The Distance App Developers

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of income generation for a charity that looks after and supports people and families affected by encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Distance App Developers?

We wanted to raise awareness of encephalitis by developing an app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Distance built our app for iOS and Android from scratch after working with our team through a discovery phase in which we laid out our main objectives and requirements. They provided wireframes, which were then discussed with our stakeholders and internal team to provide feedback.

One of the features incorporated included a global step challenge to help raise awareness of encephalitis. Each country could develop a team and the goal was to collect enough steps to walk around the world. They also incorporated various games, including brainteasers and word puzzles.

What is the team composition?

I mostly worked with four people, including a technical lead, two developers, and someone in customer relations.

How did you come to work with The Distance App Developers?

I researched local app developers who had experience working in the third sector and could incorporate features that allowed us to accept donations. After meeting with their team, we immediately liked them. We trusted that they understood our charity and what we were trying to achieve.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about £30,000 ($42,725 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2017 to February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Originally, we hoped to get 25 countries to partake in our step challenge, but we surpassed our goal with 28 and collected enough steps to walk around the world twice. Thus far, our users have played over 400,000 games. We've been able to award certain winners and engage more with our community through the app.

We've received positive feedback from members, who value the inclusiveness of the various modes of engagement on the app.

How did The Distance App Developers perform from a project management standpoint?

We stayed organized through the use of Basecamp and spoke on the phone weekly, if not daily. The Distance did their best to deliver what we wanted, but it would've been helpful if we had built in more time for testing before launching the app.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Distance's team is very approachable and hardworking. After launching, we met to go over areas of improvement, which I greatly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would have helped if they were more realistic regarding timelines. We felt we should have incorporated more time for testing, especially considering some of the types of users we're trying to reach to make it easier on our audience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the publishing director of Richmond publishing, part of the Spanish Santillana Publishing Group. We make courses for people learning English as a foreign language.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Distance App Developers?

We have been rolling out a lot of digital content for our English courses, and we were looking for someone who specialized in application development. We’ve had apps in the past, but we wanted someone who really understood how an app works rather than someone who was approaching it from our perspective as English teachers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Distance designed and developed an iOS and Android app from scratch for us. Our goal was to have an app that was fast, entertaining, and educational, so we had someone draw up wireframes to give to the developers with those things in mind.

The app has 27 different activity types such as fill in the gaps, listen and choose between different translations, and more. The app is also built to make use of mobile phone functionality, so a lot of swiping in different directions rather than clicking buttons as we have in our online practice courses.

After building both the iOS and Android versions, The Distance also helped us submit the project to the app store and launch it.

What is the team composition?

Our main contact is our project manager, but some of the technical people on my side will speak with the technical people on their side when needed as well.

How did you come to work with The Distance App Developers?

When we began our search we received a lot of recommendations and had heard of The Distance after they built an app for someone else we liked the look of. We wanted a team that would really participate in the creative process and make suggestions, so we asked a few companies for pitches and decided on The Distance.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2016, and they are still adding more features to the apps now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Distance delivered the apps on budget and close to on schedule. There were a few problems with sticking to the timeline we wanted, but they were really accommodating at meeting our budget even after a change request.

We are still in the early days after launch, but we have received very positive feedback. A few users have told us it the best free English language course app that they’ve ever seen.

How did The Distance App Developers perform from a project management standpoint?

We receive weekly status updates, but there have been some minor issues. They had some personnel changes with people leaving, but everything has settled down since they restructured. We still have regular communication over Basecamp and we have been happy overall with their work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really like The Distance because they listen to us and ask a lot of questions. Many developers will try and tell you what you want without really listening to you, but The Distance is good at communicating and hearing our ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During their personnel changes I would have said yes—however I think they are fine now that it is sorted out. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Really think through your brief before you talk with a potential partner. This way you can be aware of what you don’t know and be able to ask lots of questions before you start the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are Cirrus management consulting. We offer leadership courses. I was the head of development for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

We were looking to develop an application that would serve as an accompaniment to our leadership courses. It was meant to be as useful as possible to clients, but it also came as a PR exercise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Distance developed our mobile application for iOS and Android, using Java and Objective-C. They also handled some of the UI/UX design particular to each platform, and built a CMS for the app.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

I'd worked with The Distance on a previous project, and knew that they could deliver the work. We were initially working with a different provider, and I did get some comparative quotes.

How much have you invested with The Distance?

The total cost of our project with The Distance was around $200,000, over a period of 2 years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with The Distance at the beginning of 2013. The project was ongoing when I left the company in 2014. Because we worked in an Agile way, we were always adding new features to the app. Whenever we rolled it out to a new client, they'd ask for additional features and content.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application has been successful, and is being used by large clients such as Three Mobile, Network Rail, Yorkshire Water, and HSBC.

Whenever we gave The Distance sufficient specifications, we received the right quality of work. We didn't keep internal metrics, but I can say that The Distance was quite responsive whenever an issue came up with iOS updates and so on. The Distance was also quite flexible in terms of approach. They were always happy to explain any development choices made, and what the financial and technical impact of those choices would be.

How did The Distance perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of project management, The Distance was always there for us, willing to communicate and keeping us updated on the general progress. We didn't have any issues with deadlines because we set them on our end.

What did you find most impressive about The Distance?

The Distance has a lot of experience in a wide variety of topics. Their principal was a .NET developer for many years, before starting the company, so he has a deep understanding of how the web works. He's more than happy to talk to more technical clients, getting an idea of what could be done, rather than delivering to a brief.

Are there any areas The Distance could improve?

At the time, we were looking for a strong app design department to call on. We did have internal designers, so we came to use them. I believe that The Distance has come to offer this since then.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are called ThinkTouchSee Ltd. We provide point-of-sale solutions for restaurants and hospitality outlets.

What is your position?

I am a Director within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

They were involved in creating the first iteration of our solution, outlining the concept and design, through to the minimum viable product.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We had a good starting idea of what we wanted to achieve. The Distance has provided technical validation and has worked on its feasibility from a platform point of view. They helped us figure out what were the limitations of the various options we had, and ultimately aided us in picking an approach.

The project was largely Android-based, with a SQL server backend. The development featured iOS elements, but it only involved 20-25% of the total effort.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

We found them through an online aggregator. We posted a job and The Distance contacted us. We met, had a chat, and saw that we were a good fit. Being a startup ourselves, we were attracted to like-minded people.

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

The initial project cost was 60,000 GBP [approx. US$87,000]. Subsequent spending amounted to 20,000 GBP [approx. US$29,000], through change requests and enhancements.

The project finalized in the higher end of our quotes.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2011. The initial iteration of our product has been released and is in use.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The feed-back for our product was very good. We enjoyed working with The Distance. The challenge they posed was enjoyable. The Distance didn't simply listen to what we said and deliver the work without any added value. They were active in the decision-making process of how particular capabilities could work best. Because of the length of time in which we worked together, the developers that we used started feeling accountable for the outcome. When we'd ask for things that they didn't agree with, they became vocal. It was their own work, and it showed in terms of quality output.

We're now experiencing growing pains. Some of the decisions taken early-on for simplicity or cost reasons cave turned against us. We've built in-house development capabilities and some of our work also goes off-shore.

How did The Distance perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. They had a lean team without many layers to penetrate. Recently, their agency has grown and they've adopted more project management stratification.

They're very organized. We had many tools at our disposal which allowed us to stay organized, which is a subject that preoccupies us.

Some of the challenges we had stemmed from the general evolution of the project. There were technical challenges in regards to the quality of the output.

What distinguishes The Distance from other providers?

They're not just a code house, churning out lines of code. They get to the root of the problem, visualizing things from the perspective of the end-user. That empathy was beneficial to us.

Is there anything The Distance could have improved or done differently?

They should improve their estimation skills. Development time and cost have gotten away from us on occasion. They have estimations that they try to stick to, but they're also an Agile firm. Constant spending on new items can lead to budget problems due to lack of understanding of a platform's complexity.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Slimming World is the United Kingdom's leading weight management organization. We provide group-based services. Our members attend our weekly sessions for support and inspiration from like-minded peers in their community. We also offer an online service that tries to replicate our traditional presence as much as possible. As part of that offering, we run a mobile application, which is where the services offered by The Distance come in.

What is your position?

I'm the digital solutions manager. I am in charge of user experience testing for the site and the general project management for our organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

When we started discussions with The Distance, we already had an application in place, which had been developed in 2011 and had gained popularity. Unfortunately, the organization we used for developing that app was taken over two or three times, which led to problems like source code getting lost and missing license keys. Eventually, they stopped supporting the app altogether. For a good 18 months, our app sat in the store in an unsupported form. This led to an accumulation of negative opinions about it. It was old and dated. The goal was to make the application maintainable, even if we didn't implement any additional functionality right away.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They worked on Android and iOS versions of the app. We've had conversations about making a Windows Phone version.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

In October 2014, we began looking for a new agency to help us update and redevelop the app. We met with two or three agencies, and The Distance was our favorite out of those.

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

The initial development cost was $40,000. They finalized the project under budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've had an ongoing relationship with them for the development of the app, and this isn't something we see changing anytime soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We relaunched the app knowing that it has problems and missing features. This summed up much of the feedback we received from our members. We accepted that we wouldn't have time to redo certain features in our initial development with The Distance. As a result, the feedback trend continues, but it's part of what was agreed upfront. The currently missing features are due to be added in the next nine months as part of the roadmap we've envisioned.

We relaunched the app on December 10 [2015]. We didn't see an immediate spike as that is a slow time of year for us. Once our business picked up again in January, we saw huge spikes in downloads. We had thousands of downloads in one day and many additional updates. Since then, we've had a steady number of downloads every day. The total download count is more than 1 million since the relaunch with The Distance.

What distinguishes The Distance from other providers?

The thing that impressed us when we first met them was their approach to dealing with clients. It was completely different to other organizations we've worked with. We'd had five meetings with prospective vendors. Four of those were typical, agency-style events, featuring an account manager and a project manager making sales pitches about the work they would do for us. The Distance, on the other hand, engaged a conversation with us about app development in general and what our long-term goals were. It gave us the feeling of being part of the development team and that they wanted the product to be a success as much as we did.

Since then, their approach has been the same. They've been open to new ideas and have challenged us when they thought a particular feature wouldn't work in the app world. The Distance has guided us in terms of what makes for good app development, interfaces, and so on.

It's been more of a partnership than an agency-client relationship. That's what impressed us most about them, and it's why we feel comfortable working long term with The Distance.

Is there anything The Distance could have improved or done differently?

We were one of the first clients they had who wanted to develop an app that was going to have a long-term life on the market. Most of their other work had been campaign-related. Early on, we had conversations with them about the app being a starting point and having the ability to be updated in the future, rather than being something to throw away once it's not needed anymore. They adapted to this quickly. Rather than seeing updates that change the app significantly, we've had releases that evolve it further.

We asked for a higher level of detail in their billing than they'd ever had to produce before. They were open to complying with us, and it became something that they provide to us as a matter of course.

In summary, whenever we asked them to do something they'd never done before, they made it happen rather than saying it's not possible. This approach is part of our relationship.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I represent two healthcare organizations. One of them is involved with medical education, and the other is a group of hospitals delivering acute care.

What is your position?

I was responsible for patient safety initiatives. This involved, among other things, getting information in doctors' and nurses' hands, so that they could provide the right care for patients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

The organizations that were employing me were looking at developing an app for providing clinical and non-clinical information to healthcare professionals. We were looking for app developers because we didn't have that expertise within the hospitals' IT teams.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

The Distance worked on several apps for iOS, Android and even Windows Phone. They had to have lots of in-house expertise, and have even commissioned out certain tasks. They were masterful at coordinating tasks to the best persons for them.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

We researched companies in our region who advertised app development as one of their specialties. We requested quotations and organized a procurement day for several companies to display what they could offer. We scored them through several evaluations, and The Distance came on top.

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

The total cost has been over 50,000 British pounds [approx. US$70,900].

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started three years ago. We still work with The Distance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The project was focused on the end-user from the beginning. The doctors and nurses were the drivers for us. The Distance integrated some use analytics into the app. Although it doesn't collect personal information, it does provide us localized usage patterns. Each hospital that uses the app has to set it up individually, which enables us to have analytics for each organization.

Through this, we are able to determine how many people use the app per month. In the last 30 days, 139 devices have used the app, mostly more than once. The average duration for one use is between one and a half and two and a half minutes. This tells us that we have a returning user base.

The statistics are continually growing. Eight hospitals have it live at this moment, and another three have it in the pipelines.

How did The Distance perform from a project management standpoint?

The Distance has always kept up with deadlines. They were very responsive in dealing with each component, and taking care of bugs and server issues.

Any delays that occurred were due to us being publicly funded. We had to justify any money we spent, and each year we have to reapply for funding. We've been a bigger frustration to The Distance, than they have been to us.

They have switched project management software a few times, going from Basecamp to Agile, and then back. Each time there was a change, they let us know what they were doing.

Because of our particular position as a health service, we have certain data protection guidelines. This meant that, whenever they would work on our servers, one of our employees would have to be in the same room with them so that patient information would not be compromised. They handled this quite well.

It did surprise me that it took a month and a half to agree upon the contract.

What distinguishes The Distance from other providers?

They're honest relative to other companies we approached for the project. One company gave us a quote that was basically an inflated price to what they were paying their subcontractor. The Distance never did anything of this sort. They've always kept us in the loop.

Is there anything The Distance could have improved or done differently?

No, there isn't.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our organization is called Market Tech UK. We are a stock market floated company, with real estate, technology, and retail divisions.

What is your position?

I am the head of e-commerce. I look over digital transformation, for translating a physical multi-trader marker bricks-and-mortar proposition into an online retail landscape.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

We have an in-market retail proposition, by which our traffic is 50% domestic, and 50% international. People visiting our destinations in London are doing business with multiple independent retailers. We also have an online proposition, and are looking at multiple ways to tie those two together.

We are looking to bridge our online and offline sales channels, and gathering the appropriate data to improve our customer experience, marketing, and general conversion, through segmentation and analytics. Our overall business objective involves bridging mechanisms and data capture elements. For this purpose, we designed a Smartphone application for iOS and Android devices. It is an app that offers customers a better experience as they walk around the market, through geo-location content and a market wiki of all the traders (where they are, and what offers are available on that day). It will eventually translate more into personalization and the ability for the consumer to tweak their own experience by selecting the things they want to do before they actually come to the market, thereby controlling the information that they receive when they use the app. The ultimate objective, from a consumer perspective, is to provide an augmented reality with relevant offers and information presented to them in a timely manner, and to connect the app to our CRM [Customer Relationship Management].

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They developed the app for iOS and Android. Looking at our traffic and metrics, there's really no return on investment currently for Windows Phone, Blackberry, or other platforms.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

I knew them from a contact at a previous company. I'd approached them for a project that never materialized because of budgetary constraints. I went back to them for a quote, because they had performed admirably in the consultative phase of the previous approach.

In percentage terms, we had quotes from people in other countries and in London. The Distance was, by a factor of ten, cheaper than all of those.

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

The three development phases so far would total ‎£30,000 - ‎£50,000 [approx US $44,500 - $74,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them six months ago, and intend to continue the collaboration through to 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We can't gauge success based on The Distance's deliverables. They were brought in purely for app development - functionality and making sure that it was provisioned across the correct devices. They've absolutely achieved this in time and on budget.

The success of the app in the consumer landscape is not within their scope. At the moment, we haven't had the success we'd wanted, but we haven't marketed it. It's a difficult association to make with the app development team. They've done everything that has been asked of them and beyond, in terms of consultative approach, specifications, and helping rationalize the more technical elements of the project, which was the duty of our in-house team. We can't really apply statistics for rationalizing how successful they've been.

How did The Distance perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been on time and on budget for three phases so far, with an added responsiveness to last minute demands and scoping. Obviously, there's added cost for these elements, which is understandable. They've brought everything to fruition admirably. Project scoping, delivery, budget, timing, and flexibility were all intangibly measured, but successful.

What distinguishes The Distance from other providers?

I don't have many app agencies as a frame of reference. They're available all the time. There was never a moment when you couldn't reach the appropriate person. The Distance is extremely knowledgeable. They also provide the right balance of technical and general market expertise, and awareness of the wider market of Smartphone apps.

Rather than going to them with a brief containing set tasks, we consulted with them on how they would approach our goal, and what the right ways to optimize the process were. I view them as a partner.

Is there anything The Distance could have improved or done differently?

Some clients like to work using different management methodologies. They're an Agile house, and we've tried to adapt to this. We've offered them a brief of requirements, and asked for a fixed project fee, which has proven difficult for them to do. As projects move forward, the scope changes, if even by a small amount. This impacts the time spent on a particular feature, or the cost. The difficulty for them, and any agency doing development for a client, is trying to protect their investment, while the client will aim for a fixed cost. They could make better estimates upfront, when projects aren't in an Agile environment. They are aware of this and are addressing it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is called PayStream Accounting Services. We provide a variety of accounting, back-office, and payroll services to United Kingdom-based businesses.

What is your position?

I am the IT [information technology] director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Distance?

We wanted a mobile app that our customers could use to submit expenses and payroll information. It's ideal to submit receipts on the go as you're generating those expenses. Our clients can take a picture of the train receipt, submit it, and it's finished as opposed to a process where you would have to sit down at the end of the week. In essence, it's decoupling the process from being paper-based or requiring sitting in front of the computer and doing it in a more timely fashion at the convenience of the customer.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The way in which we wanted to approach the project was a bit unusual. We have our own in-house development team, but we wanted to go to someone with expertise in writing applications natively, in the various mobile platforms, without using software that would bridge the "phone gap," so to say, or creating a wrapper around an HTML5 web page.

It was a very technical process, and I wanted them to work alongside our development team. They helped write the API [application programming interface] into our software systems. The software that they wrote, native for each platform, would talk to that API in a common fashion. This type of technical credibility and skill is the reason we wanted to work with them.

How did you come to work with The Distance?

I worked with the managing director in the past in a previous role. He is someone I trusted to do this kind of work.

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

The work was done in stages. It was £15,000 [approximately $22,500] per platform for basic functionality. They're done subsequent work on top of this, and added more functionality and devices. I couldn't tell you exactly what it cost overall, but it was very reasonably priced.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them five years ago [2010] and are still collaborating.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our business is quite competitive. We were the first business to have this kind of functionality. In terms of unique selling points, it was fantastic to be the first to have that as part of our sales repertoire. We were unsure at first about how popular it would be and based it on a gut feeling.

Results have been striking. More than half of our customers use the app as their preferred method of data entry. Thousands of people per week per platform use it to enter their data or review information. In terms of translation into additional business, it's very difficult for me to give a hard number, but I hear the sales team talk about the mobile app every time I walk past them. It certainly proves that we are a business that invests in modern technology and aren't stuck in the dark ages of spreadsheets.

How did The Distance perform from a project management standpoint?

They're spot on. I don't remember ever having an issue with them. We have a dedicated project manager who talks to us about what we want to do. They come to us with ideas about things we should be doing and reviewing. When they commit to a time period to get something done, it's delivered within that timeframe and on budget. If there are ever any problems or things get complicated, they'll let us know as soon as possible. If something will take more than expected, they will ask if we're OK with the additional costs. I always feel that they're 100 percent trustworthy. 

What distinguishes The Distance from other providers?

The unique aspect is the whole package: the variance of their technical skill, grasp on mobile technology, and creativity. The Distance is reasonably priced and offer fantastic service and delivery. Usually, when a developer offers something as reasonably priced, I will have doubts about what they're actually doing for that money. With The Distance, I usually can't believe that I'm getting such a level of service for my expenditure.

Is there anything The Distance could have improved or done differently?

It's unusual, but no. If you asked me about other companies, I'd have something to say, but not about them. I'm very impressed.