Bluelupin Technologies

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work with NASSCOM, a bridge between the IT sector and the government sector of India. We are working on a project called INDIAai, which is India's national AI portal. I'm the product and social media lead for this particular project.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We wanted to launch the INDIAai website and were looking for companies to help us develop and design the site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website is very content-heavy, and they've helped conceptualize features and determine what features work for certain content. They created the website's front- and backend, which is the CMS for us. They’ve also created a newsletter module for us to send a newsletter to our audience weekly. 

We provided them with an overview of what we were looking for in terms of features, design, and development, and they’ve been supportive in giving the right inputs through that. The technology stack includes Laravel and PHP for APIs and  Next.js for the frontend. We also use AWS, RDS MySQL, Elasticsearch for search, SendGrid for email, Amazon CloudFront as a content delivery network (CDN), and Amazon S3 for storage. 

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is our project manager; we also work with two full stack developers, one UX developer, two QA individuals, and one solution architect.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

We floated an RFP and shortlisted 5–6 web development companies; Bluelupin Technologies was one of the companies we shortlisted after they presented their proposal and ideas to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $240,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in January 2019, and it is an ongoing project.

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

The website was completed and launched in 2020; we’re tracking a few metrics. One is user-generated content, which is the weekly number of submissions, comments, and signups we get; these are consistently increasing. The traffic coming to the website has also increased immensely for us in the last year. We've seen an 80% increase in our user database between 2021–2022. 

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager is always available whenever we text or call him, and he quickly resolves any issues. We’re very satisfied with Bluelupin Technologies' communication skills and the overall process. They use Jira internally as a project management tool, and we use Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Meet, phone calls, and a few other forms of communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They come up with a solution in-house if it can save us time and money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Bluelupin Technologies has been perfect so far. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Just give them the right kind of direction and be patient with them because they take a bit to come up with the solution. Trust that whatever solution they give you is the right kind of solution for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Zoomstar, an IT services provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We need a team of developers to build our SaaS platform. The platform, Naaviq, is for logistics and supply chain management. It allows users to correspond over the movement of their goods, from the driver's location to collecting proof of delivery. Even third-party logistic players that work for large organizations can use the platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bluelupin Technologies built the product from scratch. I outlined the project and its features. Their team implemented all the technology, from hosting, coding, deployment, bug fixing, and provided other areas of support. They also integrated their GPS hardware and smart locks.

They also helped us with UX/UI, wireframing, and other services needed to deliver our MVP. Bluelupin Technologies added substance to selected features, optimized processes even further, and made the system smarter. When specific requirements changed during development and business needs became urgent, they were extremely flexible.

Their team used AngularJS, MySQL, MongoDB, and Azure for online hosting. Xamarin is used for building the iOS version, which we will deploy later. We currently on focused on implementing the platform on the web and Android applications.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Ashish (CEO, Bluelupin Technologies), Subodh (Co-founder/CTO, Bluelupin Technologies) and Tushar (Co-founder/ UX Head, Bluelupin Technologies).

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

We found Bluelupin Technologies online. After a three to six-month process interviewing several companies, they appealed to us because of their location, development capabilities, what methods they use and confidence they exhibited.

Bluelupin Technologies came across as the strongest contender in understanding our business needs and displaying them into deliverable features. Their cost was also in line with our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $250,000-$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018, and the work is ongoing.

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

We’ve launched the platform in ten locations, and are receiving great results. Our team was able to get quick releases regarding deployment and QA within our designated timelines so we could begin generating revenue. It takes time to adopt new technology, but so far, it has been relatively easy.

Their work has exceeded expectations. Bluelupin Technologies is dedicated to delivering what we want but adding value to improve the processes even more. With every deployment, there are faster features. It’s been a great experience.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked closely with their whole team. Communication is an integral part of our partnership. We discuss information in weekly summaries, review our day to day schedules, and their workflow.

Bluelupin Technologies never left us in the dark. Our team is always aware of what was happening. We consistently interact with Ashish, and concerning business needs, we go to Subodh for guidance. Subodh is in charge of our latest sprints. We conduct in-person meetings and use email, Skype, and Jira.

Bluelupin Technologies helped our team overcome specific challenges, and stretch themselves to make sure they met our deadlines. That’s why we have made this a long-term partnership, with them handling our maintenance and support.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Despite never working with logistics, Bluelupin Technologies understood the complexity of the business with ease. Their approach to design was complex; I was surprised Bluelupin Technologies executed it better than what we had imagined.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Bluelupin Technologies should increase their visibility with others in the industry.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For people in need of a mobile app, hardware integrations or software solutions, Bluelupin Technologies are the right people to hire. They also have fair pricing and a strong value proposition.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Exactly.me. We’re the only platform that analyzes the true emotions of an e-commerce client.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We’re a startup, so we needed a development firm to build our technology platform for iOS.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bluelupin Technologies built our entire platform and developed the underlying technologies that we’re in the market with today. They helped design some wireframes, but our CTO mainly handled that effort. For the most part, we dedicated what to build and they built it.

The platform exists across three solutions. We have a widget, an iOS app, and a web app. Bluelupin Technologies is responsible for the features and functionalities of each iteration. The iOS app is extremely customizable and can provide a unique experience to each user. Whenever we demo the platform, the Bluelupin team embeds potential customers’ logos into the Exactly.me interface so they can get an idea of how their brand will look on our technology. Even though they’re contractors, we think of Bluelupin Technologies as members of our team.

What is the team composition?

We currently work with a project manager and six developers. At the project’s zenith, they assigned 15 developers to our account.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

We put out an RFP after founding the company and received tremendous interest from possible candidates. We interviewed four vendors that were a potential fit but ultimately hired Bluelupin Technologies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent at least $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2014 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The success of the application can be attributed to the efforts of Bluelupin Technologies. They delivered the code we hired them to write without bugs. They developed an agile platform that can provide the customization options our customers need. We had zero revenue coming in before engaging with them and now the platform’s made just under $10 million. It also performs with a 2% attrition rate. Customers come onto the platform and stay there.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They utilize a Waterfall management approach that works great. We appreciate their responsiveness and quick project turnarounds. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to get things done within our timeframe. In fact, they often delivered materials ahead of schedule. Our CTO speaks with them often and I interact with them during monthly communication calls. The time zone difference never caused a significant issue.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They tackle assignments that aren’t in the scope agreement and function as true business partners. They’re always available to us and are a pleasure to work with. I often forget that they aren’t employees of the company. I've been consistently pleased with the level of performance and professionalism that they provide us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone could always improve on something, but they’re timely and efficient when working on our developments. I’d prefer a localized team, but the cost is a factor as well. The time difference was aggravating at times but wasn’t a serious issue. I wish we had access to their level of professionalism in the United States.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Write a clear RFP that addresses your needs. Try to hire a business partner instead of just another contractor.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager for Ek Kaam Desh Ke Naam. It’s a social NGO focused on solving the problems that most of the people in India are facing related to poverty, education, or skills.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

In New Delhi, there’s a government body that distributes free trees to civilians to plant so that we can have a greener city. There’s some corruption in the process, though, as distributors give them to private owners without reaching all the civilians. We needed help with building a mobile app to solve this problem.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bluelupin designed and developed a mobile app with which any civilian can request a tree. When the request is placed through the app, a message will be sent to the civilian and to the local distributor responsible for the tree. In the message, there will be code that the civilian will have to show to the local nursery, detailing the number of trees that were requested. With this app, the local nursery can’t say no to the civilian since it makes the request official.

The app is available for both iOS and Android devices. Bluelupin helped from start to finish, and continue to provide development services.

What is the team composition?

There was a team of around 10 people assigned to the project.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

A friend of mine that had worked with them before recommended them. We were in touch with other developers who were too expensive and had slow delivery rates. We chose Bluelupin because their prices were competitive, they had a reputation for delivering on time, and could help us build the app from scratch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $40,000–$50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2018 and the work is ongoing.

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

The application was officially launched on June 5th, which was World Environment Day. Until now, we have around 5,000–6,000 downloads with the help of our volunteers.

The municipal corporation of Delhi was very impressed and acclaimed it as one of the most impactful initiatives. Now, the people of Delhi are happy that they can get free plants for themselves.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the work before the deadline. We use email for communication and Skype for brainstorming sessions. We also have in-person meetings either in their office or ours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their founder and team are humble and have given us their full support. They usually don’t work after 8:00 p.m., but whenever we ask them to come to a meeting at 9:00 p.m., they always come. They’ve never given us any excuses.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could scale up more. They’re going to open an office in other cities soon.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a company working in the educational segment. We have four activity areas: education solutions, technology innovations, skills building, and advisory services. I'm an IT consultant and project manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

They've been working with us as an implementation partner.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed two areas of our project: a CMS and an Android app that serves as an output for the CMS. Once content is built and published through the CMS, we can visualize it through an Android app.

We have a financial module within the CMS. The product targets areas where people are not too connected with banks and where there is a lack of financial literacy on how to link with a bank, borrow money, and so on. The financial module has nine chapters, each of them featuring images, video, and audio. There's also a quiz for every session, with a functionality for voice answers. The tool can be used by every user segment, both literate and illiterate. The latter category can listen to the questions and provide answers as well.

There are certain topics for which we’ve also implemented three kinds of simulators. One of those can provide simple interest calculations, the second one related to compound interest, and the third one is an exponential moving average calculator. It provides an overall view of our financial solution.

The CMS allows us to upload text, image, audio, and video content. We can also link YouTube videos in that section, videos which can be public, private, or unlisted. We can choose to whom we want to showcase those videos. The product is multilingual, available in 10 languages.

What is the team composition?

Ashish (CEO, Bluelupin Technologies) was our main contact. I had direct contact with him and a technical resource.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

They're our implementation partner for the current project, which is being run under the roof of Vodafone, who are a client of ours and had connected with Bluelupin prior to approaching us. Bluelupin had developed a digital literacy solution for them.

How much have you invested with them?

Our initial engagement with Bluelupin was for $37,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January or February 2017. The development ran for a period of 3–6 months. They had previously built a system for us for another program. They continue to provide support and handle change requests for whatever we want to add to the system.

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

We have a solid relationship with them. We can share any tasks, and they will come up with ideas. They have a reasonable cost for change requests, they're technically sound, and they're proficient in terms of scoping and comment analysis. We haven’t had any differences in thought, where they were pushing in an unwanted direction. We're happy to work with them.

The team in charge of publishing content on the app has shared feedback with us. We've gone through user acceptance testing with them on the app’s functionalities, and there are currently no known unsolved issues.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We can share requests and feedback with them. They have quick response and turnaround times, and are able to come up with solutions. We haven’t used any project management tools. The project is managed through an Excel spreadsheet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve had exposure to different types of providers, but I hadn’t worked with a partner like Bluelupin before. I’ve been happy to work with them. They have expertise in CMS and content application development, API integration, and UX design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could involve more people in the engagement. They’ve had good response times and we haven’t faced any issues so far, but it would be helpful for them to onboard more resources on the project management side.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They have a good level of energy and out-of-the-box thinking. They're able to support customers within their areas and come up with solutions for future growth.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of software engineering at Tri Marine, which is a leading supplier of canned tuna to the United States and around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We needed a line of business (LOB) application to be developed and installed at one of the canneries that Tri Marine owns. And we needed an online portal to manage shipping operations, FDA fish traceability, and some of the fishing boats.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the LOB, I designed much of the user experience using Agile, but they provided valuable input. Bluelupin came in on a fairly mature project and spent several months continuing our goal of enhancing the application. It’s built on Windows Forms and a SQL Server, and it is heavily focused on allowing the cannery workers to interact with the software and help manage their processes. The online portal project is hosted on Microsoft Azure and is a SQL Server database that uses ASP.NET for its frontend development. With that, we can take specific data from several canneries around the world and centralize it.

What is the team composition?

We began with two or three developers, but that was reduced as the project matured.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

Bluelupin was referred to us by a colleague familiar with the industry. He knew several of the founders there, and I interviewed them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began in February 2016. The LOB is nearing completion and is in maintenance mode. The online portal is still in development.

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

It is difficult to quantify the impact, but the LOB was a critical development. The scope of it is end-to-end. It manages the inventory of the raw fish and tracks it through the thawing, cooking, canning, labeling, packaging, and shipping processes. I don’t think the business could run without that application, so I’ve been pleased with their developments. Their code has been impressive, with very few problems.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular calls and frequent email exchanges, and we’ve met in person on occasion. We used Microsoft’s TFS to manage the entire project. Though they are India-based, we have had no problems with communication or matching schedules.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The end result was exactly what they said they would deliver. There were very little discrepancies in time estimates, and the code was very good. I’ve been pleased with their engagement.

Any advice for potential customers?

It is best to have a domestic representative that has experience working with offshore teams and working remotely. That can help ensure that all requirements are clear to both parties.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have entertainment and "escape the room" games. I’m one of the founders.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We needed help with our website, as well as software designed to manage and announce the experience of users. This project required constant updates, and I needed someone to use long term.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with an escape room. Most of the work was being done manually, and we wanted it more controlled through different technology. They designed dashboards for admins to control the rooms, as well as our clients while playing.

They also designed a website where people can book the events. Now they're working on the software piece, using Microsoft, Android, Apple iOS, and other opensource technology. There are many sensors in the room and many apps involved.

What is the team dynamic?

They've told me my project is exciting, and the whole team is involved. I work directly with an excellent project manager, who has a team lead with four other people. I send technical questions to the team lead.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

I needed someone with expertise in specific technology requirements. My friend referred me to Bluelupin. I talked to them and realized they were professional. Before giving me a quote, they researched and came up with a two-page scenario of what they would be doing, and I could tell they understood what I wanted to do.

How much have you invested with them?

We'll have spent $40,000 when the project is complete. They charge per hour.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August.

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

I’m happy with everything so far. The website is mostly done and has been launched. It's very professional. Our customers like it, and my fellow employees like the preliminary design of the dashboard. Now, I need to see how the other modules come through.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet or exceed most deadlines. We communicate through email, Skype, and WhatsApp. If I have a question, I can contact the project manager on WhatsApp, and he lets me know when I can call him.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work ethic, expertise, and professionalism. I told their manager that if they continue providing such services, they’ll keep growing. Customers feel confident with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Right now, I don’t have anything they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their communication is good and they listen to your input.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a SaaS-based technology platform company. Our platforms serve verticals including educational customers (school districts, private schools and education associations), nonprofits and associations. We have modules that help our customers manage community sharing and engagement better within their communities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We have great developers on staff but we don’t have anyone with the skill and experience with Azure and Microsoft architecture. We wanted to outsource this need in order to access that experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We bring Bluelupin on board every time we need serious architecture help or when we don’t have the skills on staff to handle the complexities of a project. Projects with them will last anywhere from a month to a year. As we take on more new architecture and development projects, we’ll pull them in and out as we need them. For example, we’re building a new document exchange platform, or module. We wanted their help to build the core architecture for it. Our developers will build out the rest of the platform based on the scaffolding that they have built.

As another example, we recently acquired a company that had technology that was 17-18 years old. We needed an Azure cloud-based framework to update that technology. They worked with the lead developers of that technology to build it into a cloud-based environment that will give us scale, be more easily maintained and be faster. They helped us set up a baseline structure for that and we’re building on top of it.

What is the team dynamic?

We interact with the three company founders, who have a team backing them up. We originally had a liaison that acted like a project manager. Given the type of work we do, which is extremely architecture oriented, we just needed the architect and not a project manager.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

Both the founder and lead architect had worked for me before so I knew their experience level. I know that they have the right core expertise on mobile, Azure, cloud, website development. We can rely on them to check our work – I almost think of them as the architectural police. They can make suggestions on how to optimize further, how to think 5 or 10 years out.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $200,000 or more.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve been working with us since October 2016.

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

They have both saved us money and increased revenues. For example, one of our products generated more than $1.5 million in revenue for us on old technology. It required 6 developers to maintain it at a cost of $300,000-350,000 per year. Now that it’s been transferred to new technology by Bluelupin, I expect that it will need 2 developers to maintain at around $200,000 per year. I also anticipate that, based on the improved scale of the platform, the revenue base will grow from $1.5 million to $5 million a year.

For me to hire an architect at their level would cost me $200,000 per year and we don’t have enough work to keep a full-time architect busy. The flexibility of our arrangement with them has been extremely useful. I also have faith that whatever they do will be high quality. Nothing they’ve built for me has had to be re-architected. For example, the acquired company with the 17-year-old technology had 300 customers who submitted between 30-50 trouble tickets per month. You can compare that to technology they helped us build which has 400 customers and receives only 3 trouble tickets. That reflects the quality of their code.

They have been able to troubleshoot for us too. For example, one of our customer’s websites on our platform was crashing and we couldn’t solve it. They spent two weeks on it and realized it was a malware attack. They cleaned up the site, re-architectured it to solve the problem. We couldn’t have done that time of firefighting project on our own. We had to hire them and they did a great job.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through lots of channels, like Slack, Jira, TFS. We use Facetime when we need to talk on the phone and we use Amazon chime for conferencing.

They're very smart and very skilled but they’re not great at meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The founder always takes my call. I've never called the guy at any time of day or night that he doesn't answer. And if he doesn't answer me because the world is crashing in his life, he'll call me back in three hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They operate like a small company because they are a small company. I think refinement of process and project management comes as you grow larger and older as a company. They could focus proactively on process and methods, as well as stronger communication, like providing data on progress as opposed to a qualitative email response.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about the end result that you're expecting and give them the creative latitude to get you there. Focus at the level of results rather than processes or methods. Clearly define that end result – for example, it needs to be scalable, needs to allow for 1 billion visitors – in terms of nonfunctional requirements. Once you’ve been clear on that, get out of their way.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of a health and wellness business with 2 verticals. The first vertical is called Blue Terra, which consists of about 11 health centers across 5 states in India offering therapies such as body massages, treatments for various ailments, and ayurvedic therapies.

The second vertical of the business is called Blue Nectar, which is an e-commerce website selling health and wellness products. It includes massage, slimming, and stress relief oils and beauty creams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

A lot of our customers find our centers online and actively look at our website and evaluate us to find out what kind of treatments we offer. Then, they visit our centers.

The website is a very important factor in the way we present ourselves to our audience and the one we had wasn’t up to date and wasn’t representing our growing centers effectively. We wanted to revamp the website to properly show our positioning and what we offer.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the entire overhaul of our health center website and because we were happy with the work, we also had them develop our e-commerce one. We have a large product range that falls into a premium kind of a segment, so we wanted a high-quality website that could make our products look premium. We had to ensure that our customers got a premium experience through the look and feel of the website as well as with its process flow. We wanted a listing of all of our products for the categories on our website, along with a payment gateway setup.

We also used their website hosting services because we really liked their approach.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 3 team members, one of which was in charge of the user interface.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

We had clear requirements as to what we were looking for and wanted a company with a good reference. Bluelupin was recommended by one of our friends, so we met them a couple of times and really liked their proposal and the way they worked. We were also really impressed with the kind of influence they had by using a hands-on approach.

They had done a lot of similar work on WordPress and understood our requirements easily. They presented some sample framework templates and we just knew that they were the right guys to build our website.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2015 until September 2015.

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

The overhaul of the website really helped our business because it was much more in line with our positioning. We got great feedback from customers and saw a significant increase in organic traffic which has had a direct impact on the increase in our revenue. It’s one of the biggest measures of success that we’ve had on this project. We really liked their service overall.

How did Bluelupin perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a lean team working on the project and the timeline was short. Project management was pretty good; we had a single point of contact for all interactions.

What did you find most impressive about working with Bluelupin Technologies?

They worked as an extended IT team for us—it was more than a client-vendor relationship. We were comfortable with each other and as a result, I could bounce off my other technology related questions with the team for their advice and guidance

Are there any areas that Bluelupin can improve on?

Nothing I could think of. They were pretty good.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a system general manager and the head of technology and applications for Vodafone; I represent the external development department in India. We primarily work on corporate social responsibility projects aligning with the Vodafone technology-as-charity mission. We have a global market campaign called Connecting for Good, and primarily work with social, development, or government organizations to implement solutions which can have social impact in people’s lives.

What challenge were you trying to address with Bluelupin Technologies?

We work with partners in order to gauge the scope of ongoing activities and digitize them whenever possible. In this context, we worked with them for a digital education and financial literacy campaign in India, in 2016. We built a platform called Sanvaad, the Hindi word for dialogue. The name was chosen because it could be a synonym for the Connecting for Good campaign name.

We built a tool which allowed trainers to work with beneficiaries in remote regions of the country. The trainers have a grade-12 level of education, or are graduates, while the trainees have an education of up to grade 6 or 7. The purpose of the program was to educate them on how to use a mobile phone, and make them more aware of its possibilities. Research showed that most people in remote regions do not use mobile devices for banking or even general education purposes, so making them more familiar with smartphones was needed. The technology burst happened about 2 ½ years back, but almost 60% of the Indian market still didn’t possess a smart device. We targeted 2 or 3 districts for the training effort.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bluelupin helped us build a mobile education platform, and also worked on the curriculum content. Their MobileKonnect proprietary technology was used as a CMS [content management system], and they gave us an inherited platform which we own the intellectual property of. It exists in the form of a tablet and mobile application used by field-level trainers.

It was a complete project, from inception to the training of the field educators. Our audience was between the ages of 17 and 21, graduates at most. Since the product was not made for an established market, the initial phase involved 5 or 6 workshops with Bluelupin, with the purpose of making them understand our target audience. We wanted to keep the UI/UX simple, without too many transitions or animations within the app itself. The buttons and call-to-action elements would be clearly visible on the screen.

We also had discussions about the level at which the content was to be built up for the application, and had on-field interactions with end-users and prospective trainers. Bluelupin spoke to them and gave them a questionnaire, in order to understand what kind of experience would be acceptable.

We had 2 final workshops with our implementation partner, where they tried to understand the requirements around the editors publishing content on the app, in terms of number of departments, rules, moderations, spell-checks, and so on. Once the app was built, the editorial department started using the CMS.

We finally went through a wireframing stage, where Bluelupin presented us a few options for the backend and frontend.

We had a short timeline of about 6 months, from inception until going on the ground, including the content creation phase which comprised of around 27 course videos across 7 chapters, each with 3-4 topics to be covered. Their team handled the content, and we reviewed the content itself, including the scripting for every video piece. We approved scripts after a few iterations. Once a few sample videos were agreed upon, in terms of flow and timeframe, we moved on to the next script.

For the CMS, Bluelupin first presented a prototype for us to test and figure out ways of making it more user-friendly. They uploaded sample content on it, and we determined around 45 user stories to implement on it. We had a product log in place for the next 3 months, and once everything was ready, we went into a new iteration mode for brand colors.

After a 6-month period, half of their team went on the field in order to train the users of the app. We also had a 1-day training session for the backend usage. A product manual and mobile user guide were also shared with us.

What is the team dynamic?

I was in direct contact with a lead Android developer, a junior developer, 3 backend developers, and 6 resources on the content side. We used Skype screen sharing for demo purposes. Since the developers were close to our location, 70% of workshops happened physically. Email was used for documentation purposes, or sharing project status on a daily basis in terms of the user stories being covered. I was the product owner for the company, and had daily scrum meetings with Bluelupin.

How did you come to work with Bluelupin Technologies?

We had a limited budget, as is typical for social projects, so we had an open RFP, releasing it to 8-10 partners. We found Bluelupin through web research. My previous company had also used the group, although I didn’t work directly with them then. Bluelupin turned out to be the most cost-effective solution at the time.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was 75-80 Lakh rupees. [7,500,000 rupees, or $115,000]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Bluelupin in February 2016, and ended in August or September. They continue to support us for maintenance and new feature development. The program is continuing with a new financial literacy drive.

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

The app is available publicly on Google Play. We’ve measured impact primarily through baselining and end-lining, looking at how it impacted the learning levels of end-users. The mid-lining is already done, while the end-lining is still in progress. It’s been a 2-year project with 8 months for building the solution and content curriculum, and around a year of training, during which we were supposed to train 100,000 targeted end-users. We have already reached 50,000, where learning levels have improved by 20%. Approximately 40% of the trained users have used at least one of the services shown to them, whether it’s mobile banking, ticket booking, making printouts, or applying for a job.

How did Bluelupin Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I would give them an 8 out of 10 in terms of responsiveness. It was a small project, and they were eager to work at a slower pace than that of typical business partners. They’re agile and adaptive in terms of making iterations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with almost 50 technology partners so far, and Bluelupin has been one of the most open in terms of iterations, accepting what was necessary. They contributed their own ideas in terms of making the solution acceptable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They work with the latest technologies, and were one of the first partners to provide an RFP for AngularJS 2.0, but we’ve had to give them feedback around the design. Our audience was much more basic, and they initially gave us modern designs with multiple shortcuts. We struggled initially, but Bluelupin adapted to our paradigm. They could be better in terms of understanding the target audience at the conceptualization stage.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They didn’t provide us tools for the tracking process. If an organization is looking to work with Bluelupin on long-term projects of more than 6 months, they should try to follow scrum strategies, and have project implementation tools in place. This can play a significant role in making Bluelupin more productive. They’re responsive when any lags are pointed out.