Kindly share your feedback on how GoodFirms has been doing so far in increasing your visibility among potential clients.
GoodFirms definitely has always been the best and trusted B2B platform. We have been able to reap the benefits on multiple occasions. The virtual online marketplace which was held last year truly deserves lot of appreciation, especially during this challenging time.
Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the organization.
axiusSoftware is a Software Development and Digital Consulting company with a registered office in China. We have a registered office in India, as well. We have been in business for more than 6 years. We partner with clients to provide digital solutions, services, and consultancy to simplify and transform their businesses. We are an Experienced, Agile, and Dynamic Team with the right blend of Domain and Technical Knowledge.
My role, as Co-Founder of our company, along with my Co-Founder, Kiki Li, is to provide visionary leadership to build not only a customer-oriented organization but also an employee-centric organization, keeping our company’s vision, goals, and objectives at the forefront.
What is the story behind starting this company?
A Dream and Market Potential. I come with 20+ years of IT experience and have worked for Global top IT MNCs out of which, 12+ years have worked in China in leadership roles as well. Spending a substantial part of my career in China has helped me to understand China market, clients, the values and culture, and most importantly, the potential that exists, especially in the Digital space. Probably, there would have not been any other better alternatives than to start our company here in China. The journey from a “Dream to Reality”, however, is never easy. I am lucky to find my like-minded Co-Founder, in this saga of starting our company, which has helped us to put on the right track. In fact, our company’s Chinese name (An-Jie-Shi) was coined by Kiki.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
Projects are mostly executed by our in-house team. In situations, where it demands to be outsourced, we work with our strategic partners, in order to add value to our clients. All our strategic partners have 10+ years of experience, with the reputation of handling large global brands.
How does your company differentiate itself from the competition?
We work in an ecosystem of different families in similar lines of businesses. While healthy competition is good to have, we do not concentrate much on competition. Proximity to our clients, maintaining a good relationship, delivering with quality as per our promise, and working on continuous improvement are the areas we primarily focus on.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
Digitalization encompasses all industries. Hence, we work across multiple industries and open to working for any industry. We have worked/working for the Finance industry, real estate, education, logistics, medical, sports and entertainment, and others. We would also prefer to work for Agriculture and Mining Industry, where we have not ventured into yet.
If you ask about repeat business, the answer is definitely yes. As a company, we value Trust & Relationship first. Hence, for most of our clients, we are still having a multi-year continued relationship. Land and Grow philosophy is what we usually practice.
Please share some of the services that you offer for which clients approach you the most for?
Digital Marketing for China – As we know, digital and social media marketing is different here in China and requires separate skills to handle marketing for WeChat, Weibo, and other social media marketing. Even SEO is preferred on Baidu. As a digital consulting company, we help and consult clients, who are willing to establish their footprints here in China, with a well-defined long-term Digital Roadmap. We also help them to execute the multi-year plan in phases.
Apart from this, clients also do approach us for Mobile Application platform development.
What is your customer satisfaction rate according to you? What steps do you take to cater to your customer’s needs and requirements?
As part of our delivery, we have a process in place to conduct a Customer Satisfaction Survey. For long-term projects, we conduct every half-year, while for short-term projects we conduct it at the project end. On average, we are currently clocking at a 98.6% satisfaction rate.
Aristotle said, “Quality is Not an Act, it is a Habit”. And we follow that principle. We believe that delivering continuous quality service to our clients can take us forward step-by-step and we cannot afford to compromise. We carry out continuous quality improvement reviews through our Internal Quality Checks, PMR, Project Audits including Process documentation and compliances.
What kind of support system do you offer to your clients for catering to their queries and issues?
For Clients within China, the communication process happens mostly through Wechat, which is the preferred and acceptable option, apart from calls and emails. For clients outside China, it is usually through MS Teams and emails. Apart from that we also use Basecamp for easier communication with our clients.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
It depends on the nature of the project and the type of engagement. If the project is a fixed price, is usually split into multiple payment milestones aligned to delivery milestones. We also work on dedicated monthly or yearly mode engagements as well with a minimum commitment period.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
We have a very streamlined process to arrive at a project’s overall effort, schedule and cost. As long as, we can justify ourselves internally, on the overall project effort and cost for quality delivery, we go ahead and take up the project.
It is not only whether it meets our basic budget requirement or not, but it also depends on other factors as well. For example, the brand/logo of the potential client, the market from where the potential client belongs, and our aligned strategies for that market.
axiusSoftware is currently focusing on the African market, hence our pricing and penetration strategies are different for Africa when it comes to taking up new projects.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2020?
The year 2020, was a special and challenging year for all of us. We are, however, happy that we have been able to win long-term deals, in the year 2020.
Where do you see your company in the next 10 years?
We do have our short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals in place. Our last Y-Y growth rate was 2.46%. We definitely would like to improve this in the coming few years. We plan to open an office in Africa and one more office in China within the next 5 years. With regards to technology, we would like to focus more on Autonomous Things(AuT), Voice Technology, and AR/VR along with our Strategic partners in the years to come.