Kindly share your feedback on how Goodfirms has been doing so far in increasing your visibility among potential clients.
Goodfirms is helping people in their search for reliable software service providers and we are glad to be among those listed. We’ve seen an increase in Taazaa’s visibility and it’s helped us establish credibility with prospective customers. Being listed on Goodfirms also helps us connect with people during a time that precludes in-person meetings or visits at our new office in Hudson.
Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
Taazaa is on a mission to reduce the human suffering caused by poorly developed software. We have helped 100s of organizations stay relevant, innovate, and grow with software products that are scalable, secure, and provide an unmatched user experience. Taazaa means “fresh”. We are looking to work with other like-minded people and organizations looking to take a fresh approach to challenging the status quo and unleash the potential of well-designed software.
As founder and chief executive officer, I provide the strategic vision to the company and help execute strategies to realize that vision. I love technology, so I am actively involved with our clients and their technology and make sure I get my hour of code to understand technology trends.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
I love building things with great people. While completing my Ph.D. program in Computer Science, I was also advising multiple businesses regarding their software and technology needs. I considered the academic route but realized I was more energized by entrepreneurship and building software than I was with the idea of teaching. An entrepreneur gave me a shot to help him build a software product that turned out to be successful for him. The team that I assembled to do that help lay the foundation of Taazaa and I am so honored that the team is still with me today. I helped them build software for a mobile diagnostic lab, which turned out to be a four-year-long project. Then, from there, I worked with a few consultants. To bring quality and control to the software products, I brought the team in. Taazaa evolved from there. Taazaa means fresh. As you can see from the journey that incubating fresh ideas and technologically implementing those to make them alive is the reason or motive behind starting the organization.
What is your company’s business model–in house team or third-party vendors/ outsourcing?
All of our engineers are employees. We work with a few outside partners to help with a few key business functions, but otherwise, the team is all employees. We are headquartered in Cleveland and have around 150 employees located in Austin, Cincinnati, and Noida, India where we have a robust development center.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
Clients often tell us we are easy to work with, good at making sense of things for them, and able to make projects seem less risky. In the end, our approach has proven to be far more cost-effective and achieved higher-quality solutions for them.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive?
In healthcare, we’ve built dispatch software, an orthopedic rehabilitation application, pharmacy management software, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring systems. In other areas, we’ve also built property management software, IoT applications, eCommerce apps, to name a few. More than half of our clients bring repeat business to us. Technically, we’re industry agnostic.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing software.
In simple terms, the timeframe comes down to the availability of talent (manpower) and available capital given the complexity and scope of development. Having said that, building quality software takes time regardless of available manpower and capital. As Warren Buffet said, “you can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” We use high-empathy design, iterative development, and frequent communication in order to optimize development speed and business fit for our clients.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front-end and back-end of software?
We take a comprehensive, full-stack product perspective when developing software. On whole, a slight preponderance of time is spent on backend capability and integration. Kind of like more time is usually spent baking the cake than icing it.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right framework for developing software?
We generally undergo the Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) technique for arriving at the possible choice of framework and set of technologies for the software development process. Key factors include the lifespan of the technology and the market adoption size of the framework.
Which languages & frameworks do you prefer to use in the development of software?
We use the below-listed frameworks and languages
• Languages - C#, JavaScript, Python, Swift, PHP, HTML/CSS3
• Dev Frameworks - .NET Core, MEAN
• Front-end frameworks - Angular, React and Vue
• Mobile development - IOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, and Xamirin.
• Cloud - Public (AWS, Azure, GCP), Private (VMWare, OpenStack), Hybrid
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of the software?
A lack of vision and clarity regarding the software’s purpose is probably the largest cost factor when building custom software. That’s why we focus first on getting clear about business goals and user goals for the software before we build anything. Scope, functionality, hosting, support, ongoing maintenance, etc all factor into the cost as well. But it’s wise not to overlook the hidden but significant cost to productivity, employee satisfaction, and customer experience when you get poor quality software.
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 really depends on the relationship and the project. We prefer win-win arrangements that optimize flexibility, predictable, and variable pricing options rather than fixed-cost, fixed-scope agreements. We don’t do long-term contracts so there is low-risk getting started with us.
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 think about long-term value creation and relationships far more than budgets. So, while we have found that we’re a better fit for organizations that plan to initially invest at least $50k in building a solution (as a rule of thumb), we’ve taken on many smaller projects for the sake of impact and relationship building.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2019?
Project range in size from $25k to $1.5 million.
