Tech Active

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the pioneer manufacturer of Polystyrene raw material since 1994. In 2017, we entered the UK market. We have a fully integrated in-house manufacturing unit to convert Styrene Monomer into Polystyrene so that we can provide customers with flawless quality, competitive prices and unparalleled customer service. Customize sizes, patterns, colours & thicknesses are also available on request. I am the Director of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Tech Active?

For a custom app that automated recurring sales order creation. It had to have a friendly + minimal UI that minimized errors and produced reliable data for future analysis. We had an existing solution, but it was unstable.

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

Found Tech Active through a colleague who had worked with them earlier and spoke highly about commitment to delivery. We’d worked with freelancers before, but now we wanted to engage a serious agency, one that had the understanding and necessary skills to develop powerful, stable apps.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Mini-discovery to understand overall requirement and recommended to built a custom app using Salesforce that automated the creation of recurring sales orders. On top of that, they built another custom app to serve as a UI for customers to place orders. It helps them decide whether they’re making a one-time order or a recurring purchase.

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

It was a team of 6 in the beginning. Our main point of contact definitely gave valuable insights from the beginning and he was part of all the calls to ensure there was no disconnect as we approach delivery.

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

It took about 8 months for overall implementation to complete and since then we have been using this day-on-day basis and we have managed to automate this fully and now this is being used across 2-3 subsidiaries that we have to take the orders without having a need for team members to validate or customers to wait for order fulfillment.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We mostly communicated via Skype earlier, and though there was a bit of language barrier between myself and the developer, the project manager stepped in to translate. The time difference between us was never an obstacle as we had documented the overall process for development.

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

I'm impressed by their ability to stand through uncertain times. They waited patiently when I had to take a month off due to health issues. I felt like they really supported me.

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

If anything, I would push them to provide more documentation (I understand this is an additional cost - which i wanted to save on initially but should have taken it up). It’s easy to assume both sides have the same understanding of what they agreed to, but full transparency is better. Apart from this none.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Contemporary and versatile womenswear brand RAAB comprises of statement pieces revolving around the button-down shirt played around with a fashionable twist emphasizing on quality fabric, craftsmanship and attention to detail. Designed for the feminine yet strong woman, the wearable pieces can be transitioned from day to night easily. I am the owner.

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

For developing an engine or plug-in that could help my own eCom as well as other brands who would like to do custom-fit apparel without having the need for their customers to walk down the shop. From the eCom model - I was aiming to move into software licensing for brands to give better experience to their end customers.

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

I met Ameen (Co-founder, Tech Active) through a reference, and the earlier engagement was only to access the feasibility of this idea and cost estimate. Based on the understanding and interest shown - we took the idea forward into the development.

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

The tool was created using an existing framework that allowed custom development on top - we first had this integrated on our platform, perfected this for our own customers, post this we had this integrated with fortune 500 brand with a commission model and it works really well.

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

For this work - we started off with a 2 member team and increased to 4 at the peak as i considered this more like one-time development. Post this whenever there was new design of apparel required - we worked with a 3rd party freelancer who will create the design depending on what brands needed.

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

Within 7 months - I had 2 brands integrated and this was generating positive cash flow so with a little investment i was able to build a business model that was sustainable. It also gave me an opportunity to connect with the established brands and now I work for one of them as the tool was acquired.

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

Collaboration was mainly on Skype and Basecamp - Himanshi was my POC and the documentation kept things clear as earlier i was not too sure if this would work the way i was expecting.

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

Spoke to about 3-4 companies prior to sign-up but they took little interest in understanding what I was looking to develop but here that was not the concern as their approach is welcoming, and they even sign me up for a government grant which made me eligible for 15K innovation fund.

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

None i can think as of now

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of EkBazaar.com, an upcoming marketplace working with business traders across the world. Our model is the opposite of Amazon’s; we don’t charge our sellers any commission.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tech Active?

We needed someone to build a platform where suppliers could receive and answer product-related inquiries. We also wanted this platform to be accessible worldwide for a small subscription fee.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tech Active developed our cloud-based marketplace using Node.js and built its iOS and Android app version using React Native. Both platforms were developed from scratch and designed by the team. They created user stories and wireframes based on our ideas, worked in an agile methodology, and delivered in sprints.

Since they’re our end-to-end supplier, they’re responsible for a lot of things. They manage all of our hosting and DevOps. When users request certain features on the platform, we review those requests and forward them to Tech Active for implementation.

What is the team composition?

The team consists of a project manager, a delivery manager, seven full-stack web developers, three mobile app developers, four testers, and two business analysts, one of whom is our main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Tech Active?

My co-founder was the one who established the engagement with them. I came in at a later stage.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $700,000–$800,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018. Our partnership is ongoing. 

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

It’s been a very successful and satisfactory partnership so far.  Their team has done a fantastic job with the mobile app. They’ve been so engaged with us that we’ve fully relied on them for everything.

How did Tech Active perform from a project management standpoint?

Tech Active manages the project well and delivers on time and within budget. They’ve given us access to their Jira dashboard and Slack channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve built a healthy working relationship with Tech Active. I’ve not had any bad experiences with them. They act as our consultants and are very open and communicative. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could charge a little more reasonably. Their cost is a little on the higher side compared to other companies in India.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommend working with Tech Active because I’ve seen them in action. Be sure to have an internal technical person or project manager who will coordinate with their team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

BodyCoat is an app based car wash and detailing (polishing) company and I am the owner of the company.

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

We hired tech active to make a state of the art app which is not available in market anywhere with out of box ideas and implementations meeting customer demand rather than convenience of developer and tech active ensured customers ease of use and interface are fore front of the app.

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

We had heard good word of mouth about tech active’s flexibility and holistic approach and after many rounds of discussion we decided tech active is the best fit for tailor made as they are extremely patient and hear us out.

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

Very first meeting was to structure the logic of our requirement. Then Ofcourse followed by Consulting & Strategy, Wireframing & Prototypes, UX / UI, MERN Stack, Development, Android Application, Optaplanner Customisation and Integration, etc was executed in a timely phased manner with access to project manager who always helped us understand as a layman what they are doing and why. We gave deliverables which no other in the industry is able to.

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

Satish, the project manager was our single point of contact and about 2-3 full time developers were working on my task ever since.

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

Firstly, there has been no downtime which is a big win for us. Server strength has been an upside for us. We have been able to scale up to multiple locations and also multiple revenue streams through app as it is geolocation based.

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

We had a straightforward system where discussed deliverables was on track and if not on track then we receive a communication before hand highlighting the hurdle and it was helpful as it gave us the impression tech active is proactive rather than reactive which is very important for us.

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

The team is flexible, approachable, communicative, and focused on project outcome more than money.

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

Since we did industry first technology app, we had to understand many things as a pioneer. But it was easier with tech active as they explored with us and did not just hand over the responsibility to us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Verify360.com. We provide employment background services around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Tech Active?

Our website was developed 5 years ago. We are not looking into revamping the site and adding an e-commerce element to it.

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

We previously worked with them.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After a series of meetings to determine our goals, we were presented with 3 themes of which we settled on one, which is being finalised to our specifications.

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

We were assigned 1 team manager who was our point of contact. At various stages of development, members of the team would join.

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

Their documentation was very thorough.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was thorough and provided me with regular updates.

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

They know what they are doing and they are very good at it.

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

I'm happy with the outcome.