LeoSoft

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Shabir Ahmed, Managing Director

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Innovative, Smarter, Progressive, Creative, Dependable

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: *Honest and Appropriate solutions as per your project needs * 100 % Customer Support & Guidance * Coding Standards as per IT Industry * Project Development and Completion as per project scope & deadlines * Timely Response to client’s queries and concerns * Project Estimation & Costing as per actual standards.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: It’s a medium size office complex in a good location of the city. My office is small and nice with windows on 2 sides. It's simply furnished with computer desk, chairs for all the team members, 5 PCs with 19” TFT & 3 Laptops, a small conference table, a white board and two bookcases one built in wall other built in table. I have Team of 4 a Team Leader, a Business Development Manager and two associates who work directly with me. I run this small unit and the relationship with my staff is very good.

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: We use Agile Methodologies in general for development purposes. For management of software development projects, we use SCRUM, it is also used to run software maintenance teams, or as a general project/program management approach. For bug tracking we use TRAC project management and bug/issue tracking system and Bugzilla. For document sharing and online collaboration we mostly use Google apps like Google docs, Google wave, Google voice /video chat and Skype for instant messaging, file sharing and voice/video conferencing

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: * High responsiveness * Skilled and organized personnel * Solid experience in projects of different complexity and scope * Mature software development process * On-time and within budget delivery * Cost-competitive custom software programming services

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Majority from Our Business Development / Sales Team. Rest from Overseas Contacts, Client Referrals, and Online marketing.

Q: Describe how you manage projects from the initial client contact to completion and handover.
A: * Software Development: - Requirements · Specification - Architecture · Design - Implementation · Testing - Deployment · Maintenance * Web Development: - Preliminary Research and Discovery Phase - Strategic Planning - Web Design – Graphic Design Work, Front End Programming, Server-side Development - Quality Assurance and Launch

Q: What do you think is the most crucial element of creating a good client relationship?
A: Have clear cut understanding up front with your client about what your role is and isn’t i.e. have clear contract. Stay focused on your contract and on your deliverables, don’t commit beyond your capabilities or interests esp. when new requests are outside the contract agreement. Build a personalized relation with your client, to know you client better. Keep them well informed and get their feedback/ observations regarding the progress of the project and your performance. Be open to new approaches within your ability to deliver and approach each project with fresh outlook. Working on the relationship will make you more successful in the current project, enhance your chance for future work, and make the project much more enjoyable.

Q: How do you manage demanding clients?
A: To start with try to know your client and anticipate his requirements. Never make assumptions, work with facts. Understand the client's objectives completely and make efficient design to meet them. Have an agreement prepared, covering the scope of the project services, project schedule, and realistic budget estimates. Involve client in preparation of the agreement and be sure to have follow-up documentation for any of client's change request orders. Make client fully aware of the development process and its limitations to avoid future confusions. Always communicate with your client keep him properly informed .Adopt a professional manner at all times. Be proactive, positive attitude & motivation keeps you calm and in control when dealing with pressure or disagreements

Q: If a client was trying to decide between a shortlist of web design companies, how would you recommend they go about selecting the right one for them?
A: * In general: - Service portfolio of web designing company. - Its ‘profound’ & ‘relevant’ “Experience”. - Reputation it holds in the market. - Cost-effectiveness of its solutions. * In particular: - Is the company large enough to handle the scope of your project? - Are they structured to offer personal assistance? - Do they offer more than web design – for example, the creation of website content, database management, routine maintenance and upgrades, etc? * Last but not the Least: - Security polices and measures in place that would protect your data at all times.

Q: Where do you see your company in 10 years time?
A: A successful Multinational Corporation having Overseas Offices, World-Class Infrastructure, Large satisfied Client Base and Diversified Portfolio with happy Human Resource and contributing actively to Community Development.

Q: Where do you see the web design industry in the future?
A: I think apart from web development, Mobile App. development will take center stage. New apps, new platforms and new ideas in the world of social media.Niche social networks will also continue to grow.SEO will dominate web marketing in the future. There would be increase in importance of valid/standards-compliant and semantic code,and for coders that are able to work with web standards well. Further,I think with the coming of new fibreoptics technology, video technology becoming increasingly cheaper and easier to use, and broadband Internet access becoming more widespread we would have more high quality online TV.

Q: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
A: PC

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: Its kind of interesting! Actually our company slogan, "Lets Enjoy Open Source!" was chosen first. We arrived at company name by creating an acronym of this slogan; 'LEO' for Lets Enjoy Opensource and 'Soft' for Software. Thats how we got to LeoSoft.

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: Make your website user friendly, content rich and optimized. In other words, make your website such; that a user gets what he wants, the way he wants, as quickly as possible.