SPEC INDIA

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder of the company. I manage Outsourcing and Global consulting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

After a RFP and a RFI process, we selected Spec India to work with us to develop a data management and scheduling platform for career counseling and mapping. Goal was to have a center for data and assist consumers to get access to data in a centralized location

SOLUTION

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

We shortlisted 5 vendors across India, we selected Spec India because of their lead developer and architect- he understood our requirements. One of the leading factors was they were not pushing on sales but were assisting in understanding the product requirements as Product owners and visualizing it with us for development.

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

• Key Deliverable: Platform, Source Codebase, User Manual
• Technologies Used: Microsoft Technology
• Integrations: Payments - Stripe Integration, Google Ads and Zoom

We started with a kick off call, laying out the requirements and then hammering out details.

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

There were various folks in different positions that worked with us. We started with 1 project manager cum developer + 1 additional developer. Then we worked with the Dev Head.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently there are no measurable outcomes, as the project is not yet LIVE. Feedback on Deliverables: Delay in implementation and unsuccessful handoffs between different developers. Accommodating leaders in the organization worked with us with good communication and helped drive the project faster.

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

Initially Whatsapp was used for communication of the progress and next steps. Our team suggested a more formalized approach and we moved on to emails for capturing progress. As we are in the tailend of the project - the communication has increased with as needed calls and updates - all through emails.

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

Leadership within Spec is impressive - they own up and run with different suggestions. One of the key highlights for us was Neeraj- who heads IT and development - closely worked with us for communicating progress, accommodating requests and faster implementation. Coming from Product side, the team has explained the process to us in a very easy way.

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

Communication and handover of work within their company. When we initially started the engagement, there was good communication between us and Spec, but due to layover, pandemic and change in jobs, their main developers who were working with us left the org. The second developer we started working with did not get a proper handover and our initial dialogues and project plans were not recorded, we had to start from scratch to get the developer up to speed.

Same thing happened the second time, when the developer was changed. As things progressed, communication and project update also decreased. One of the core things that Spec can do - get weekly formalized Project Update calls and reports, have internal communications solid so that handover can be effective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

IDEMEUM- A UNIFIED PASSWORDLESS PLATFORM TO MANAGE IT The Future of workplace technology- a simple and secure platform powered by modern passwordless technology. idemeum’s Unified Passwordless platform offers businesses a single place to manage IT- passwords, logins, employee onboarding and everything in between.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired SPEC INDIA for Mobile Identity & Passwordless Technology Development that included developing mobile apps, cryptography, FIDO, Biometrics and cloud integration.

SOLUTION

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

We met SPEC through reference finalized SPEC after various rounds of due diligence.

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

We wanted to develop iOS & Android Mobile applications for Passwordless Password Manager, Passwordless MFA & Passwordless SSO. Key Deliverables: Mobile Applications (Android, iOS), Source Code, User Manual Technologies: iOS & Android Native, Java, AWS, Angular Integrations: Biometrics, FIDO & Identity Integration

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

5 Resources in total:

• 2 Mobile Developers
• 1 Project Manager
• 1 Frontend Developer
• 1 Backend Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has effectively delivered Android & iOS apps on the respective Stores. User Portals & Browser Extensions

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

The project is being executed on the Agile methodology with Sprint size of 2 weeks. The communication strategy established was a daily standup call, sprint planning / retrospective meeting. Primarily Google Meet for & Keybase for communication. While Linear & Notion for Project Management

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

The SPEC India team has demonstrated high Skillset expertise & effective performance. The team was very diligent in their execution and was always available as needed.

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

Testing needs special attention, we can put in place some sort of automated testing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a medical clinic in Africa that service mainly the indigent but also the insured segment of the population. We run a high volume practice and have a large staff of health professionals and support staff. I am the IT director and operations manager of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have been working with Spec for 15 years now. They developed our initial Electronic Health Record system and have just completed a modernized version using latest technology. This product is the engine of our business and manages most aspects of customer and provider engagements.

SOLUTION

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

Historical relationship and good delivery and support in the past

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

Complete development of a complex Electronic Health Record System incorporating elements of accounting and customer communication. Project started with development of an SRS document which extensively described the requirement in detail.

Once each web page and tool was signed off , the Design team got involved in creating some basic themes which were agreed on and which formed the basis for the project. The coders took over and after some months delivered a working product which required testing and refinement on our end. Finally after some tweaks and adjustments the product was finally signed off , fully functional and bug free.

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

Sales person , Project Team Leader , Senior Coder , 2 assistant coders , a Graphics Design member , a Database specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The final project delivery met and exceeded our expectations , however the first delivered version had significant bugs which was expected. The Team worked relentlessly at resolving them as the product had hundreds of variable controls each having slightly different functions which the team had to fine tune to our requirements.

Any prospective customer should have a team available to fully test the delivered product and be available to interact with the Spec team to ensure a good working product at the end.

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

With regards to customer and team communication , despite Spec having a build in solution for project management , I used a shared excel sheet to communicate with the team and list bugs and clear bugs as they were detected. Timelines were always met. Communication used multiple available tools like Zoom , WhatsApp and Skype as and when available to ensure good and efficient communication so that quick progress was made from 1st draft delivery to completion.

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

I was impressed by their ability to persevere and research until they find a solution for complex problems. Their humble approachable people and their friendly attitude and ability and ensure they understand exactly what you are trying to convey.

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

Most definitely. The graphics design team should have remained attached to the project to take of all ongoing elements leaving the coders to specialize on their expertise instead of cross specializing.

The Quality Assurance department is not adequately functional and should be introduced to the client to provide better communication and understanding of the product so that QA testing can be more accurate and not passed off as fine leaving a messy product that has to be fixed by the coders at the bug finding and testing stage. This can actually save the project more time and increase the teams efficiency as many things wont need to be redone.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

LaundroKart is a rapidly growing On-Demand Laundry and Dry-Cleaning service company, presently operating in 45+ locations in Bengaluru. We provide an affordable and convenient way of getting your laundry & dry-cleaning done right at your finger-tips.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To develop a mobile application along with custom POS where,

• App user can schedule pickup
• User can view price list of different services and garment types
• User can refer this application to his/her friends and earn referral credits via referral code
• User can check order history, add feedback for any selected order and also check status of order
• User can maintain more than one address in application for pickup and delivery location
• User can go through FAQ for any application feature help and can contact admin/authorized personal via sending contact us screen message
• A complete custom POS for the entire working of our process for both retail & factory.

SOLUTION

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

We stumble upon SPEC India during our search for finding the right company to develop our custom solution. From the first call itself SPEC understood our problem statement in detail and in no time they manage to put a very efficient and knowledgeable team together for a detail project discussion. Immediate to our discussion we knew we found the right team to develop our project. We were amazed to see their enthusiasm for the project and they added so much more value to the entire project then we initially thought to go with. I must say that they really own the project more than the client and their entire team works in tandem to deliver. Meeting deadline & working within stipulated budget was another factor which amazed us.

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

Technology Stack for Mobile Application

• OS version support: Android 7.1.2 to 10.X; iOS 11.4.1 to iOS 13.X
• Development platform: React Native 3.5.2. Technology Stack for Web Panel
• Language: .Net core
• Database: MySQL or MS SQL

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

I believe there were more than 15 people worked on our project internally however we were talking mainly to Mr. Niket Shah - Project Manager - Microsoft technologies along with his team: Krunal, Jalpa, Parth, Maulik, Jaydeep, Umesh, Brijesh, Niraj, Shivam, Payal, Manali, Pooja.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to launch our project on time and they supported our for initial few months. Our customers were delighted with the new app and the entire working of user journey.

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

The project management was extremely good, they hardly miss any deadline, if required they'll put more team member to complete work and keep us informed inn case of any hurdles.

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

We were impressed with their understanding of our requirement and we were given direct access to each team member where we could approach them as required. They really helped and saved lot of time without unnecessary communication.

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

There are always scope of improvement and no one is prefect however we are pretty much happy with over all outcome of our project. Obviously any specific feedback we have shared with SPEC directly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Century Plyboards is the largest seller of multiuse plyboards and decorative veneers in the Indian organized plywood market and exports its range of products to over 20 countries. I had been working as a Sr. Technical Project Manager with Century Ply for close to 2.5 Years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Century Ply has been working towards digitizing/automating workflow for the Sales team. As SPEC INDIA having prior experience in this domain with quite similar nature Enterprise customers, we imperatively proceed with them for the project.

The overall project was kicked-off with an objective to streamline the ordering, lead maturity process, and project execution. It was primarily meant for the Sales team to track primary sales, channel partners, influencers, projects/prospect leads for better conversion, and business forecast with extensive Dashboards and BI solutions at a later stage.

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA and what were the deciding factors?

It was a Management decision based on their experience working with manufacturing companies with a similar solution.

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

The project was to help the Sales Team with nearly real-time Channel Partner’s data – orders, order status, account ledger, outstanding handy while on the field.

Moreover, the system was designed to help the Sales Team to do their visit planning effectively with their own Territory Channel Partners, Influencers, Projects; ultimately to help boost sales and increase revenue by means of Primary & Secondary Sales.

Key Deliverable: Mobile CRM, User Guide, Source Code, AMC Support Engagement. Key Technologies: ASP.NET MVC, MS SQL, HTML5/CSS, Cross-Platform Mobile App

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

The deployed team was composed of 2 Team Leads, 4 Developers & 1 Project Manager along with a Designer & QA/Test engineer for the required time of involvement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project did well with the Territories it was rolled out, the Sales team were able to track their sales and lead maturity with ease. Also, the system was later extended to different geographical regions and verticals within a company.

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

We followed an iterative release process, wherein we were releasing the project modules in on an average monthly release plan that can call an Agile development.

Furthermore, we were having weekly project progress meetings for the entire course of execution and the project was developed in a very smooth manner. SPEC had appointed a Project Manager at the onsite location that really helped in swift communications and quicker turn around in Requirement and UAT Phases.

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

SPEC INDIA's team had prior experience working on similar solutions that helped to get through the project requirement mapped to business use cases and finally to Technical Implementation very well.

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

SPEC INDIA has been in the Software Industry for the last 32+ years and I’m sure they are much evolving as time changes with market demands. We're fully convinced we can get all sorts of IT/ITeS from SPEC INDIA at any given time in the future.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have been working with Hitachi Hi-Rel since 2001 and currently, I am the IT consultant for the entire organization. Hitachi Hi-Rel offers an exhaustive and pioneering product range of power electronics with complete customized solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We worked with SPEC India for an Enterprise Service and Maintenance Application. We required a centralized application for all our field staff who go on the field regularly for post-sales services.

Using this application, we wanted that they can see their daily visits, when they visit the customer they can take note of what service is required, if any replacement is needed then check for a quotation as well as check for inventory.

Basically, we wanted a solution where our field staff with minimal internal communications can process the requests easily.

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA and what were the deciding factors?

SPEC India was selected based on their experience they had working on custom software and local support they proposed to provide to us while rolling out the system.

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

Scope of Work: We needed a software where service executive can view / request and update all the preventive maintenance / breakdown calls assigned to him in real-time, with provision to request spare part needs to be changed, if the deployed system is within AMC or Warranty etc, with capability to share the quotation at the customer site only and do the needful repair and update in the system.

Key Deliverable: eSAM Solution, Source Codebase, User Manual, AMC for the System Technologies Used: Micorsoft Technology (MVC .Net with MS SQL, MS Dynamics Integrations, Web APIs)

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

The deployed team was composed of 1 Team Lead, 2 Developers, and a Project Manager with a needful Designer and Test engineer at a specific project requirement phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered by SPEC India pretty much in line with our expectations. It really helped us a lot improvise the productivity of the executives and customer satisfaction.

On-field executives could check for the inventory and tell exact process / timeline to customers on the restoration / resolution based on the things were made easy for them.

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

The Waterfall Project Management methodology was followed since the availability of the business stakeholder was minimal and we had quite defined requirements, it was executed at quite smoothly where the team would update our team at regular intervals (weekly) update us with the progress of the project.

The project was completed within a defined timeline of the original project estimated with.

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

Their flexibility and experience working on custom software especially for enterprises like us was impressive.

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

They are quite self-motivated, don’t see anything upfront.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a project lead with an IT Solutions firm leading the operations with an onsite-offshore model since then. We have been working with several offshore partners and SPEC INDIA is being one of the very preferred partners I’ve been working with for more than a decade now

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a custom web portal to manage the Real Estate Apartment Lease properties in the NY and NJ region. We have 100+ apartments hence managing their leasing documents, rentals, service requests, etc. was getting difficult manually and we required customized solutions that can help us with the operations.

The goal was to ease out operational time for Apartment Management, Apartment - Lease Agreement documentation, Rental and Late Fees Calculations, Monthly Rental Collection Report, Summary Dashboard with % occupancy & available empty apartment visibility, etc.

We also wanted the system to handle all the Society Management activities like Service Request placement, fulfillment, organizing events/functions, Manage Subscription for paid / privilege outdoor utilities with accounting.

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA and what were the deciding factors?

SPEC: I had researched & approached multiple agencies, and among them, SPEC INDIA stood out as a mature company from the initial consulting phase to drafting project scope. SPEC also demonstrated their experience with digital transformation and delivering business-critical solutions for varied domains & global enterprises.

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

The project is a custom portal for the management of all the apartments within a Real Estate Group, handling the leasing of properties and society maintenance activities. The system works as a Document Repository for all the tenants leasing apartment and moving-in.

Primarily the system is designed to keep track of all the Rentals Property (payment collection, due date reminders, and calculation of Late Fees for non-payers, etc.) The system also helps in managing and maintaining subscription of the paid club resources and utilities, based on the pre-paid plan/access model.

The system also comes up with lead generation and inquiry module for individual/group looking out for an apartment on the lease

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

We had a team of 4 developers and 1 Project Manager. We were assigned a designer, Technical Architect, QA team as part of overall contractual terms. Interaction with Project Manager was very convenient being a single point of contact for any kind of project discussion and conclusion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am thankful to the SPEC Team for digitizing all the manual work. As we were using multiple excels across different stakeholders, it was getting difficult tracking every apartment rental entry, managing leasing docs, and their data. The monthly reports and dashboards are very useful in identifying the vacancy/rent collection information.

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

SPEC was able to understand the business workflow and digitize it in the most optimal way. I could utilize their extensive experience in custom development and domain knowledge. We executed the project with agile project development methodology

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

SPEC has been impressive in terms of all-round work carried out for the project, Team has gone beyond their regular roles/duties and help us identify optimal workflow and digitized them in a simplistic manner.

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

I am happy with the way the project has turned out, however, an early suggestion for cloud migration would have been appreciated.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Prism Johnson Limited is one of India’s leading integrated building material companies having a wide range of products from cement, ready-mixed concrete, tiles, bath fittings, sanitary ware to modular kitchens. I am currently heading the entire IT department and have been associated with Prism Cement for almost 15 years in totality.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We worked with SPEC India for a custom enterprise CRM solution – mPower. Around 2014, with a growing customer base & field staff it was getting difficult for us to manage all things manually, this is when we realized a need for a system that could help us manage the CRM. Our main goal was to enhance and maximize the productivity of our field staff and also make sure that all the data is maintained properly with each customer being served on a timely basis and accurate reports are generated for respective managers/management review so timely actions can be taken.

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA and what were the deciding factors?

SPEC India showed us a couple of projects they had executed which were quite similar to our requirement which gave us confidence that they would be able to fulfill the exact requirement we had.

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

Mainly our target was to eliminate all the manual workflow the field staff used to do on the go and automate it completely so that the manager is updated in real-time about their performance and also it is easy for them to manage as all operations are done on the go. We already had SAP as an ERP System, but its access was limited to office staff and back-office team. The sales team on the field had to still dependent on the call center / back office team to get the required data from SAP. The Integration with SAP has been so much intact, that even after 5-6 years of system running all the daily schedulers / syncs are working errorless leading to complete data sync without any support requirement.

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

The deployed team was composed of 2 Team Leads, 4 Developers & 1 Project Manager along with Designer & QA / Test engineer for the required time of involvement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Using mPower, we are able to easily plan/manage route allocation of all our field staff, making sure that all the customers are visited at regular intervals and also our managers can check for the productivity/sales done by the executives along with meaningfully measuring the performance of Sales Team Member. mPower has been used by our organization for almost 6 years now and I much appreciate SPEC for an error-free system that still runs without a single bugs/support requirement; each SAP integration, ordering workflow, etc. features are intact and working supremely flawless.

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

The best thing I liked working with SPEC India was that though I was introduced to each resource working on the project along with their roles, there was a project manager assigned who was the main POC who would update project status at regular intervals through JIRA Project Management Tool.

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

Their understanding of the domain along with their flexibility to work is impressive.

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

Frankly, I don’t think there is any suggestion for improvement as we are very much happy with their work for now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I had been associated with Century Ply as Head of IT for almost 4 years and it’s then when we had carried out the CRM implementation with SPEC INDIA

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a custom solution for our sales team that was mostly on the field to carry out their day-to-day operations with their Dealers / Retailers / Projects meets and Ordering, Feedback, Payment, etc.

Since there were quite some past impressive implementations SPEC has done in past with quite some enterprises, we zeroed in on SPEC INDIA for the implementation.

Since the Sales team has always been on the field, having a mobility solution that provides an option for Dealer / Retailer sales recording, feedback collection, tracking prospects, leads, maturing leads to a project, etc. – these were very much set of Primary Operations.

Since each Sales Team member was having trouble keeping track of Dealers / Retailer to meet on a given day, ordering, collection, maturing lead, reminders, etc. were getting difficult to manage.

We thought of introducing an m-CRM (mobility – CRM) solution to organize the data collection, consolidate them to a centralized location with seamless access to all the sales teams and management to make correct decisions

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA and what were the deciding factors?

SPEC has built a similar solution with one of the leading Battery Manufacturing companies and along with other similar Enterprise Customers. Moreover, we had closely met the core Management team before awarding the project and found to be much promising toward the quality deliverable within the stipulated timeline we were looking for.

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

The Project was kind of a mobility solution for Sales Team on the field to carry out their day-to-day operations with ease and improved productivity. The Project intended to increase the time availability of Sales Team members with actual customers – Dealers/Retailers/Project Influencers.

Also Project/Opportunity tracking, and maturing the actual Project been a key module for promoting sales. Further, the system was in the backend integrated with ERP to provide nearly real-time data to the on-field users with utmost accuracy and availability like Customer Sales Order tracking / Outstanding / Sales history or even Complaint status/closure details.

Overall, it was to enable the Sales Team with all possible data points to be more effective with target customers towards improved sales and closures.

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

SPEC had deployed a very competitive team of 4-5 Developers with 1 Team Lead and Project Manager for the original project development along with Designer and independent Test Engineers based on the project requirement.

Further, during the Support & Maintenance model, we had a dedicated team of 2 support engineers to take care of any issues/bug within an agreed SLA and major/minor enhancements required to take care of changing business requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Project really helped in digitizing the Sales workflow and automate Project/Lead maturity workflow in the best possible manner. In fact, with the success of the PLY division with the implementation of the m-CRM; other Century Ply vertical like LAM and DV also opted for the extension of the m-CRM for their Sales Team and channel partners.

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

SPEC INDIA has been effective enough to put the right kind of people for the right work/activities required as part of the project.

The communication platform or the channel was well established with a Single Point of Contact for us, and the SPOC was all we needed to approach for discussion and communication. Moreover, access to their resources during business hours was very easy and effective for any sort of support or incident resolution.  

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

: SPEC INDIA has perfectly assigned SPOC (Single Point of Contact) who had indeed in-depth knowledge how the Sales Team of the manufacturing industry works and it was the most impressive part of the engagement, since it was almost zero effort towards explaining the pain areas and possible solution to the same.

The Team was very quickly able to map the business requirement in the system very efficiently keeping different use-cases into account. I

’m sure at times they were able to bring quite some value addition to the solution based on their prior experience working with different clients and systems and we were happily accepting a few of the suggestions and improvements towards the advancement of the overall system.

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

Adapting to the requirement and learning quickly based on their experience has been their Key Strength, I’m sure they are suitable for any sort of business engagement in the future I have for them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as a Senior functional consultant at Brown & Company PLC headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Brown & Company PLC is one of Sri Lanka’s leading conglomerates in operation today with 50 plus subsidiaries and associates focused on trading and strategic investments. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SPEC INDIA?

Spec India implemented a Tablet based Enterprise Mobile Sales Force Automation (SFA) System implementation.

What were your goals for this project?

• Empowering field force with anywhere, anytime access to system
• Eliminate redundant activities and improve productivity
• Fulfill orders in near real time, boost win rate and grow revenue
• Enhance sales team’s level wise focus and ensure timely achievement of targets across the level of field sales force
• Enhance customer satisfaction
• New market developments and enhancing current client base

SOLUTION

How did you select SPEC INDIA?

with the recommendation of Top Management

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected this vendor, we had a series of requirement gathering meetings with multiple Business Units that handle different product lines, to discuss our goals and objectives.

After few weeks, we received mock-ups and initial designs of the android apps. After a few iterations and discussions with our business users, we finalized the design and provided feedback.

The vendor came back to us with wire-frames and concepts for other sections in the app, including an updated Division Specific Operation form.

What was the team composition?

Initially, we were assigned a project manager to support us and serve as the main point of contact throughout the project. I only spoke with our project manager, but I was made aware that there were 2 front-end and two back-end developers, as well as a QA resource working behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was not successfully implemented in all required BUs in Browns and Company due to the below mentioned loopholes in the system and the business processes. Currently only Battery divisional staff uses SFA system.

• BPOs use the TAB to enter sales only. Very less BPOs used to enter day to day visits.
• SPEC took long time to prepare the reports.
• Sales targets have not entered and hence the target achievement cannot be captured.
• Lack of monitoring
• Lack of use of all the available functions by BPOs
• Time to time signal drops
• Capturing of date and time of the customer visits in reports

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager that we were assigned was easy to communicate with and provided us frequent updates. We had onsite meetings at least once a week and used other communication methods as well. Overall, I was impressed by the timelines of the team. We received ample warning if a deadline wasn’t going to be met.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Vendor was well experienced in mobile app development and user experience. We learned much more than we thought possible. We have worked with other vendors for different implementations, but this was a particularly collaborative and positive experience. I will certainly engage with this company again for any mobile app needs that we have in the future.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were satisfied with their approach. In the end, quality is more important than the speed and we ended up with a good product.