Tanish PatelQuestion about CEO Interviews:
Give us a brief introduction to your company?
Octal IT Solution was established in the year 2007 and since then it has developed over 1100 + web and mobile apps for more than 700 clients around the world. We are physically present in the USA, UK, India, Singapore & Dubai and serving our clients all around the world. We provide innovative solutions via our well-established development centres plus through on-site work environments and all this is done with a team of 150+ seasoned professionals. With high quality and top-notch solutions, Octal IT solution has built a rapport with technology leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, NASSCOM, Acquia, D&B, STPI, and many others. We are appreciated by hundreds of clients on Clutch, GoodFirms, AppLancer, Extract and Appdexa, on a consistent basis and we are named among top 10 Mobile App developers.
What are the services you offer to your clients?
Mobile app development, wearable, AR, VR, IoT, on-demand app, and software development is amongst the primary services that are offered by us. Apart from that, we also offer testing and QA, maintenance and support.
In this intensely competitive era, what technologies, services, and project models can give you an edge over your competitors?
Yes, there is a lot of competition in our field in today’s world but we keep on working on the latest technologies like that of Swift, Salesforce, Kotlin, MEAN Stack, Rest API, etc. and that helps us to be ahead in the race. These new technologies help us to be in touch with the latest demands of our public and customers.
Talking of the project models, there are quite a few like Waterfall or Agile Model, where there is a fixed cost for the work provided by us to an organization, then is Dedicated Hiring, here the team dedicatedly works for a client firm providing services as required.
Next, there is an hourly model, where the team works on an hourly basis, for instance, our team will devote 80 hours to a client firm, and according to their work requirement, the client can get the work done as per the assigned hours. Like, one day the team may work for 2 hours, then another day it can be assigned the work that may take 10 hours. So it differs as per the client’s requirements.
Ultimately, there is a bucket model, which is a mix of all of the above three. Here a dedicated team would be working at a fixed cost for fixed hours.
How has being an entrepreneur affected your family & Social life?
It was a new experience, so at first, it was quite challenging to maintain a perfect balance in life but as time passed by, a routine got developed which helped me strike a perfect balance between work and family.
Whom do you consider your idol or biggest motivator?
I would to mention that Elon Musk, Jack Ma, and Steve Jobs have inspired me to a great extent. Their philosophy and approach has helped me in taking important steps.
Share Best 3 application which your company have created or used for business
Well, there are a quite a few successful apps created by our organization, however, if I have to name three, then they are:
- Baritastic – Medical App,
Baritastic is the # 1 app for bariatric surgery! Baritatric surgery patients have specific goals, requirements and guidelines before and after surgery.
- Wolero- Taxi App,
The Wolero driver app is a free app designed by and for Wolero Pte Ltd, a premier limousine service provider in Singapore. This app is intellectual property of Wolero Pte Ltd.
- FitmeNow- Health & Fitness App
After service is a necessary part of development. How do you provide customer support to your client?
Customer service is one arena where we really excel in and same goes with the after-service, which we devotedly take care of. At our firm, multi-level support is one thing we offer to all of our clients. There are various ways to contact to raise concern, like SMS, Skype, phone chats, emails, etc. As soon as the problem is registered, the team gets together to provide the necessary support.
Usually, in concern of after-service, we offer free support to our clientele for a minimum of 60 days post the software/product delivery. Now once, this period completes, we still try to offer the best support to our clients as the long-term customer relationship is what we believe in. So, if the client requirements for after-support are minute, then that is offered for free of cost. However, if the requirement is extensive, then it will be charged and we discuss upfront with the client about the same. Still, we strive or best to solve the concerned issues within the set time constraint. Meanwhile, the paid supports offered by us consist of Bucket and Fixed cost.
What are your hobbies? What do you do in your non-work time?
Most of the time is devoted to friends and family. I am a cricket and football fan, so in free time I like to contact my friends and get on the field. I love going out with my dear ones to a quiet place where I can forget about my hectic daily life and enjoy with them.
Have you raised any funding? Or have any plans for the funding?
At the present scenario, we are not thinking about raising kind of funding. And this might be the case for the future but we haven’t raised any type of funds up until now but let’s see!
Give your opinions on how far this app revolution can make a difference in the technology world?
Well, in terms of revolution is there to be seen in a number of ways, be it in form of Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, and what not. Just call for a task and it will be done in seconds, be it playing your choice of music, turning on AC, just call for it and get it done. The arrival of smart-home products has entirely changed the game for the millennial and now they can live on with their busy lives with a lot of ease and comfort.
What latest technologies and tools you’re planning to implement for mobile app development?
Four technologies are in line to boss the future generations: AR/VR, IoT and AI and machine learning. And as far as tools are concerned, there are too many of the tools for each and every technology.
What’s your approach to creating interactive and addictive UX/UI of mobile apps and websites?
It is simply impossible to please customers without offering them awesome interactive UX/UI, be it with websites or mobile apps. After all that is what makes their experience on the platform absolutely worth it. Mainly in case of hybrid apps, the role of UX/UI is significant.
At Octal, while creating UX/UI for the clients’ apps or websites, we work with Parallax, where different objects on the page move at different speeds and in different directions. This way, on the website or app, the background changes even while the watch moves just slightly. The other one is obviously Flat user interface, which we are all well familiar of and is used in most organizations for its assured results.
What are the challenges you see in the outsourcing industry?
The one that we have to persistently deal with is certainly building the trust among the client firms who are outsourcing work to us. There are trust issues that we have to take care of and they are obvious considering the fact that these clients are outsourcing big projects to a technology firm that is based outside their country. However, the one thing that makes the process easier is the faith that we have built among our clients in these past many years.
Apart from that, the other few challenges can be building trust in the users for the new technologies that we are working on and convincing then how it would benefit their project in the long run, also finding experience resources is a challenge along with controlling economical fluctuation of demography. However, we are working on the same currently and hopefully will find a way out soon enough.
Mention the ways you use to introduce new updates to your team.
Obviously, we organize the meet-up sessions among the team members to communicate and discuss about the new updates. Regular internal sessions occur where everyone comes together and share their views and inputs regarding the concerned project.
As advanced technologies are introduced, a training and certification program is organized for the members so they can enhance their skills with the updated technology. And seminars are organized each month where our experienced counterparts are called once to share their knowledge with the employees. All in all, we believe in keeping the team together and ensure that each person with the team is updated of new technologies and offerings.
What’s your step to enter into the wearable tech & IOT revolution?
Well, the concept of IoT and wearables is not new to us and we have already stepped into the domain and are taking wise steps to make the technology available to the users in its best form. In the past, we have already built the demos in this arena and constantly strive to contribute in a much better manner. At the moment, there are some challenges that we are trying to combat, like data mapping via drones and building customized devices in the medical arena. However, we are constantly endeavoring to find a way out and hopefully w,e will soon succeed.
What are the various technologies you used to make this app a reality?
We use native iOS and Android development methods. JAVA and Kotlin for Android. Swift and Objective-C for iOS. Nowadays we are working on Flutter which is a platform-independent development technique.
Anything, you would like to say to our readers, upcoming entrepreneurs or Startup Companies?
Try to build a team that is well skilled for the job provided to them and convert them into a well-knit unit. Try to provide the customers whatever they demand because gaining the customer’s trust is everything in this field. And always keep your start-up updated with the latest technologies because not developing is going backward.
Tanish Patel
Jassica Dean
United States
United Kingdom
India
Canada
Singapore
