Let’s check his success story and views.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Ace Infoway is an expert technology & growth partner that helps organizations navigate complex digital business transformations and change, through innovative technology solutions. We have been in business for 22 years and have seen the changing landscape of technology and have built a team with a wealth of professional experience, and accumulated best practices along with young and passionate developers. Our fluid & agile approach has helped us in on-boarding contrast clientele globally of both enterprise and start-up levels. We have built our niche in diverse industries namely publishing, e-commerce, promotional products, architecture & construction. We have worked alongside some of the world’s leading publishers and brands. We’re constantly working to stay ahead of the curve so that we can provide our clients with the best solutions delivered with a delightful experience.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2021? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

We had a great year in 2021 thanks to the growth of e-commerce, web & mobile, and CAD services. Demand for these services saw a huge surge, and we were able to keep up with it by expanding our team and investing in new technology. The results were far more impressive if I compare them with the last 3 to 4 years, and we’re looking forward to seeing even more growth in the years ahead. Thanks to our continued growth, we’re well-positioned to take on even more challenging projects in the near future.

The biggest challenge rather than disappointment triggered by the pandemic of which we can still see the repercussions is the great resignation that took over the world, especially it hit hard to the IT sector. The industry was swamped by attrition and employee turnover however, we were able to modulate this phenomenon with alternative measures and engagement models and registered a growth of more than 40-50%.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

Our organization has had a flat operational structure for years now which has always worked for us since authority and decision-making functions are placed among the workforce. The biggest value that comes out of it is that the customer requirement is expedited and the TAT is shortened remarkably.

Any client on-boarding kick starts with getting a grasp of the client’s business and a deeper understanding by gaining a 360-degree view of various factors such as industry, competitors, business needs, challenges, and more. Based on this analysis project needs are defined and a detailed scope of work is documented.

Next comes identifying the required skill set to deliver on the needs and finalize the right engagement model. The project then moves to the development phase along with a timeline and schedule for delivery.

Now here at the heart of the entire onboarding and delivery process is one special ingredient as we call it – customer experience. We put a lot of emphasis on this critical success factor throughout our organization. Proactive updates about the progress until the final release are provided to the client on a regular basis. This helps build trust and transparency forging long-term partnerships.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

We offer 3 engagement models:

Fixed price project – The client can choose this model when he has a predetermined budget and a plan. Moreover, it works well for small and medium-scope projects which run on fixed timelines and schedules with minimum risk.

Long-term FTE /dedicated – is suitable when the client is looking for a large team or specific skill sets which includes, developers, project managers, quality analysts, DevOps, and more. The primary benefit of this model is the client can easily scale up and down the team size as per requirement.

Monthly packages – is for our digital services which call for long-term engagement in order to drive results or deliver on the objectives defined while onboarding a client. Here the service is delivered over a period of time and always tied with objectives, KPIs, and goals.

5. What do you as a leader prioritizes- vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

We started with web and mobile development and gradually our service portfolio branched out to eCommerce & Architectural CAD services which formed our 3 major verticals. From there we have been continuously focused on increasing our presence in existing markets and hence vertical expansion is probably a better bet for us. This involves diversifying our service & product offerings, expanding into related services, or becoming a one-stop-shop for all our customers’ needs.

As we continue to grow and profit vertically, horizontal expansion becomes consequential to enhance our position within the industry and get an edge over the competition.

6. What is your outlook for 2022-23?

2022-23 is shaping up to be a challenging year for many businesses. Money flow is expected to tighten as major economies grapple with inflation, interest rate hike, and stoppage of VC funding. But there are still opportunities out there for genuine, savvy, and experienced entrepreneurs. Those who are able to weather the storm and adapt to the changes will find that there are still plenty of opportunities for growth and expansion. The key is to identify those areas where you can cut costs without compromising on quality and focus on your core strengths.

For many businesses, that might mean downsizing in certain areas or streamlining operations. Others may need to invest in new technologies or processes to stay ahead of the competition.

So, my outlook for 2022-23 is cautiously optimistic. While it may be a challenge, I believe there will be opportunities for those who are prepared. Those with nimble business models and strong balance sheets should be able to weather the storm relatively well.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Voice recognition, and their applications are the future and are advancing at a breakneck speed. The only method to be ready for that future is through constant learning and development.

1. In-house training: Develop internal training materials and programs that employees can use to brush up on new technologies as needed. This could include things like e-learning modules, video tutorials, practice tests, and so on.

2. External training: Take advantage of external education resources, such as online courses, conferences, and webinars. Make sure employees are aware of these opportunities and encourage them to grow in their roles and enhance their skills.

3. Finally, we get them involved in customer projects as much as possible. This works really well as it creates concrete learning opportunities so that they can gain first-hand experience with the new technologies.

8. With technologies like NFT, Crypto, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

Technologies like NFT, Crypto, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to foster the growth of the web & mobile app industry.

These technologies will play one of the key roles when it comes to a new approach to solving old problems and will change the way websites and mobile apps are created.

One possibility is that development will become more streamlined and focused on meeting user needs and ensuring functionality. Another possibility is that development will become more decentralized, with different developers working on different aspects of the technology. It’s also possible that a hybrid approach will emerge, with some elements of centralization and some elements of decentralization. Basically, it’s hard to predict exactly how development will progress, but it will likely be dictated by the demands of users and the overall direction of the industry.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any software development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

There are a few key traits that we believe are essential for success. First, speed is key. In today’s fast-paced world, businesses need to be able to move quickly in order to stay ahead of the competition. Second, strong processes are essential in ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively. Third, flexibility is important in being able to adapt to changing conditions or unforeseen circumstances and quickly adjust to shifting requirements in a fast-paced and constantly changing market. Finally, customer responsiveness is critical because your customers expect timely service and attention.

Of course, technical expertise is still important and will continue to be so. But these other traits will become increasingly important as we move into the future. Building a strong foundation with these traits will help you succeed no matter what the challenges may be.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like IT Firms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

Research agencies like ITFirms definitely play a critical and important role in facilitating communication and collaboration between clients and service providers. Business partnerships go through a lot of due diligence and rating and reviews have a huge impact on the vetting process. Our presence on ITFirms has helped us in gaining that trust from clients before they come to the discussion table.

  Ace Infoway
  https://www.aceinfoway.com
  success@aceinfoway.com

The post Interview with Amit Mehta – CEO & Director, ACE Infoway appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and views.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

I founded MoogleLabs with the vision of providing services that leverage the latest technology. The aim here is simple: I want my business to help our clients remain one step ahead in innovation so that they never lag behind their competitors while creating opportunities for them to move ahead of their competitors and become industry leaders.

I believe that the most effective method of running an organization is through an amalgamation of three different leadership approaches, which are affiliative, democratic, and pacesetting approach. The orthodox method of authoritarian leadership will eradicate my team members’ individuality and creativity.

Also, I have found that a democratic and pacesetting approach helps me get more productivity from every employee. And, isn’t that every employer’s dream?

2. What is your company’s culture? What does MoogleLabs stand up for?

I believe that we practice an Adhocracy culture for the most part. At MoogleLabs, we have always stood for innovation, which means we must encourage our employees to take risks. Each executive is an entrepreneur or innovator who wants to help our business grow in every aspect. Also, we strongly believe in keeping a common goal and doing our best as part of a team to reach the goal.

MoogleLabs stands for innovation and collaboration. Our culture and practices ensure better results. Moreover, as a company that works in DevOps solutions, we are continuously looking for ways to streamline our operations for faster product delivery.

3. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2021? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

2021 was an excellent year for MoogleLabs. As a startup, the only way forward is up. But, by leveraging the latest technologies, like AI/ML, DevOps, Blockchain, and Data Analytics, we have been able to create a profitable venture in the next to no time.

Overall, it has been an excellent year for us. As a startup, we have already accumulated several accolades from various review sites and business analysts. As for disappointment, there aren’t any. I do always want everything to be better, though. But I do not count that as a disappointment.

4. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

We follow a 7-step journey for every product deployment.

We start with understanding the client’s needs. You can consider it to be the discovery phase. Here, we talk to the clients about every need, extracting information like their business goals and objectives. Moreover, we consider other functional and non-functional requirements. Our business analysts will use the data to create bespoke solutions for you.

Once we understand the needs and have the pricing on lockdown, we sign a contract. Here, we get to the planning stage. This stage includes determining the scope of work, project budget and deliverables, and delivery dates.

For privacy and confidentiality, we sign the NDA form.

Then, we start working on the projects. It includes executing the plan and offering custom solutions for clients’ needs. During this period, we send weekly reports to keep our clients up-to-date with the latest changes in the project. Here, the client can offer feedback and introduce changes we can make to the project.

With DevOps practices in play, we are simultaneously working on testing and quality assurance of the code. Only after we purge every technical issue do we deploy the code.

Once we are sure that the project meets our client’s requirements, it is time for the product launch. However, that is not the end of the collaboration with our clients.

We also offer ongoing development of the platform as per market changes. Moreover, we provide maintenance services for the project.

5. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

We offer a bespoke engagement model for all our clients. Though, we like to discuss the needs of every prospect before laying down the conditions for work and creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

We do offer a fixed-price model and an hourly model to our clients. The fixed price model works well if the deliverables are easy to quantify. But, for more service-centric solutions, we work on an hourly basis.

6. What do you as a leader prioritizes- vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Currently, MoogleLabs is focusing on the horizontal expansion of the business. We want to include more experts in the latest technologies in our team. It will help us serve our clients. And frankly, the way I see it, horizontal expansion is the precursor of vertical expansion.

I would like to maintain a balance between the two. It is the only way to ensure my teammates get the best guidance while delivering the best products for our clients.

In the future, I would like to maintain a strict ratio between vertical and horizontal expansion for better management.

7. What is your outlook for 2022?

As a company focused on AI/ML services, DevOps, Data Analytics, Metaverse, Blockchain, and Web 3.0, and started in the Lockdown, I understood the volatile nature of the market quite well.

2022 wasn’t any different. We always have prioritized client satisfaction with our work and plan on continuing the same. Moreover, MoogleLabs has benefited from word-of-mouth and our other marketing efforts, so we have several projects in the pipeline.

Overall, 2022 has helped us maintain our company’s upward growth trend. My plans for the remaining months include more work and expansion in more technologies to assist our clients in providing a better customer experience.

For the next year, I would like to expand my organization and take it to new heights.

8. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

AI/ML is the future. It is only a matter of time before every aspect of our lives uses these technologies to serve us better. Web 3.0 is here, and that also relies on these technologies to get results. Hence, we will continue to focus on them. As an IT professional, who strongly believes that change is the only way to survive, I want my team to stay updated on the latest technologies coming into play. We try to determine the parts of developments in the IT industry that can help us and stand the test of time. Then, we can apply our resources to learn about the latest technology and its applications.

Also, at MoogleLabs, we offer our employees the option to take lectures. They can get reimbursement for the fee of the course. It helps our employees update their skill set while working for the company.

9. You are the founder of MoogleLabs for more than twenty years now, can you please share some interesting stories, experiences, and projects that you are proud of?

I have been working with Seasia for the past two decades, and MoogleLabs is a new venture that started in the middle of lockdown 2020. Now, it is over two years since its inception, and frankly, it has been amazing. I have gotten the experience of working with bright minds who take on challenges with ease. As for projects, I believe I am proud of many of our creations. But, the most recent one that comes to mind is a recommendation system for skincare. The product creates personalized recommendations for skincare ingredients based on your input about skin texture, color, problems, etc. It is an excellent machine learning application that my team and I are proud to create.

10. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any software development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

I strongly believe in the importance of technical expertise, but staying relevant requires a thirst for knowledge, especially in the IT industry. So, people who are willing to learn more are the only ones who will survive in this agency. Other than that, keeping a helpful personality and being approachable are desirable traits. Companies that stick to their deadlines have an open line of communication with their clients, do not overpromise, or underdeliver are the ones that get positive reviews and referrals.

11. How do you assess the role of research agencies like IT Firms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

Research agencies are vital for the IT industry, as it is the section that bridges the gap between service providers and clients. Companies like yours are responsible for helping clients find the most suitable IT agency to meet their needs.

MoogleLabs appreciates the opportunity to work with such agencies that are helping clients become more aware and guide them in the right direction.

  MoogleLabs
  https://www.mooglelabs.com
  info@mooglelabs.com

The post Interview with Ganesh Verma – Founder & Director, MoogleLabs appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and views.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Elogic Commerce is a full-cycle ecommerce development agency helping retailers build, optimize, and design their online stores. Leveraging its expertise in Adobe Commerce (aka Magento), BigCommerce, and Shopify Plus development, the company has served 150+ customers across North America, Europe, Australia, and MENA region. Our seasoned team consists of over 100 ecommerce consultants ready to tackle projects of any size, ecommerce model, or operational domain.

Our mission is to deliver solutions that become an essential part of our client’s success. Be it for a complex integration, migration project, or mere ecommerce consultation, we strive to create a valid tech product for e-retailers to keep growing and increasing their ROI.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2021? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

2021 was a great year for Elogic Commerce. We forged new strategic partnerships with such leading ecommerce solutions as commercetools and Sales Layer as well as added Shopify and BigCommerce development to our services. Our team increased by 50% in comparison with 2020. Our SEO rankings got a significant boost too, so any internet wanderer looking for the best Magento development company can now find Elogic in top search results.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

All projects at Elogic start with a deep discovery phase. We set a kick-off call with a client, gather functional and non-functional requirements for the future store, and identify their business needs and objectives. The BA team analyzes the obtained data and advises on the best tech solution for a client. Our goal is never to complete the project; instead, we invest in finding the right solution to a client’s problem and helping them reach their business objectives.

Once the contract is signed, we proceed to the planning stage of the project development. The client gets a detailed ecommerce website scope of work, organized deliverables in a work breakdown structure (WBS), and a clear project budget and timeline. The risk mitigation form is prepared at this stage as well, so our client stays informed of the potential risks and ways to overcome them.

We also sign the NDA to protect the privacy and confidentiality of our client’s business details.

After agreeing on every nitty-gritty detail of the project, the client proceeds to the implementation stage of the project. A custom design is being developed and presented with all prototypes and wireframes. Store features are customized and/or built from scratch. Third-party systems and modules are integrated. The process is never chaotic but rather iterative. The client receives a comprehensive report once a fortnight; each development sprint ends with a demo where a client can introduce changes and provide feedback on the deliverables.

Before code deployment, the project goes through the testing and quality assurance phase. Our vetted engineers test the website for bugs and fix all technical inconsistencies. They also ensure that the final ecommerce website meets your initial business objectives and requirements.

Finally, project launch! After all the testing and fixes, the ecommerce website is released, and online shoppers can successfully place orders and complete purchases on the website. But our collaboration doesn’t end there.

The solution implementation is only the beginning of the journey followed by ongoing development and store maintenance. That’s when we analyze real customer shopping behavior and take all the necessary measures to improve store functionality and increase conversions.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

We offer two engagement models: hybrid (per phase/project) and time & material (per hour). The client can choose based on their own preference.

It should be noted that the hybrid engagement model is most common for design and development projects (like building an ecommerce website from scratch or replatforming/migration projects). The time & material model is a popular choice for such services as ecommerce developers for hire, ecommerce consulting, and ecommerce support and maintenance.

5. What do you as a leader prioritize: – the vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Both. Horizontal: Elogic already holds a 100% ecommerce focus, and we continue expanding our service offerings in this industry from design, development, and optimization to ecommerce consulting. We also build on our expertise in other complex tech integrations and diversify the selection of ecommerce platforms to meet our potential clients’ needs, especially in the enterprise sector.

Vertical: We want to cement our position on the global market and build a tangible, solid presence in the American, European, and Middle East markets. My ambition is to open a few delivery centers around the world and, thus, reinforce the goal of Elogic becoming the biggest ecommerce development agency globally.

6. What is your outlook for 2022?

2022 began with a scenario that was hard to predict or even plan for. Over years, we have built an extensive network of delivery centers across East Europe and now, some of our team members were closer to the war than we might have imagined. Our management team had to respond immediately, ensuring the safety of our staff and top team performance, like we always do. It was surely not an easy task, but we emerged stronger than ever.

Despite the unfortunate beginning of 2022, I am quite positive in my outlook for the rest of the year. We plan to focus on company growth and service & client diversification. We are actively integrating ecommerce strategy consulting in our service offerings, and our clients can already sign up for it on a time & material basis. I am also thrilled to announce that we shall add a Salesforce unit to our company and meet the increasing market demand for this ecommerce sector. Our team puts an extra effort to recruit and retain seasoned software engineers and offers only A-players to augment our clients’ staff to achieve their business objectives.

The Elogic Academy will also undergo several transformations, including the updates to the study program, added gamification of the courses, and new ways to improve the results of the graduates and retain them after the internship. We will create value in the dedicated teams we offer for outstaff: the clients shall come to us not for human resources but for unmatched quality services.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

Elogic Commerce is a full-cycle ecommerce development agency, and we will continue focusing our efforts on this industry. The company primarily sprang from Magento (aka Adobe Commerce) development but is now deepening its expertise in other ecommerce platforms, including but not limited to Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce, and commercetools.

We welcome software engineers from all walks of life (or should I say, walks of ecommerce development) and encourage them to hone their skills. In fact, the company offers a Magento internship program, where my colleagues and I are mentoring future front-end and back-end developers and offer the possibility of employment to those who successfully complete the course.

8. The market is filled with multiple eCommerce development platforms; which one do you think is the best?

I have always been a fan of scalable and composable ecommerce platforms. But the choice of a specific solution should depend on the size and ambition of the business itself. For instance, at Elogic, we differentiate between platforms for mid-level to enterprise companies (such as Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and commercetools) and for small to mid-sized businesses (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.).

B2B platforms deserve special attention too. They might be quite scarce, but I always recommend BigCommerce for small merchants and Magento for mid-sized and enterprise-level stores. Magento has everything a mid-size to enterprise company might wish for. And I can vouch for its stable performance and speed if a merchant takes good care of it and follows coding best practices.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits do you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

It’s hard to stand out from the immense competition with only expertise. Our job at Elogic is to provide our clients with a smooth, pleasant customer experience — just like the one they want to see for their customers.

Our competitive advantage rests on two more pillars except for deep technical expertise: deep dive into the client’s business needs and transparent project management.

First, we take a vested interest in one’s business vision, objectives, and requirements and ensure we gather all the required info during the discovery phase of the project. It’s thanks to the comprehensive and individual approach to each merchant that we strive to exceed our clients’ expectations (and in 92% of all cases in 2021, we did!).

Second, we understand that time and money are some of the most valuable resources in project development, so we take responsibility for optimizing it. No overhead costs. No missed deadlines. No ambiguity in the project deliverables. Our clients always stay informed on the project updates and get answers when there are questions — on time.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

B2B clients go through a complex cycle of sales, including numerous review platforms to discover the right vendor for their needs. ITFirms is one of them bridging the gap between companies looking for tech partners and the top-rated agencies providing development services.

Research agencies help clients sift through the best in a large pool of tech companies, and I truly appreciate that ITFirms lists Elogic among the top ecommerce development agencies.

  Elogic Commerce
  https://elogic.co
  paul@elogic.co

The post Interview with Paul Okhrem – Co-founder, Elogic Commerce appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and views.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Five Jars is an international Drupal, Web Development, Web Design, and Strategy company led by leaders with 10+ years of experience serving mid to enterprise clients in health & fitness, media, art & culture and NGO markets.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2021? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

2021 was a successful year for the company, we can say about the following achievements:

• Increased team by 50% in comparison to 2020;
• Increased revenue by 30% in comparison to 2020;
• We successfully improved many processes and created dedicated marketing and sales teams;
• We opened offices in New York and Los Angeles and now can meet our clients there;
• Average clients retention becomes 3.5 years;
• Launched more than 15 new projects for our customers from the USA;
• Started to work with Fortune 100 clients from the USA;
• Built strategic partnerships with such companies as Platform.sh, ActiveNet, TractionRec.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

At the very beginning, we are having several calls with our client to clarify the scope of the project, as well as the time frame and budgetary constraints. Our sales and analyst teams understand that the customer can change the scope of work after this introduction call. Moreover, after a successful first meeting, discussions of the preliminary project requirements begin. Our team prepares after every call, a preliminary estimate of the project timeline and budget. After each call with the client, we go back to the documentation and make changes to create the most accurate estimate for the specific project. Our team implements the following steps after the successful signing of the contract:

• Strategy. Our team delves deep into our client’s industry and plans a solution that will help them reach your next business goal.
• Design. Designers create an intuitive and highly user-friendly design for your web application.
• Development. We build your product using cutting-edge technologies so that users would have a high-quality web experience.
• QA. We test that the final solution works and looks awesome on all kinds of devices: desktop, mobile, and tablet.
• Release. We do everything necessary to deploy the website for users and content managers.
• Maintenance. After the release, we will allocate members of the team to monitor the application and address any issues.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

We organize our work using Agile & Scrum and provide regular status calls/reports for customers and allow in our practice Fixed Price as well as T&M. The Fix Price model revolves around careful planning and the definition of milestones in sequential order before the actual development starts. It is best suited for projects with a clear execution plan, an abundance of project documentation and a carefully defined roadmap.

The T&M method does not throw a client into unpredictability, as it might seem. Although there is no fixed final amount in the contract Five Jars still provides a client with an estimate of the hours of work required to complete the project. Detailed terms of cooperation and penalties in case of violation will be specified in the contract. Our team values T&M for the flexibility and transparency of the payment method.

The selection of the correct pricing is directly related to the selection of the development methodology and must be consistent with the requirements and objectives of the project, as well as the overall costs incurred by the developer.

5. What do you as a leader prioritize: – the vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Our main development tool Drupal is great for certain industries (such as non-profit, art and music, culture, health and fitness, etc.) and this allows us to focus on studying them. Our team started as development experts, and now we have become full-fledged partners and consultants who understand the specifics of industries and business tasks as well as clients.

6. What is your outlook for 2022?

This year started for Five Jars with the war, so we had to adjust some of our strategic plans. Part of our team is located in Ukraine, so the main priority now is their safety, as well as business performance in a force majeure. We have developed a management system that allows us not to lose productivity (link to post).

Our focus is on the growth and diversification of our industries, clients, and services. We aim to shift the work volume by bringing more clients from the Nonprofit, Education, Art & Culture, Media, Enterprise, and Health & Fitness industries focusing on long-term collaboration. We will extend the sales and marketing team and launch new outreach campaigns and sales processes. As a part of the diversification process, we’ll build a tangible, solid presence of Five Jars Corp in the United States. We aim to build a friendly and warm work environment with perks, benefits, and financial incentives we deserve. Alongside, we want to invest in education and events. “Created by Five Jars” has to become a synonym for “High-quality product”. “I work in Five Jars” has to become a synonym for “I have the work of my dream”. Five Jars is among the world’s best international Digital Agencies and Products Creators.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

The Five Jars team grew out of specialized conferences of the Drupal community, so we continue to be active participants in events such as DrupalCon and DrupalCamp. Moreover, if any employee from a developer to a manager wants to expand his skills, we are ready to pay for his training, as well as sponsor the relevant communities. Five Jars developers are core contributors to the Drupal and JavaScript community as we believe that collaborating with other developers not only creates the most favourable environment but also fosters the technology stack itself to become as efficient as possible. We are convinced that collaborating publicly allows us to demonstrate and showcase our expertise while also testing our solutions through an open community. While not every project is born to become a publicly available repository, we are proud to give back to the Drupal and JavaScript community.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

We all can see a strong movement towards getting things unified as much as possible. These technologies definitely get us closer to a more efficient way of developing applications when a single code base defines everything: web apps, mobile apps, apps for TVs, API. It makes the whole presence ready quicker, more consistent, and more affordable. You won’t need a big team of people specialized in different technologies. It’s beneficial for developers too. Now with a strong Javascript basis you have opened doors to different platforms and learning mobile development is easier if you have had experience in the web and vice versa. It implies finding a developer is easier, and growing talents is cheaper.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits do you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

Empathic – we look at each problem through the eyes of the customer and try to create solutions that help clients reach their goals. Results-driven – we produce solutions that give real, measurable results. Transparent – when working with us, you know exactly where your money goes. We organize our work using Agile & Scrum and provide regular status calls/reports for customers. Responsive – we’re on 24/7. If anything happens, one of our representatives will be available to help you solve the issue or answer the inquiry.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

The B2B sector has a long deal cycle and deep research of contractors, so being in the ratings and being highly rated by experts is very important. ITFirms is one of the most mentioned resources by our clients, and we are very pleased to be part of the ITFirms ranking.

  Five Jars
  https://fivejars.com
  marketing@fivejars.com

The post Interview with Alex Schedrov – CEO, Five Jars appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and thoughts.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Work4you is an IT company that works mainly on CRM solution services powered by AI and ML. To add to this, we are also into customer support, BPOs, and KPOs. We are an experienced company and have witnessed the trends of the IT industry first-hand. We understand the changing customer requirements and how dynamic they are.

I, Deepak Mandy, am an entrepreneur and a social worker who loves to indulge in activities that nurture personal growth. I believe in cultivating a community of productivity and goodwill. I also believe that taking risks and tackling unprecedented problems are a part and parcel of any entrepreneur’s life.

Apart from Work4you, I am also a business consultant and a growth leader. I have established several global businesses with a strong presence in various nations – Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, India and Philippines and am always looking forward to more challenges and opportunities.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2020? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

2020 was a pandemic-stricken year but at Work4you, we took it as an opportunity to restructure ourselves in a more streamlined manner. We adopted the industry’s best practices. We also realized the importance of a digital solution in any field. Technology, if used in the right way, can transform lives. We are witness to how intelligent healthcare has been the driving force during the pandemic. Our greatest achievement in 2020 has been to become more aligned with how the world is moving forward.

I would say that the most disappointing part of the year was the lack of physical contact. Working from our homes was necessary but not meeting my colleagues and my teammates was not a feeling I would like to experience again. But then again, we learnt so much about ourselves during this period of isolation.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

Our development model is agile in every manner. From the initial moment, we develop a constant back-and-forth with the customer. Feedback and several iterations is the key to our success actually. We move in a chronological manner and like to understand requirements fully before jumping to any development phase. Our process is modular and as transparent as can be.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

When it comes to offering services to our customers, we believe in delivering the very best we can. The times we work in, bespoke customer requirements are gaining momentum and we, as service providers and product designers, need to be ready to cater to these requirements. Our engagement models are flexible enough to accommodate all the industries we operate in. To make things simpler, however, they can be roughly divided into major parts:

Delivery-oriented: Wherein we understand the customers’ requirements, document the scope of work, and deliver them in one go or in iterations as the circumstances demand. The delivery model is mostly fueled by our hardworking internal team, our effective price ranges, and the feedback of the customer.

Partner-oriented: Wherein we look to collaborate with another person or organisation along common grounds to achieve positive results that are beneficial for both the parties. This model aims to nurture budding entrepreneurs and create a conducive environment for businesses to grow.

5. What do you as a leader prioritize: – the vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

While we look to gain new grounds and spread ourselves across more industries, serving existing customers and targeting our original market is very important as well. Whether we prioritize horizontal growth or vertical growth is a question of circumstances. We adapt to whatever is better from our standpoint and adopt strategies to complement that. Having said this, once we focus on a particular direction does not imply that we ignore the other altogether. It is all about allocating resources in such a way that the sum output is greater than the individual output.

Our focus, at the moment, is more inclined towards a horizontal growth. We aim to enter new markets and explore different strategies.

6. What is your outlook for 2021?

After the pandemic, more and more companies are switching from an offline approach and transforming themselves digitally. At Work4you, we are committed to making this transition easier for our customers. With the drastic shift to the online media, Work4you is constantly churning out positive solutions for the market. The demand for better IT services are at an all-time high and we have systems and processes in place to deliver the best quality of service. Customers are hungry for more business and our AI-powered CRMs are helping them get the most out of leads. The company is dedicated to work for a positive change in 2021 and for the future. As always, we look to expand across more industries on a global scale keeping in mind the aforementioned business model. Looking at how things stand at the moment, we are positive that this goal is more realistic than ever. Even our name, Work4you naturally implies a customer-oriented outlook from our part.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

AI and ML seem to be great catalysts for increasing the quality of customer engagement and interaction. To add to this, they can also be used to develop prediction models for our organization. I would say that these two, coupled together can be a dynamic duo.

We look to explore more and gather data points relevant to our industry. At the end of the day, data is the new oil. AI/ML can only function if they have the right data to work with. Prediction models or customer engagements both depend on the aforementioned. Our organization, across all the industries we work in, understands this importance. Consequently, our operation processes are becoming more and more data-oriented.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

React and Node are both based on Javascript. When the client-side scripting language was first introduced, no one could fathom the rate at which it could grow. Now we see Javascript on our servers as well (in the form of NodeJs). This is why instead of speaking about React or Node, I like to maintain my focus on the origin of these two. And things are only going to get better for it. As of now, we see a hybrid development model that can be used to develop both web apps and mobile apps. But this is not it. We are moving towards a universal solution; a one-for-all kind of development methodology.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits do you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

Apple is a leading example of how a successful application is developed. From its nascent stages, its pioneer, Steve Jobs dedicated more time and energy to design rather than functionality. To make up for it, well-designed marketing strategies were implemented to bolster it. So I would say that besides technical aspects, marketing and design are the two main things to keep in mind while designing an application. As aforementioned, customer-oriented business models are on the rise and design plays an integral role in it. User experience and user interface are crucial. If the design aspect of any product fails; a product as simple as a revolving door, can backfire on the manufacturer. I also recommend ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ by Don Norman, a well-written compilation of how user experience is a paramount factor in deciding the success of any product.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

To nurture and harness a community of like-minded and progressive individuals is very important and agencies like ITFirms are doing just that. It is crucial to have a bi-directional communication flow between the organization and the customer. ITFirms is a wonderful platform, a sort of ‘social media’ where entrepreneurs and existing businesses can keep themselves updated with everything, business.

  Work4You
  https://work4you.com.au
  contact@work4you.com.au

The post Interview with Deepak Mandy – Owner, Work4You appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and thoughts.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

BugRaptors is a division of the Seasia Group of Companies. It is one of the leading software testing companies established in March 2016 in Mohali, India, with a mission to be the worldwide famous leader of QA solutions and software testing services.

It is also renowned as a third-party testing service provider globally to offer specialized automation testing, test advisory services, independent quality engineering, and domain-based QA services to banking, healthcare, e-commerce, real estate, and other industries.

With strong experienced leadership line of our CTO’s, VP’s and Analysts, we have setup a criterion to refine our processes supported with review process at each solutions and service delivery. To support this, we have a technology advancement team to keep us in-lined all the time. With advanced test lab equipped with 200+ physical devices and 250+ certified professionals, we also built a range of products/frameworks named Moboraptors and Swift to give quality and accuracy at a fast pace, to our customers with huge benefits in terms of cost and time.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2020? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

BugRaptors has experienced significant growth in automation testing services because we use the most advanced tech tools such as Selenium, Cucumber, Appium, Robotium, Katalon, SoapUi,Jmeter, Jenkins, and many other automation-based platforms that give benefits like improved accuracy, reduced business expenses, faster development and delivery experience, high-app quality and performance. Also, it helps in eliminating human errors. We witness a surge in sales in the rising 2020, but even after the COVID-19 pandemic, we try to keep up with the services well. Unsurprisingly, we manage every action on the track. Our team worked hard and delivered the services on time so that the customer won’t lag anywhere.

Even in 2021, we came up with much stronger and much better plans. Our improved and modified automation testing approach helps us minimize the manual efforts and speed up the entire testing process while resolving an enterprise’s requirements. It even boosts our confidence to deliver the quick time-to-market with the market’s best quality software product.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

BugRaptors has a team of ISTQB and equivalent testing professionals who work around the clock to maintain the software testing domain’s de-facto standard. They have lean thinking, DevOps, and agile best practices to support the latest and current software testing trends.

Look knowing that our customers are satisfied with our service is what we considered a business success. Only the satisfaction rate can further decide the likelihood to return for a new project by the client and his recommendation to others. So, we give our best to create meaningful experiences for the customers that start with the very moments the clients walk in.

Well, every company has different operational structures and different rules and responsibilities that they manage according to their project’s lengths and distributed it into their various teams.

Rest we can’t be transparent at the time of sharing our detailed operational structure with you, but we can give a bit overview about how the operational structure of any software testing company looks like. For smaller projects, usually, companies include development managers and testers. In this structure, the project activities are very well managed under the control of the development manager. Both testing teams and development teams take the initiative for meetings and conduct several scrum sessions with the development manager to understand the customer’s project requirements and reduce the communication gap. They decide particular deadlines for projects and collaborate with all team members, including stakeholders in real-time. Apart from that, the development manager ensures that the projects will be completed successfully and take a guarantee to help customers get the quality software.

Similarly, large-scale companies involve various operational structure members, from project managers, test managers/test leads, testers, and development managers to programmers/developers. All of them have different testing capabilities, independence, skills, and experience to give their best for test-related activities. Whether there is one product or two or more, there are so many components include in testing teams. In order to provide greater accountability or consistency, each component can be created and tested by different groups. Moreover, effective test automation strategies and many results-driven approaches can be considered while working in the operational structure.

One thing you can understand that the operational structure of every software company can vary from each other, but the objective behind maintaining this structure is to reduce defects from the product early as possible and gain an excellent experience in all aspects of the life cycle. It even helps us provide on-time delivery to customers and keep them ahead of the crowd.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

The growing trend of customization gives us a command to get ready our clients’ engagement models in an interactive way and supports us to develop effective strategies that further help our customers engage with us more authentically throughout their entire buying journey. It even allows us to maintain transparency and loyal relationships with them.

We represent our engagement models by keeping operational flexibility in mind and each model have an enormous impact. Let me just start with it.

Team – We have a flexible team size with a dedicated pool of resources to give our consumers the best of both worlds – a great combination of engineering and business.

• Dedicated pool of resources assigned to you
• Flexible team size
• Test lead assigned for all communication & team management
• Seamless knowledge transfer among team members
• Client controlled testing environment

Material – We have a strategic material model in which we analyze the testing scope and help our clients choose the right testing partner, tools, and architecture to scale their product.

• Well defined scope analysis
• Client confirms the final team members
• Task progress and testing process analysis on daily basis
• Detailed time sheets released to client weekly/monthly

Price – This model was built in detail to let customer know the cost based on testing efforts, techniques, custom features and generates an invoice on the basis of milestones.

• Scope is very well defined
• Detailed project analysis
• Testing efforts & costs estimation
• Direct influence of team expertise over costs
• Milestone wise invoice generation

5. What do you as a leader prioritize: – the vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Being a leader in the QA and software testing company, we focus on prioritizing both the expansion models as they offer us lucrative benefits. For example, the reason to consider a horizontal expansion model in our business is that it allows us to access a larger customer base and boost our revenue. Using the vertical expansion model is the necessity to help our clients compete in the digital world when they get their products/software/application on-time from us. It is also beneficial for managing all aspects of business operations without the involvement of third parties, and when it comes to reducing the overall cost and increasing the profit, vertical expansion becomes the right fit for us.

6. What is your outlook for 2021?

It is projected that 2021 is a year of exceptional development. In the age of digital transformation, customer requirements are changing continuously. People trust us, and we guarantee to fulfill the new technological and personal business needs of our customers. Apart from technical advancements, we are planning to expand our business and take it to another plus level while catering to our employees much better. We already follow gender equality in our workforces or premises. Still, after evaluating important traits in female leaders such as honesty, determination, confidence, emotional intelligence, collaboration, or inspiring leadership qualities, now we want to nurture our corporate culture by increasing 50% more females in our workforce.

7. What is the difference between quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and software testing?

Quality assurance aims to eliminate defects, whereas the quality control objective is to find and fix the defects. Companies promise to provide quality assurance in the software development life cycle. However, quality control is done in the software testing life cycle.

It is necessary to perform quality assurance before quality control which requires the involvement of various team members in the company. In contrast, the testing team can fulfill the needs of quality control alone. Quality Control is a reactive method, while Quality Assurance is proactive. QA ensures to the customer that whatever the quality you demand, your application will provide you without any hassle. Infact, quality assurance is a step or procedure that concentrates on satisfying quality requirements. On the flip side, software testing is the process of verifying the application under test (AUT). It confirms that the actual software product will fulfill the customer’s expected requirements and assure them to provide them defect-free solutions. It can be done either manually or using automation, depending upon the product’s specification. Its purpose is to find gaps and errors as early as possible in the software to deliver a reliable, high-performance, and fully-secured software product. Both quality control and quality assurance can be successfully achieved with software testing.

8. Why should companies invest in QA platforms instead of hiring a QA team?

The reason companies should invest in QA platforms instead of hiring more QA team members is the delivery speed, time saving-capabilities, 70% of automation test activities and 30% of manual activities, reusability, early bug detection, distributed test execution, early & robust reporting, 24/7 test implementation capacity, quality assurance, affordability, and many more services that one can acquire with the utmost ease.

But, without experienced QA teams, QA platforms are nothing because these are the just way to accelerate a company’s digital transformation journey. QA test automation platforms definitely ensure to give higher test coverage, better insights, improved accuracy, faster feedback cycle, reusability of the test suite, or even minimize business expenses. Yet, when it comes to providing all such benefits to customers, the companies have to hire a QA team at their workplace because they are the ones who put too much effort and do hard labor to make the software better but get no or little recognition.

9. Providing 100% accuracy is one of the most significant challenges that QA organizations face. How should industry leaders ensure accuracy and provide faster results at the same time?

Quality is remembered for a longer period, but the price of the product can be forgotten. To ensure 100% accuracy and provide faster results simultaneously, industry leaders should have the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence), Agile, and DevOps to shape the future of business and give the customers desirable results. One must have a testing center of excellence, knowledge of implementing the best possible software testing methodologies and applications, and modern software testing labs to guarantee digital assurance, quality engineering, and quality assurance. With a focused testing approach, one can not only give accuracy while testing but also ensure to enhance time to market and ROI.

10. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

Well, the success of the new technology project depends upon three factors – the people, the process, and the technology itself. Moreover, the latest technology requires the techniques, skills, knowledge, experience, and methods used to produce goods and services. BugRaptors experts are proficient in the current innovations and have access to device labs which they utilize properly to learn and implement new technologies on the customer’s projects.

The latest technologies that can transform the global economy in upcoming years are Virtual and Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile Internet, Cloud Technology, Advanced Robotics, Internet of Things, and Blockchain. We already have domain expertise for these technologies and even offering IoT (Internet of Things) and blockchain testing services, cloud testing services, AI & ML testing services as specialized QA services to our customers. IoT, Cloud Computing, AI, and Blockchain are our major targets for the future. Apart from that, if there is any new change introduced in these technologies, our tech specialists follow the four-step approach (plan, design, implement, and support), which they always consider while keeping our customers ahead of their competition. Besides, we almost cover all industries domain to target, such as e-commerce, startups, retail, Fintech, insurance, healthcare, real estate, telecommunication, media, and utilities.

11. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any quality assurance/ software testing firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

Other than technical experience, there are some very important traits like effective communication, fast and quick learning ability, strong requirement understanding, time management, adaptability, productivity, passion, creativity, analytical skills, automation proficiency, DevOps awareness, positive attitude, product understanding, leadership, culture, and the right mix of resources that help the software testing firm create a win-win situation in the rapidly evolving industry with quality assurance.

12. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

I think ITFirms like asset is the most demanded need of the end-users. You keep a very close look over the stats and well research the companies. This is really appreciable that you give a chance and then recognize the true emerging market. Businesses and the end-users rely on you like firms, so that they don’t need to hustle anymore and bridge the robust gap between client and service providers.

  BugRaptors
  https://www.bugraptors.com
  info@bugraptors.com

The post Interview with Yashu Kapila – CEO, BugRaptors appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and thoughts.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Armada labs is an expert fintech software development house with 20+ years of experience in the industry. Our data-driven development model and customer-first approach allow us to deliver bespoke solutions tailored to individual business needs.

Our portfolio includes AI-based cloud computing software for credit scoring and cutting-edge custom fintech software acclaimed by BFS Capital, Rivo Holdings, West Creek Financial, and other Fortune 500 companies.

We’ve successfully built and continue to run several businesses in IT-arena, like Prime Debt Soft, Health.Finance, and Paydit. We provide combined service which includes both deep fintech development and consulting expertise.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2020? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

The year 2020 was a real challenge. There were both problems and successes. Yet, even now, the fintech industry feels good, despite the COVID and post-covid-related concerns. We came out of the crisis better than before. Objectively, I can say that the market has shrunk; there are fewer transactions, clients need more time to make a decision, evaluating the market for a better price.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

Since day one, we at Armada Labs have been striving to be a reliable software development vendor that offers transparent and effective models for cooperation. At the core of our approach is ensuring that you get what you expect, on budget and on time.

Our basic workflow includes the following essential stages:

• A client sends us project requirements. Depending on how well detailed the requirements are, our team defines a clear scope of work during a discovery phase (2-3 weeks). The project discovery phase helps reduce risks and minimize costs, as well as ensure the product is a technologically perfect fit for the market.
• Discovery. Our team performs the research needed to transform your vision into technical specifications, develops project architecture, defines team requirements, and makes time and budget estimates.
• A client gets an individual proposal. A proposal includes the project scope, time and budget estimation, and the engagement model we selected.
• Contract. We formalize what we negotiated earlier.
• Kick-off. When a client decides to move along with us, we kick-off a first meeting with a ready-to-go team, a set project environment, and access to real-time control over the project.
• Elaboration. We finalize the specification, refine the mockups and mitigate other technical and non-technical risks.
• Implementation. In the Scrum development cycle, every sprint is about 2 weeks long. We can work using either your server or ours and track tasks in Jira. Tests always follow user cases. The PM reports to you on everything and provides a customer care call 2-3 times per week to check on satisfaction level. At the end of every sprint, you will see a demo of your project.
• Stabilization. We carry out performance testing of the implemented functionality, following a checklist and(or) test plan. We also manage change requests.
• MVP. An MVP is not aimed at fully satisfying the customer; rather, it allows adding more features and improving the product before releasing it. Although not required on every single project, we recommend clients to go out with the MVP, to test the system’s performance in real-life environment. It significantly saves time and money to our clients.
• Transition and aftercare. We prepare binaries, source code, and documentation for the final acceptance user test that ensures all deliverables are good.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

We deeply analyze our client’s business needs and consult on the optimal engagement model for your software project.

• Time and material. This model works best with high-level, loosely defined requirements. With T&M, you achieve maximum scope and budget flexibility while paying only for the resources used.
• Project-based. Perfectly fitted for short-time endeavors; fixed bid engagements presuppose a clear-cut project scope and detailed release roadmap, minimizing the risk of going beyond the budget.
• Team-based. Choose this model if you need a rapid ramp-up of your internal resources. This way, you can quickly bring in expert or highly specialized talent, while saving big on recruitment.

With this engagement model chosen, a customer should have clear opportunities for managing the team and compiling the necessary documentation.

5. What do you as a leader prioritize: – the vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

As the leader, I believe that the future is behind vertical expansion to new markets. At this point, we want to have better control over the ever-changing fintech market. By growing vertically, we can reduce costs during the delivery cycle and ensure higher quality control. Vertical approach is what helps us stay on the roll, even at difficult times.

At the same time, we are also growing horizontally. As a company, we operate in a rapidly-growing industry, sidestepping competitors with Health.Finance, the “swan song” of our fintech expertise.

When balanced, both approaches are successful. We always know when to use each of these, defining the parts of our operation that will produce the most leverage on the business.

6. What is your outlook for 2021?

Every crisis presents new business opportunities. This crisis is somewhat unique and that’s why I believe that in the end, not only us but the whole world will come out of it stronger and better prepared for possible recessions that may come.

Watching what is going on with the economy right now, we can see that the aftermath of the crisis will bring us the “new normal.” Speaking of which, I’d like to highlight the following future trends:

• More M&As between fintechs and incumbents. The digital lending, wealth management, and, admittedly, digital banking sectors will likely to make more partnerships with incumbents than before. Already, traditional financial companies and institutions seek new ways to adapt to the changing conditions, when millions of people on the lockdown have to perform transactions online.
• More payment integrations. Despite lockdown and isolation, fintechs will continue adding payments to non-financial services. With the increased lack of mobility, they are expected to accelerate rapidly.
• More demanded capital markets. Fintech capital markets focused on risk management and lower costs will also benefit from the situation since brokers will have to cut costs to maintain margins.
• Regtech to remain all the rage. Compliance-focused fintechs are unlikely to be affected by the pandemic since their services don’t depend on the market. More, investors may even double down funding to make their valuations go up on the quiet.
• Insurtech to safeguard against troubles. Individual types of digital insurance services will be more demanded, including those covering health and business disruption issues. For that reason, insurtech startups that provide alternative insurance services will be in the center of investors’ focus.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

Two decades of experience developing software products for the financial services industry gave us a keen sense of what it takes to develop a full-featured fintech solution from both technical and business perspectives. On top of this, we’ve been delivering alternative lending software solutions for years.

For commercial and mortgage banks, online lending and finance companies, we implement tools that allow efficiently managing complex risk calculations to rationalize operational costs and demonstrate financial and security compliance. Our in-house staff regularly passes dedicated technology training to upskill.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

React and Node, as well as many other web technologies, can now be used in both desktop and mobile development. Currently, this approach has many downsides, such as lower performance compared to native solutions, inaccessibility of particular tools, etc. However, it’s quite expected since something specialized is more beneficial than something common.

On the other hand, the approach has advantages, too, the main one is the high level of cross-platform support. In my opinion, the downsides will be becoming less perceivable over time, due to the rapid development of web technologies, while vantage points will be more sizable.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

I have talked about the essential “non-technical” aspects in one of our recent webinars. Be inclusive in technological challenges that you do, create realistic game plans that would include the MVPs, and be iterative. Quick reaction to market changes will bring you quick results and allow you to flexibly adjust to ever-changing conditions.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

Research agencies not only have the power to influence consumer decisions but can strengthen a company’s credibility. Inclusion in lists, testimonials, and reviews have the power to gain customers’ trust, and they encourage people to interact with the company. Customer interaction ultimately leads to improved profits for both businesses. This way, the boundaries disappear.

  Armada Labs
  https://www.armadalabs.com
  contact@armadalabs.com

The post Interview with Eugene Pratasenia – COO and Co-Founder, Armada Labs appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

Let’s check his success story and thoughts.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

SAG IPL was founded in the year 2010 as the IT subsidiary of SAG Infotech Pvt Ltd., a Jaipur (India) based accounting & taxation software Provider Company. SAG IPL provides a variety of high-end software and web/mobile development services and digital marketing services to its clients located in 30+ countries. The company has a team of 200+ full-time professionals, as of November 2020. Mr. Amit Gupta, founder and MD of SAG IPL, is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a businessman with a vision to make SAG IPL one of the leading software consulting firms in the world. The core management of the company includes dedicated HR professionals for different departments along with department managers (head) to oversee day-to-day operations and manage clients. The major departments/teams in SAG IPL include software developers, designers, digital marketers, web developers, content writers, and support.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2019-2020? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

So far, 2020 has been one of the good years for SAG IPL. Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, we have been getting constant leads and new clients throughout the year, and most of our existing clients continue to use our services. I guess that’s the benefit of being a reliable and highly trusted IT company in India. As for the achievement, it’s worth noting that we managed to increase both our revenue and profits during the year despite the pandemic.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

A potential client can contact our Sales Team via phone, email or Skype for their consulting/service needs. Depending on his/her requirements, we will connect him to the right department. Our manager will discuss the project in brief with the client over the call or Skype, after which we may have a face-to-face or video meeting with the client to further understand & analyze their project requirements, scope, etc. Based on our initial project analysis, we’ll give a quote to the client. If they like the quote, they can hire the team or individual developers/designers/marketers as per the need. Then, our team will start working on the project. The project manager will keep the client updated with the project progress and status and accept any suggestions or feedback. Once the development and testing are done, the final product is delivered to the client or deployed on their preferred server.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

At SAG IPL, we have multiple engagement models to meet the needs of different types of clients. A client can choose from the following models:

• • fixed price (project-based)
  • full-time talent
  • dedicated resource
  • Custom (as per client’s own requirements)

For instance, if a client only needs one developer, they can hire a full-time talent from us.

5. What do you as a leader prioritizes – vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Both. From time-to-time, we expand our services to include new & different but relevant skills to our offerings. For instance, we have been providing blockchain development & marketing services for the last three years. At the same time, we also plan to expand our services to more regions/countries around the world. We already provide services in more than 30 countries from our dedicated offices in India, the UK, the UK, Canada, and the UAE.

6. What is your outlook for 2020?

We are quite positive and very hopeful for the coming year. At the rate we are growing and the business is expanding, we hope to serve many more clients in more countries in 2021 and beyond.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

We are always looking to upgrade ourselves and our systems to the latest technologies. As of now, our focus technology is blockchain, among others. Over the past couple of years, we have somewhat mastered blockchain through hours of research & development work. Now, we have a dedicated team of blockchain developers and marketers. We are also on the constant lookout for the best blockchain talent to add to our team.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

The technology paradigm is shifting at a higher speed than any of us would have imagined a few years back. Nevertheless, we absolutely love the fact that we now have access to technologies like React and Node that make the development process faster and more efficient. Also, we expect the agile development methodology to reach new heights in the future.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

While technical expertise and skills are the first things a client will look in a potential developer, in my opinion, other traits that also matter when choosing an app development company are honesty, transparency, flexibility, cost, and their experience in the relevant industry. These are the things that decide whether or not the company will survive or succeed in the long term. More than anything, a developer should be honest both with his client and himself.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

I believe research agencies like ITFirms are an important link between clients and development companies. In the past couple of years, these research agencies have immensely helped clients in their search for good and reliable service providers. Without them, it will be nearly impossible to trust an agency for delivering good services.

  SAG IPL
  https://www.sagipl.com
  tech@sagipl.com

The post Exclusive Interview with Amit Gupta – MD/Co-Founder, SAG IPL appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

Ivan Mak is a CCO of MLSDev, a web and mobile app development company that helps clients build IT businesses with the help of innovations. The company was founded in 2009 by three partners: Ivan Mak, Slava Ledenev and Anton Sakharov. MLSDev is focused on solving clients’ problems by providing complex services. As a result, the clients receive ready solutions to their needs.

Now MLSDev has 4 offices: Kyiv and Vinnytsia (Ukraine), Krakow (Poland), and Denver (USA).

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2018? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

In 2018, we were focused on improving our presale stage (analysis of clients’ needs) and the discovery stage (planning of the solution to cover their needs). Additionally, we worked hard to improve our Software Development Life Cycle, create a new goal-based pricing model for it to align with our value proposition, enhance the English speaking skills of the entire team, and many more things. 2018 became a year of preparation for further years for MLSDev.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

Our first stage is presale where the customer communicates with our client relationship manager (CRM). Along with the CRM, the team of a Business Analyst and a System Architect is involved at this stage. Other roles like Project Manager, UX/UI Designer can be added as well if necessary. At this stage, the team analyzes a client’s problem and makes a plan for the next stage. If possible, the team also roughly estimates the time and budget of the entire project.

The next stage is the Discovery. The same team elaborates a detailed solution for the client. After the Discovery the client receives a backlog, UX/UI design, release plan, and budget estimate. As an option, we can also help with competitor analysis, business model creation, marketing plan, and other services.

Once the project development is carefully planned, the development process starts. At this stage, our tech team sticks to the plan that has been carefully elaborated during the previous stages. Here, the quality assurance service is involved as well.

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

As a rule, we work by the Time & Materials model, taking into account detailed (accurate) estimates as the main landmarks. This helps us to keep our relations with clients honest and transparent.

If our customers prefer a Fixed Price model, we can negotiate individual conditions for their projects.

In any case, we apply the approach of the goal-based team setup. When calculating the project cost, we always consider the goals and tasks of the project and its technical complexity. Based on these factors we assign people with the required skills and experience. Hence, our rates for different projects may be different because of the chosen technology stack and the seniority level of developers.

5. What do you as a leader prioritizes – vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

Our strategy is to gain and build our expertise in specific areas. At the moment we are mostly focused on the fintech and healthcare industries. Along with that, we have great experience in creating products for the social, dating, e-commerce, and on-demand delivery domains, and take on such projects with pleasure.

The same goes for technologies. We are a niche company whose task is to be the best in the limited number of programming languages rather than be Jack of all trades. Our technology stack is as follows:

• JavaScript for front-end development
• Ruby on Rails for back-end development
• Kotlin and Java for Android development
• Swift for iOS development

At present we are working on building a new department of Elixir developers.

6. What is your outlook for 2019?

From the market perspective, we think that it will become more and more competitive and the task of any company is to find its niche and establish itself as a leader there.

As for our company, we will follow our strategy further. We plan to introduce a few new services but we are not ready to tell the world about them yet.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

We are getting back to full-stack development and begin to use Elixir for back end development along with Ruby.

Speaking of niches, we would like to focus on healthcare and fintech now but we are ready to work on projects related to other interesting domains.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

If you mean cross-platform app development, this is not what we are into. This way of building apps is good for small and simple projects. Additionally, when you need to grow a cross-platform project, investments into improvements and upgrades are incommensurate with the money saved during the development of the first product version. We have a good article about native app development that explains our position regarding the cross-platform option.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

Today it is not enough to be just good techies. In the context of the modern market, leading service companies give their customers more than just human resources for their projects. Now, in addition to tech skills, it is vital to be experts in business analysis, marketing, and of course in the industries you build products for.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

Research agencies like ITFirms are a good opportunity for additional companies’ visibility. They are valuable in terms of collecting important and validated information about service providers and serve as a trusted source to help clients make the right choice.

  MLSDev
  https://mlsdev.com
  sales@mlsdev.com

The post Interview with Ivan Mak – CCO, MLSDev appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.

1. Tell us in brief about your company and the leadership.

As we manage our organization we are accountable to our employees, colleagues and all stakeholders. We are inclined towards our basics and honest in all our undertakings. We are more engaged and collaborative with colleagues. We are more in touch with them, more conscientious of what they do and say, more concerned about fairness and diversity, responsible for their security and overall welfare. We weigh these new expectations, past experiences and our leadership instincts against the learned habits and conventional wisdom to get desired results.

2. How would you describe your growth trajectory in 2018? Any particular achievement? Any disappointment?

We started with very few employees. As the team increased, and tasks were allocated, things started to fall in place and the staff was organized. This ensured that work didn’t fell down through the cracks. We always strived to avoid turf wars as this helped us through various processes. We have structured our organization chart for each position for our current situation and a second chart for where each one of us wants to be in coming one or two years.

It was important for us to maintain a steady operational workflow, assigning responsibilities, scheduling tasks and managing various operations to achieve maximum client satisfaction rate. In this process we had been marking out strong credit checks, implemented a number of successful projects and enhanced our technological expertise. We were listed among top 5 mobile app developers in 2018 by SiliconIndia, Ranked among top 5 app developers and development companies in India by Clutch, # 1 Magento web development company by the extract.co, Recognized as #1 mobile app development firm by ITFirms, ranked among top iOS app development agencies by Business of Apps, Ranked among top 10 mobile app developers by AppFutura.

3. Please describe the operational structure of your company- from the moment a client walks in, to the product deployment.

Our decision process involves planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling all the resources that we incorporate in delivering our core services. Konstant’s digital business strategy includes business models, designs and a mix of technologies that will impact our enterprise architecture discipline and deliverables over the coming year.

As the client reaches us with their idea, the big task is divided into subtasks and the objective of the application to be developed is understood from the client. The planning and requirement collection phase involves determining who all are our target audience, how the app will be used, on which platform it will be built upon, checking competitor behavior, determining the budget, the deadline of submission, and marketing of app and monetization model to be followed.

We follow the entire software development life cycle for a project of any size and budget unless otherwise necessitated by the client.

This involves research and planning -> Checking technical feasibility -> Building the prototype -> Designing the app -> Design to development handoff (which involves kickoff meetings and weekly hurdles) -> Testing the application (Unit to UAT)-> Deploying the app

4. What engagement models do you offer? How should a client choose?

Project, time, budget and client requirements are four bases for deciding about the engagement models.

• We make use of project-based engagement model when the requirements are clear. Their costing is fixed based on milestones.
• We make use of resource-based engagement model when we get a chance to try a technology for the very first time. Their costing is based on hourly or daily rates based on the type of resources engaged.
• We follow a dedicated development model while setting up low-cost offshore development practices. Costing is flexible based on the type of needs and resources.
• We go into partnership engagement when capital is not enough to take the relevant risk. Costing is according to predefined hourly rates and profits are shared.
• We follow a fixed cost model in case there are no unknown factors when all the requirements are gathered and written as clearly and accurately as possible.

5. What do you as a leader prioritizes – vertical expansion of your business or the horizontal expansion of your expertise and services? How do you balance both?

We are focused on enhancing our technology and services portfolio learning every nook and cranny from every project we undertake. We are inclined to please our clients and boost our business in the process. We also plan to improve our solutions, prevalent practices and include tools for better productivity. Although we strongly seek but do not adopt future trends unless required that could leave the current projects in jeopardy.

6. What is your outlook for 2019?

We have planned for a few things like duplicating the success in the areas in which we are performing substantially well and identify areas where our business is underperforming.

7. Any particular technology or industry you would be targeting? How do you plan to prepare your workforce for the upcoming technology upgrade?

Having served almost every industry niche, we will strengthen core mobile app development with more native and cross-platform app technologies. In addition to this we look forward to extending our efforts towards AI (we have already developed chatbots for e-commerce applications earlier), Augmented, Virtual Reality, Blockchain, and Data Analytics. We have already started exploring and managing big data applications and wish to assist businesses across the globe to decipher this decisive information in a procedural way.

8. With technologies like React and Node that can be used for both web applications and mobile apps, how do you envision the development methodology to be in the future?

We plan to bring features like rapid CMS, instant localization, instant integrations and rapid scale technologies to build best and most efficient app development platform in the world and we’re confident that this is the best offer in the market vs. other app development firms.

9. Other than technical expertise, what traits you believe are essential for any app development firm to succeed in this rapidly evolving industry?

We believe in honesty and hard work. Our sincere efforts are directed towards achieving maximum client satisfaction rate. We are working towards improving client communication, valuing time and resources, committing yourself to the deadlines till the time they are not completely satisfied.

10. How do you assess the role of research agencies like ITFirms in bridging the gap between clients and service providers?

ITFirms have been working smartly to match service seekers with service providers. They follow stringent criteria to select top service providers that are easily identifiable amongst the rest. We sincerely thank them for acknowledging our efforts.

  Konstant Infosolutions
  www.konstantinfo.com
  sales@konstantinfo.com

The post Interview with Manish Jain – MD and Co-Founder, Konstant Infosolutions appeared first on Top ITFirms - Result of In-depth Research & Analysis.