Our Healthcare Software Industry Expertise?
What services do you provide? What are your programming specialties?
- Custom Healthcare Software Development
- Custom Interface Development
- Healthcare Integration Development
- Reverse Engineering & Technology Migration.
- Database Design & Development.
- Business Automation.
- Structured Software Maintenance Services
- HIPAA Compliant Application Development
- Requirement Analysis & Software Requirement Specification Development.
- Reports & Data Warehouse Development.
Specialty: HL7, CCD, CDA, BlueButton+, EDI, HIPAA Mirth, EMR, EHR, m-health, Android, iOS, Java/J2EE (Spring, Hibernate, JSF, Portlets, etc), .Net (ASP.net, C#, WCF, WPF, etc), HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Salesforce.com, VB6, Domino, SQL, Oracle, Crystal Reports.
For detail: Healthcare Software Development
Have you developed software for the U.S. health-care industry?
Technosoft has been providing software development services to the US healthcare market for more than fifteen years. Our solutions are successfully helping caregivers provide quality patient care in over 30 hospitals across the USA. Following is a list of healthcare areas we have worked on:
HIPAA: Technosoft has been involved with major healthcare software providers to make their solutions HIPAA compliant since early 2000. We have senior HIMSS Certified Healthcare Security Professionals in our staff. Technosoft has developed many HIPAA privacy and security compliant solutions. We also provide HIPAA consultancy and Audits to many healthcare software development companies.
HL7: We have developed many HL7 interfaces including In/outbound Scheduling SIU (S12-S16, S26), In/outbound Billing P01, Inbound/Outbound ADT (A01-A36), In/outbound Charges (P03), In/outbound Orders (O01), In/outbound Results R01, Radiology, Lab, Text, PDF, PS, HTML, JPG, Quest and base64 R01 interfaces etc.
EDI, HCFA, & CMS: We have extensive experience developing EDI, HCFA and CMS interface solutions. We have worked on 835, 837(p), 997 and 227 EDI transmissions to Medicare, BCBS, Highmark, McKesson, HBOC, Cerner, Siemens, Scheduling.com, and many other healthcare systems. We have interfaced with EGate, Clover Leaf/Quavodox, and many other interface engines. Recently, we helped a few practice management and billing system providers to comply with EDI NPI additions. We have also developed IRF-PAI, 700s, 701s, and CMS 1500 form solutions.
Healthcare Modules: We have been involved in developing the following Healthcare modules/projects:
- Disease Management
- Diabetes Educator Solution
- Personal Health Record System
- Physical Fitness and Wellness
- EMR Care Management
- Diet and Nutrition
- Remote monitoring/Telehealth
- Scheduling, Reminders, Alerts
- Secure Video Calling/Remote Secure Conferencing
- Medical management
- Point-of-Care Services
- Master Patient Index
- Physician Database
- MD Authorization for Rehab
- Case Management
- Progress Notes
- Treatment Plan
- Patient Evaluations
- Scheduling
- Patient Stratification
- Orders Management
- Referral Management
- e-Prescriptions
- Letters
- Diagnosis/Coding imports
- Short and Long Term Goals Tracking
- Accounts/Visits Management.
- Others: We have worked on CCOW, JACHO, CCHIT, and other health care industry standards.
Describe your experience in database application design.
We have extensive experience developing database solutions using Oracle, SQL Server and MySQL. We have worked on many big database projects involving hundreds of tables and thousands of stored procedures. Technosoft has vast experience in data reporting solutions using Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting and Analysis Services, Crystal Analysis and various other reporting tools. We have designed and developed over five hundred reports running on SQL Server currently deployed at over 30 hospitals across the United States.
What level of user centric design principles do you use when designing a web site?
We create multiple mockups and wireframes for the website and deliver them to the customer. User can select a particular layout and then layout will be optimized as per user feedback. In the first iteration (before making the application functional) we deliver user interface to the customer for his feedback. Before delivering for customer review interface goes through an internal review process.
Our User Interface design team is trained on Usability and Information Architecture areas.
What environments do your developers code on? Is there separation between development, test & staging?
We use Visual Studio for Microsoft projects and Eclipse for Java and Salesforce projects. We have separate Development and Testing environments. Developers have access to the development platform while Test Engineers have access to the Testing platform.
Do you sign BAAs?
Technosoft has Business Association Agreements in place with many business associations, covered entities/hybrid entities. We have HIPAA policies & procedures in place, we will be happy to execute BAA after review.
Have you deployed any software in the U.S. hospitals?
Our solutions help care-givers provide quality patient-care. We have created numerous applications for hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, patients, and manufacturers.
Following is summary of some of our install base:
- With the roll out of our latest Android tablet and IPad Diabetes Educators application, we now have the honor to serve around two thousand hospitals and clinics across the USA.
- Our Primary Care Physician application has been rolled out to around 30 clinics and still growing.
- Our Rehab Healthcare application is in use in over 20 hospitals across the USA.
- Our Dermatology iPad application is in use in over 50 clinics around UK.
- Our Mental Health web application is in use in over 50 hospitals across the USA.
- Our Burn clinics iPhone and web apps are deployed in three burn centers and one hospital.
How do you manage PHI / HIPAA? If you are working on applications that would normally manage PHI, how do you test and troubleshoot those applications without causing regulatory concerns?
What language/technologies do you use to develop EHR apps? How many of the software engineers are dedicated to development of EHR apps?
What type of health-related transactions have you developed for?
Have you developed for standalone (non-FHIR) APIs ?
- We have recently finished coding a HIPAA compliant Video Conferencing solution for over 150,000 user base using Web RTC APIs.
- We have recently implemented Continua based integration of Patient devices with Android and iOS using BLE.
- We have integrated many wearable devices for our customers.
Any Devices Integration done?
- We have integrated with many wearable devices using Bluetooth protocol.
- We have integrated several of the Healthcare industry’s leading devices, wearable devices, fitness and Activity Trackers (Misfit Shine, Misfit Flash, Fitbit, iWatch, Google Glass integration etc.)
- We have integrated with many Blood Glucose, hypertension and cholesterol monitors.
- OneTouch UltraMini Meter
- OneTouch Ultra 2 Meter
- OneTouch Verio Meter
- OneTouch Verio Sync Meter
- OneTouch Verio IQ Meter
- CONTOUR NEXT USB Meter
- Nova Max Plus
- Nova Max Link
- Accu-Chek Aviva Blood Glucose Meters
- Continua Blue Tooth Profile
- + FDA GMP practices implementation etc.
Do you have suggestions to make a healthcare software project run successfully?
What is the typical lifecycle for development of an app (provide common stages and average duration for each)?
What is your approach to support and maintenance of the apps you develop for customers?
We follow agile methodologies and typically have backlogs and sprints defined in JIRA or some other issues management system. For enhancements and new features, we develop stories and then from there create JIRAs assigned to Engineers. We can offer maintenance and support services tailored to our customers needs.
Have you developed applications that integrate with EHRs? Have you developed an EHR App Store app? If so, which EHRs?
Can I download and install a mobile app you recently developed ?
Outsourcing to Technosoft?
Who should consider outsourcing and why?
Every type of business. As we all move ahead in this competitive age, those who are not outsourcing are at a competitive disadvantage against those who are outsourcing. Here we enumerate three main reasons why you should consider outsourcing software development:
Cost: The primary reason customers started getting software written offshore is the same reason people vacation in Mexico: it’s cheaper.
Time: With outsourcing software maintenance you can free up your IT department’s time to work on strategically important tasks.
Skilled Resources: It’s not about just saving cost, it’s about adding talent too (says Randy walker of IBM about outsourcing).
Please see details on: Offshore Software Development
Will getting software written offshore cause any internal IT job losses?
If it does, the reality is it was going to happen anyway. In a global economy, if competitors are benefiting from lower cost/high quality software, everyone is forced to match or risk obsolescence. The best assurance of long-term secure employment for any department in any business is to be as productive and efficient as possible. Whether that means having software developed offshore or not is solely your decision to make. Be aware though, that unlike Infosys, Wipro, and Netsol, who all have offshore departments, Technosoft is in no position to completely take over your department. Our abilities are suited to augment and enhance the energies and talents of your department. We provide hard to find talent and let you gain competitive edge by developing applications that your IT staff don’t have time to build.
I believe that by helping your department get more from your budget and resources, our services can contribute greatly to the long-term success of you and your team.
Why would I want to outsource to Technosoft?
Technosoft is an offshore software development company with stringent quality control and a proven software development delivery system. We are a Microsoft Certified Partner, an ISO 9001:2000 certified, CMMI Level 2 appraised company and an IBM Advance Business Partner. We specialize in Healthcare software development, integration and Quality Assurance Services outsourcing.
How We Differentiate Ourselves:
- On-time, within budget delivery.
- Highly skilled developers & QA Engineers.
- Software development following software engineering principles.
- Focus on process driven development and communication clarity.
- Customer Focus: Explicit & implicit needs are fulfilled.
Please provide details about you Office locations and services offered by each location.
Technosoft currently has over 45 employees. Majority of the development is done offshore. Our project manager and marketing wing is located in the US and the development is done offshore.
Is there any time zone Difference?
Pakistan is in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea, between India on the east and Iran and Afghanistan on the west and China in the north.
We provide a US Project Manager, within same time zone, with excellent communication skills, and with an offshore price tag.
Is there a language barrier when dealing with your offshore developers?
We recognize that the poor communication skills and the language barrier being two major problems many organizations face while getting software developed, offshore.
Technosoft is not affected by these problems because of the following:
- All Technosoft employees are hired from leading universities where English is the primary medium of education. All employees have at least a bachelor’s degree in their relative discipline.
- Our employee selection criteria are very strict, we make sure that all employees are competent in communicating with computers as well as humans.
- All new employees are mandated to take three months of mandatory American Business Communication skills course. Successful completion is required before an employee can start working on client projects.
- Teaching material/CBTs from leading US ESL (English as a Second Language) scholars are constantly acquired and provided to offshore employees.
These measures have proven very successful and add to Technosoft’s competitive edge. We invite you to attend a conference call with any of our technical or management resources and see for your self the communication clarity and language skills.
How do you manage offshore resources? Is there an onshore project manager?
- We have project managers assigned at each level. Our assigned PM and the team coordinates with on-site resources over the daily/weekly phone calls/scrums.
- A video/voice call is always best to clarify requirements, report progress and resolve any issues etc.
- In offshore setting, we try to have the right mix of communication to make sure we develop exactly what you need.
- So for management of resources, once it’s established what needs to be built, we let the PM do the project monitoring and control to ensure delivery as promised.
- We use JIRA Epic/Stories to document the requirements and then create JIRA tasks out of those Epics.
- Those Tasks are then assigned to different sprints.
- Developers provide estimates for the tasks and PM discusses with the client and finalizes what task goes into which sprint.
- Those sprints are then managed as per plan and tracked accordingly.
How do you find and hire developers? Where are developers located?
- Science, Software Engineering and IT. We conduct recruitment tests at major schools and then shortlist them for interviews. After about three technical interviews and 1-2 coding assignments, an employee is selected. After that, they have three months of probation before they are graduated to become a full-time developer.
- Last year we processed over two thousand candidates out of which we hired only nine employees. Only six out of these nine employees were able to clear the probation period. So we are very selective in hiring our developers and QA resources. And after hiring, we make sure that we keep the top talent. All our developers are in Lahore, Pakistan.
Do you work with any other Medicaid Health Plans (ideally based in California with our regulatory requirements our regulators are: The California Department of Healthcare Services and The California Department of Managed Healthcare)?
- We do not have any California health plan customer at this time but we are familiar with some of the California specific security and privacy laws. We have developed solutions for Kaiser Permanente, and somewhat recently for a Genomic Startup out of UCLA.
Are developers fluent in English? Are they comfortable with the American dialect and its nuances?
Can developers communicate effectively using email and online chat during a specific time window every day?
Sure, We use Skype, Email, Slack, etc.
Will the same developers initially assigned to the project be on the team for the duration of the development effort?
What is your staff turnover rate? As mentioned above, the positive about the current vendor (to date) has been their continuity.
Who receives the source code and related materials and eventually owns the completed project?
What task tracking system do you prefer to use, in order to know what needs to be done, what has been done, and who has taken responsibility for each task?
How often do you meet with clients to review progress? What is the project management process?
- Well, we highly recommend a weekly Scrum, at the very minimum, when a project is in progress. Every week we send a status report with all the previous week¹s data to our client. We can do on-site meetings as needed.
- Every Monday, here at Technosoft, each employee’s past week’s progress is reviewed by the Software Development Manager and the CEO. And with alongside, each customer¹s projects and progress is reviewed with the assigned PM. Each PM provides the weekly plan for the week as well and that plan is next Monday against the progress. We are a CMMI level 2 appraised company and we follow the required Project Monitoring and Control process.
Do you use automated testing to ensure that when we make progress, we can be sure that it works, and that we haven¹t introduced regressions?
How easily will a third party be able to download the repository from whatever version-control system you use, and run those tests to verify that everything is working?
What makes your offshore software development company unique compared to others?
- We are focused on healthcare software development.
- We have developed systems for many healthcare disciplines.
- We are very good at HL7, FHIR, EDI etc integration.
- We are very good with HIPAA compliant development.
- We have been doing this for over 15 years, our solutions are deployed in over 1000 hospitals and clinics across the USA.
- We have worked with some of the most prestigious hospitals in the US and we have worked with almost all the major EHR/EMRs in the industry. And on top of that our rates are extremely competitive for the quality of service we provide.
Our Organization?
How long have your organization been in business?
Since 2002, we are dedicatedly working for companies developing healthcare solutions for the U.S market. Many of our clients are well versed in software development and have healthcare solutions deployed at main hospitals. We augment their resources with our HL7 integration, HIPAA privacy & security services.
We are ISO 9001 Certified and CMMI ML2 Appraised. We are an IBM Advanced Business partner and Sun/MySQL partners.
Within our 12 years of healthcare software development and Integration development experience, we have created many apps for hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, patients, and manufacturers.
What is the Percent of total revenue derived from software developments and other business ventures by your company?
Technosoft is purely a software development services company. All our revenue comes from application development, maintenance, integration and quality assurance services.
Our Team?
How many professional engineers are employed? Please tell us about their educational background?
Technosoft currently has over 45 full-time employees. Every technical resource holds at least a Bachelorette degree in Computer Science or relevant field. Most of our employees have more than 5-8 years experience. Resumes of our employees are available on request.
What training do you provide to your engineering staff?
At Technosoft, we provide time to time technical trainings before assigning work to the new staff. We continuously test knowledge of our developers via series of certification. Almost 60% of Technosoft employees hold leading industry vendor certifications. Some example for these certifications are:
What knowledge sharing mechanisms are used within your development teams?
We have a Knowledge Management Portal where teams post reusable code, utilities etc for sharing with others.
Can you describe your talent acquisition process?
Our focus on quality and our standards require a pool of talented and quality conscious resources. To meet these requirements, we are very selective in our recruitment process. Technosoft hires from Top Technical universities of the country. Each new hire goes through a vigorous selection process. The selection is designed to parse out candidates with higher credentials in process orientation, skillset, communication, quality and leadership. We also continuously look for experienced developers who share our commitment and resolve to produce quality software on time, on budget and on customer vision.
Does all the staff speak English?
At Technosoft, we conduct annual trainings on Business Communication Skills. All of our teams of developers are fluent with technical English (both written and spoken). We also encourage using English as internal communication language on an ongoing basis. Our teams of developers are available for conference calls, IM sessions, etc.
What is your PTO policies?
There are 20 PTOs allowed to Technosoft resources. However, Technosoft does not charge our customers for the sick time.
There is no deduction for employees hired as offshore FTE in a captive centre arrangement.
Our Quality?
How can I be assured of high quality, reliable software?
We are CMMI level 2 apprised and ISO 9001: 2000-2008 certified company. This is a proof of our commitment to high quality and reliable software development. We compete on the basis of high quality and provide the best possible solution.
What is SEI? CMM? CMMI? ISO? Will it help?
The Capability Maturity Model, CMM, was developed to help identify process areas that reduce business risk for the customers and suppliers of software or software-related services. It was created by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a research center within Carnegie Mellon University. The CMM helps ensure our customers that they are dealing with
- A professional software organization with proven best practices of software development and management in place.
- A company whose processes are successfully appraised by an independent federally funded software engineering organization.
- A company committed to software quality and on time delivery.
The ISO 9001-2000 is a general system of product quality criteria that focuses on key elements, such as product functionality, reliability, usability, maintainability, portability and efficiency. This certification supports our customer’s buying decision by ensuring a fully functional quality management system being in place and a world recognized body confirming that we say what we do and we do what we say.
Please discuss any hardware/software vendor partnerships.
Technosoft has following vendor partnerships:
- Microsoft Certified Partner
- IBM Advanced Business Partner
- Sun Microsystems Associate Business Partners
- MySQL enterprise partner
What professional certifications do you have?
Organizational Partnerships/Certifications:
- Microsoft Certified Partner
- IBM Advanced Business Partner
- Sun Microsystems Associate Business Partners
- MySQL enterprise partner
- IBM Advanced Business Partner
- Microsoft Certified Partners
- Sun Associate Partner
- Certified under ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Standard
- CMMI Level 2
Employee Certifications:
- Microsoft Certified Partner
- IBM Advanced Business Partner
- Sun Microsystems Associate Business Partners
- MySQL enterprise partner
- IBM Advanced Business Partner
- Microsoft Certified Partners
- Sun Associate Partner
- Certified under ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Standard
- CMMI Level 2
- Oracle Certified Application Developer
- Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
- Sun Java Certified Programmer/Architect
- Principal Lotus Certified Professional
- HIMMS Certified in Healthcare Security
What are your policies around quality of delivery and payment?
Technosoft has a QA application certification process. This certification process allows our customers to specify their quality requirements. Based on agreed upon certification level, the quality of delivery is guaranteed. All project payment terms are structured with 10-20% payment based on quality of delivery. Additional quality of delivery based payments can be tied to application certification requirement criteria.
How do you manage testing?
Testing team starts understanding the system during the analysis and design phase. They create their test plans and test cases before the development work gets complete. They log defects in defect tracking tools to generate reports at the end of the project. Technosoft QA is well trained on automated testing tools usage for functional, stress and regression testing. .
Do you conduct automated unit / integration testing? Code coverage?
Our developers are trained to unit test their code comprehensively ensuring minimum leakage of defect to the testing phase. Wherever required we use Unit Testing Tools or create our own unit testing stubs.We usually do Unit, Smoke, Functional, Usability, Integration, Compatibility and Regression Testing. We only do automated testing for selected projects. Load and stress testing is done using automated tools.
Our Communication?
We have had problems communicating with offshore resources. Do you have a project manager who works full time in North America?
We provide project managers that work regular EST hours and are available via regular phone, Instant Messenger, Skype, etc. In addition, we ensure that your team and the Team Lead set up a regular decent cross over time. That means that you will have almost daily two to three hours time to communicate with each of your team members.
Can your Project Manager be available for an onsite meeting within the USA?
We do not always guarantee Project Manager, PM, availability within the USA. However, 99% of the time, a PM is made available with a maximum of one week prior notice. We also provide onsite deployment and go live support as well as onsite requirement elicitation and co-design services. In short, if any phase of your project requires an onsite PM then we will have a PM available.
Do you offer clients the ability to call any time during US regular business hours to discuss project(s) specific details?
Our US based account manager will be available in US regular business hours to you all the time. In addition, we ensure that the offshore team and your on-site team work out a no stress 2-3 hours crossover time. We adjust the team’s work hours as such so that they have a good 2-3 hours of common work time with the onsite team to have calls, IM, etc. Enough time to have a good communication flow and no onsite person has to wake up early or stay late.
Are you able to support the product you produce after it is complete and have a separate price for development and for support.
We take our clients from new development to maintenance/support phase. We offer software development and support services. We have many companies with maintenance/support agreements in place and we would be happy to provide references of our existing clients with whom we had the pleasure to work with in this capacity.
Can you provide support with a response time of 24 hours?
Our typical turn-around time is 8-24 hours for our support contracts.
It would be very nice for the coder ... US business hours & not local business hours.
We do not have usually developers following fully US regular business hours permanently. However, we usually provide this initially as the team gets up to speed with the onsite team. This is the typical learning curve time when lots of interaction is required. After this, a few hours of cross over time is sufficient.
We ensure that the offshore team and your on-site team work out a no stress 2-3 hours crossover time. We adjust the team’s work hours as such so that they have a good 2-3 hours of common work time with the onsite team to have calls, IM, etc. Enough time to have a good communication flow & no onsite person has to wake up early or stay late.
Is there a language barrier when dealing with your offshore developers?
We recognize that the poor communication skills and the language barrier being two major problems many organizations face while getting software developed, offshore.
Technosoft is not affected by these problems because of the following:
- All Technosoft employees are hired from leading universities where English is the primary medium of education. All employees have at least a bachelor degree in their relative discipline.
- Our employee selection criteria is very strict, we make sure that all employees are competent in communicating with computers as well as humans.
- All new employees are mandated to take a three months mandatory American Business Communication skills course. Successful completion is required before an employee can start working on client projects.
- Teaching material/CBTs from leading US ESL (English as a Second Language) scholars are constantly acquired and provided to offshore employees.
- Effective communication skills and ability to speak English professionally is part of the periodic performance evaluation of each employee.
These measures have proven very successful and add to Technosoft’s competitive edge. We invite you to attend a conference call with any of our technical or management resources and see for your self the communication clarity and language skills.
Our Proposal & Pricing?
Can you start a project from any phase?
Yes, we can. If you have already gone through a requirements elicitation phase and have created a software requirement specification document then we can give you an estimate and start the development phase. If you have already developed an application and would like us to provide maintenance services then we would be delighted to provide such services.
What is the current statistic on the success rates of software projects?
According to Standish Group Survey of 2004, only 29% projects are completed within time and within budget. Our success rate is about 85% which means that our customers were satisfied with 80% of our projects with time & budget overruns less than 20%.
What process do you follow in pricing a project and delivering a schedule of deliveries?
We follow Project Estimation Process in pricing a project. We use the Estimation Sheet based on COCOMO II estimation methodology to estimate the project size and effort. Project Manager establishes estimates for project size, effort, resources, duration and cost on the basis of available information using Estimation Sheet template. Development Manager reviews and updates the estimation sheet as required and approves the estimation sheet. Please see our Project Estimation Process in detail:
We use Microsoft project to create the detailed WBS and schedule for the project. Effort estimates are derived from the estimation sheet. This schedule has all milestone and deliverables identified and it is provided to the customer. Scheduled is continuously tracked and updated during the course of the project. Updated schedule with completion percentages is delivered to the customer on weekly basis.
What warranties and support do you offer for deliveries?
After the deployment of the system, Technosoft provides support and Warranty for 2 to 3 months. All problems with software that doesn’t qualify as a change or enhancement to the system will be covered under warranty. If some problem qualifies as an enhancement or a change then Technosoft will notify the client and will charge for that work separately these type of changes will require a separate Change Request Document.
No warranty will apply to the software if it has been
(i) modified, altered or adapted without Technosoft’s written consent;
(ii) maltreated or used in a manner other than in accordance with that details provided in documentation;
(iii) repaired by any third party in a manner which fails to meet Technosoft’s quality standards;
(iv) improperly installed by any party other than Technosoft;
(vi) relocated without Technosoft’s written consent, to the extent that problems are attributable to the relocation.
Technosoft will not provide warranty or support for the hardware and other third party software.
What sort of coverage for bug fixes and maintenance?
We provide warranty for the software we deliver. All problems with software that doesn’t qualify as a change or enhancement to the system will be covered under warranty. If some problem qualifies as an enhancement or a change then we notify the client and will charge for that work separately. These types of changes will require a separate Change Request Document. We don’t provide warranty or support for hardware and other third party software. Our warranty period is usually 2 to 3 months depending on project size. There is a cap on the maximum hours we can spend on defect fixes and these hours are typically about 10% of the overall project effort. We sign a separate maintenance contract if customer wants to get maintenance services for longer time period.
What is your rate structure?
Average Technosoft engagements require 80-95% offshore development charges and 5-20% onsite charges. Offshore charges range from $15/hour to $40/hour. On site charges range from $35-$100/hour. Technosoft can provide fixed cost, time and material estimates as well as can setup a complete back office. In back office setup, client pays a low monthly fee for the number of resources hired offshore.
What are your terms of payment?
Following are usual payment terms:
- 20% at Project start
- 30% Specs Approval
- 20% on Iteration 1
- 20% on UAT Ready Delivery
- 5% on First set of issues resolution, if any
- Remaining payment on project completion.
For new customers with a larger project, the payment terms can be discussed to ensure a comfort level for the customer.
We accept all major credit cards and PayPal or you can send your checks to our CT. USA office.
What are the payment terms of hiring your resource?
For a project based contract, we spread the payments around project’s milestones, Initially we require a 20-30% payment. For raw resource hiring, we require a 10% initial payment. A 40% payment is due after one week and remaining monthly payment is due at the end of the month. At this point customer is usually satisfied with the services of the resource and from there on, we start bill a month in advance.
For new customers with a large project, payment terms can be relaxed/negotiated to ensure a comfort level for the new customer.
How do you charge for your services?
We accept check, money order, approved company purchase order (PO), wire transfer, PayPal and all major credit cards through PayPal.
Would we own the source code for any work completed?
Often our customers own the source code. This is discussed and finalized during the contract phase.
I have concerns about Intellectual Property Ownership. Who owns the final product?
This is discussed and finalized during the contract phase. Majority of our project’s source code is owned by our customers.
Can you provide the references of your previous customers?
Yes, we will be glad to provide our customer reference on request. You can see testimonials on our web site.
Can we become long-term partners?
We believe in total client satisfaction. Most of our clients are our long-term partners, a proof of our commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. We don’t believe in getting one time projects, but rather want them to be a stepping stone in starting and developing a long term relationship.
Our Methodology & Process?
Which software development methodology do you use?
Project related activities, at Technosoft, fall into three major phases i.e. the pre-contract phase, post contract phase and the post delivery phase (maintenance).
Please see our SDLC Process in detail:
Briefly describe your firm’s project management process.
Technosoft is a CMMI Level 2 appraised company. We are very much focused on process improvements and we are proud to be the only company in the world to have its CMMI processes publicly available for use. Please see our Project Management process in detail:
What factors do you see as contributing to your ability to meet the deadlines?
We believe that on time quality deliveries requires accuracy in estimation, dedication, pre planning, management oversight and excellent software development processes. Technosoft uses a COCOMO II based to ensure effort estimates are accurate. We then convert these effort estimates into schedule by using MS Project Central Server. We add adequate slack time to ensure creation of realistic schedule and deadlines. A schedule commitment is then obtained by the resources assigned. This committed schedule is then followed religiously. Over the course of project, MS project plan is updated regularly and weekly project plan status is communicated to all stake holders. This transparency avoids any delay that may be on the horizon.
How do I ensure that my project requirements are managed properly?
Over the years we have delivered projects ranging from few hundred lines of code up to 10 million lines of code with a very happy customer base. Over 95% of our new business comes from existing customers. We would love to provide you with references of our existing customers.
How do I stay on top of my offshore projects?
We the Project Managers are usually afraid of 90% done syndrome here, on-site, while working with on-site developers, let alone tracking projects offshore. On-site, at least we can bug the software engineer to pull some info but offshore how can we know the true status. What if we get notification of a delay in project delivery few weeks before the launch of a 12 month long project?
We understand all these fears. We have been there and know these issues.
With Technosoft, right after requirement specifications are finalized, you will receive a detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and project schedule/plan. This WBS will provide you with the effort estimate and the project plan will provide you with schedule and mile stone dates, tied to deliverables and WBS. Every week, you will receive weekly status reports along with updated color coded project plan in MS Project and Adobe PDF format. This color coded project plan shows, at a glance, the up to date progress. The status report shows detailed tasks status, time spent, risks, and tasks that will be worked on next week. There will be no mysteries, no hidden crazy schedules, and no surprises.
In addition, you will be able to have a weekly conference call with your team. In addition, you will have access to your project manager via Phone, IM, and video conferencing. You will know about project status as much/less as you want.
What are your build promotion & release process?
We usually deliver an alpha release after development to our QA Engineers. After testing and fixations, a Beta Release is sent to the customer for beta/user acceptance testing. After beta testing and fixation, a Release candidate build is released to the customer for his review. After some minor changes (if required) a gold release is directly deployed on customer platform or is sent to the customer for deployment.
What process of agreeing and documenting web site functionality do you follow prior to development?
We first develop a RS document refining and consolidating requirements gathered from different stakeholders. After Creating an RS we create a High Level Design/Architecture Document and an Analysis and Design document (A&D). A&D has functional analysis (UML based), User Interface (Blueprints/Sitemap and Wireframes), Database Design and Class Diagrams.
If continually developing applications do development databases contain a copy of production data?
Yes, sometimes they do contain production data and we ensure that new updates will not result it in data loss and production data is secure.
Please state how you communicate with all program areas to gather all of the required information?
In Requirements gathering phase, we first list all system stakeholders and then we focus on gathering requirements from each one of them. These requirements are documented in Requirements Specification Document (RS) and are categorized on stakeholders. After gathering, requirements are analyzed and adjusted to create a consistent, clear, complete and concise set. Afterwards, RS is sent to stakeholders for review and their review kind of validates our understanding of the system. If there are any gaps identified during the review then all of those are corrected and RS is re-circulated to stakeholders till it is approved.
What methods do you follow in design and development?
We understand that design is a very important phase and we give thorough attention to it. In the design phase, we first select a technology solution for the application. To select an appropriate solution a number of options are listed and graded on a set of pre-defined criteria. Most appropriate solution is then chosen and further described in the Application Architecture document. Various Architecture diagrams are drawn to illustrate application layers and components. Each component is then further evaluated and a make-buy-reuse analysis is done. Afterward testing and production environments required for the application are documented. Application Architecture is then shared with the customer for review and approval.
Functional details of the application are elaborated using UML technique. Use-Case diagrams are developed and details of each use-case are written in the Functional Specification. Database design documents as an ER Model in the Technical specification while Object-Oriented Design is documented as a set of class diagrams. Functional and Technical Specifications are reviewed by the customer.
Development follows Architecture and Design phase. Development team lead first creates Coding Standards for the project using the organizational coding standards. Coding standards are discussed with the team to ensure that similar coding style is followed by every single developer. During development Technical Quality Assurance Team reviews code at different check-points. Code Review results, documented in a checklist based report, are discussed with the team. Development Lead ensures that all issues are rectified. An application integration plan is created before the completion of development. Development lead then integrates all components executing the integration plan, at the same time he documents results in integration testing report. After integration application is delivered to QA for testing.
Development is mostly decomposed in 2 to 3 iterations. Each iteration is delivered to the customer for review and to give customer a better visibility of how the application is being developed. Usually first iteration contains functional GUI which is not integrated with DB. Second iteration has major functionality while the third is completely functional. After the final Iteration customer performs User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Final build, after fixing all major UAT defects, is the release candidate.
Our Security & Privacy Policy?
Do employees sign NDA or ethical conduct agreements? Are they aware of their security related commitments?
Yes, all Technosoft employees sign an NDA before they are allowed to work on client projects. They are made aware of their responsibility related to privacy and security.
How can you guarantee my software security and privacy?
We have policies and procedures in place to ensure your software security and privacy. All employees file an NDA and physical security is implemented to avoid any breach.
We will be happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) enforceable in a US court of Law. We have a basic NDA that we can and send to you or if you have one of your own, we will be glad to review and execute.
Is source code version control? Labeling? If so, what software do you use?
We used both version control and labeling in Visual SourceSafe. Please see our Configuration Management process in detail.
Please describe your network infrastructure, what physical and technical facilities are available?
Technosoft network has been built and deployed using state of the art Cisco Routers by our own in-house Network Administration Team, utilizing redundant fiber, DSL, and Wireless based connections, we have over 4 Mbps Links. Our LAN network is based on Microsoft Windows domain environment, equipped with DNS server, Email server, Database servers, Backup server, VoIP Server & Web Server. Having multiple internet links over different medium we ensure 24×7 internet uptime. We have Real-time/Daily/Weekly backups on Tape Drive to ensure data protection. Data is also secured using ISA Firewall & centralized trend micro office scan antivirus protection. 100% Power uptime is ensured by UPS/Generator Power backups.
Please describe your data backed up process, how it is secured?
All data related to projects are present in the respective VSS repositories, Test Director, emails and project server. Incremental backup of all data types of all live projects is taken according to the below mentioned frequency on an external USB drive or DLT tapes by the System Administrator. If any other data needs to be backed up, the Development Manager or respective Project Manager or Team Lead inform the location of the data to the System Administrator via email.
System Administrator reports the status of all backups to the concerned Project Managers, Development Manager, QA Manager, and Process Engineering Manager on weekly basis using Weekly Backups Tracking Report.
Backup of Completed/Closed project(s) is taken on the CDs /DLT Tapes as per requirements of the Development Manager
Following are the typical data that required frequent backup:
| Sr. | Data Types | Frequency |
| 1 | All VSS project and organizational repositories | Daily increment backup Weekly full backup |
| 2 | Test Director Databases | Daily increment backup Weekly full backup |
| 3 | Project Server | Daily increment backup Weekly full backup |
| 4 | All Employees Emails | Weekly full backup |
Do you use appropriate physical security controls to protect the source code and other Information assets?
We have some controls like CCTV, Security Guards, reception area and ID cards. We also have a visitor screening process in place. We are also in the process of designing and implementing ISO27001 security standards at our facilities.