Solveda

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Easa Husain Al-Yousifi is one of the largest multi-brand electronics retailer in Kuwait. We have multiple retail outlets in addition to our e-commerce platform. I am the head of the IT department.

What challenge were you trying to address with Solveda LLC?

Our multiple retail outlets throughout Kuwait already own a major market share of the electronic items sold in Kuwait. To provide our customers with an online shopping option, we hired Solveda LLC to improve our website and develop a new mobile application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial project was to resolve the existing issues we identified in our website. After completion of this project, we hired them to enhance our website and develop an iOS and Android application. Our e-commerce platform wasn’t working properly, so they came in and fixed the system.

How did you come to work with Solveda LLC?

We found this company through our network. We evaluated them for their resourcefulness, quality, cost and conducted interviews with some of their clients.

How much have you invested with Solveda LLC?

We have spent between $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is an ongoing project.

How did Solveda LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

They provided an excellent project manager. Overall, the project management was above our expectations.

What did you find most impressive about Solveda LLC?

They are excellent. They are always willing to go the extra mile, never compromise on quality, and patiently guide and educate our users.

Are there any areas Solveda LLC could improve?

The service and deliverables they provided have lived up to our expectations. Their willingness to provide details and support are much appreciated. We had few instances of not meeting the agreed upon deadline which should be taken care of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Bridgeline is a web content management and marketing automation software. I am the CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Soveda?

We needed to have deeper expertise in backend web development and needed a partner who not only had a fixed price but had the assets within the company and the track record to stand behind the fix priced bid.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re providing both .net and Java integration to backend ERPs [enterprise resource planning] to backend custom databases for customers in financial services and manufacturing - those are the two that come to mind.

How did you come to work with Soveda?

We found them through references from other companies. After we had started to speak with them, their willingness to invest in the relationship was a big part of it. They expanded their team internally and added resources for some of our larger projects.

How much have you invested with Soveda?

A typical engagement would be between $100,000 and $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’re currently working with them. We started in October 2015.

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

A typical engagement is between 2 and 6 months. They generally have firm commitments on cost and delivery time, and so far, they’ve been able to meet those commitments. They will typically have between 2 and 6 engineers on a project. That includes QA [quality assurance]. Generally, they’re putting about one project manager, two QA people, and three engineers. Sometimes they’ll bring a graphics person into the project, but we usually provide the graphics ourselves. The most common technology that we’re using with them is .net, although Java comes in too sometimes.

How did Soveda perform from a project management standpoint?

They use an Agile project management methodology. We generally have a weekly project update. They do scrums on a daily basis. At the end of all our meetings we get a written email report with the status. They’ve got the infrastructure for tracking projects, reporting issues, managing source code and so forth, so we’re able to do everything through their intranet.

What did you find most impressive about Soveda?

One of the biggest things is they’re [Solveda] able to bid large projects correctly. So if we’ve got a half a million-dollar project that’s going to have ten resources on it with a six-month delivery timeline, they get the bid right. That’s huge for us. There is no underbidding or overbidding. So we know the status of the project. If there’s an issue, we know it right away, and they find creative ways to get around the inevitable problems that always show up in a complicated project.

Are there any areas Soveda could improve?

The main thing we need from them is we need them to grow. We’re investing along with them and bringing other projects. We’re probably consuming a large percentage of their resources, and they’re going to need to add more people to keep up with the amount of work that we’re going to be giving them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Purity Products is a direct marketer of vitamins and supplements to consumers. I am the Chief Technology Officer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Solveda?

We needed help with ERP implementation and e-commerce integration.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did a couple projects with them. The first project was an ERP project. We outgrew the system that we were using and needed something a little more robust. We worked with them to transfer all the features and capabilities of the existing system into something a little more robust that we can further expand on. So the solution was the OFBiz ERP system that they implemented for us. After that, we got into the e-commerce and integrated back into the same OFBiz database, so everything is really consolidated.

How did you come to work with Solveda?

We went through a consulting company who looked at our systems and put together a proposal of what options would fit our needs. Solveda was one of them along with a few others. They made sense from a cost and licensing perspective. That’s why we went with them.

How much have you invested with Solveda?

The project was over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We still use them for some support here and there. We launched the project in October 2008, so probably February or March 2008 is when we signed up with them.

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

I’m not sure we have any real benchmarks that we can provide. It was more about having a more robust system than what we currently had and then growing into that system. That was the focus, as well as trying to make that transition as soon as possible. The transition was smooth given it was such a major change on all fronts. We were up and running in a couple weeks. From there on, it was smooth sailing.

How did Solveda perform from a project management standpoint?

They [Solveda] do a good job of that in terms of scoping the work, following through, and making sure it’s done and tested.

What did you find most impressive about Solveda?

They’ve got a pretty good team and you can work well with them in terms of communication. They get what we want and they’re able to deliver to our custom needs.

Are there any areas Solveda could improve?

No. They were a good partner that worked out well for us. I have no real issues or complaints against them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Steven Singer Jewelers. We are an independent jewelry retailer located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am the Marketing Director.

What challenge were you trying to address with Solveda?

We needed a more robust website that was responsive and able to grow with the company as our revenue increased online.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We are using OFBiz, which is an open source ERP [enterprise resource planning] solution. They have a turnkey CMS [content management system] that sits on top of it that worked for us because we had experience with the OFBiz open source platform. They designed the site to work on mobile platforms, tablets, and desktop. Since we initiated the responsive design work, we have seen 50% of our business and revenue coming from mobile - so it’s working.

How did you come to work with Solveda?

We were in the process of building our own internal system on the OFBiz platform for a year. That product never launched but we were familiar with the OFBiz platform and had done a lot of data transfer already. So when we decided to look for a new website, we looked for companies that provided solutions based on OFBiz. They were one of them and they weren’t too far away. They were able to come down and do some digging into what our needs and business goal were. At the end of the day, between pricing, scalability and timeline, they were a fit for us.

How much have you invested with Solveda?

The initial project was just above $100,000. Annually, we spend $20,000 to $90,000 with them, depending on what our needs are for that year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We work with them on an ongoing basis as things come up. If we need new bells and whistles on the site or assistance with different integrations, they are the people that we use to complete them. We launched in October of 2013 I believe.

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

Conversion rates, average order values, and traffic have increased online. We are able to handle much more traffic than we were previously without the site being compromised. We’ve seen a year over year increase in sales. We’ve seen a 20%-40% increase over the past three years online since we launched.

How did Solveda perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very transparent. They use a ticketing system that allows everybody to see exactly where the project is, who’s working on what, and even the development language and hours that are being spent on the project. It’s very transparent and moves very quickly.

What did you find most impressive about Solveda?

One of the main things is that as a reseller we could’ve gone with some of the bigger names like Magento, Shopping Cart, or Ecart. They are smaller, but big enough to handle the big projects. They were able to get somebody on the phone immediately and get something resolved whenever we needed. The transparency on the projects was really the best part about them.

Are there any areas Solveda could improve?

They’re our go-to for our real technical aspects of the site. We use a different agency for design, which they work very well with. There are no problems.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We're an agriculture company. We develop, produce, and sell seeds for field crops and vegetables in over 80 countries. We have over 60 years of experience in seed research and develops seed technology.

Examples of our technology includes biofortified maize, herbicide-resistant sorghum, disease and pest tolerant vegetables, drought resistant sunflower.

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

Solveda was brought on to help us build an e-commerce function on their existing website and become responsible for the website maintenance for at least one year. Website maintenance responsibilities include SEO improvement, analytics supports, GDPR compliance, integration with MailChimp, and more.

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

Solveda was selected based on its price, business size, timezone/location, and past work.

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

We had a kick-off call to share our vision and goals for what the website was expected to achieve, review the development process, agree on milestones, and set timelines.

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

• Dinesh - Project Lead and main contact for Solveda
• Ratnesh - Expert coder, UX lead for the project
• Nitesh - UI lead
• Deepak - low involvement,

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

Outcomes have only been measured in a complete or incomplete status. When Advanta shares tasks for completion, we are unaware of when Solveda have agreed to complete these tasks, or progress in completion.

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

We have weekly meeting with Solveda. Both project leads, Dinesh & Ratnesh, are in attendance every week. They are open to feedback and provide consultative advice. I enjoy working with them. However

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

It's impressive how willing they are to take on every task.

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

• A more detailed project plan with concrete timelines.
• More critical eye on UI, how the user views and interacts with webpages.