Riktam Technologies

BACKGROUND

Sift Shopping was an early stage startup, targeted at aggregating and showing a personalized feed of products on sale from major retailers. The company has offices in San Mateo, CA and I am the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Sift helped shoppers discover and share products from their favorite brands and stores.

SOLUTION

Riktam Technologies was an offshore development partner. Riktam came recommended to me from a colleague who had worked with them at their startup too. Riktam worked closely with the Sift executive and engineering teams in a true collaboration and partnership. The Riktam engineering team they put together for our requirements was very capable and committed. The project goal was to scale the number of supported stores whose promotions and products we would be able to ingest and personalize on our platform.

BACKGROUND

I'm a co-founder at CaptivaTour mobile audio guides. We offer immersive audio-visual tours for historical monuments in the form of a mobile app.

Initially we have started with tours of five monuments in India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Since this product is not a very common one, there weren't many benchmarks for us to start with. The existing ones had very poor build quality and user experience.

We also had to contend with different categories of users - some who were history buffs and liked to spend a lot of time, and some who would just like to view the main points of the monument.

SOLUTION

We engaged Riktam for the entire design and development of the app. While design was outsourced by Riktam to a foreign designer, the entire development was done by their team in India.

The app development took about 2 months each for the Android and iOS versions.

Riktam worked with us to build a very responsive and easy user interface. The app has enabled our tours to be highly customizable (e.g. tourists can choose among three tour durations) using a unique card-based content layout.

Riktam continues to support us on additional features, tweaks, etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Since formal launch in November of 2015, we have seen increasing downloads for our tours. Users have told us that the app is very intuitive and easy to navigate.

Riktam has been highly responsive to early issues of minor bugs and OS incompatibilities. We have hardly had any complaints on the technical side of our product. To top it all off, Riktam has also been very supportive on the price front - giving us a very reasonable price for the work involved.

I would whole-heartedly recommend Riktam Tech for any app development work! 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We develop educational play-based apps for the public.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the co-founder. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Riktam Technologies?

They were assisting in coding the app. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

It was all development. Their work is ongoing.

What was your process for selecting Riktam Technologies with which to work?

From word as mouth, as well as some research. We put out an RFP [request for proposal] and analyzed the different responses we got from different providers.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work?

That is confidential.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project?

We’re satisfied and they’ve been great to work with.

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

I’m the best judge of their work and I’m very satisfied. In terms of users, no feedback right now.

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

They’ve shown a willingness to go above and beyond, which sets them apart. Even when things pop up unexpectedly, they’re ready to help and address the issues.

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 think all issues have been part of the process and they’ve been great to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We have an application for iPhone and Android for photo printing. It’s a photo printing service. We print out your photos and send them by mail to users.

What is your role and responsibilities, please?

I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Riktam Technologies?

They developed the app for me. The design was mine, but they put it together for me. The app is outdated now and hasn’t had the attention that it deserves. We were the first in the U.K. to offer this kind of service, and that was in 2009. Since then, the app has had a couple iterations, updates. We also moved to an Android app. We’ve worked with Riktam since the beginning. They developed the front-end and the back-end, all the server work. They handle everything.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

It was all UX [user experience], UI [user interface], and coding, back-end work.

What was your process for selecting Riktam Technologies with which to work?

It was so long ago that I can’t remember. I’m assuming it was a Web search of some kind. We interviewed them through email and Skype.

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

The total cost has been $20,000 to $25,000 during the time we've worked with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the results of the project? Are you satisfied with their performance?

The project is ongoing. We have a good working relationship with them. I’m satisfied with them, we have had a long-standing and fruitful relationship. Through that, there have been numerous times where things haven’t worked quite the way we wanted, but then they’ve always been very proactive about sorting it out. I guess that’s the nature of app development as well.

I think our app is a little more complex then some because you have the server work to tie in with it. It’s not just confined to what’s happened on the handset. There’s a few links in the chain, plus you’ve got to integrate the payment provider as well. Our working relationship with Riktam has always been good. If something isn’t working right, they sort it out.

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

I would recommend them, and I think they do good work. They’re conscientious and they’re good communicators. They assisted us quite a bit in the planning phase. Quite often something would come up that we hadn’t thought of, so they provided insight to that. They scoped the projects pretty extensively before they began.

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?

From my point of view, it’s always better to spend more time in the planning phase and make sure that the brief is really locked down. In the past, I didn’t do a great job of planning the project and consequently the work suffered on their end since they had to spend time figuring out what could work. That has made the projects longer and more difficult for both sides. 

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company?

We are a technology service provider. We provide technology services to large enterprise companies. Our services range from employee services, social management services, even e-algorithm systems, and some mobile device support.

What is your position?

I am a senior marketing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you first approached Riktam Technologies?

We needed to have our mobile application developed for internal and external purposes, but we didn't have the capabilities to build it in-house. The mobile app was supposed to complement our website presence because a lot of people now use mobile devices to access their information and, therefore, we thought that we needed a mobile ready presence. We wanted the app developed for both iOS and Android platforms.

In actuality, we did have the resources in-house, but our own developers were already preoccupied with an enterprise-class implementation. We didn't want to divert their attention, so we decided to look for an external resource to build the app.

SOLUTION

How did you select Riktam Technologies as your solution partner for this endeavor?

We conducted some preliminary online research and ended up short-listing about five different vendors, one of which was Riktam Technologies. After reviewing their relevant experience and testing their technical capabilities, we narrowed our choices down to only two vendors. Based on the final round of discussions, negotiations and pricing, we chose Riktam Technologies.

Could you describe the scope of work delivered over the course of the relationship?

The initial project had a very limited scope. We had them first design and develop the mobile application exclusively for the iPad. Once we'd seen it in operation, we decided to award them more work. They were responsible for the deployment. We brought them our conceptual design and requirements. They handled the development and deployment, which included the visual design, functional development, data preparation, systems integration and configuration, testing, and support.

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

We decide the next course of action for the next two months. Every month, we revise it. Then, we do a price estimate. There is no annual contract. It's on a recurring basis, and time and effort-based pricing. On an average, for every two months of work, depending on the workload, we pay them anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they've delivered?  

We've been very pleased with the nature of their work, both the deliverables and their process. They're doing very well with the responsiveness of the app. They have successfully enhanced the operational speed of our app by a fairly substantial amount. The one most crucial impact they've had: they've driven our business. On the Apple App Store, our app has a 5.0 or 4.9 rating with approximately 30-plus positive reviews.

When working with Riktam Technologies, is there anything you'd consider unique about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

I don't have experience working with many other IT [information technology] vendors. I have, however, worked extensively with internal development teams. The thing that makes them different is the responsiveness and emphasis on speed from the very beginning. I don't have to go back and say, "This is too slow. You need to make it faster." Their first iteration was a very rapid deployment. Their team is clearly knowledgeable and they come to the table with a lot of workable ideas. There might be some complexities stemming from a lot of moving parts, but they've always been able to devise a good solution. They're great problem solvers.

In retrospect, are there areas in which you think Riktam Technologies could improve upon as a service provider?

The only area I saw that could use some improvement would be their creative design. When compared to their very deep development capabilities, their designers are only mediocre. Their bread and butter is their development services. They can certainly handle design work, but it's much more of a challenge and I'd say they need far more guidance in that respect.

BACKGROUND

I worked with Riktam when I was with a large consumer goods corporation on a chip brand specific project, which was the launch of a mobile application. I now work for a different consumer goods corporation. This was the Asian regional office in Singapore.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We needed a small and agile team to help us build a mobile app. Cost was also important, but quality and usability were paramount.

SOLUTION

They led the design work for the app and effective coordination with internal teams from my company as well. They got the app designed, developed, and launched. The project was completed by the end of 2011. The total cost was around $50,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

We were happy with the teamwork and collaboration with Riktam. Overall, I would strongly recommend this company as they were very sound in terms of technical knowledge as well as client servicing. They had a thorough understanding of the mobile gaming landscape, what the client is looking for and what works with end users.

Their client service and understanding of client business and requirements is what stood out for me. They have deep technical skill, but we expected that.