Mobile Development for Nightlife Application
- Mobile App Development
- $50,000 to $199,999
- Oct. 2014 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 4.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"Great work. I can't say really anything bad about them."
- Other industries
- Jersey City, New Jersey
- 1-10 Employees
- Online Review
- Verified
A nighlife database hired TechMagic to build mobile apps for both the iOS and Android platforms, develop a management system, and assist with UI/UX.
TechMagic produced two high-quality apps and continues to work on more development projects. While the agency could improve their onboarding process, they earned high praise for their coding expertise, responsive communication, and ability to meet deadlines.
The client submitted this review online.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your organization.
HAGTAP was born out of a need for finding new places to spend a night out. The same old spot is always a good fall back, but what if you're feeling extra adventurous that night? That's where HAGTAP comes in. Information on bars, specials, and happy hours coalesced into one place for your knowledge. Access the app and immediately get a feel for what's happening in the area.
What is your position?
As a UI/UX designer at HAGTAP, I have worked with TechMagic closely throughout every iteration of the app. I am responsible for providing interactive mock-ups that need to get developed.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What business challenge were you trying to address with TechMagic?
The application we're working on is basically a local events application. The idea is, when you're in the city, whether it be your hometown or you're going right into college, and you're looking to figure out what the happy hours are, where the live bands are, and when the town has a festival. The thing is we are trying to build this system based off maps and based off information that doesn't exist. You can't find happy hours in a directory for the entire United States.
We have interns that come in here from time to time, help us manage all this data. Nightlife is a huge industry, but heavily divided. Hence, why there hasn't been any tech leaders. What we're trying to become is like Netflix. Similar to how Netflix first hosted other people's licensed content, and then they started developing their original content. We're going around the same idea at first. We're putting in a lot of time on finding out everything that's happening in a particular area. Right now, we're working in New York and New Jersey, and we're spending time figuring out all the happy hours and every single event. Then, within the upcoming year, we're going to be throwing our own events.
The good thing is that they follow a lean methodology. We're all on the same page when it comes to, none of us really know what's going to go on, so the best thing we can do is iterate it as fast as possible. That makes it very easy to work with them as opposed to working on a final product. We're always working on developing the product, and it's very hard to get a team to understand that concept.
SOLUTION
Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.
What they helped build out is the iOS and Android apps, the entire management system – a CMS [content management system] on the back-end – a way for us to work with permissions and remote workers. They also helped us with UI/UX, and they also have a project manager there that's been helping us and making sure we hit the deadlines. We have used Node.js, MongoDB, Objective C, and Android to develop our consumer products. We believe in agile development and wanted to use a tech stack that lets us iterate quickly.
How did you come to work with TechMagic?
We found them on Elance. I code and program for a living. I do UI/UX also. That's my role right now. Because I know how to code, I wanted to make sure that we had test projects, like "Here, build this simple program for me" to see the quality of the code. The back-end is done in Node, and it's using a MongoDB database, but now we're using the AWS [Amazon Web Services] for our server. I interviewed more than 100 different firms on what they can do.
Each of these agencies would respond to my questions. I would measure them on how fast would they respond, in what detail, were they trying to sell me something, what was the portfolio looking like. Surprisingly, TechMagic was one of the two I was interested in. It was a lot of work to get them on board.
That's the problem with Elance – you have a lot of great talent there. They were probably the 76th person to apply to our bid. Being the 76th person, I can only imagine that most people would never go with them. A lot of people who go on Elance just pick the first five bids and negotiate with them. It was really interesting.
Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?
It is between $50,000 and $200,000. We're almost running past $200,000 within these two upcoming months. Within the full year, it will be more than $200,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We've been working with them since October, and the relationship is ongoing. The application has been launched. The third version has been launched, and we're working on the fourth right now. That should be launched in September.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?
In terms of apps we developed with them, we've already developed two different apps. Both have similar focus, but one for the venues, in which the venues are paying to record information and post. They've also build out the iOS and Android apps for the consumers. Great work. I can't say really anything bad about them.
How did TechMagic perform from a project management standpoint?
It's great. I would say they work really well, and if you give them an eight-week scrum cycle, they always tend to meet that deadline. We have been hitting all our set milestones and constantly focusing on growing our key performance indicators.
What distinguishes TechMagic from other providers?
What they helped build out is the iOS and Android apps, the entire management system – a CMS on the back-end – a way for us to work with permissions and remote workers. They also helped us with UI/UX, and they also have a project manager there who has been helping us and making sure we hit the deadlines.
Is there anything TechMagic could have improved or done differently?
I guess in the beginning, at the onboarding process and being able to sell themselves. That's about it. As a salesman, I was looking for code quality. But, in my mind, I can only imagine the average person who's not technically savvy would be looking for someone to sell themselves. That has nothing to do with my project. But, for the help of their own industry, if they can just make sure that they can pitch better.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
4.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
