Bombay Tone

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of MintOak Innovations, a merchant payment platform. We aggregate all the sites of payments, of which India has multiple. It’s a total mess when it comes to reconciliation. We built a platform that aggregates all payment forms in one place and shows transaction history, nice visualizations, and gives automated services that a small merchant wouldn’t typically have. We are a bit like Square, but Square only offers car payments. Our benchmark is Square, but in India you have scan and pay, remote payments, proximity payments, and the service providers are distinct.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bombay Tone?

Typically, the merchant acceptance business in India is run by banks that don’t even have apps; they use outdated terminals. The merchant doesn’t have any rich data and can’t see the latest transactions. The interaction with the customer is extremely transactional, so, either the transaction is declined or approved, at which an approval receipt is generated. Beyond that, there is nothing else the merchant can offer on the payment platform. It’s totally commoditized, and everybody is driving the price down, which means the merchant is also not finding any value.

Our biggest challenge was how to get a small merchant to accept multiple modes of digital payments in one place in such a manner that they actually aren’t focused on price, but on experience, and start valuing the entire set of services we provide. We had to make digital payment not only easy but also a value-added service that will drive their business. We wanted to move the narrative from cost to value.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have two sets of applications. First, we have the transaction app that’s on the Android payment terminal. They developed the entire UI/UX on the Android terminal based on the specifications we gave. It had all payments all in one place and showed them on the sales counter, as well as explained how to show the transactions in an easy manner and wire them. They helped with all the transaction-related stuff that merchants find very difficult. It’s very boring and strenuous to do on the standard hardware, so they helped to make it a lot easier and more delightful on the Android platform.

The business order isn’t always at the store being run by a cashier or a staff member, though, so we needed to develop a business owner’s app for Android and web. If they have multiple outlets, then we have to show them an aggregated view across multiple outlets and help them drill down to a single view of one specific outlet. We had to show them their performance over the last few months, the view of new and repeat customers, automated marketing, automated loyalty, and feedback.

It’s basically a user-specified marketing campaign. Otherwise, the merchant would have to tie up with different service providers and email providers, and most merchants neither have the expertise nor the time to figure out these add-ons because they don’t offer automated solutions on the frontend. We are offering all of these capabilities on top of our payment platform. We built something that would be easy and intuitive for a business if they want to send out SMSs to their customers or set up their own loyalty program.

With Bombay Tone, we’ll define the requirement and they’d come back with what a good UI is. They’re a lot younger, which means they are a lot more in tune with the entire gamification approach. The way it works is I define the business requirements and the flow because there are financial aspects to this entire thing. Then, they come back with the UI. They put the entire thing on Adobe XP, which produces a clickable prototype and helps us understand the entire interaction and flow. They also pay a lot of attention to our brand guidelines. I’m super particular about it. After we approve the prototype, it goes into development.

What is the team composition?

There are currently four people working with us.

How did you come to work with Bombay Tone?

When we started out, we just had seed funding. We had an idea, but we’re not techies. One of my former bosses was mentoring a startup, and he said they were a nice bunch of people. I called them and we really liked them. They were young and receptive. They were also able to challenge our thinking. It was a very healthy relationship with a good amount of mutual respect. We knew they’d do the frontend coding and UI, and we already had a team that could do the API and Java coding.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000–$25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The best validation of how good an app is is when the largest bank in the country—that has 45% of the equity in the market share in India—loved our applications so much that we just finished white-labeling it for them. We’re also working with a bank in Kuwait because they like the application so much. We’re white labeling the platform for them as well, and similarly in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It’s a very nice platform.

How did Bombay Tone perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the things that I’m very impressed with is how deadline-focused Bombay Tone is. They give us very practical deadlines. They’re very dependable. If they say the UI will be done by a certain date, it is done by that date. In the last year and a half, there have been only one or two instances where something was delayed, and those were just by a day or so.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very good at visual identity and the visual part of UI. They are good at the overall presentation, as well as understanding the business logic and the user flows.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be better if they had good copywriting also. Their copywriting skills are a little bit of a disappointment.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of PaperVideo.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bombay Tone?

We hired Bombay Tone to provide UI/UX support for our e-learning website and mobile app. Our end goal is to attract students to our product and keep them on the app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bombay Tone handles the UI/UX aspects of our website and mobile apps. Together, we created the wireframes, the prototype, and the UI/UX. The platform is running on iOS, Android, and was built using PHP. We’re now working with them on a few different projects. 

What is the team composition?

I work with two people from their team.

How did you come to work with Bombay Tone?

I got in touch with Bombay Tone through my developers. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019 and our collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Bombay Tone is very good at their work. They’ve created strong final products, which is why we continue to work with them. 

How did Bombay Tone perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is great at communication. They’re very responsive to my emails—they always get back to me. All of our timeframes are kept and the team performs well with minimal supervision. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bombay Tone creates great designs and works well independently. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing that needs improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I strongly recommend them for UI/UX projects. Try to engage with them on a personal level. Give very clear scopes for deliverables and they will produce a good product.