Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
I'm very confident because we have finished the platform and we have tested both sides of the system. That's why we were able to confidently present it to ministry responsible for higher education. The Zambian government officials were delighted with the demonstration. The only thing holding us back was that the government needed to pass legislation for this system to be implemented. I'm glad to say that 3 months ago, the President approved the bill and the law has been passed. As we are speaking, I’m looking at the platform. We also presented to the [Kremlin] secretary and the Loans Board, who are the actual end users of the system. We've achieved about 80% to 90% of what the ministry has been looking for. For us, that’s a success story.
I have colleagues who work for the Development Bank of Zambia as well as our reserve bank— that’s the central bank, the Bank of Zambia—who have looked at the credit management information system. They were extremely excited after seeing just the landing page. They said, “It's high time we had something like this for our country." We attribute that success to Softlabs.
How did Softlabs perform from a project management standpoint?
From a management point of view, Softlabs has been very efficient. I'm not an IT guru. My partner, Nathan, actually understands more of these things better than I do. They're very responsive about providing the information we need, even at night or after working hours. When we ask for certain things that need to be in the system, they quickly work on that without fail. I think they've provided us good project management.
They've been very consistent with communication. If there is any delay from either side, we inform. We don't rely on emails or phone calls, so they contact us via WhatsApp. If there's any disruption in the delivery of the system, we quickly know about it. They also informed us in case they finished things before the deadline. If they anticipate the need for extra resources, they let us know about it. They would say, "Well, in this area, we are having a challenge." They would bring in an expert or a technical team to help in that particular area. They have been very good with updating us about the status of the development.
What did you find most impressive about Softlabs?
I appreciated that we built more than just a business. We are more like a team because Softlabs understands our way of doing things and we understand theirs. I think this has made us work together very well.
Are there any areas Softlabs could improve?
I must be honest. So far, there isn't one thing that I would point out that they are lagging behind. They may not be the best system developers and we do have some challenges here and there, but that is inevitable. We had a bit of a challenge in meeting certain deadlines. For example, Softlabs would tell us, "Well, with this, we should be able to have it up and running on this particular day. We'll do a demo." Sometimes the system might fail us or a few things would not meet our expectations. When they reschedule, normally we get almost everything that we're looking for.
The costs are very competitive and some technical difficulties notwithstanding, Softlabs has regularly delivered on time or properly managed expectations. Their work has been used to great success in demonstrations for branches of the central government.