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
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
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