| Frequently asked questions are provided in this section to answer your queries/doubts about our services. We tried our best to answer all FAQ, but even if referring to this section more questions remain, please feel free to contact us for more information. |
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| FAQ are categorized into following sections: |
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| Business | Technology |
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| Business |
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| Technology |
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| Business |
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| How can I benefit from working with FiO ? |
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| FiO ensures that your project will be done on time, to budget, and in accordance with modern quality and technical standards. You can outsource your IT projects ranging from a simple utility to the total automation of your business. It is confidential and reliable. Copyright on the final software belongs to you. Also, custom information systems are expensive as development of main parts require hiring skilled professionals. By using our services, you will reduce the cost by 50% at least. You also achieve savings on equipment, maintenance and infrastructure required during the development. Learn additional information on Our Software Development Methodology, and Why Outsource Offshore Software Development. |
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| What services does FiO provide? |
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| FiO provides a wide range of software development including: |
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| Software Solutions like Client-Server and distributed application development. | | Portal Solutions | | Value added services like Project Management, Onsite Development, etc. | | IT consulting | | IT staffing (contact us for more information) |
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| How can I be assured that I am not wasting my time and money? |
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| Read about our Software Development Methodology / Process. If you still have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us. We will spend as much time as needed to explain, provide additional information or make a pilot test for you, free of charge! |
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| Is all work suitable for outsourcing offshore? The simple answer is NO. Only long-term or a series of short-term projects that require high-rated specialists are! You should clearly identify the type of project and take into account that even if the whole project is not suitable for offshore development, it may still be possible to successfully outsource some subtasks and subsystems. Additionally, your offshore vendor should meet the following requirements: |
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| Professional rates should be significantly lower than in your country | | Availability of technical experts and resources | | Good communication and infrastructure facilities including easy access to the Internet | | Qualified staff | | Fluent English |
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| If you have any doubts regarding these areas, contact us and we will indicate whether your project is suitable or not. |
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| How can I be sure in your productivity and that you won't overcharge me? |
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| You monitor every phase of development. Every phase has tangible results that you can see and review. If required, we provide Individual Labour Accounting and Status Reports. The complete scope of the work is defined at the initial phase of development and approved by you. Developing a long term positive relationship with you is our priority. |
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| What other risks do I have developing offshore? |
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| First of all, all usual risks of software development: proper definition of the task; proper planning; proper managing; and, proper development process. In order to eliminate these risks, FiO drafts a Project Plan or Statements of Work with all of our clients which outline project objectives and detailed descriptions of what is required. The client is involved in the development process from start to finish, agreeing on the story boards and mock ups, templates and trial versions before the project begins. We have a proven track record of successfully completing numerous offshore projects. |
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| The second is communication. There should be two Project Managers - on-site and off-site - that communicate every day. Failure in communication is the main cause of unsuccessful development. Understanding this, we use a "24-hours" reply policy. Any messages addressed to us will be answered during the same or next working day, and we require the same from our customers! |
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| The third is agreements. Our Project Plans clearly outline roles and responsibilities; deliverables; acceptance criteria; assumptions; constraints; timelines; communication and contact information; pricing; warranties and payments schedules – safeguard both sides of the agreement.. |
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| The fourth is cultural differences. There could be some misunderstanding among the people involved. Our Project Managers (based both in Canada and India) take responsibility for ensuring that communication between our clients and our developers is concise and ongoing. |
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| What makes FiO unique? |
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| Professionalism, knowledge, innovation, creativity, reliability and flexibility combined with low prices. |
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| What are your standard Terms and Conditions? |
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| Once a contract has been signed, we issue an invoice according to the Payment Schedule which is a part of the Project Plan approved by you. Usually invoices are paid by wire transfer in US Dollars or Euro to our bank accounts either in India or in the USA. Copyright on the final software belongs to the customer. |
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| Can I first get "a rough guess" about the cost of my software system? |
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| Yes, of course. Just contact us or use Request for Quote Form. |
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| Can I try your services first before signing a contract for a large software system with you? |
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| Yes, you can request us to do a pilot testing project. Depending on what your "large software system" is, we will do a pilot test with minimal payment in case of successful completion, or even free of charge. |
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| Can I get references to your previous work? |
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| Please, see our Clients page. It will be our pleasure to provide you contact information of our customers. |
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| Which languages can I speak with FiO ? |
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| English, French, Hindi , Gujarati and Marathi. |
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| How can I start using FiO services? |
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| Contact us with your business requirements, idea or questions. |
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| What do you need from me to create a proposal? |
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| You don't need to prepare anything before asking for a proposal - just call and FiO will ask questions to determine what is needed from you to create a proposal. Usually it will be whatever technical documentation, specifications, and design documents you have. Access to your project team members for answering questions is essential. |
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| What does an estimate mean? |
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| An estimate of your project can sometimes be made by doing a cursory investigation of the requirements. Estimates are usually only accurate to a factor of three. |
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| What is a proposal vs. an estimate? |
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| An estimate is designed to give you a rough idea of what the project will cost. A proposal shows you how the project will be done, when it will be done, and will provide a cost that you can use for financial planning purposes. |
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| How do you determine how much a project costs? |
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| First, information is gathered about the proposed product through examining prior software, existing specifications, and by interviewing project team members at your company. All the information gathered is then analyzed and the project is broken down into smaller components which are estimated separately. Follow up questions are asked, and past similar projects are used for costing guidelines. |
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| What are the advantages of hiring FiO over hiring engineers from a staffing firm or building an in-house team? |
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| 1) FiO puts each candidate through a rigorous screening process before they join the team; otherwise you would have to do most of the screening. |
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| 2) FiO knows who is the right engineer for each project component. You would have to be able to hire the right range of skills, and may not be able to get them in the same person. |
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| 3) FiO can provide a range of services by pulling in engineers with other specialties for specific small tasks on the project. You will need to staff up, outsource sub-projects, or hire a genius. |
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| 4) FiO engineering "bandwidth" is flexible: if the project needs a push or is delayed for some reason your cost doesn't change. You would need to hire additional engineers (which takes time) or pay for the costs associated with engineering downtime. |
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| What is expected of me during the project? |
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| Your involvement in the project is essential. The exact nature of that involvement depend greatly on the type of project. In general, you are expected to provide whatever technical and business specifications you have, to answer questions in a reasonable time, and to provide prompt, honest, and thorough feedback on software releases. A list of your "deliverables" is provided by FiO in the project proposal. |
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| Who will own the code produced by FiO? |
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| All source code produced by FiO during a project is fully owned by you, except nonproprietary code with only general utility (generic code). Generic code may be used by you in any way you wish and FiO may also use this code for its own purposes. |
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| What can I do about my declining profit margin? |
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| FiO can help your organization in many ways, probably the most important being lowering the costs of your Microsoft Dynamics implementation. |
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| Our rate is 40-60% lower than typical domestic rates. As a general rule, you will notice our rate to be about half the cost of the competitive quotes you would normally receive from domestic based companies. Although an offshore rate is an appealing proposition, concerns can still remain since offshore prices usually mean offshore relationships. At FiO we feel relationship is where we add our greatest value. As a customer, you truly get the “best of both worlds” - our offshore service rates combined with our Asian Pacific relationship managers and our Canadian project managers. |
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| How can I turn my fixed overhead costs into profit centers? |
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| We work to align your IT and business objectives and infrastructures – thereby resulting duplication costs. Streamlining systems often improve communication and business feedback – creating opportunities for innovation and cost savings. |
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Can I reduce risk by fixing the cost of a project and will my project be completed promptly & professionally?
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| Improve Quality |
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| We believe a decision to work with FiO should not be based on price alone. Although our rates are well below normal domestic based prices (we are 40 to 60% lower in rates), we would like to stress that quality should be the deciding factor in choosing an offshore partner. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics Partner, we would like to highlight three aspects of quality: your relationship with FiO, fast reliable service combined with an optional fixed bid option, and our communication methodologies which eliminate most of the traditional offshore challenges faced by other companies. We are confident that the quality of our project delivery will meet or exceed your expectations. |
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| Fixed Bid Pricing |
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| Our fast, reliable service is also flexible as we give you the option of a fixed bid contract which gives you the security of knowing what your total costs are ahead of time. Fixed bid pricing includes high level design, detail design (if required), development, quality control, project management, and programming documentation such as screen shots, schemas and use cases. |
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| Quality Communication |
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| The downfall of many offshore projects stem from the breakdown in the communication process. FiO utilizes Microsoft SharePoint Services as a document sharing and collaboration hub, a separate site is created for each project you have with us. We also stagger our working hours in India to overlap with our customers' workday and utilize Instant Messaging and Voice-over-IP phones to facilitate seamless and cost effective communication. Weekly conference calls with status updates by your FiO Project Manager is another protocol we implement to help insure the success of your project. |
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| Where can I find experienced developers for our product line and can my resources scale as my project scales? |
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| Utilizing FiO’s services can provide the competitive advantage you need in today's challenging business environment. Our flexible services allows you to choose specific FiO offerings, or we can also provide a complete turn-key solution if needed. On IT development projects, source code is included as part of our deliverables, and our deep resource pool and technical expertise allow you to have a full scale implementation and development team whenever you need one. |
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| How can I outsource software development while maintaining source code ownership? |
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| Many developers do not release source code as part of their overall deliverables; we at FiO feel it is important for our customers to have access to project source code as a measure of security and future flexibility. We therefore offer complete project source code at no additional cost to our clients. |
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| Technology |
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| What programming experience does FiO have? |
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| FiO’s development team offers a range of technological expertise for both Windows and Linux platforms. Collectively, we have over 60 years of programming experience with programs such as Visual C++, COM/DCOM, Java, J2SE, J2ME, EJB, Visual Basic, XML, Perl, PHP, Python, Power Builder, Delphi, Socket Programming, SmallTalk and ASP. We have developed software systems that utilize Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, PostgreSQL, MySQL and Access databases, often times simultaneously via ODBC. |
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| What makes a typical software package? |
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| It consists of: |
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| Software itself | | Quality Assurance documentation | | User's Guide | | Online Context-Sensitive Help | | Installation program and instructions | | Completely documented source code | | Maintenance instructions |
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| Can FiO provide web site and graphics design? |
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| Yes, of course. Our design department is not only making the user interface of the software and documentation superior looking, but, primary, provides a full range of web design, graphics and multimedia development services. |
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| Your development process looks complicated. Is it really necessary? |
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| The software development process is complicated by its nature. Our development methodology / process only reflects it. Excluding any stage leads to higher risk and lower quality. Sometimes we are asked to simply provide programmers, but such "savings" on management, planning, testing and documentation often brings many problems in the future and the final cost of the software system becomes much higher -- assuming the software system can be finished at all. |
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| How do clients control the project's progress? |
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| You do have full control over the development, primary through on-site Project Manager. Our Software Development Methodology ensure that there will be no unpleasant surprises at the end of the development. |
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| What should I do, if I am not exactly sure what functionality I need? |
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| It is not a rare situation. Simply contact us even with a rough idea. We will define the task together. |
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| How can I be assured of high quality, reliable software? |
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| Through our Development Methodology / Process which is aimed at quality and only quality. We even provide Software Testing Services for other software development organizations. Also, you will have all preliminary versions of the software installed at your location for internal testing, verification and acceptance. During the 3-month warranty period after the software was installed in production mode, any problem in the code will be corrected free of charge. |
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| How can I be assured that if I need to update my software system, you will help? |
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| We can conclude either a long-term maintenance agreement stating our responsibilities or a general agreement on providing modifications on a case basis. |
