Raconteur Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are London's Air Ambulance. We provide an emergency trauma team to critically injured people within the M25 of London, which covers the 10 million people who live, work, and travel within that area.

What is your position?

I am the chief operating officer. I'm also the AOC [air operator's certificate] holder for the aviation operations for the helicopter, this is a CAA [civil aviation authority] qualification to ensure that the correct maintenance procedures, safety and funding is in place to enable us to operate the helicopter in London.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Mubaloo?

We were looking at areas where we could reduce dispatch times from when the call comes into the emergency operation center of the London Ambulance Service to the launch of the helicopter in the day or a response car at night in order to reach patients more quickly. From the clinical perspective, we need to get the trauma team there as quickly as possible as time is critical to improving the chances of a better outcome of the patient. Mubaloo, in combination with EE [British mobile network and Internet service provider], looked at how we could use the 4G network and specifically an app to try and improve the dispatch time from the receipt of an emergency call to the dispatch of the emergency trauma team. The aim was to automate the process as much as possible to reduce the number of manual steps to pass and verify the detail of the incident before launching a team.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

This was set up before I arrived in the company. They designed the app working in conjunction with our teams – both pilots and paramedics, including the dispatch side of London Ambulance Service emergency operations center – to ensure that it was integrated into their systems fully.

The next step was the trail period, there were a few issues that needed to be ironed out and this was all done by Mubaloo before it was declared fully operational. Mubaloo support ceased shortly afterward, and we've taken it on ourselves to maintain the app.

How did you come to work with Mubaloo?

I understand this came about due to a connection with EE initially. EE offered to support us as a charity and were looking for opportunities where 4G could better support us, the connection was then through their link to Mubaloo.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The approximate value of the work carried out by Mubaloo is £378,000 [approximately $583,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

Everything from the Mubaloo perspective is complete. As we go forward the question is how to develop it further and whether we make it available on other platforms. In terms of practicality, the iPad seemed to be the right solution for the cars and helicopter. The project was operational October 2014, having started trials in August 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The success of the system has, on average, improved the dispatch time by up to two minutes.

How did Mubaloo perform from a project management standpoint?

Mubaloo has been very supportive all the way through in dealing with issues as they arose. During the trial phase, we had a number of small issues and a couple of occasions where the system went down, but they identified the reasons why and corrected very quickly.

What distinguishes Mubaloo from other providers?

I have not worked with other providers, so I cannot compare.

Is there anything Mubaloo could have improved or done differently?

Looking back, the integration into the London Ambulance Service software has been an area where I would have liked to have seen a cleaner integration with the software required to link into their systems.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Equiniti is a FinTech group of companies. I work for Equiniti Pension Solutions, which is the United Kingdom's leading pension services provider and provides third-party administration to private and public sector pension schemes

What is your position and responsibilities?

I head up product management, which encompasses our digital strategy and suite of digital products. This includes our website and our mobile apps in which we partnered with Mubaloo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Mubaloo?

We had an online self-service presence for the last 10 years or so. Ten years ago, it was OK, functional yet clunky. It wasn't fantastically good-looking, it wasn't a great UX [user experience], but it did what it needed to do.

But, that was 10 years ago, and it's just simply aged, and the gaps in user experience and the user interface that we had then have just grown widely during the last 10 years, particularly considering the uptake of mobile phones and mobile apps. We engaged with Mubaloo, probably about two years ago now, with the sole purpose of relaunching our self-service offering to the scheme members of our clients' pension schemes.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Within our product department, we have a very good team of software developers. What we don't have is good design skills. From my perspective, I knew that we had to do something about our self-service system.

We had to engage our members better and this meant we needed better design. We engaged with Mubaloo, and we asked them to partner with us to help us relaunch our self-service offering and a larger part of this was the design and build of our mobile app.

How did you come to work with Mubaloo?

It was through a little industry research. I looked at other companies that were in their space, looked at some of our own competitors in our industry, and what they were doing within the self-service and mobile space. I narrowed it down to Mubaloo and a couple of other mobile app designers and creators. I had a chat with Mubaloo and, right away, they understood what we were trying to do, and we selected them from there.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The exact amount is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing. We started with the self-service app. We then took our relationship a little bit further with their sister company, TRW, and created a responsive website for our self-service members. In the 12 months since we re-launched our self-service offering, we have engaged in a program of change adding new features and functionality.

This year, to coincide with some significant industry changes in the pensions industry that came into force in April, we worked with Mubaloo to design a stand-alone app called RetireMe. It's not just available to members of our clients' pension schemes but, literally, any consumer can access RetireMe and download it. It allows them to understand the estimated benefits their pension fund is going to give them in retirement. It's a simple tool, but it has a good UI [user interface] and good UX [user experience].

The relationship has grown from talking to us about how we can improve our self-service offering and building our first mobile app to creating a direct to consumer app, which puts us in a completely different marketplace. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

From my perspective, what's been most impressive is how quickly Mubaloo have gained an understanding of the industry that I work in, and the complexities and nuances around the service that we provide. Then, how they created a simple and clean user interface to give a good user experience. They have done a fantastic job. As the business sponsor, the success of the partnership was important to me and our self-service product suite now speaks for itself.

As a team, we have come from being quite a long way behind our competitors in the market space to leapfrogging them on the launch of our mobile app. That's put us at a clear advantage in all sales opportunities, and it's enabled us to re-engage with our current client base, and provide more services to them as well. It's hard to put a measurement around that, but it's a clear advantage – absolutely.

What distinguishes Mubaloo from other providers?

They're a good bunch of people. On a personal level as well, Mubaloo has been good. I think the speed of which they've understood what we're trying to do, and how they've created something quite special on the back of that, has been impressive.

Is there anything Mubaloo could have improved or done differently?

Not really because in the early days, this was all brand new to us as a business. We didn't have a mobile presence at all, so this was all new to us. When we talk to them now about new projects, we have the advantage of 12 to 18 months of working together, and the knowledge and experience that that brings with it. When we start projects now, we start them slightly differently, but looking back, I don't think we could have improved anything in a major way. I think the way it went was fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a stock photo agency based in the United Kingdom called Alamy, but we've got sales offices also in New York, India, and Australia. We sell photographs and imagery to newspapers, magazines, and advertising agencies, anybody who needs a picture.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am head of content. My responsibility is to get images up for sale on the site and look after the people who supply those images as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Mubaloo?

We wanted to create a mobile app that would enable us to tap into the enormous potential from mobile photography, so pictures that are taken on mobile devices. We wanted to use their expertise to provide an app, which would give a workflow to individuals, to get images loaded up and then sent through to Alamy first, and then sell for those individuals.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They helped us build an application for iPhone. We may develop on Android in the future but, at the moment, it's just for iPhone.

How did you come to work with Mubaloo?

I didn't actually choose them, not that I wanted to choose somebody else. My colleague, who is head of development, had read about them somewhere. I'm not sure where. They were quite close geographically to us, and we thought that it would be interesting to have a conversation with them. We did consider a couple of other companies we could use, but we immediately liked them and their approach. They seemed to understand where we were coming from.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's between the $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing work. We're at version 1.4. We have made a number of subtle changes based upon feedback and made some more fundamental changes to the app. We envision doing more work with them in the future, we're working out specifications for a version 2 of the app at the moment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app was all about getting people to submit imagery and, in about a year and a half, we've got nearly 200,000 images submitted and accepted by the app. We've had close to half a million images actually submitted because not everything gets in. We rate pictures and some get in, some don't.

One of the interesting stats is that the app has tapped into a new market for us, in that 70 percent of the people who have used the app to submit images have never used Alamy before. The Stockimo users have become a different demographic, which we suspected and hoped it would be, but we weren't necessarily overly confident. We wanted it to be because we have photographers working with Alamy. We also work with people who never considered themselves a photographer, but have a fantastic creative eye.

It's opened up a new market, which is fantastic. Not a new market for sales. At the moment, it's opened up a new product stream, and a new customer stream on that side of things. That has been extremely encouraging. The number of people we've had who have submitted through Alamy is 40,000, which took about 10 years to achieve. Via Stockimo, within a year or so, we got to about 10,000. The uptake of the app was outstripping the uptake of the normal camera route.

How did Mubaloo perform from a project management standpoint?

We are very pleased with what they've done for us. They have very sound project management principles that they seem to stick to. I think they liked working with us because we had a little bit more experience with project management and managing technical projects than other clients they have. We do all of our own technology here at Alamy as well. In fact, working with Mubaloo is the first time we've actually really outsourced anything. We needed their expertise on the app side of things. I think it worked quite well because of that, they weren't having to lead constantly, which I think they quite liked, for once.

What distinguishes Mubaloo from other providers?

I think they're responsive, and you can get a hold of them. Mubaloo has some quite nice tools that they use to track bugs, and we found that quite useful. They're very easy to work with in meetings, in terms of they're happy to sit and go through things line by line, if need be. I think they took a lot of time to understand what we were trying to do and the sort of business we were, as opposed to just being just another customer.

Is there anything Mubaloo could have improved or done differently?

There's nothing major to note here. We had to give feedback about the design but they took it well and made the desired changes.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I work for EE, a U.K. mobile operator. I work specifically in the corporate marketing segment. We launch and support services for our B2B customers. Anything from 15 employees and up needing corporate customers.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the senior propositions manager. I work in our corporate marketing team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Mubaloo?

We were in the processing of launching our 4G network, and we were looking at ways to help our customers get more out of their investment with us. They particularly wanted to learn how to get more out of 4G. We wanted to make it easy for them to get access to applications. The challenge that we were trying to address was to launch a service with a customized apps partner that could help enable our customers to develop bespoke apps for their line of business. That was the business challenge we started working with. We did a procurement exercise involving eight or nine different app development partners, both U.K. and Europe-wide. Mubaloo was our supplier of choice after that procurement exercise.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work?

Mubaloo is our preferred partner, and they effectively design, develop, and deliver apps for our customers. If we have a customer opportunity, we will have a joint sales meeting with Mubaloo and a group internally. They met with the corporate sales team to understand the customer needs and what they’re trying to achieve. We will work with Mubaloo jointly in terms of scoping the opportunity, what the app will do, as well as defining the user experience and developing a Mubaloo-managed app for us. We offer support and in-life management of the application as well. All of that is possible to be procured directly through EE, which is delivered through our partnership with Mubaloo.

What was your process for selecting Mubaloo to work with?

We did a full selection with an RFI process based on the criteria we were looking for our customers. It’s a combination of technical, sales, references from customers, and so on. They were our chosen partner from a paper exercise, and we also did supplier meetings.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It depends on the nature and the integration that is required with each customer deployment. We typically quote about £40,000 to £50,000 U.K. for a technical app development project. The more complex the project, the higher the integration cost. That can range from £50,000 to £150,000. I think that £50,000 to £100,000 would cover the majority of initiatives. That is more than $100,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We continue to build a pipeline, and we have a very healthy pipeline of customers that are interested. We are seeing opportunities from the public sector to the corporate sector. In terms of metrics, I prefer not to give absolute numbers. However, we have a strong and healthy pipeline of customers. We launched in the beginning of 2013, and we continue to build on that pipeline. We have several applications that have launched and are going into the marketplace.

Can you assess the performance of Mubaloo on these projects?

I have been absolutely, incredibly impressed with Mubaloo. What attracted me to Mubaloo was the experience of dealing with customers and understanding customer needs. It’s not just developing technical solutions. It’s all about understanding the business requirement and how best to turn that into a good return on investment for our customers, and that is what has particularly impressed me about their performance.

They absolutely deliver quality in terms of the applications that they deliver. However, I value the way they understand customer needs. Now, rather than just delivering a solution, we’re actually delivering a return on investment and a real, positive return for our customers. When we talk about applications, it more about what we can do for their business. What Mubaloo does is fantastic, in terms of coming from a business problem to resolving it, as well as creating a major return on investment for our customers.

In terms of their performance, I’ve been very impressed from start to finish, especially their professionalism, quality, and the output of their results.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The standout quality for Mubaloo is their knowledge and understanding of business and their customers. For many of the app developers we spoke to and worked with, it was all about technical discussion and integration. We bombarded customers with things they shouldn’t have to worry about when they’re thinking about an application. Mubaloo understands customer needs and can translate that into a real return on investment in terms of what an app can do for your business, rather than the technicalities of the app itself.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

The only thing I would do differently is have all of our customers embrace it and get closer to it because I think it’s a massive opportunity. I wouldn’t do anything differently in terms of what we did. I think it’s more about getting the engagement, and the customers to understand what’s involved, and how simple a project can be. If anything, we’re at the start of a successful relationship, and I see that growing from strength to strength. I wouldn’t do anything differently at this stage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are part of Tyco International group, and we have a presence worldwide. The project we’re working on with Mubaloo is for around a thousand of our service engineers in U.K. and Ireland. We’re working with them to develop an application for us so our engineers can progress their work on the application on a daily basis. We have a presence in U.K., Ireland, and across the world. We look after integral alarm systems, CCTV systems, and fire alarm systems. You name it, we look after it, all the way from residential properties to airports, big shopping centers, banks, department stores, and so on.

We cover a wide range of premises, and our customer base is quite wide. Our engineers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, we have employees out there on the road working. We need a reliable device and reliable applications to support our engineers in the field.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the project manager from the Tyco side, working on the project with Mubaloo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Mubaloo? How much input did you give them to create the app?

Our engineers get six to 10 calls a day. They’re a mixture of reactive calls, where the customer has called our contact center to say they have a project with a piece of our maintained equipment. It may be the fault of the camera, in the intruder alarm system, or the fire alarm system, and they need one of our engineers to come and rectify the fault. We give our customers a response time based on the type of contract they have and the type of problem they have. We dispatch a call to the nearest engineer to the customer.

We get a lot of calls at the start of the day, so we switch the device on, log into the app, and all the calls that are scheduled for the engineer come through on the device. He knows where he’s going, and then he starts working his way through the calls. He starts traveling to the site and gives an ETA to the customer to say when he’ll be there. When the engineer gets to the site, the first thing he does is make sure he’s followed all the health and safety instructions, as well as the health and safety inspection instructions for the customer.

Once all those are completed, he or she works on site and rectifies the issue. The engineer has to declare what he’s done. Most of it is done by codes; there is a code that he types in. There is also a section where the engineer can type in some notes to detail what happened. That is also for the customer’s benefit, so the customer can understand what’s been typed in. The engineer declares which parts were used, including part numbers, descriptions, quantities, and which area he or she installed or replaced the part. Then the customer signs, the engineer signs, and we complete the call.

Once the call is completed, we capture the customer’s email address, and we create a record that we email to the customer. That way, the customer is aware of what work was carried out and what actions were taken. The engineer moves on to the next call after that. He moves on to the next form and closes it. The guys work between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. We also have guys who work odd hours as well. We have another shift that works weekends and nights.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work?

We have an existing solution that we’ve been using for about seven or eight years, it’s time to replace that solution. With the way things are moving, we decided to look at it from an app perspective, instead of going to a mobile device system. We sat down with Mubaloo and went through our business process as to what we do and how we do it. We showed them our existing system, and how it fits into place, how it works, and all the problems that we have with the existing solution.

We had a few sessions where discussed how we do things now and where we want to see ourselves in the future. Mubaloo took all that information from us and came back with a proposal based on what we told them. Their proposal included the way they would handle the application and develop it as well as the way we move forward. We spent quite a few sessions where we reviewed what they put together for us. Obviously, there were some changes and improvements that we wanted to make.

We didn’t want to make the project so wide that it would take forever to complete. The scope was to redevelop what we have already and take out the issues that we may have with the application that we’re currently using. The scope was to deliver what we have now, taking out the bugs and the major issues that we had experienced. In, the later phase, we’ll start adding in new functionality and features to the app.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

I don’t have that information on hand.

When was the latest milestone completed for that work?

The development is still ongoing, and the project hasn’t been completed yet. Mubaloo has given us January 29, 2014, as a date for us to review and test the app. We’ve had two iterations of the app already, where we’ve had a chance to see the progress in the development to date and how far they’ve moved on with it. They will release the final iteration on January 29. The system was not a Mubaloo system; it was somebody else’s.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How has Mubaloo performed so far?

They’ve been very good. We’ve been very impressed. They ask the right questions. There were a few things that we hadn’t thought of, and they came back with several suggestions. They were very good with that. When we identified problems or issues, they came back with solutions. Some of the solutions were very good because they were thinking out of the box. They were thinking differently than how we were thinking. Working for a company, you always think in the perspective of how the company and the operation works. Mubaloo, not knowing us or working with us in the past, came up with some very good ideas that we hadn’t thought of. Working with Mubaloo has been very good. They are smart and quick. We haven’t had any issues.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

It’s refreshing to see how they work and deal with clients. I like how they sit down and discuss issues. I like how they plan the work, and how we’re involved at each stage. They kept us informed as to what was happening and how the progress is going. They have no issues in sitting down and sharing with you if you want a specific progress update. They arranged a meeting for everybody on our team to understand their work.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. So far, everything’s been fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a worldwide company. I work for the U.K. arm. We are a distributor of the products and services that we make an offer to customers. Our product lineup is buses, coaches, trucks, and separate engines as well. We manufacture those in a number or locations around the world. They’re imported into the U.K. and then we sell those onto customers. We also provide backup services for those vehicles, and we have a network of 90 dealers throughout the U.K., and we provide services to those customers in support of those vehicles or products.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the Market Development Manager. I am part of the team producing the future mobile sales for our salesforce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your business goal for the work with Mubaloo?

Legislation means that the specification of vehicles is becoming more and more complex. It’s more and more important for salespeople to specify a truck or product for a customer accurately to suit the application of that vehicle and operation of that individual vehicle. It becomes quite complex. We were looking for an agency to help us create what turned out to be something we call Smart Questions. This is a list of questions, which depending on the way that you answer them, provides you with options at each stage specifying a vehicle.

We managed to do what we call the initial part of specification , which gets us to a base model in just eight Smart Questions. Through those eight Smart Questions, we determine the right engine, cab, and axle or the wheelbase configuration for that vehicle. Subsequent to that, we also wanted to have a method of getting our marketing content for the salesman to be delivered in a dynamic way on a screen. 

We took traditional media where the salesman would never have a brochure at hand. We didn’t want to do something with PDFs, we wanted to do something interactive and dynamic and quick to get hold of. We also wanted to take customers on what we call journeys. We have related content linked all through a Content Manager System, which Mubaloo built for us as well. When a salesman enters a conversation with a customer, they are guided through a journey of what to be talking about to up and cross-sell. It is very comprehensive.

SOLUTION

Can you describe the scope of their work?

There was the app itself. We went native. We went with them with iOS for iPad, but there was also integration with our CRM system for our customers. There’s also integration with something we call our dependency system, which is when certain components aren’t capable of going with other components. They had to tie into that backend system as well.

They built API connections and communications with both those type of systems.

How have they performed so far in your mind?

Fantastically, I think. They have great talent and will be around in 10 years. Mubaloo seems to be gathering a collection of excellent individuals be it on Android side, be it in app development for iOS. I think the approach of their CEO, Mark, is to build a very firm and robust foundation.

We have markets in pretty much every country in the world. We need a reliable, robust company to work with that can help us roll that out on a worldwide basis. Mark [Mason, Mubaloo’s CEO] has assembled something that we feel is going to be around in a few years time, which is what we need.

What was your process for selecting Mubaloo to work with in the first place?

That was me really. That’s research and treading through the different pitches. Everybody is claiming he or she can do everything that everyone else can. I made the decision to go with Mubaloo because I liked their team. It was a huge risk for me at the time because it could’ve failed. We had start to working with them, they started winning awards for other clients for App Developer of the Year and things like that. Mubaloo is not only recognized by their customers but by the industry in the U.K. as well.

Can you describe the scope of their work with a general cost figure?

This project now is probably one of the biggest things we’ve undertaken as an operation budgetwise but also in terms of scale and reach. Subsequent to that, we are asking them to get involved in a new Android app for us. We’re also asking them to do the same app but for iPhone. Then we‘ve got a number of projects. The project I talked about with the Smart Questions, we’re going to go further and deeper with what we do inside that app. 

Also, we are looking to develop with them what we call calculators for certain products, so financial products that we offer, you know, in order that people could afford to buy our products, we finance it. So there’ll be another string to that application. Also, as to say, we offer repair and maintenance of those products so people can take out what we call a support program, and there’s another calculator required there to finance the repairing and maintaining of that vehicle. 

We see this growing and continuing down the line. We started off this first with eight Smart Questions. As it turned out, we’ll be going deeper into that specification with additional questions apps as well. Our expense was around six figures for the part that they developed for us. Then, subsequent ones are probably more like five-figure projects for the smaller stuff that we’ll be added later.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Is there anything else unique or special about them that just out compared to some other companies?

It is the skill sets that they’ve managed to gather in-house. They have specialists in all the disciplines we’ve needed. They’ve had specialists already inside the company, and work cross-functionally to provide a lot of value-added material, but aren’t the cheapest. They are very structured. They’re very good at guiding you through the process end to end. We haven’t done this before, and they were very good at taking us through their process, which is really simple to understand, but we probably ended up with a clearer brief and with a cleaner production process than if we tried to tackle that without their process. I’d say that sets them apart for me.

Is there anything else you think they could improve upon or you might do differently?

I think it was a bit of a journey in terms of you really do need to define what this thing does and doesn’t do. I think we could’ve been a bit better with drawing a line underneath the specification. But, that’s really our side more than their side. They could’ve perhaps set us with a few more times so you will appreciate what you will get is exactly what you’ve been asking for. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are a financial services company in the U.K., a Fortune 100 company with about 400,000 active clients. We provide our clients with the means to invest through the U.K. and overseas stock markets in mutual fund and share accounts or pensions.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am in charge of online project development, I look after things like the mobile offerings that we provide for our clients and other large-scale projects with third parties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Mubaloo?

We’ve worked with them twice. We worked with them in 2011, when we launched our Android and iPhone application. The idea was that a lot of companies were getting iPhone and mobile apps, and we wanted to make sure that we had something we could offer equally. We didn’t want it to be a vanity app that didn’t perform many functions, and that added to a client’s experience. We were looking to enhance our service and offer something that was fully functional. In retrospect, it might have been a little bit too fully functional. It does more than the majority of apps out there because an app is generally a small piece of software. What we’ve got is quite substantial, and has a use in research and accounts, much less trading, et cetera.

The second time we worked with them was during the last 12 months or so, taking the initial iPhone app into the iPad world. This is based largely on us seeing a significant increase in traffic that we’re getting on our website from iPads, and far more than any other tablet, and try to build an app that is largely similar to the iPhone equivalent, that equally has moved on by a couple of years. It’s a little more interactive, the design is much cleaner, and it offers a few more functions. We think it will have a different market, with similar people, but it will be used in a different way. So, the iPhone is more of a quick check of your accounts if you’re on the move, whereas the iPad is more likely to replace, to an extent, the website, so it has more in-depth account features that the website has at the moment.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of Mubaloo’s work?

When we first went to them on the iPhone side, we had no experience in working with mobile. It was very much a case of us taking their lead. That included everything from the design, the structure of the app, the functionality that should be included to a point. We obviously knew our website and our accounting services better than they do. But they were able to have quite an impact on what the app did, how it did it, how it could interact with the iPhone’s features, right through development. They don’t get involved with support of the app. We deal with that on our side. Once the app has gone live, it’s more of a case of us using the resource to build the app and then bring it in-house. We have a mobile team here, which was established after the iPhone app went live.

The iPad was similar to that. It was a case of them designing it, coming up with a project plan and the architecture for the app, and building it. We’re getting close to launching it now. However, the only difference with the iPad app was our generally experience and us having a much larger [in person] to do things like the design, what the app should do, and things like the customizable nature of it. We were quite keen on it. Initially, when we first came out with the design, it didn’t have that, and we were pushing quite hard for that. It was just a little bit different from the initial app.

What was your process for selecting Mubaloo to work with?

With the iPhone, when we started looking about three years ago, we found it very difficult to find that many companies that looked particularly reputable, to be honest with you, by looking at their websites and by a simple Internet search. We rooted out a lot of companies based on that. Mubaloo looked like a good company, like they knew what they were doing, had good clients in their portfolio. We played around with some of their apps, which looked quite good. At the same time, there wasn’t much along the lines of financial services. That’s always difficult to transfer their experience directly to us. It was better than what else was out there.

We spoke to another company and went forward with two quotes from Mubaloo and this other company. We pretty much decided that Mubaloo’s was the better quote, and we’d be able to achieve what we’re looking for more effectively. With the iPad, we basically went back to market again. I’m sure it was similar; we went back to the market with a wide range of companies. We tried to put it to the companies to come up with something to impress us, to say “We want an iPad app; we’ve got one already, but we want to make something that’s a lot cooler, a lot more 2013 than the iPhone app.

To be honest, we were quite disappointed with most companies, and it was only Mubaloo who really understood what we were looking for and what our vision was. That was a massive part this time, probably more than the cost, even though the cost was competitive. It was really about how creative they were, and how passionate they would seem to be about our project.

Can you provide a ballpark cost of the project?

I prefer not to.

When was the latest project or app they completed for you?

The last one that is publicly available is the iPhone app, which was back in 2011. They just finished their work on the iPad app, and we’re just doing our security testing on it, which is due for release next month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Broadly, the downloads have been very good. It’s been particularly popular. You can’t open an account with us through the app, but when someone with an account accesses the app shortly afterwards, we accredit that to the app and say that people are opening an account to some degree because we have an app. That’s been successful and has worked well. The number of trades that were placed through it are probably not as high as we would want them to be, but that’s simply down to how comfortable people feel playing with their money on a mobile device. Equally, it’s picking up and constantly growing, and it’s most suited to that. I hope that will continue to grow more with the iPad app. The downloads have been increasing steadily through the last couple of years.

How did Mubaloo perform throughout both projects?

Pretty well. Truth be told, working with us always tends to be a little bit funny because we try to keep time scales to such a minimum that inevitably, the planning up front could probably carry on for another couple of months, just to make sure that everything is absolutely finalized and there are no changes further down the line. In terms of building the initial project that was agreed on at the outset, it’s been absolutely fine. Then it gets to a stage where because it’s financial services and people log in to access their accounts, there are a lot of intricacies that we didn’t appreciate or realize to what degree they went.

In the first case, with the iPhone and the Android app, there was a lot of back and forth after that initial stage of development. Just trying to finalize some of those details and make sure that every little last intricacy was accounted for. They were happy to do that. There were occasional extra charges where things were beyond the scope, but that’s to be expected.

The iPad app is similar, and I think part of the problem is that nothing here stands still while development goes on. Development is nine months long, for example, and in nine months’ time, there are going to be new things on the website that we need to take into account. That might be as simple as regulatory requirements and compliance, or features that we really think we should include on the iPad app. They can be chargeable, and are not always chargeable, depending on how much work is involved. They tend to be pretty fair with that. Equally, if they are chargeable, it’s always been done at a reasonable rate, which we’ve been happy with. They’ve had no problem achieving what we wanted within the timespan we wanted.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies who may have worked with before?

They are based in Bristol, and we’re based in Bristol as well. They’re just down the road from us. There have been plenty of times where the easiest thing to do is go up and chat to them face to face, and they’ve been very accommodating  with that. That tends to get things done very quickly and easily, and without any issues or reasons for arguments. Whenever I’ve done development projects with other companies, when you have these issues of scope creep, they can tend to be very difficult.

Whereas, Mubaloo has always been pretty reasonable. We’ve never gotten too much of a feeling that the developers signed on for another project afterwards, so you’ve got them until that, and that’s the end of it, within reason. They’ve got other businesses at the same time, so they’re not at your disposal forevermore, but they will always try to accommodate what you’re asking them to do, which I think is fairly unique.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I think the processes are key because the technical specs that Mubaloo produced for us was extremely wordy. It would be a scenario such as, “I want to place a trade. How do I do it? I go to this page, I tap this button, and here is the result.” That’s fine from a very high level, but if you get down to the nitty-gritty and start using the thing, it can be quite common to find that doesn’t work so well in real life. That’s where you start to have these changes that go beyond the scope. I think that planning phase is vastly better than the first time we worked with them, but I think that from my angle and theirs, it could still be improved.

BACKGROUND

Can you give a brief overview on what your company does?

We are one of the largest Telco providers in Europe. We provide a range of services: Fixed line, broadband, phone, voice, and mobile. Historically, we haven’t really delved into apps, but we’re starting to look at this space now because we see it as a great way of assisting our customers with the services that we have, and access in a range of services that we offer around Ireland. So, we’re moving to include them. We have a Wi-Fi network, which is the largest in our country. We had an app that was built by another developer for iOS and Android, and it was really bad. It was problematic, and just didn’t work. The Android version was diabolical, so bad it never was released. I got in touch with Mubaloo, explained the situation and problems that we had. We had a few conversations with them, and pretty quickly, you got the feeling these guys knew what they were doing. They had lots of ideas, lots of suggestions, and once I gave them some requirements, they pretty much ran with the development, the graphics, and making the user experience very quick and very easy. They’re really clever guys, so they came up with many suggestions on how to do things to make the customer experience better, which is really important for us since we have such a large customer base.

The big thing straightaway was Android version development. It was done within two or three weeks. It was really slick and really good, and we had really good customer experience. It is quite a technical app behind the scenes, and the iOS one was very similar as well. The guys came over to us, did some testing onsite, and walked away from here, helping us to understand what makes a good app and a good experience. We had experience with developers and other international developers beforehand, and it was pretty bad, and we got burnt. One of the good things at Mubaloo is that they’re always there to assist with any kind of issues. We had support and that kind of stuff, so you can pick up the phone to the account manager, some of the techie guys, and they’re happy to help you out with questions, and  suggest possible solutions we might implement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

How long ago was the most recent application finished?

We recently did an update for iOS 6 there. Basically, when Apple changed, got rid of Google Maps and brought in their own maps, we updated our own app to use some of Apple’s mapping functions. This includes routing that it shows, how to get to the nearest hospital, and bring up maps that show that kind of routing. The guys did that for us three or four weeks ago, and it was slick and painless. The app works really well. Actually, it won the Silver Award at the Appies. The app was recognized there as the Best Utilities App, so that was pretty good for us.

SOLUTION

Can you give me a very general cost estimate for the project?

Per OS, you were looking at anywhere between $23,000 to $26,000, and that included a couple of days of the guys being here because our Wi-Fi network isn’t international. So, that includes two of their developers, iOS and Android, staying in our country for three or four days, basically debugging the app before we released it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Looking back on the project, do you find anything special or unique about Mubaloo compared to other developers you’ve worked with in the past? 

Yes, they know what they’re doing. With them, you get things done pretty quickly. When it comes to Android problems that we were having, they were pretty quick in guiding those. We’ve got a range of handsets we offer customers, from HTC and Samsung. These guys were on the game, guiding us in problems that we’ve made and come across. I’ve dealt with the other app developers, and there’s no comfort with those guys. They just want to get to the paycheck and don’t see you again. Whereas Mubaloo are very much into making sure everything’s good, and just give you a general feeling of comfort, saying look, "This is what you should be doing, this is how it works, think about this, why don’t you do this for your customers." So, we are confident around them. We are extremely happy with Mubaloo's dedication to our project, their level of work, and their knowledge.

Is there anything you would do differently, or you think Mubaloo could improve slightly upon?

I think I'd probably tighten up our own requirements that we give to these guys. We weren’t too familiar with apps and mobile and that kind of stuff, so now I know more. It’s a tighter experience, there’s a range of understanding there, so it’d be more our side that changed stuff in terms of how we hand off our requirements to those guys. Working with them, you’d kind of see what they expected now as well, so it’s good.