TechAhead

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Patel's Liquor is a retail store that is a size of a warehouse. We wholesale liquor to bars as a Class B business. I am the owner of the corporation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We hired TechAhead to assist in developing an app for bar owners to order product an easier manner, no limit in time of the day when to send it, anyone can place the order due to statistics of history of order, etc.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals for my project was to create an app to make life more easier for bar owners to place order at their own convenience and not restricted to fearing who will place an order if one gets fired or quits.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I found the vendor on google search. I really was very hesitant to trust what the internet would provide sometimes. I talked to Shanal and Judy and still was hesitate but at the same time was very comfortable and putting my investment in their hands. It is very scary when this company is on the west coast and I am located on the east coast. Shanal was an amazing guy and was so rest assured with security of everything going smooth and Ashutosh is an amazing leader and very hardworking. He worked long hours and had no time frame of when to rest until the app is launched in an effective manner.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Their job was to create an app for bar owners to order without a fear in bound to certain time to place the order. They created features of notifications, order history, individual accounts to meet different specifications for each account.

What was the team composition?

The team was very well organized, and everyone was hardworking and excited as if they were making their own app. Amazing could not thank them enough.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app so far is a success. I will keep you posted in a year how things run.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I was the only one involved with this app and their work was amazing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I enjoyed that this company is very family orientated and are always quick to reply. I enjoy that they have no time limit when to work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They company is amazing and amazed me to so many levels that their are no improvements needed

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CEO of a fast-growing startup that provides enterprise HR / Recruiting software for businesses of all sizes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We hired TechAhead to supplement some of our development needs for web, mobile, and backend development.

What were your goals for this project?

To find a partner that we can treat as part of the team, and have the same expectations of our full-time employees. We utilize their engineers to take on project-based work (such as integrations) as well as ongoing work that requires in-depth knowledge of our software.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We evaluated multiple vendors and has hesitations with different vendors because of the time-zone and potential language barriers. Techahead stuck out from the rest as a good partner because of the way they involve their managers/senior engineers to make sure the experience is smooth and that expectations are met.

They were also accomodating to working in our preferred methods and allowed direct communication with the team. This allows us to work with them in the same manner as our other engineers.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our product uses React (web) and React Native (mobile), hosted on AWS servers. Techahead provides development, alongside our full-time engineers, for web, mobile, and backend. Our product is fairly complex and requires the engineers to have in-depth knowledge of our features as well as our code. It's not uncommon for an engineer to need to be full-stack to get the job.

What was the team composition?

We currently work with 3 engineers (web, mobile, backend) and 2 managers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

TechAhead has allowed us to scale with the needs of our customers. We've been able to add resources as our demands have increased and have been able to get their advice and leadership in technical areas that we previously were not experienced in.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We deal directly with our engineers and provide the scope for each sprint. The entire team, including the managers, meets daily for dev standups. The Techahead managers provide more direct leadership with the team as needed, but also provide ongoing technical and scope guidance.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They do go above and beyond to make sure the job is complete to satisfaction. Even though they are a third party vendor we trust that they will hit our deadlines, especially when it matters most.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, the Techahead team does a great job.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the president of a transportation company in California, specializing in the heavy industrial trucking industry. We provide transportation services to contractors and customers throughout the entire state of California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We hired TechAhead to design a mobile application that we could implement into our current business model that would allow our operations to run smoother.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for this project were to design an application that thousands of truckers could use on a daily basis to help facilitate their operations as well as ours.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I read many reviews about this vendor and noticed the overwhelming positive feedback they received from customers in varying industries.

Describe the project in detail.

Our project was designed to keep the necessary documentation for each hauler in the app as well as organize their job environment for the following day.

What was the team composition?

We met with two TechAhead representatives in Agoura Hills and they introduced us to our team of developers in India. Most of our communication occurred virtually after the initial meeting with the representatives.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had an idea for an application and really needed a team to help make our thoughts tangible. TechAhead was able to do this for us successfully.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was very effective between our team and theirs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The most impressive quality about this company is their continued effort to make our vision come to life. They did not create an app based off of what THEY thought would be beneficial. They listened to what we needed and designed accordingly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own and manage a contracting company that builds large telecommunications projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechAhead?

As a part of that business, I developed a database that I use to manage those projects, and a lot of other contractors had expressed interest in purchasing or using that database.

However, most contractors don’t have enough money to drop on a software like that, so I decided to look for a development partner that could help me turn it into a SaaS product that I could sell by the user.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled design and development from the ground up completely. That included UI/UX design for both the website and the iOS and Android apps. I gave them the vision and they took it from there almost completely.

For the web app, they worked in HTML5 and Angular, for the mobile app they used Flutter, and React Native, and NodeJS, for the database it was MySQL, Microsoft Azure, app insights and crash analytics, and on billing we use Stripe.

What is the team composition?

There was a project manager, a project coordinator, and a 3–4-member development team working with them as well.

How did you come to work with TechAhead?

My plan was originally to meet with companies here in the US, and there was a lot of interest, but the deals just weren’t coming together. I decided to search for the best software companies in India and ended up finding a lot of good information on Clutch.

I narrowed it down to a few companies that had a presence in the US, TechAhead being one of them, and I saw that they had some experience with the construction industry, so I decided to call them. From the moment Judy (Manager, TechAhead) picked up the phone, they made me so comfortable about what the experience could be that I decided to just take it from there.

How much have you invested with them?

The total project cost has been around $100,000 so far, and I expect to be closer to $130,000 by the end.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019 and are continuing the project with a planned launch date of March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is completely 5-star so far. My database was able to generate a lot of interest among the people I had shown it to, but what TechAhead has built for me is 100 times better than what I had previously. The look of it on the web panel and app, combined with the functionality, is truly amazing.

How did TechAhead perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually have zoom calls that are led by the project manager but have the whole team present so that we are always on the same page. Saurabh (Project Manager, TechAhead) and Yukti (Project Coordinator, TechAhead) were outstanding at guiding me through every aspect of the project. They took the time to truly educate me along the way, which I found really impressive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing that I really appreciate about these guys is that I will give them a very specific vision for what I want from their work, but they are never scared to come back to me and suggest something they think would be even better. Their willingness to push my ideas even further has helped to build a better application overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

You know, they’ve completely exceeded my expectations, so I don’t have anything to suggest.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open-minded and willing to accept input from their team, because they are very knowledgeable and will likely be able to improve the quality of your product in the end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a app development company. We are pre-revenue and needed a developer who understood the cost benefit trade-offs between functionality and polish when creating an MVP (i.e., fewer rough edges than a prototype).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We had a functioning prototype in the IOS App Store but wanted to re-apply what we learned from that to build an MVP (with functioning revenue model), expand the app to Android and develop an initial cloud footprint (to facilitate future scalability).

What were your goals for this project?

Cross platform development (we ended up using React Native), improved functionality (more optionality for users in formatting E-Stories), additional revenue streams within the business model, fewer crashes than the IOS prototype.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We met with a number of developers when visiting India earlier in the year. We eventually narrowed the potential vendors to two. TechAhead was the most enthusiastic of the two (much quicker to respond to our questions about our proposed scope of work and how they would tackle that).

Also, the proposal they provided seemed more tailored to our specific project (less of a cookie cutter / fill in the blank form). To us, it seemed as though they had engaged the technical team (not just sales) for feedback on our proposal.

Describe the project in detail.

From the very start, we had a detailed functional design document and XD assets (developed for the prototype and since updated with what we learned from that). We asked TechAhead for a proposal (including the technical approach they would take, staged deliverables and time and cost to complete).

Once that proposal was agreed, they started development, with periodic requests for input from us as questions arose. We had agreed that one (smaller) set of functionality would be delivered as Phase 1.

TechAhead delivered admirably on that, which gave us confidence to proceed with Phase 2. TechAhead delivered Phase 2 without a hitch and we are now discussing a Phase 3 with further refinements to the app based on feedback to date.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a Project Manager who was our main point of contact and managed technical resources on the development side and coordinated deliverables.

The Project Manager would have 3 to 5 other individuals on calls we had, depending on which functionality we needed to discuss at the time. We interacted with those individuals during the calls, as well as over emails to discuss issues in real time.

Everyone on the TechAhead team we spoke with was patient, poised and professional throughout our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are quite happy with the resulting app. It is more stable, with a wider array of functionality - than the IOS prototype we started with. Just as important, TechAhead achieved this while staying within the agreed budget.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication worked well. I cannot over emphasize how important this was to us and our project. As decision points emerged during development, the patience, willingness and ability of the TechAhead team to explain the issues, listen to our suggestions and integrate our proposals was crucial to success of our project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We liked most the breadth of technical knowledge within the small team that TechAhead deployed for our project - from app development, to spinning up cloud resources, to integrating transactional web mail services. Being able to bring their level of expertise with such a small team sped development and kept the project on budget.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a leading provider of digital & creative software solutions. I am responsible for managing multiple Engineering initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

Whenever we need quick external help for deadline based projects we reach out to our vendors and TechAhead has been a reliable vendor thus far.

What were your goals for this project?

Its an ongoing engagement & not a project specific collaboration with them. The overall goals include, meeting specific deadline & external quality assurance support.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have standard vendor selection process and TechAhead enrolled to our vendor partnership program and qualified our criteria.

Describe the project in detail.

We have been working with them on multiple projects for web & mobile platforms involving react native, angular & node.js. We also use their QA engineers for automation & manual testing using Selenium and JMeter.

What was the team composition?

On an average we have been engaging team of approx 8-10 resources consisting of mobile,web and QA engineers. We occasionally engage their UX designers as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

TechAhead is our reliable vendor and whenever we need extra support we can count on them. Their Quality Assurance and Project management practices are at par with industry standards which makes us comfortable working with them again and again. They have been proactive in understanding our project goals and adhere to timely delivery.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We use MS Team and JIRA to collaborate and track daily/weekly tasks. We have a dedicated project lead who is our primary point of contact for requirement collection and analysis to make sure that both teams are aligned and on same page with regards to timeline. Their communication is very effective & top management is also involved on monthly basis to oversee engagement and proactively address any foreseeable risk.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their project governance processes and communication has been a stand out factor. Personal attention from the management makes us feel comfortable.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We would recommend them increase their portfolio in technology to serve in other domains.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We manufacturer products within the IoT industry and required a partner for our iOS and Android App development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We already had mobile apps, but the app development wasn't moving fast enough to match the growth in our market. We worked and continue to work with TechAhead to develop our mobile apps for iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

The partner needed to have an understanding of connecting apps to physical hardware and cloud servers. They also needed to work with our R&D team to ensure new features in hardware/cloud systems could be supported by mobile apps.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We visited India and spent time with at least six potential companies. TechAhead stood out right from the beginning with their professional approach and desire to help. The communication has always been great, and the project leader is always on hand should you need them.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed and launched mobile apps for our IoT product, as well as reskinned the apps for our OEM partners.

What was the team composition?

We employed two Android developers initially and 1 iOS developer, along with 1 project manager. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The feedback on our new Android app has dramatically improved. Now, we're receiving positive feedback on not only the stability of the app but also on the new features we're implementing. The iOS app has received more updates than we could normally achieve by hiring our own in-house developer. 

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Arrangements are made by email and follow-up telephone calls. Management is always on hand and very supportive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Professional facility in India and their general day-to-day communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at the moment. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an associate partner for a leading management consulting firm based in the UAE. We advise clients on strategy and digital transformation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TechAhead?

We were working with a consumer banking client to digitally transform their services, which involved developing a web- and mobile-based app. Since we’re not a tech company, we brought in TechAhead as a subcontractor to complement our advisory skills. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

TechAhead developed a customer-facing digital banking app for mobile and web. The solution would onboard new customers, facilitate new loan and deposit applications, and connect to legacy backend systems and data warehouses through middleware. 

They worked hand-in-hand with our client’s IT team to ensure the code and architecture were secure before deploying the app. Afterward, they provided ongoing maintenance for both the mobile and web interfaces.

What is the team composition? 

They assigned a core team for the solution, including an account manager and a full-time Scrum master who were the main points of contact for my team. There was also a technical architect who oversaw the entire solution. He was backed by a team of 6–8 front- and backend engineers as well as a few QA leads.

How did you come to work with TechAhead?

We spoke with around 6–8 vendors before finding TechAhead. One of our colleagues had worked with them previously at another company and referred us. Compared to the other candidates, their team demonstrated a strong understanding of our client’s requirement, and their solution stood out. 

Adding on to that, they had worked on similar projects within the banking sector in other parts of the world and offered ongoing maintenance as part of their standard contract. This, along with their attractive price point and expertise, compelled us to choose them.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall budget size was between $800,000–$900,000, which we paid after hitting milestones and upon project completion. There were also some annual fees because they provided maintenance.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from February–May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with them was a good experience. Because they’re a relatively small vendor, they were quite responsive to our client’s needs and were eager to meet requirements. Our client’s IT team complimented their software protocol as well, noting that their robust coding was up to international banking security standards.

How did TechAhead perform from a project management standpoint?

TechAhead’s Scrum master and dev team worked very closely with ours on the ground, following an agile methodology. There were 2–3 times when we faced time crunches, but they adjusted well to the schedule and met the overall project demands.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest aspects for me were their client focus, willingness to work, flexibility, and strong project management. They’re a professional team that’s good at anticipating change and are committed to our client’s success. On top of that, their technical solutions are solid.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For this project, we had frequent interaction with their senior management, but I would’ve liked them to have been more involved with our clients because they were our subcontractors. They had missed 1–2 meetings up front and had only met with our clients once or twice.

To be fair, we didn’t have a long working relationship with them at the time as it was one of the first projects we’d done together. Since then, their client enrollment has been much better, and we’ve appreciated their senior leadership’s involvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
TechAhead is not just a tech vendor but also an ideation partner. It’s a good idea to involve them early on in the conceptualization stage. They have some experienced members who can offer constructive suggestions that can really add value during business discussions. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the national business development head of a fashion and retail company. We are one of the leading retailer stores in the lifestyle segment of the consumer market in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

It’s tough for our consumers to carry physical loyalty cards. We wanted to build a digital wallet and loyalty program application for our consumers that they can use across all of our retail stores as an alternative to their physical loyalty card. We didn’t have the in-house expertise for this project, so we decided to outsource the work.

What were your goals for this project?

The objective of the project was to build an easy-to-use and engaging platform for our large consumer base to enhance their shopping experience and increase the volume of our loyalty program subscribers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our team searched online for the top app development companies in India. We contacted 10 companies and shortlisted three of them after an initial evaluation. We asked the finalists to provide detailed technical and commercial proposals. We decided to hire TechAhead for the project as they guaranteed a very high-quality product and the flexibility to incorporate changes on the go, which was of utmost importance to us.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope of the project was to create a native iOS, Android, and Windows app with a web-based admin application to manage transactions and generate different reports. The application required integration with different payment gateway APIs and compliance with payment card industry guidelines. The application also required integration with our internal ERP system.

What was the team composition?

We had more than 10 people working on the project. Our team included a project manager, UI/UX designers, frontend and backend developers, and testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have received fantastic reviews from our customers. The checkout process time has drastically reduced as the customers can simply pay via the app by scanning a QR code, and their loyalty points are managed automatically. We have also seen a significant increase in our subscriber base for the loyalty program.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication between our teams was relatively smooth. We used Slack to collaborate with their team and Jira to manage the user stories. We received a detailed milestone plan for the project along with weekly status reports that helped us remain on top of everything. Besides that, we also had weekly meetings with their team, and we are delighted with their project management skills.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We loved the way they have designed the entire user experience of the app. Their team has taken care of the smallest details in the design that we couldn’t think of. They have robust development capabilities, too, and we are super impressed with the quality of their work. They respected the project timelines and demonstrated a very high level of commitment throughout our engagement with them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we worked very well together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the principal director of global client development at a global leader in analytics and AI.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TechAhead?

We hired TechAhead to create a web- and mobile-based B2B enterprise platform that gives comprehensive analytical and reporting capabilities to marketers in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry as well as retail clients.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to release Phase 1 of the application in the shortest possible timeframe without compromising on the quality. Then we would continue development.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We already knew about TechAhead through some of our acquaintances. We invited them to bid on the RFP of our project, and they met all of our eligibility criteria, providing strong references. They proposed to deploy a senior team, and their pricing was competitive. We were also impressed with their understanding of our requirements and solution approach, so we decided to choose TechAhead for the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project involved designing and developing a B2B application for our CPG clients’ sales teams. The platform helps our clients to analyze the performance of their sales force and to optimize their day-to-day performance and target achievements.

TechAhead developed the application using complex algorithms with scalable architecture and AI technology. We also wanted it to be highly secure and follow GDPR compliances.

What was the team composition?

We had a dedicated project manager throughout the project who was our primary contact. During the initial design phase, we had a tech architect, a business analyst, and a UX designer assigned. During the development, we had about four developers, a tech lead, a designer, and two testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We had a very successful Phase 1 release of the application and have received excellent feedback from our clients. We are now in the process of adding more functionalities to make it more attractive for our users.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We followed an agile methodology with a two-week sprint cycle. After each sprint, we received a working version of the application, which allowed us to test the application and give feedback early on. TechAhead team was well-versed with agile practices and used DevOps for faster delivery. We are extremely pleased with their processes and communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

TechAhead provided lots of recommendations to improve the user experience and architecture of our application. Their recommendations have actually taken our product to the next level. 

Furthermore, they have a very senior team that knows how to deliver quality products with high-performing, scalable architecture. They’ve never missed any deadlines, which makes them very reliable as a tech partner.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are very satisfied with the end product and look forward to continuing our relationship with their team. At times, they can be too aggressive in their project management, so it becomes tough to match their speed. But that works in our favor in the end.