Appes

Please describe your company and your position there.

Babele is a technology and consulting company that works in the fields of collective intelligence, business modeling and social impact. We provide open innovation management platforms and consulting services to SDGs driven accelerator programs, which are run by organizations such as the United Nations, Ernst & Young, Berkeley University, Ashoka, etc. We help these organizations to become more effective at engaging their own ecosystem and support climate solution providers (through business modeling, online mentoring, and co-creation). My name is Emanuele Musa and I am the cofounder and CEO of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Appes?

After 6 years of activity, we have gone through a full redesign of the platform. Appes has been hired to create a brand new front end shell for the Babele platform, transitioning from Angular to the latest version of React.

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create the new front-end platform, following the UX and UI indications of the designer. We also aimed at making the platform faster, light-weight and the code consistent, so it would be easier to modify in the future.

How did you select this vendor?

We did a series of interviews with several vendors. We have selected Appes as it provided the best mix of the following abilities: - Understanding of both platform and business case; - Coding capabilities and work-approach; - Communication skills; - Budget; - Proactivity and good-will.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They developed, configured, and launched the new front-end shell of the Babele platform. The project began with an understanding phase, in which the Appes team has delved into the existing functionalities of the platform and they have performed a GAP analysis with the wireframes of the new version. Appes split the work in 4 milestones, which were developed through sprints of 2 weeks. At the end of each sprint, we could test the work done through the staging environment, which was created and configured by the team at the beginning of the project. Improvements were made during each sprint both to the front end but also to the back end of the platform service. In fact, the Appes team has helped proactively to take decisions related to the new functionalities, and have coordinated the work of the back end developers, to make sure that all APIs were optimized to serve the scope of the new tool.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed by two web-developers, that took care of the project managements, advisory, reporting and development effort.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As a result of the work done, the platform had an increase in users’ retention of 23%. These results are impressive given that the new tool was launched only one month ago. Most users got back to us to praise how the new platform looks and feel. Also our team members are happy with the new tool, as it makes our work to manage startup accelerator programs easier.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were very happy with the project management: we had a clear plan since the beginning, that we have respected until the end. Appes was great at reporting the work to be done and achieved, as well as potential challenges and issues, that allowed them to rapidly coordinate with us and with the back end developers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We have been very impressed by their adaptability and good will. They constantly strive to understand our needs, and provide invaluable advice to achieve the wished outcome. Their hands on approach and transparent communication gave us the impression that they have been part of our team all along.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of.