Brightec

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for a leading global advisor, broker, and solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

We were looking for a company to help with creating some mobile applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve created five mobile apps for us on varying platforms, both Android and iOS. They’ve also helped with some of the design work for those apps, and for some of our web applications as well. We’ve utilized their knowledge in varying degrees.

We give them specifications and wireframes, and they come up with the design and development. Some of the apps are very complicated with several calculations. Brightec is great at identifying our requirements and conveying them in an easy visual way. They’ve applied a broad base of knowledge to their work with us.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We investigated three to five companies which were fairly local to us. Brightec stood out to us, and we appreciated the way they described what they could do for us in terms of design and development work. They fit the bill quite easily for us.

How much have you invested with Brightec?

This information is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged Brightec around September of 2011, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They are responsive, cost-effective, and talented. We have an excellent working relationship with them. They’re a very professional firm, and they’ve completed everything that we’ve asked of them. We get great service, and the products are delivered as requested, so we’ve been happy to stay with them over the years.

We understand that bugs are part of every development process. In each instance, they work very quickly to produce another version for us to test and eventually release. The feedback we’ve received from clients has been very favorable.

How did Brightec perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re absolutely fantastic to work with, and we’ve never had issues with missed deadlines. They’re good at advising and designing; they notice things. When we come up with an idea, they’re good at molding the idea and producing the relevant designs to go with it.

What did you find most impressive about Brightec?

We’ve found that they’re quite a talented bunch of iOS and Android developers. They’re very cost-effective, which is important in today’s market. They’re local for us, and we have an excellent working relationship with them. We find that they’re a great company with which to work.

Are there any areas Brightec could improve?

Not really. Of course, you can always improve on everything, and they strive as a company to improve in what they do. We’ve been very satisfied with what they’ve done for our company.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We make online communities for users in Sub-Saharan Africa. We’ve put up an application platform to build these communities in a modular fashion and make them so they can work for legacy phones and platforms.

I lead the technical design of the platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

We needed to augment our internal team to build an Android app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the biggest projects we’ve been working on is in Nigeria, where there’s a burgeoning middle class that is using more and more Android smartphones. In talking to our clients, they wanted an Android app to appeal to this user base. It was a collaboration of our combined skills.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We’re in the same office complex. We looked at a number of quotes, but we have a face-to-face relationship Brightec. We’d talked with them a number of times about the project and they understood it. When we finally started, the project was completed quickly.

How much have you invested with Brightec?

The project cost between 10,000 and 50,000 pounds [approx. US$12,500 and $62,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took 15 days.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We’re in the process of starting to promote the app. The website we run is very successful and has 300,000 creative users. We’re migrating those users over to the app if they’re Android users. Our goal is to convert as many of our Android users as possible to the more native environment.

How did Brightec perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack to communicate and had an open line of communication.

What did you find most impressive about Brightec?

They have a good range of skills. We worked well together with the team in terms of communication beyond the project manager. The project involved some work from us, so there was a lot of collaboration involved. It was a very enjoyable experience.

Are there any areas Brightec could improve?

It’s really nice when people come to you and know what they want. That makes things clearly defined. I don’t have any complaints about Brightec. They made sure they knew what we needed, they delivered in a timely manner, and overcame any problems along the way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a new venture based in the Southeast, United Kingdom. We are set up to oversee the development of the messaging app. I am the company owner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

The messaging app delivers what we believe to be a novel way to message. Brightec was enthusiastic and seemed to genuinely like our idea. This is one of the reasons why we selected to work with them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We approached Brightec with a provisional app design. Brightec took our design, added to its functionality, improved its look and feel, and then developed it for the iOS and Android platforms.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We approached three developers with our specification, and under an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] asked them to provide a fixed bid. We selected Brightec mainly on the quality of their proposal and previous work.

How much have you invested with Brightec?

We have spent between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

January to August 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The app was launched one month ago, so we have no long-term data to share presently. However, we have received very good feedback from users to date, with no performance issues or bugs being reported.

What did you find most impressive about Brightec?

Brightec is the first app development company we have worked with.

Are there any areas Brightec could improve?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Kings Education is a high-quality international English language education group with locations across the United Kingdom and the United States.

What is your role at the company?

I am the head of online operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

We wanted to add a mobile app to our suite of marketing materials that would be compatible with our brochures and our website. Since we lacked the expertise to produce a mobile app in-house we approached Brightec.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We wanted two apps, one for the iPhone and one for the iPad. Each would have the same functionality but with slightly different UIs [user interfaces], although both would showcase our campuses and courses.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We talked with three agencies, but after meeting with Brightec, we were impressed with their professional and friendly approach.

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

We have spent something more than $10,000 working with Brightec.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in January [2016] and sent the apps to the App Store about four months later.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It is still early, so I don't have any significant data yet. But subjectively speaking, we are very happy with their work.

What distinguishes Brightec from other providers?

Brightec is extremely tech-savvy, but also good at explaining things in a nontechnical way. They were very flexible and easy to work with. We have a very clear idea about what our brand is and how to present it. Brightec understood that and let us lead while advising us on the technical aspects of the apps.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for the Center for Literacy in Primary Education. We provide high-quality professional development for educators in the primary education sector. We also invest in research and training, and share many of our resources for free.

What is your position?

I’m the marketing manager here. I look after all the communication and printed collateral, as well as the online website side of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

We were looking to update and modernize a set of resources that were developed 20 to 30 years ago. We wanted to work with other leading literacy organizations, and update our resources both in terms of content and for usage in the 21st-century classroom. We thought an app would be the best way to do this. We were already providing PDFs in print form, but an app would make them instantly accessible to teachers in the classroom. We approached Brightec to see if they could produce an app to bring these to life.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

I wasn’t involved in the initial meeting with Brightec, but I was involved subsequent to that when we appointed them as our app designers. The scope was to take a publication that was very wordy and translate it into something that was easy to access on a phone. We didn’t want there to be any official illustrations. The challenge and scope for Brightec was to create an app which was easy for teachers and students to use.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

Brightec was recommended to us by our website designer. I think we probably considered one or two competitors, but I wasn’t involved in that stage unfortunately, so I can’t say for sure. We were open-minded, though. If we weren’t impressed at what they said, or we didn’t believe they could deliver, we would have gone and found someone else.

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

The app cost between $1,000 and $10,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What distinguishes Brightec from other providers?

It’s our first app, so we’ve never had the experience of working with another development company. There were very clear lines of communication. Brightec was very quick to respond to queries, very proactive as well in terms of letting us know where they were and if they had to test anything. Brightec is very knowledgeable in the mobile app space, but they were absolutely open to feedback, even late in the process. They were never patronizing even though they were working with a company which had never developed an app before. We have had companies patronize us in the past because we had no previous knowledge of the project, so it was refreshing not to have that at all.

Is there anything Brightec could have improved or done differently?

From a personal perspective, I don’t think so. I’ve had an absolutely pleasurable time working with Brightec from development to these final stages. There was a minor lack of clarity with the process of updating the app, after it had been launched. That would be the only error.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are the Marine Conservation Society. We're a nonprofit charity with primarily conservation objectives to preserve and conserve the marine environment and people's interaction with it. That might be eating more sustainable seafood, or it might be cleaning beaches.

What is your position?

I'm the data manager here.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

We have some marine biologists and some scientists who produce sustainability ratings for different species of fish – most species of fish that you can buy on the fishmonger's slab here in the United Kingdom. What we wanted to be able to do is to provide that information to consumers, to encourage them to buy fish that are rated as sustainable, and give them enough knowledge and understanding to avoid fish if they want to buy ethically, that is, that weren't rated as sustainable.

Our goal was to build an app that would do this, and would also provide recipes and other information that we could update easily.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We produced some very complicated data flow diagrams for them, and they produced wireframes and app designs from those. After we approved the designs, they went ahead and developed the app.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We wrote quite a detailed request for proposals, which we sent out to a number of app developers. We got quite a lot of proposals back. Now, I already told you we're a charity, so we have to be very careful with how we spend our money:  it's charitable money, and we need to get a good return on that. That doesn't mean going with the cheapest option: it means going with the option that will give us best value for money, the biggest bang for our buck. 

What we very much liked about Brightec is that the proposal they put forward looked technically very sound, but also they said that they pride themselves an ethical company. Now, being a charity that prides itself on being ethical, that chimed very well with us. In talking to them more, it became very clear that they were a very good fit as a company, with similar ideals and motivations to us. They also had great proposal and at a sensible price that we could engage with. That's when we started talking to them more and exploring how we might work together.

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

It was around $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It was last year [2015] in September that we sent out RFPs. The app went live on time in-store at the beginning of February.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One of the first things that had to happen in this project was we needed to come up with a design. Brightec went beyond to make a great user experience. They went and talked to people on the street and asked how they would engage with our proposed app, what sort of features would work for them, what wouldn't, what they used in the supermarket, what they used at home before they went out, and how would it work for real people. The amount of research that they put behind that before they actually started creating designs we thought was actually quite impressive.

They said in advance that this is what they did, but they actually did. They based the user experience on sensible research and then came up with a design that they believed would work informed by that research. That was the first thing that was a great deliverable, the design that we could all sign off on very quickly. Once they presented a design to us, there were a few tweaks that we said, "Could you do this or that?" But, by and large, it met the brief. We were happy with that. That was a great deliverable.

Then, in terms of the data interchange, the API [application programming interface] has to be efficient, as it's a reasonable amount of data that is passed backward and forward. They clearly said what we needed to surface. We surfaced it. They took it and worked with it. The specifications they came up with for our side of what they needed were very clear, very deliverable, agreed in advance, and so there was no big surprise down the road as to how our side of the project should work as well as theirs. It was a good partnership in terms of that. Then, of course, the thing had to be delivered on time and on budget, which it was.

How did Brightec perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the great things that we experienced was very strong project management. It was strong project management, but it was also very strong communication. Every week, they produced these short little videos on the progress of the project so that we could see. It's quite odd to see how the progress is going before you have a finished app. The video showed us designer screens, and developer screens, and had a developer talk about how that week had gone, and what he'd done. The video kept us in the loop so that we could pick up any problems or issues – there weren't any, as it happened, but if there were, there was a strong communication link to keep us up to date with what was happening.

What distinguishes Brightec from other providers?

When we came to the testing stage, they clearly had a very strong plan to test that it did what it was meant to do from a technical standpoint, but they were very keen to do user testing. We provided them with a number of volunteers. We're a charity – people volunteer to work with us. We provided them with a number of volunteers who did user testing, and they were very keen to hear all that feedback and to take it onboard and to tweak things where they needed tweaking. They were very flexible about that and continued to iterate and make the app better.

I've worked with quite a lot of software companies and, sometimes, the technical testing gets done, but the user testing is almost ticking the box. With Brightec, it wasn't. They were very thorough. That was quite impressive, too.

Is there anything Brightec could have improved or done differently?

Not really, to be honest. It has been a very positive experience, and one we hope to continue. We do envisage there being a phase two to this project where we add additional functionality and enhancement to the app, perhaps toward the end of this year. We do see this being an ongoing business partnership. Yeah, we're happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an intermediary in various different commodity products, one of which is nuclear fuel, where we specialize in the sourcing and supply of various different parts of nuclear fuel for use within commercial nuclear reactors.

What is your position?

I am the managing director. It's equivalent to a CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

Originally, we wanted a more efficient way to communicate prices for nuclear fuel to our customer base, which are all around the world. What we found is traditionally, we were communicating the prices of various different types of nuclear fuel via email, and we wanted a more clean and efficient swift medium to be able to deliver pricing information to our customers in order to help them make quick decisions on securing nuclear fuel.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They had a very well-structured approach to the problem that was presented. We wanted a mobile app to be developed, but we didn't understand fully how we wanted it to look, what the best medium and technology was in order to take the information – which was predominantly in our spreadsheets that are updating on a real-time basis – and have that then communicated via the app. 

Since we had stringent requirements, we had a formal structure of initial consultation – that you could call consulting – where they understand the problem first following which they'll scope out the implementation. 

They provide sketches of how the end product will look and the inner workings of the operational side. They do the scope first. They've been very good at that. Certainly to an audience that isn't familiar with mobile apps, it was very useful for us in the way they communicated. 

They were conscious not to overuse a lot of jargon with us. They delivered the outline quickly. They gave us some pricing very quickly and some estimates on project timeline. They seem to be very organized about the way in which they align their time. Many of these firms are in high demand. They have very little time to dedicate to each client. 

We were very aware of their time limitations and both sides made sure to commence and conclude projects on time. They were very efficient with time management and managing our expectations through that process. They did the web development, but they did a lot of hand holding for us in the pre-app development consultancy stage.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

We looked at a few firms that had a range of different skill sets. We actually engaged with a handful of potential developers, and they just seemed the most efficient. They replied to us very quickly even if it wasn't to provide us with definite answers. They would always acknowledge the receipt of our request and say they would respond. They would always give us a timeline on delivering the work. They were efficient with time and project management throughout. They seem competitive in their pricing as well as being efficient with billing.

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

It was from $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've had a few different additional developments. The thing about these projects is you can always push functionality forward. We originally developed an iPhone app. Then we added in an Android app. 

We're in the process now of adding in some more functionality within both apps, which allows our customers to generate buying interests or selling interests that come through the application. It's making the whole experience more integrated. It's ongoing work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The users that access the product do so via ID and password. We get a flavor of who's in the system and when they're logging in and where they're from. We've seen a significant increase in the amount of our customers that look at our pricing via our app. It's hard to quantify the direct implications that may have had on our business because our business was growing anyway. I think their work was supplementary. I think it goes without saying that it's definitely cemented our growth. 

When we add better software products to our already quite varied portfolio of activities, it just cements our position in the market. Without a doubt, we've benefitted from our work with Brightec. 

I couldn't say whether the increase of the performance of the firm has been a direct result of Brightec's mobile application. It's been a supporting aspect to it. Our customers are expecting us to innovate all the time. It's quite unusual to have an app for looking at nuclear fuel prices on your iPhone.

How did Brightec perform from a project management standpoint?

There's never been any surprises. Everything that has been forecast to be delivered and the way it's going to look has always been the way it's been delivered. Generally, they'll provide me with a test download so I can test new apps. There's a few enhancements they made on the fly during the pre-rollout tests, but the deliverables have always been exactly what we were expecting from the initial spec.

What distinguishes Brightec from other providers?

I don't know how they compare. They're certainly a focused group of guys that are well organized and Brightec seems to have a clear idea of what they want to do and where they want to be. 

They provide a lot of news about what's happening in the firm, which is very insightful and other projects they're working on which is always nice to get ideas for other potential projects that we might want to do. They seem to be more driven than other firms. I find their blogs very useful.

Is there anything Brightec could have improved or done differently?

I've been really pleased with Brightec. I'm struggling to find any criticism of Brightec. I guess our early engagements were very efficient, which is one of the principle reasons we continued working with Brightec. They've delivered everything they've said on time at a cost-effective price. They've completely managed our expectations throughout and delivered on budget on time and done everything they said they would do. When they're providing us with a deliverable, I think that's everything they could possibly cover.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I’m a retailer. We’re one of the top four in the UK in terms of grocery multiples.

What is your position?

I’m a buyer within the company. I buy tobacco products and lottery items for the corporation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Brightec?

The objective was to simplify and automate our return process on tobacco, from the depot and into our supply base. It’s a very manual process and we wanted to automate it to make sure the accuracy was there and to speed up the whole process.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It’s an internal mobile application. They developed and produced the applications using one of our distribution warehouses, which is separate from our company’s internal IT devices. It’s just built for Android, and we have ten people that use the device now.

How did you come to work with Brightec?

It was a quick decision. My timelines were very squeezed. We found them through an internet search. I used Google, went through three or four companies and read their profiles to see what they’d done previously. After that, I went through the quote process with Brightec.

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

It ranges between $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial stage is complete. The product sits specifically for my category. It’s something I funded with one of my suppliers. It doesn’t sit within the normal IT infrastructure since it only affects a small team. 

We’ve got some proposed improvements to the app, but until we get the initial outputs from the current process that we’re doing, we’re unsure whether we’ll carry on with them. 

That’s nothing to do with Brightec’s competence or what they’ve done at this stage. We want something that serves a purpose. The developments that we have in mind are very much beyond what we might actually need it to do. We’re trying to assess whether those need to be done or not.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I’m happy with Brightec. There’s only one or two bugs that we need fixed. We haven’t finished our first process, which is what it’s being used for. Once that’s complete we’ll have a full view of its accuracy and speed. The application is working very well at this stage. 

The application is helping our staff perform their jobs better and faster. They rave about it to me informally, but we won’t have full metrics for a couple more weeks.

How did Brightec perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project well and supported us on launch day to fix a couple of bugs.

What distinguishes Brightec from other providers?

It’s the first company that I’ve worked with on a project. I can say Brightec was very good in terms of one on one interaction. We had a trial day where we launched the app so they could start fixing bugs. Their customer interaction is very good.

Is there anything Brightec could have improved or done differently?

We could have improved the discovery phase before the project. That wasn’t their downfall. I think the timing restricted us on that. I’m confident if we’d had another few weeks in the planning stage, we would have ironed out a few additional spots. I’m very happy overall with what they’ve done so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I work for a travel company with offices in U.K. and Spain. We are expanding globally.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am a project manager. I look after our mobile platform, which is our mobile website, and our app for which Brightec is responsible. My role is to lead that. We have an in-house development team and the Brightec development team. I work with Andy [Ferrett, the director] at Brightec to coordinate all of that work.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Brightec?

This needed to be a sales tool for selling holidays, flight and hotel, and hotel only to our customer base. We have plans in the future to expand it further. We have quite an ambitious roadmap ahead of us to look at all sorts of new things. Our goal and our ambition is to get the app on as many phones as possible so customers are thinking about the Holiday brand, and they have it as reminder on their phone at all times.  

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

The work is ongoing. We’re only planning for three to six months of work at the moment, but it will go on longer than that I think. It’s something that’s here to stay with our business. The people at the top of the business have big plans for this, so that it’s as big as our website and possibly, in a few years time, it might become the leading part of our business.

We’ve only got one version on Android at the moment that is for all phones and tablets, which is the portrait version, and then on iOS we have portrait and landscape version on tablet, but just portrait on phone. In the future, we will be looking towards other markets as well, like Kindle.

What was your process for selecting Brightec with which to work?

It was before my time, but the person I took over from, she did a bit of research on app companies in southeast England because we wanted someone local to us. She worked with our COO and between them they found Brightec. I think they came by way of recommendation from other people that had used them.

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

The projects vary from small items, which might be a few hours, varying up to building a booking engine, which is something we did recently, so that took six weeks since all of the data is contained within the mobile app. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

It’s definitely been a success. We work with two development companies. The other one we’ve been with for a very long and we’re generally unhappy with but, with Brightec, it’s the complete opposite. We’re very happy with the quality of their work, the speed at which they deliver it to us, the knowledge of their people, and the research that they do. I always speak highly of Brightec.

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

We’re featured highly in the app market and improving all the time. At certain points, we’ve made it into the top ten for keywords related to flights and hotels. We’ve had more than 200,000 downloads across all platforms.

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

They’re very proactive. Brightec always thinks about what we ask, does a bit of research, and if they think there’s a better way of doing something, then they’ll provide that as a recommendation.  

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

No. I don’t think so.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

Our company is an online firm. We have a sister company who helped us to mature as a startup [that] is the largest seller of used books in the U.K. and Europe online.

We have been selling to the public for about five years. We’re a relatively young company. The majority of the stock that we receive and sell is from charity shops. We pay them by weight for the books and sell them online. We also buy directly from the public. People can go on our website and scan a barcode or enter information for the book, CD, DVD, or game and they will receive an offer for that item. We then either collect the items from them, or they take them to a free drop-off box nearby.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the technical project manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Brightec?

Brightec started working with us four or five months after we went live. We built the website using an open source, free enterprise-level software. The one thing we didn’t have any experience in was building mobile applications. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Mobile app development for iOS and Android, as well as ongoing updates to the apps was the scope of work. The technical complexity is quite high because not only does it have to use the camera to recognize barcodes, and then deliver a price, but it calls up to an API [application programming interface] that we built in conjunction with them. The consumers can scan literally millions of different products, and we need to be able to give them a price back instantly, so I think it was a relatively complex application that they built for us.

What was your process for selecting Brightec with which to work?

We had a requirement to build an iPhone app, so we found some companies locally, and some a further afield. We saw three main companies, one that was really a market leader in terms of app development in the U.K. We got quotes, we met with them, and went through a due diligence process to see who we thought we could work with. Brightec was one of those companies, and they were the cheapest of the three.    

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

I cannot provide that information. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

The work is still ongoing. We completed our iPhone application in about two months, which was very quick. We gave them the task that we wanted this developed before Christmas of last year, and they managed to achieve that for iPhone. Since then they’ve created an iPad version of the iOS app. They’ve also created our Android app, and our tablet Android app.

Since the end of the development of the Android platform, they’ve been on a monthly retainer with us. We have a two-day-a-month contract where they work to make sure we’re compatible with the new phone products that come out. In terms of the ongoing relationship, it’s hard to say. We’re having a meeting fairly soon, to look at next steps, and how they can develop the app further.

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

We’re happy with the quality of the work they’ve done. The reviews of the app aren’t particularly great, but that’s a review of our service in terms of the prices we offer. Everybody who talks about the app says how easy to use it is, and I think it holds up well against our competitors in the market. My personal opinion is that it’s better than I predicted it would be.

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

Our developers were only experienced in desktop applications, so coming in from a position of no knowledge can be very difficult and quite worrying when you’re trying to develop a new product.

Their developers are good in terms of communication, very visible, very open with the work they do. They used a tool called Basecamp with our project, which is a project management tool, which allowed us to add jobs and they would mark off filters as they went through them. I think over and above anything else they’re a good group of people, very easy to get along with. Brightec’s team is not corporate in a corporate sense, but professional.

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

Not really, to be honest. Nothing I can think of.