I honestly can't tell you in words just how incredible the transformation has been!

Reviewed Company

Sompisi IT Solutions

Verified by Xpeer
1 Bridgeway Road Bridgeways Precinct, Cape Town, South Africa
Reviewer
Score
10
Exceptional
Verified Review
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Organic
Video Review
Client size: 10-49
3 years ago, on 21st June 2021
Employees reviewed

Β«I honestly can't tell you in words just how incredible the transformation has been!Β»

Project Summary

My name is Susan Smit. I'm the CEO of ACORN Foundation, based in Johannesburg.

We are a non-profit company focused predominantly on health and nutritional programs for early childhood development, but we do a lot other than that. We build infrastructure, replacing bad toilet with flushing toilets in our rural and urban areas, we do installation of food gardens and educational programs. We supply stationery and educational materials for early childhood development and for primary school.

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What was the main business challenge you tried to resolve?

We had multiple challenges; IT infrastructure was one of those challenges. Prior to going on Office 365 , we were working independently on our laptops and basically working via emails, etc. We didn't have a platform in the cloud where we could all share documentation and access documentation. Our second problem - we've got 40,000 kids on our database, it's approximately 796 early childhood development centres. We collect a lot of information and data about centres and student. Then on a regular basis, like every two months, children would be assessed or measured their weight and their height and their heat, in their arms and etc. And we had to record that data, which we all did manually on Excel.

Did you manage to solve your challenge and how?

I did quite a bit of research and eventually came upon on Facebook page called SA NPO Network. I picked up Arnold from Phambano Technology first and started communicating with him, asking questions about how we as a non-profit could leverage or could benefit from a free or much reduced cost software, etc. And he put me in touch with Sompisi with Bhuti. Bhuti organized our free Office 365 licenses for all our users. I think it's up to 10, maybe more. Once that was done, Bhuti sated up everything for us. (Share Point and emails.) It was a breeze. I was waiting for something to happen because in the past, everything would happen, and it just run so smoothly.

Project Spend

Except the hardware procurement, we've probably spent a total of about 60,000 Rand since November 2019. That is not a lot of money. That's with the Windows licensing and monthly support.

Strengths

What did you like in dealing with Sompisi?

Bhuti has been an absolute gentleman and an absolute source of information for us, so nice to deal with. The response time is like immediate. If we need something, we will immediately get a response. If we request a meeting, we get a meeting very quickly. So, they're basically sorted all of that out for us. And then during last year we developed our own app so that we could record the data that we are collecting. We went live in July, August, around about July, August. Then Bhuti also assisted us with getting our free Azure platform with credit. 3,500 thousand dollars credit a year for space on our server in the cloud, so all of that was set up as well for us. That was really cool

What was the impact on your business?

I now have probably 90% more time to focus on the actual business, operations, governance and fundraising and also servicing new projects that come across my desk than previously. Before, it was insane. I honestly can't tell you in words just how incredible the transformation has been

Why did you decide to do business with Sompisi?

Technology is my only disability and Bhuti guided me through all of it, so that I could understand. Eventually I said to him, I just need you to tell me that this is going to work for my business because I'm still struggling to understand everything. He said - yes, it will. As I had questions and things just prior to implementation, Bhuti answered them satisfactorily. The meetings were scheduled and kept on time. They travelled up from Cape Town to come and assist us with getting it all done. Then the implementation was so seamless and so easy. So, the decision was quite easy. He answered all my questions in the beginning. I was of course, very happy that we didn't have to pay any software licenses. We paid a little bit for the Windows implementation, but it's a lifelong license and they gave me a very reasonable fee to support us on a monthly basis as Sompisi.

What were you most impressed about?

The team seem to be very well informed. They have a very good CRM system, which obviously alerts them of queries coming in and logging new cases. The guys get back to you in a very reasonable period of time. Specific people that I've dealt with mostly Bhuti and Nceba. Honestly, we haven't had problems, so we haven't had to deal with a lot of people. Also Bhuti's wife,she's helping with the website. They all seem to be very well informed

Areas to Improve

Did you miss anything in what Sompisi provided to you?

If it was one thing which we all just realized later in life - none of us and neither me nor my team ever went through initial training on how to effectively use Share Point and One Drive and things like that. But I must also say it's not some Sompisi's fault because we were sort of like a Tornado into their lives in a whirlwind. We didn't ask the question. I guess if there was any improvement, it would be to set up a training session on the implementation of the platform prior to implementing it. So that's honestly the only thing and it is such a small part of the bigger picture

Recommendations to others

What should decision-makers facing similar challenge take into account?

I think there are few things that they need to take into account, which we didn't know about at that point. Not all of our hardware was compatible, or we might have been able to work on them, but it would have taken a hell of a long time and the speed would have been sluggish, etc.

I honestly can only think that Sompisi needs to publish these services more. They need to advertise it. They need to reach more non-profits. Because they really guided us through everything, the hardware, the software as a service on a hundred percent

Skills
Office 365
Cloud Services
Score Details
🎁 Ability to Deliver
How did Company perform? Did it deliver quality to you? Did it strive to maximize your business values? Did it deliver what it promised, meet commercial terms and deadlines?
Exceptional
10.0
🧠 Knowledge & Skills
Did Company offer required skills and expertise? Does it learn from past experiences? Does it invest in constantly improving its know-how?
Exceptional
10.0
πŸ€‘ Value for Money
Did Company's price/terms reflect the value it delivered? Were terms/prices competitive to the market? Did you feel like overpaying or undervalued?
Exceptional
10.0
πŸ™Š Communication
Did Company proactively communicate with you? Was it responsive to you? Did it keep transparent communication throughout all stages?
Exceptional
10.0
πŸš€ Innovation, Creativity & Technology
Was Company innovative? Did it apply or develop state-of-the-art technologies? Did it transform creative ideas into practical results?
Exceptional
10.0