Bamboo Apps

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a concept car manufacturer called Rinspeed Inc.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bamboo Apps?

We looked for a partner to create HMI designs for our concept cars. We needed the designs to not only be practical but also futuristic.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bamboo Apps created slides of an HMI design. The design illustrated different use cases and scenarios for us and our customers.

What is the team composition?

We work with Igor (Head of the Automotive Software Development Department & Sales Director) and Ignat (Lead Designer).

How did you come to work with Bamboo Apps?

We sought people to support outstanding, creative work — not ordinary work. Bamboo Apps approached us and asked if their team could be of service to us. We decided to give them a shot. We’ve worked together ever since.

Igor also visited us, which was important because our processes and projects are cutting edge. To get the right chemistry, it’s important to meet in person.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in 2018, and it’s ongoing.

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

The quality of their work’s good. We wouldn’t work with a company for this long if their work were lousy.

Unlike criticism, it’s rare that people give compliments. I don’t get criticism, so I’m happy. As Bamboo Apps worked with some of our partners directly, they must’ve done well.

How did Bamboo Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via video conferences, calls, and e-mail. We work together on a creative level. We brainstorm and bring ideas together during a period of spontaneous exchanges. We trust each other’s ideas and inputs.

They stay in tune with everybody. I’m happy with their project management. If I weren’t happy, I would’ve stopped our engagement a long time ago.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bamboo Apps quickly understood what we wanted. They complete their work in a reasonable amount of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can grow and improve but there’s no specific area where I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There’s no general rule. As a creative company, we look for creativity, chemistry, and an ability to do outstanding work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager and I’m in charge of the development of connectivity and infotainment for ŠKODA AUTO, which is part of Volkswagen Group. The main objective of the projects I lead is to develop mobile applications which are connected to cars and infotainment.

There was a need to develop a gaming app for Android, iOS, and Windows, which would be able to communicate with an in-car IoT [internet of things] system. The cooperation with Bamboo Group started as a small-scale project which later ended up in long-term mutual cooperation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bamboo Group?

We wanted to develop an app to teach driving and car safety to kids. We sell additional equipment packages to customers buying Volkswagen vehicles, one of which is a device that can retrieve data in real time. This offers the business of selling connectivity to our customers. For this special equipment, we needed some mobile applications. Our business goal was not to sell the mobile application, but rather to sell the equipment with the car. The mobile applications cover numerous use cases for our customers. Our business concept is highly focused on family. One use case was to bring a mobile game that can be linked to the car for kids, for their entertainment during a drive, to teach, and to build a relationship with our company and our brand. This was the main goal for the development of this application with Bamboo Group.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this project, we decided not to use native programming, but rather to go with a cross-platform solution. We didn’t have experience with this, but it was a suggestion from Bamboo Group. It has pros and cons, but in the end, we were very happy with the cost-effectiveness of their solution. We were also very surprised with how fast and effective their programming was. On the other hand, cross-platform apps are not as effective as native ones. However, for the use case of this mobile game, I must say we were very satisfied with their work, their flexibility, and the level of their expertise. I believe there were three or four developers assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with Bamboo Group?

The first contact that we had with them was at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona three years ago. They had a stand at the conference, and we exchanged contact information. They were very enthusiastic and open, and their proposal was the best compared to their competition, so we tried this mid-sized project with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project began in June of 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

The app has between 20,000 and 30,000 downloads. It’s not a very large number, but we are selling this to a very specific range of customers. At the moment, we have about 100,000 cars on the road with this equipment, so it’s a very good number. The app has generally positive reviews in its app stores and has been featured in large European auto shows for over two years. The app has fully met our expectations. It has an exceptional user interface and user experience thanks to Bamboo Group’s expertise in cross-platform programming.

The popularity that the app has among Škoda customers resulted in a major update and renewal of this project for the second generation of connectivity which was introduced in late 2016.

How did Bamboo Group perform from a project management standpoint?

They were a little behind schedule at first, but that has improved. They are basically on time, which is the reason we choose to continue our collaboration with them.

What did you find most impressive about Bamboo Group?

They’re very proactive and even did some development work which wasn’t in the requirements. They integrated a few functions that they thought were more valuable and cool to have. We were very happy with this because their suggestions always improved the product.

They’re located quite far away from us, but they fully managed to lead the development in cooperation with us from a distance, without any major issues.

Are there any areas Bamboo Group could improve?

There’s a bit of a language barrier. Their developer didn’t speak English, so we did have some struggles. It wasn’t serious, but it was a disadvantage. They initially had a lack of expertise in the automotive industry, but that isn’t an issue anymore.

We are a startup team based in the US. We used Bamboo to help create a stealth consumer mobile application. The application is a social game, but due to the terms of a strict non-disclosure agreement in place, I cannot provide more detail about the application.

I lead the product management duties on behalf of the end client.

We already had a team of product and engineering managers in place to facilitate the project and guide the overall direction. However, we did not have the engineering staff required, and hiring a US-based staff would have likely been cost prohibitive. We needed a partner to deliver a quality application in a very tight timeline.

We discovered Bamboo through word of mouth. We started off by interacting with them and letting the team at Bamboo know about our key concerns. We ended up extending our scope of interaction on the project with Bamboo because of their strong project management skills and their ability to understand our end client’s requirements. To date, we have spent over $130,000, but we have an agreement ongoing from now until when we choose to terminate. The current budget is just over $200,000.

By working with Bamboo, we significantly reduced our project costs and accelerated our development timeline. It was a very short period of time from starting development to the soft launch. Bamboo stands out in my mind for their clear communication, willingness to compromise, and fast engineering timelines. Bamboo has also performed well in how they’ve handled our client’s special needs.

The client is Mobile TeleSystems JLLC, the leading telecommunication company in the Republic of Belarus. I am the Business Analysis and Development Group Manager.

The primary challenge was creating a nationwide E-school management platform for Schools.by. The platform would be a new E-learning mobile experience that allows students, teachers and parents to access all school data via their smart phones and tablets. We wanted to be able to take all of the information that is processed and managed by the Schools.by platform, and put it at the audience's fingertips.

The Bamboo Group’s passionate and intensive work led to the launch of the E-School app, a mobile application that brings the traditional learning processes into the digital age. The app is seamlessly integrated with Schools.by platform built for managing, tracking and reporting all key school data in the Republic of Belarus. Users have 24/7 access to curricula, administration, time lines, and other important school information.

All data is kept safe. The E-School app securely receives data from the Schools.by platform. Parents, students, and teachers then use a unique username and password to view the data in E-School. Using the E-School app, students can view daily homework and due dates, track teachers' assignments, check out school events and more. Parents can monitor their children’s’ weekly performance and receive progress reports after each semester. Once the instant messaging feature is implemented in the upcoming update, the E-School app will certainly become a powerful must-have tool for today's 21st-century learners.

Bamboo Group took all of our concepts and our ideas and brought them to life. They essentially designed and built the entire app.

The best thing about working with Bamboo Group is that they’re really supportive and responsive in dealing with issues as they arose. There were times when something was not functioning properly or we saw something wrong with the app during our initial testing. Their team rapidly identified the issues and corrected them very quickly.

In terms of areas of improvement, we can note that there's nothing major. All the improvements and additional requirements we have will be soon be implemented in the second version of the E-School app.

Please briefly describe your organization.

Velcom is a leading mobile global system for mobile operator in the Republic of Belarus.

What role do you play at Velcom?

My role is a project manager of cloud and managed services department.

What was the business challenge you wanted to accomplish?

When developing the concept of the app we wanted to make it more convenient for our subscribers to access their personal mobile accounts. The new app needed to serve as a new communication channel between our company and subscribers.

What was the scope of Bamboo Group work?

Bamboo Group was in charge of end-to-end development of the iOS, Android, and Windows applications. They designed, developed, and tested the app. They were also responsible for all the integrations within our API [application programming interface] and existing internal CRM [customer relationship management].

Please provide an estimate of total project size.

This project was in the range of $10,000 to $49,999.

Are there any success stories of the project that you can share?

The Bamboo Group team demonstrated an ability to adapt to changes quickly. In the middle of the work, we decided to add some additional features that were not previously discussed. Bamboo Group quickly reviewed our requirements, updated timelines, and included the new functionalities. These guys are helpful and flexible.

Are there any specific qualities that set Bamboo Group apart from other partners?

The Bamboo Group team demonstrated excellent analytical skills and nailed the customer requirements. They delivered a powerful customer-centric mobile solution.

Were there any areas for improvement?

There were several bugs discovered in the pre-production binaries. In some cases, we felt that there was some confusion while dealing with their testing team. But, all bugs were fixed prior to the app's release and the app performed well.

Please summarize your overall satisfaction.

To sum up, the Bamboo Group team met our business challenge by delivering an innovative self-service solution, which gave subscribers direct control on their account, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced traffic to the operator's support centers. The development team provided a user-friendly mobile solution that goes beyond expectations, offering a rich user experience while reducing our operating costs. The app allows subscribers to control their personal account balance, activate in one-click all Velcom's services, easily browse various types of content, and catch up with our latest promotions and news. The results were excellent and the customer feedback has been positive. It should be noted that Bamboo Group is a trusted strategic partner of Velcom and is key in our mobile app development initiative and strategy.

Being a member of Telekom Austria Group (TAG) since 2007, our company is a leading mobile GSM-operator in the Republic of Belarus. My current position is project manager in the cloud & managed services department.

We were looking for a mobile solution that could allow our customers to encode and share various information as quickly as possible and can be effectively used during our marketing campaigns. 

Our company wanted a cross-platform mobile app that would deliver a better user experience for our customers. The core idea of the project was to build a quick easy-to-use QR [quick response] code reader/generator that can operate steadily and reliably on different mobile platforms. vQR app, developed by BAMBOOAPPS, completely meets all these goals.

BAMBOOAPPS developed a mobile application for three major mobile platforms, [such as] iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, within the budget and under tight timeframes. They have also done some work related to in-app analytics integration and App Store data tracking.

After seven weeks of work, BAMBOOAPPS delivered the vQR app that turns a smartphone into a digital scanner and delivers such features as auto-detect scanning, an integrated Web browser, social media integration, QR codes in-app storage and more.

During the initial stage of the project, BAMBOOAPPS delivered a clear and well-structured vision of the future product. They defined all the essential app functions at the implementation level.

The project scope included planning, wireframing, designing, coding, and maintenance. We did a little bit of testing in-house, but they handled almost everything. In terms of cost, the project scope was $17,300. The final build was completed on August 21, 2014.

BAMBOOAPPS exhibited a high level of care during this project. After the application was developed, some minor issues came up, so we received immediate support for a range of queries. We now have over two years’ experience with launching multiple projects in collaboration with BAMBOOAPPS.

One project ended, and we're starting another one now. Our company is extremely satisfied with the work of their team and we absolutely recommend BAMBOOAPPS as a trusted vendor to any mobile operator or service provider in the telecommunication industry.

Velcom is the first GSM-operator in the Republic of Belarus. Since November 2007, Velcom has been a member of Telekom Austria Group, one of the most successful telecommunication holdings in Central and Eastern Europe, which currently consists of a fixed net in Austria and eight mobile communication operational companies. The number of subscribers exceeds 4.8 million people.  The company is successfully partnering with the world’s top suppliers including Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, IBM Lenovo, and Huawei.

My current position at Velcom is Head of VAS [value-added services].

We needed to develop a multiplatform mobile application which could operate as the fullest catalog of taxi services. We wanted to enhance user interaction for our brand and integrate the base of short dialing codes of all taxi services in the app. We were aimed at providing an easy-to-use service to a wide audience in particular for people who live in medium and small cities.

BAMBOOAPPS built a well-crafted multiplatform app, operating across iOS, Android, and Windows Phone platforms. We just wanted to make sure that we covered every common device.

The app contains the fullest catalog of all taxi services for the country, which is updated by our content department every week. The database is managed by means of custom administration area. Each user can book a taxi with one tap right from the list or from a user-friendly editable dashboard.

The developer’s team uses a pricing model with a contractual hourly rate.

The project’s duration was 10 weeks. The final build was completed on August 28, 2013.

We are working together as partners since 2012. We are completely satisfied with our collaboration during previous and ongoing projects. 

Soon after launch, the iOS version of the app reached the top rank in Belarusian App Store [Free Overall and Travel category]. The taxi app is still in the top three for free apps [Travel category] in the App Store in Belarus.

The taxi app project fully met our requirements. It even exceeded our expectations in user interface design and features delivered on the project. BAMBOOAPPS performed very professionally. They met all the deadlines and milestone dates on the project, suggested a couple of extra features which were added to the scope operatively and didn’t increase the overall cost.

Looking back on the work so far, I cannot think of anything significant we could do differently while working on the project. We had a couple of touch-and-go moments, but we are absolutely certain that the final product has a good value and is worth the investment.

We’re definitely pleased with the overall results. It all came off perfect, and finished working smoothly.

Trend News Agency is a leading news provider in the Caucasus, Caspian, and Central Asian region. Being admitted to the membership of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies, we have established the Trend Expert Council that brings together about 40 well-known independent experts from the region and the West. Trend offers its clients high-quality multimedia materials, analytical reports and feature articles highlighting major political and economic developments and financial articles from top experts. Among the subscribers to the news and analytical products of Trend are government ministries and the largest commercial and financial companies across the world.

My current position at Trend News Agency is the deputy director general for development and commercial issues.

We were highly interested in the creation of a universal instrument to obtain the latest news about the Caspian region, the Caucasus, and Central Asia from Trend News Agency. The main business objectives were to provide subscribers base growth and a mobile extension to the client’s existing online presence. We wanted to build a user-friendly app operating across the iOS platform targeted at business people who needed qualitative analytical materials and research with quick access to information.

BAMBOOAPPS met all our requirements and provided a mobile solution incorporated with Trend News Agency’s existing website structure. We were delivered the app, which provided continuously updating news to Trend News Agency’s customers 24 hours a day. A thought-out interface endured quick navigation for users. The app was connected with the agency’s server and presented content to the user in an intuitive and easy manner. Among the key features of the application were continuous news auto updates, offline access to saved articles and social media integration.

The project’s duration was 12 weeks and we worked on fixed price basis. The final build was completed on April 4, 2012.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a tire one supplier as a program manager

For what projects/services did your company hire Bamboo Apps?

Cloud back-end and front-end development

What were your goals for this project?

Implement cloud service Design front-end Implement back-end services

How did you select this vendor?

Competitive bid

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Implement cloud service Design front-end Implement back-end services

What was the team composition?

Designers Front-end developers back-end developers

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

NO

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Team was managed by team leader and we had daily meeting to discuss the progress

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Bamboo apps team was very effective and fast to respond to a dynamic work environment.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Documentation of project outcomes can be divided into stages to help the customer be into the loop from early on