Outsourcing Frequently Asked Question
What differentiates Methodologic from its competitors?
Having more than 9 years of outsourcing experience, we provide affordable technology solution on time, within budget with over 200 talented, professional, and skilled developers, under well organized management; with a software process quality control system; with English speaking professionals; and with availability to you 24 hours a day.
Our ODC is located in KolKata, one of the most Scientific Centers where a large number of most intelligent and educated people from all over India are concentrated.
By choosing Methodologic, you reap the benefits of using some of the finest software programming minds in the world. It is hard to find equals of our Indian professionals. These individuals embody the outstanding standards of the scientific and Technological centers of Indian Institute of Technologies - the MIT of India.
Strong integration into and sponsorship of the Indian scientific community and cooperation with State and Private Universities ensures easy access to qualified IT resources. Such resources allow us to guarantee stable and reliable services to our customers.
All our consultants have excellent knowledge in verbal and written English.
Some of the strongest points of Indian developers are flexibility, a customer-centered focus, creativity, and problem-solving skills. We are deliberate in providing solutions and utilize many approaches to tackle problems. The key to our success is considering problems from various points of view and methodological analysis of the best way to overcome such problems. Our customers will never be left with unresolved tasks!
Methodologic uses contemporary management approaches. The combination of creative experienced Indian programming resources and western-style management approaches provide synergetic effects and brings our customers exceptional added value. Methodologic has a reputation for maintaining trustworthy and mutually beneficial relationships with its customers and partners.
What are the advantages of using offshore programmers?
Using offshore programmers is more COST-EFFECTIVE than hiring domestic programmers and project managers. For example, in the United States you may spend from $80 to $150 an hour for a programmer's time. Working with Methodologic you can save on average up to 60% of your cost, and can also gain savings in time, through using our services.
You have IMMEDIATE access to the best developers. You can have a top-notch PROFESSIONAL team working for you in no time. This is much FASTER than trying to staff a project in-house.
You NO LONGER have to pay a massive COMMISSION to recruitment agencies for recruiting your project team. It is only necessary to pay for the actual time needed to develop and code your project.
You do not have to worry about any staff training.
You do not need to provide office space, parking, insurance, or tax-payments for your developers.
You no longer have to purchase and maintain hardware and software to support your developers.
Methodologic is a US registered company that operates under US law, uses financial services in the US, and pays US taxes. It is safe to do business with us!
Is it legal to use offshore programmers?
It is completely legal, and the common choice of many large development companies today such as IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, etc. Nowadays, it is more cost-effective to use talented professionals especially from the eastern hemisphere as programming offshore continues to develop.
However, Methodologic is not interested in using only Indian talent. In fact, Methodologic welcomes anyone from any country to join our team.
What can Methodologic do for you?
Our software developers are competent in designing, developing and implementing wide variety of applications (view our services at the "services" section of the site).
Some of these applications can be used in several different professional and personal environments. Methodologic also has experience developing programs for many different types of business.
Can Methodologic do web page design and Internet applications?
Web design and Internet applications are some of the core services that we offer. We specialize in eBusiness application development.
How long has Methodologic been doing this?
Even though, Methodologic is a relatively new entity, its promoters have been doing this business since 1996. The principals are serial entrepreneurs specializing in software services and offering you access to some of the most talented software engineers in the world.
What are Methodologic's plans for the future?
Methodologic's strategy in business is to develop long-term relationships with its customers by solving their business problem using affordable technology, on time and within budget. To do it more efficiently, we are continually working on improving quality of our services, management process, and engineering skills.
Who are the programmers and where are they located?
Our core team of talented and skilled software developers is located in Kolkata. Besides, we have access to teams in other cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad through our trusted partners. Our core team includes more than 200 software developers.
Must I first write a complete Spec?
No, your time is too valuable! Please, write a Specification (Spec) for one component of your project. It does not need to be detailed. Our developers and analysts can then begin the development of this component with your help and clarifications and their own logical abilities. During the development of this component you may be in the process of writing up a Spec for the next component. Thus, this allows beginning project development without the necessity of a complete Spec. This is so called "iterative" development approach, which proved its effectiveness especially for Internet projects.
From the process point of view initiation of the projects looks like the following:
You send us project request with rough specifications or draft Project Vision document. It is not necessary for you to provide us with the specs from the engineering point of view. You are free to provide specs either for full system, or just for part. Methodologic assigns Account Manager to work with you.
S/he will develop a Vision document presenting a common point of your and our understanding of the new project. It is recommended that Vision document should include description of the business case for the new project. This helps very much for our developers and analysts to understand your problem more deeply. Sometime this may lead even to reformulating the problem statement based on our business recommendations.
You approve this Vision if you agree that it is a correct understanding.
Based on this Vision we make preliminary estimations for the project and start developing "Requirements".
"Requirements" document is detailed understanding of the system to be developed. "Requirements" include:
Functional requirements (i.e. description of functions and user roles to be supported by the developed system);
and Non-functional or Supplementary requirements (for example, security restrictions, compatibility requirements, maintenance, third party software like database management systems to be used)
You review the Requirements document and approve them as they become ready.
Based on this "Requirements" document we make price estimation and schedule for the project.
If you agree with the schedule and price estimation there are two options for further process:
Fixed price: "Requirements" are baseline. This means that all price, schedule and requirements changes are forbidden from this point. All changes will be allowed only after the first release or only after mutual agreement of both sides.
Time-and-material (the most common approach): usually our customers wish to keep the right for proposing changes during the development. In this case we provide an option for developing the project on Time-And-Material basis. This is useful for:
Quick projects, when time to market is crucial;
Iterative projects, when the Customer wants to receive regular often deliverables and propose changes based on the results of the previous milestone.
In this case we recommend you to clarify with our sales manager process and policy for making changes to the project. Methodologic will provide change management tool.
Usually we agree on bi-weekly invoicing.
Will I be provided with a schedule and time estimate?
You will be provided with a schedule upfront. If this estimate includes parts that you feel are unnecessary or irrelevant, you should express your concerns to your programming team and the schedule shall be amended to meet your needs.
What if I am not satisfied?
If you are dissatisfied with the quality of the results or efficiency of developers' work, you may ask for service discount or even reject to pay for that month. Should this ever occur, you must discuss with your project manager about whether these difficulties are resolvable or not. If they are resolvable and you choose to continue cooperation with Methodologic, certain arrangements will be made. If not, you do not have to pay for that month and will accept our sincere apologies.
However, we believe that 99% of problems are solvable. We respect our customers and value their time and our goal is to provide quality work, which will satisfy our customers.
How can I monitor and control project development progress?
There are a number of approaches for reviewing status of the project:
The Internet allows us to communicate with your as easily as if we were next door. We are able to provide you direct secure access to our site where you can participate in your project discussion database, download/upload all relevant to the project information, send orders and requests.
We can provide you with regular status reports based on time reports from our developers.
Access to Quality and Features Management database allows you to see status of features and change requests.
Moreover this allows you to control prioritizing, and scheduling of the changes. Besides that in many cases we negotiate that the Customer takes part in choosing best resolution approach for modification requests. These options are accessible for Time-And-Material projects.
Regular updates of the schedule with specified current status provides upper level view to the state of project.
You can require us to provide you with regular deliverables of interim results. This would be done either by giving you access to our site with interim builds (useful for Web applications) or by uploading you binary builds.
Based on reviewing these status artifacts you may propose changes to the project process, features, etc.
How do I stay in touch with my programmers?
It is now easy and inexpensive to exchange data, voice, and video over very secure links. The least expensive method is via the Internet. Phone is often fairly expensive, but using voice or video over IP can cut costs.
Once again the most convenient ways are E-mail, ICQ, MSN messenger, Netmeeting. Lots of tools allow you to talk directly to your programmer team in real time.
How can I be confident of the quality and reliability?
At Methodologic Quality is a main priority. We do everything to ensure our customer satisfaction. We have developed and introduced strict internal Quality Management Control Procedures that has brought together a number of rigorous quality assurance and testing procedures. Customer receives Alpha and Beta versions of the code for their own internal testing and approval.
How do I protect my Intellectual Property?
Methodologic offers you a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which is signed with your local contact. This allows this contract to be more easily enforced by all parties.
Not all people need an NDA, but if you are interested you may look at a sample NDA. The decision about signing an NDA is up to you. Also, you can modify your NDA to meet your needs and emphasize the issues that are important to you since NDA was created for your protection.
What is the minimum project period I can pay for?
You can pay for as little as 80 hours. So we encourage you to begin with a small project, just to get acquainted with your developers and our system. Then once you know how it works hopefully you will feel confident enough in our abilities to start serious project and get all advantages of offshore cooperation. Moreover, we have a number of discount options for big projects.
How do I pay?
You will receive an invoice with a breakdown of the hours spent on each project you are developing. You may look at a sample invoice.
You will pay in USD to Methodologic, LLC, in Georgia within 30 days from the date of the invoice.
What is Methodologic's personnel turnover?
Methodologic as an offshore software development company with highly professional developers staff has extremely low personnel turnover. Attrition is less than 5%.
What time zone is Methodologic ODC in?
The Indian programmers are EST +10.5 and GMT +5.5.
The exact time of contact is certainly whatever suits you best, but it is best to make a time at which you can meet daily. A planned daily meeting makes the development process go much more smoothly.
What if my question is not answered on this page?
We cordially invite you to contact Methodologic via e-mail, phone or fax for more information. Learn how you can join our growing list of customers who enjoy significant cost savings for their software development, Web design and computer graphics projects.
What is the best way to contact Methodologic?
You can call, fax, and even write if you like. However, the most convenient way of making contact seems to be via the Internet. E-mail is a quick way to send information, questions, and comments.
Send email with your question to: info@methodologic.net
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