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FAQ

What’s Lily Technology’s financial health?

Lily Technology has been debt- free and profitable since day one and remains that way today. Since 2015, Lily Technology has seen average year –on-year revenue growth of just over 40%. We’ve achieved this by pursuing a diversified client base, long –term relationships with our clients and expanding our services outside of country. As a rule of thumb, no one client ever represents more than 15% of Lily Technology’s revenue at any time. We’re very proud to be adding good paying technology jobs to our local community and working with clients worldwide. You can find out more details about Lily Technology, by visiting our about page.

What’s Lily Technology’s client base like?

1. You can easily describe Lily Technology’s clients as the following:

  1. • Non- technical business owners of key people with titles. Such as CEO, President, COO, Director of Operations or sometimes Director of Technology or CTO.
  2. • Technology frustrated business outgrown their current systems, process. Need to improve what they already have.
  3. • This company works with many different industries, financial services, all types of NGO, teaching institution, insurance, legal technology, healthcare, oil and gas, energy management, political polling, fleet management, k-12 education, third party logistics.
  4. • Mostly service-based business that see custom software as a competitive advantage.
  5. • Established any sized of business where 10 to 800 employees.

2. Some quick facts about our clients:

  1. • The average Lily Technology client has been working with us for 2.5 years, on an ongoing basis.
  2. • We currently have 19 clients with active engagements.
  3. • Since 2015, we’ve worked with 54 companies and completed over 100 projects.
  4. • 98% of our clients return for a second engagement.
  5. • The most important thing to us that the value we bring will significantly exceed the fees we charge.

What’s Lily Technology’s culture like?

  1. Our culture is best described as open, friendly, and fast paced.
  2. Every employees are direct in their communication, have full autonomy over their time and management maintains full financial transparency at all times.
  3. A healthy culture is incredibly important to everyone at Lily Technology. While our culture is influenced by every new person we hire, it’s built on the foundation of our core values and core purpose. We believe if your core is strong then you don’t need lots of processes, procedures and rules in place.
  4. In general if we take care of our clients and each other then the rest will take care of itself.
  5. Our core purpose or the reason Lily Technology exists is to create life changing opportunities through technology. Some examples are:
    1. • Helping our clients reach their full potential, however they define success.
    2. • Giving students real world experience they wouldn’t otherwise gain.
    3. • Creating a work place and culture that supports people’s personal goals.
    4. • Dedication to every person’s long term success.
    5. • Identify root causes and get beyond solving the symptoms.
    6. • Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships.

TOTAL PROJECT STAFF?

We have 40 people dedicated to client projects.

Professional development activities?

  1. All our people get paid to learn and share. This includes reading relevant books, going to industry conferences, attending and speaking at local meet ups.
  2. We regularly provide group discussion with employees about their activities in office, so our employee can learn from each other. We also pay for employee, at any time to attend training courses on project management, engineering best practices, good design and business strategy.

Typical hours worked per week?

Our employee’s bill and average of 30-35 hours of their time per week.

Where do your employees work?

Majority percent employees work in our office. Some employees work outside for business development.

How does Lily Technology recruit and hire its developers?

Lily Technology receives over 200 new applicants a month Our selection process includes 4 steps :

  1. I. Coding test- Should need to get 80% number of all applicants.
  2. II. Best fit phone interview.
  3. III. Reference check. IV. In – personal interview:
    1. • We’ve interviewed more than 800 candidates in order to find the group of people.
      • When hiring developers, we focus on finding people who can learn and apply concepts quickly under pressure and have a strong grasp of computer science fundamentals.
      • Our team is fluent in many languages, technology stacks and specialties.

Can you provide resumes for each of the people working on my project?

This is not something we do unless it’s for and official security clearance. When resumes of team members are requested, this is a red flag that our prospective client would really prefer a staffing relationship. As mentioned above, this is something we try to avoid. Rest assured, you’ll have interactions with many different team members before we actually begin work on your project. It you’re not excited about your team before we begin work, then we’re likely not a good fit for you.

What’s the purpose of the first call?

Absolutely We believe checking references is an important part of the buying process. We usually send over references after we determine that we’re a good fit for you and your project.

Will you sign my NDA(Non –disclosure agreement)?

We will not sign an NDA before our initial call. It’s important that we know enough about the business to evaluate whether there’s a conflict with our current or past clients. In addition , we talk to over 500 potential new clients a year. It’s inevitable that we hear similar ideas. We will only sign an NDA if:

  1. • It’s mutual or bilateral.
  2. • We understand the requirements of the project and believe that the project and client are a good fit for Lily Technology
  3. • We are not violating any other agreements that we have as a company.

Will you respond to my RFP (Request for proposal)?

Short answer –not likely. We’ve got a whole blog post explaining why, but here’s the short version.

  1. • The requirements in RFPs are often extremely detailed, but usually lack any business context.
  2. • The probability of this document containing the optimum feature set is extremely low.
  3. • By agreeing to respond to an RFP, we are relying 100% on someone else’s ability to capture the correct requirements. The right features are better learned by the project team through user interviews, mockups, prototyping, releasing actual software and getting feedback from real users.
  4. • This contract style sets the client and consultant working against each other right from day one.

Does Lily Technology do fixed –bid proposals?

As you might have guessed, we do fixed bid proposals. When we are approached with RFPs, we politely decline and use that interaction as an opportunity to educate the prospective client about why RFPs are not a good fit for custom software project.

What’s your policy on copyright and intellectual property?

Who owns the code and designs Lily Technology produces during the project? You do. Before we work, we’ll put a services agreement in place that will assign ownership of all work product and deliverables to you as long as we’re paid for the services we perform.

What if I’m not ready for development?

Most clients are never ready for development when they come to us. It’s important that we take the time upfront to help you determine the right thing to build and a responsible budget for your project. Learn more about our pre-project consulting process.

What steps are involved in the creation of custom software for my business?

If new software-we’ll work with you through our design & amp, planning engagement. After RDP, we‘ll begin development of your software. You’ll be involved every step of the way.

Are you taking on new projects right now? What’s the timeline to get started?

Yes, we are always evaluating new projects. The pre-project consulting process takes 2 weeks. Our Research, Design & Planning phase takes 4-6 weeks. Development begins after that.

What’s the typical team size?

The typical size for each project team is 2-3 developers. Each project team is supported by UI/UX designers, software testers, managers and cloud engineers. With each development team sharing support resources, we’re able to reduce project costs for clients. We’re also able to make developers more efficient by ensuring they spend their time writing production- level code, not messing with other tasks.

What roles do people have on teams?

Each team is assigned a project lead, a full-time developer on the team who has additional responsibilities for facilitating communication and planning with the client and amongst the team. How does Lily Technology communicate?

  1. • Communication between project teams and clients is not limited to interactions with the project lead. Every member of the Lily Technology team is empowered to communicate with our clients. It’s common for phone calls and emails to be exchanged throughout the work week between Lily Technology teams and their clients.
  2. • Every project team at Lily Technology is assigned to a team E-mail(info@resoftbd.com).

How does Lily Technology manage projects?

Project fail for one major reason-poor communication. Establishing communication and planning rhythms is the most important aspect of software project management. These rhythms include:

  1. • Weekly meeting to review success, failures and future plans- 1 hour
  2. • Team members demonstrate what they got done the week prior.
  3. • Everyone discusses how they can improve the processes/techniques on the project.

Who will I communicate with on the team?

Short answer –everyone. Every person on our teams are empowered to communicate with clients directly. These keep things moving along and helps retain our flat organization structure.

What’s my role and responsibilities?

We expect clients to be actively involved in their projects. You are the one bringing the expertise about your business and market to the table. Without that, we have no idea if we’re building the right thing. Involvement includes weekly calls or meetings and availability via phone during normal business hours.

How will my feedback be handled?

Client feedback is incredibly important through the process. You should always provide feedback, even early –on when the features are still rough. Your feedback will offer us context about what’s important to you and your business. This helps us prioritize and stay tied to your needs.

Can I adjust the plans or features as we go?

Yes. This kind of flexibility is important and could determine the success of a project, but big changes after kick –off might affect budget or schedule.

Can I see what you're doing on a regular basis?

Yes. We believe open, transparent communication is the cornerstone to successful software projects. You’ll always know what’s happening on your project and you’ll be in constant contact with your team. It’s not unusual for our Project Leads to call their clients several times a week. We also provide weekly status updates and regular releases on a staging site to keep you in the loop. What happens when you're done?

  1. • Software is rarely “done.” We know that our clients and their users will continue to have great ideas throughout the process and after the initial delivery. As your business changes, your software will need to evolve and adapt.
  2. • It’s common after the first release to pause on building features for a bit and focus on enhancements or fixes to drive user ad option.

What QA (Quality assurance) processes do you have in place?

QA staff is involved from the Day 1 and test plans are put together at the beginning of projects. Testing happens throughout the project, not just at the end. We also practice code reviews and pair programming to ensure that quality code is being written at all times.
Do you code everything from scratch?
Lily Technology teams get incredible leverage from open source tools, libraries, frameworks and indeed entire projects or our own proprietary libraries. We never reinvent the wheel when there is a tool that is suitable for solving a problem. We always program from scratch the parts that make your project custom and valuable.

What type or size projects does Lily Technology take on? What are the typical costs and schedule?

Lily Technology’s clients are diverse, but we’re generally the best fit for large, complex projects that have the potential to create a lot of value for our clients. In other words, if your project is critical to the mission of your business then it’s likely a good fit. We enjoy taking on projects where user experience is critical and one or more of the technology domains of web, mobile, embedded, or desktop are required. Our projects run from a few months to a year or more. Some have a budget of $50k and others have budgets of over $1 million.

What are typical engagements for Lily Technology?

Examples of typical projects for us are:

  1. • Code Review – 2 people, 1 week
  2. • Research, Design & Planning engagement – 3 people, 4 weeks
  3. • Idea to Version 1 – 3 people, 3-5 months
  4. • Proof of Concept – 2 people, 1 to 2 months
  5. • Project Rescue – varies
  6. • Dedicated Team – retainer per month
  7. • Fill a gap until an internal team is hired – 2 people, 3 months
  8. • Staff augmentation with existing internal team – 3 people, 6 months

How much will my project cost?

We can’t answer this question responsibly until we understand your idea, business, market, users, etc. While we can’t tell you exactly what your project will cost, we can draw on the 100+ projects we’ve delivered since 2015 and tell you what’s typical for the projects we’re best suited to help you with.
While its really hard to know the specific costs of the project without going through a discovery phase like our Research, Design, and Planning phase, we can usually help you set a responsible budget during before you ever hire us.
No matter how large or small your budget, it’s always our goals for the value our clients receive to significantly exceed the fees we charge.

How long does a software project take?

A typical small team for the projects we work on is two to three full-time developers. A large team is four to six people.
For a rough approximation of project duration, we take the estimates above and divide by 32 hours for each person on the team. For example, a 1200-hour project takes approximately 3 months of calendar time for a team of 3 people (1200 hours / (3 people * 32 hours/person/week) / 4 weeks/month = ~ 3 months)
On large projects, we’re able to add people and go faster. That’s quite an amazing thing, actually, and not something every team or company can do. Growing the team requires we have additional employees available.

How does Lily Technology bill?

For projects that have a total fixed budget, we track and bill by the hour. We feel this is the most straightforward way to bill. If someone is out sick then you don’t pay for their time. In turn, this also helps ensure that everyone (including clients) are focused on the most valuable features at any given time as opposed to encouraging scope creep. It takes everyone’s awareness of the budget and how we’re tracking to keep the project on-target.
For projects that have a total monthly budget, we still track hours to ensure that we hit the mark each and every month. For more details about pricing or engagement models, you can see our pricing and packages here.

Who pays for bugs?

When paying for custom software, you should have the mindset of paying a team to design and develop the first instance of a product. Custom software projects are ripe with risk, including: building the right product, funding and schedule risks, third-party integrations, and technical approaches that need to be proved out.
Remember, you are paying your team to help you mitigate these risks, not to financially own them. Each sprint or release is not a guarantee of a finished, bug-free product. However, we do have standards and best practices in place that encourage each team to do their best to build a high-quality product.
We encourage our clients to embrace bugs, embrace risks, and know that we will do everything we can to address both. Your team will track bugs and work them into the schedule each week with other backlog item.
Our teams are smart and experienced; they do their best at predictably building your product. With each iteration, we’ll take what we’ve learned and quickly your teams integrate new insights to keep quality high.
Be aware that the financial risk of developing custom software is in your hands. A warranty doesn’t come from your development team, but it’s what you will offer to your customers and employees. Taking on the financial risk is why you have such a potentially significant financial upside.

What are your payment terms?

When billing by the hour, we invoice once a month in arrears. Ex: On February 1st, you’ll receive an invoice for the hours logged January 1st to 31st . Payment is due within 10 days.
When billing for a dedicated team, payment is due in advance for that month’s team. Ex: On February 1 st, you’ll pay for the month of February.

Why are your rates so much higher than other firms?

Experience Speed of delivery. Track record Demand Talent Quality full service. The overall software market.

How successful are your projects? How do you prevent issues?

We boast a 96.5% success rate in an industry where 42% is the norm. Communication, tight regular feedback loops, and staying lean have attributed to our high degree of success and reputation of quick, spot-on solutions.

Have you ever failed on a project?

Yes, we have had a handful of projects fail in our history. In every case, the failure could be attributed to communication issues that included:

  1. • Not fully understanding the scope of the project.
  2. • Lack of client and team communication throughout the project
  3. • In the event of each failure, we ate the full cost of the project until it was back on track. We know this was the right thing to do.
  4. • After taking our lumps, we improved our processes and our training. Some improvements include:
  5. • Creation of our highly successful Research, Design & planning phase.
  6. • Multi-point estimation methods that put an emphasis on risk
  7. • A more thorough 60-day on boarding process with all new employees.
  8. • Mandatory Scrum training for all new employees

What technologies and languages do you work with?

Lily Technology has a broad skillest, which gives us the power to explore options and select the best languages, platforms, and tools for each job. We do about 80% of our work with these:

  1. • Web – Python (Django, Flask), ASP.NET Core (C#), PHP, Node.js, ReactJS, AngularJS, HTML5, Bootstrap, Sass.
  2. • Mobile – iOS, Android, Cordova
  3. • Desktop – Java, Microsoft WPF
  4. • Embedded – C, C++
  5. • Database – PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL

Do you write software for iPhone and Android?

Yes, we do. Assuming your project does not require advanced polling or data processing, we usually use Cordova to target both platforms with the same core code. This dramatically cuts down on development time and costs.

What industries have you worked with?

  1. • Healthcare
  2. • Finance
  3. • Energy Services
  4. • Restaurant QSR
  5. • Media & Gaming
  6. • Energy Management

Can you share projects you've worked on?

There has a list of some recent clients on our website. Unfortunately, because of confidentiality constraints, we can’t share project details until we know there’s a good fit and we get a mutual NDA in place. At that point, we should send over portfolio work and a complete list of references.

Is your infrastructure secure?

While no one is ever entirely secure, we take pride in the fact that none of our clients have ever been taken down by an attack and that our network has never been breached.

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