What was the scope of their involvement?
Generally, my team puts together marketing requirements, documents, and system architecture specs, and Andersen runs with the design using those materials as a reference. We have a couple of working models with them. The first is ongoing maintenance, where Andersen works with our iOS and Android apps to do minor bug fixes or enhance features. We have an old iOS app written in Objective-C, and Andersen is in the process of redesigning that and porting it to Swift. They develop our Android apps using Java. This is a slow-rolled approach and keeps costs down.
The second working model covers new development that we need to move on quickly. They’ve helped us create a whole new approach to doing a render lists module on a machine and having the phone be the UI and network connection to the outside world. They also created different app designs for customers and administrative users. The app takes different forms based on login credentials. For instance, it gives administrators the ability to set up machines, load firmware, or do physical collections of money from the machine.
Andersen does testing to ensure that the devices they’re developing work with our products. We had them purchase reference systems and then provided them with firmware to run on those systems that would emulate the actual devices. In this regard, they’re doing more than just app development; their work is somewhat specialized because they need to understand how to communicate with the Bluetooth stack. They’ve been able to get us past the hurdles we’ve found along the way.
What is the team composition?
They assign teams to our projects. We work with a project manager, an architect, developers, and QA people. For the newer development projects that we do with Andersen, they generally provide bigger teams.
How did you come to work with Andersen?
I did an internet search and came across many different phone app development companies, and Andersen’s name was at the top of the list. We’d been using some local phone app development firms but found that Andersen had a better team and quality approach, so we decided to hire them.
How much have you invested with them?
Our monthly invoices vary.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working with them for a couple of years now, and we’re engaging them with new stuff right now. We’re constantly reinventing ourselves, and Andersen is there to help us out along the way.
The project was successfully launched, with no major issues. Andersen distributed project responsibilities evenly to ensure everything ran smoothly and all tasks were completed on time.