pvt Ltd?

We moved from the initial build to phase two, which involves adding new features and a maintenance contract.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After we started the second phase, there was a slight change in the quality of their service, expertise, seniority, and deliverables.

For example, timesheets and time allocated for feature builds. The time that was allocated versus the time that was actually used was completely different, despite following an agile model with built-in hours. If someone was going to take three hours to build a particular feature, they would increase the number of hours significantly and stretch it out.

What is the team dynamic?

The team composition also changed, which did not adhere to our original agreement. Since they were starting from scratch, the new resources were inexperienced with how our project worked and had more junior status. The knowledge and momentum the original team had built up was lost. Their main CTO was out of the country which made knowledge transfer difficult. We had to hire external resources to work based off the repository of code to transfer materials into our site.

How much have you invested in them?

We saw 5-7-hour discrepancies between the allocated and worked amount of time. We discovered these problems after cross-examining the team. The hourly rate stayed the same.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have hired our own internal team since ending our work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

This process of hiring other contractors was costly. We ended the engagement six months later after a difficult three months. We lost contracts with clients because of problems with delivery and maintenance, which negated six months of potential work.

How was project management handled?

The management shifted to necessitate senior level meetings to locate the source of problems, which time consuming. We asked for more regular meetings from a senior management, which could not be arranged. Deliveries were delayed and required follow up calls, and we often called their personal cell phones to reach them after not hearing back.

In what specific areas can they improve?

I think this situation could have been mitigated through cooperation, transparency, and communication. They should have a method in place to ensure problems are reported consistently.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Vet potential contractors deeply and look at their past projects before hiring them. The first team was honest and met our needs before they were replaced by different resources. They were a straightforward company when we hired them.

Company Responses

After a successful phase 1, Relocent was extremely happy with our work and collaborated again with us for phase 2 features and enhancements.

For various administrative factors, we could not retain all the phase 1 resources for phase 2. However, there was a proper KT & hand-off between the team members. This new team also worked hard to deliver to their best. As Relocent mentioned, for a few milestones, we had to overshoot the planned hours by around 5 – 7 hours, which is approximately 3% variance.

Though Simplogics was following up with Relocent for frequent status update meetings with senior management, we could not succeed in getting their quality time. Weekly meetings would have helped in addressing the challenges and pain points at the earliest.

As Relocent received funding from Government of Bahrain, it necessitated them to hire a team locally in Bahrain to comply with the terms of funding and terminate the contract with Simplogics. Even though a 3-month notice was mandated, Simplogics agreed to the premature closure, foregoing the contract value though legally due. We hope this gives an assurance that we never overcharge a client & we value the relationship with a client.