Clearbridge Mobile

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the IT manager and broadcast engineer of a local Chinese TV station. Our main office is located in New York City. We recently have developed an app for Apple TV as well as iPhone and iPad devices. With the app, people can watch our channel 24/7 from the air, their cable TVs, and online. We cover news and we broadcast in Chinese. We started with the Chinese community in New York City and then expanded all over the world. I am in charge of all the equipment and daily purchases, and I'm also involved with our different live shows. For example, we have American talent shows for young kids who speak Chinese. We cover the Big Apple New Year show and the Chinese New Year celebration. I’m involved with the plans on what kind of systems and cameras to use for those shows.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clearbridge Mobile?

Our company wanted to find a partner that had the ability to develop apps for Apple TV. Right now, younger generations actually don't watch TV that much on TV sets. Older generations watch TV from a TV set, but younger generation watch more from their phones and from their iPads. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to work with a company to help us develop apps where people can watch our channels. Throughout our other projects, we have communicated with Clearbridge daily.

How did you come to work with Clearbridge Mobile?

We found Clearbridge and talked to them at this year's NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] show in Las Vegas. Before we actually selected Clearbridge to do the projects, we looked around and compared their cost to other firms. We also sent people to their headquarters in Canada to see what they could do and to meet their development teams. Afterward, we started our first project with them.

How much have you invested with Clearbridge Mobile?

We spent roughly $15,000 to $18,000 for their services. For the second and third projects, the price is basically the same as the first, but with some discounts.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing partnership and we have several projects right now. The first project is the app for Apple TV and it's already done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started working with Clearbridge Mobile on Apple TV and quickly found that they are very professional. My CEO and I are very happy with their work and with their professionalism. They [Clearbridge Mobile] always want to go beyond to make sure the customer is satisfied with their work.  

Are there any areas Clearbridge Mobile could improve?

In the future, Clearbridge Mobile should try to grow their business internationally because we’ve seen what they can do. I believe there are a lot of other companies that need their skills and productivity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Claudia: We’re a not-for-profit organization that oversees the recycling of all used tires in the province of Ontario. We ensure and oversee that the tires are collected and then entered into the recycling stream. We also work with manufacturers to ensure that new products are developed and manufactured using recycled tires. I am the Director of Programs and Education.

Zach: I am the Director of Information Technology and Facilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clearbridge Mobile?

Claudia: The Rethink Tires app was developed to help with market development - to help grow the market for recycled tire products by improving discoverability and awareness of the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zach: Clearbridge Mobile developed the app for iOS and Android devices. They worked on a portion of the application in conjunction with our database and web developer. They also worked with Centralogic [IT services firm] to provide and develop the web services that are used to populate the application from our backend database system.

How did you come to work with Clearbridge Mobile?

Zach: I found them through a request for proposal process for a completely separate application that we had developed with another vendor. I was passing the torch to Clearbridge. Once the business need arose for this application, it was a natural fit for Clearbridge since they were already working with us on other projects.

How much have you invested with Clearbridge Mobile?

Zach: The size of the project was just over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Zach: We had a soft launch back in April. Then another launch in July.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Claudia: We’re still in the process of working with product manufacturers to populate our backend database in order to feed information to the app. Without that, we can’t give you quantitative and qualitative metrics.

Zach: We haven’t had a lot of uptick, but we haven’t expected it. Once it’s populated we’ll push it out and market it.

How did Clearbridge Mobile perform from a project management standpoint?

Claudia: We had weekly touch-point meetings that were very quick. They gave us good advice for our ideas and did a lot of the heavy lifting on the design aspect.

What did you find most impressive about Clearbridge Mobile?

Zach: From a technical and customer service perspective, it was a very painless process working with them. They understood what our needs were and gathered our requirements. We do a lot of customer development, and working with them has been very smooth. They presented a design that was very fluid, light and intuitive.

Claudia: They were really easy to work with because they took the time to understand our business.

Are there any areas Clearbridge Mobile could improve?

Zach: I don’t have any suggestions for improvement. We are going to be working with them in the long term.

Claudia: We only had a single point of contact, but that structure was really great for us. We weren’t dealing with five or six people.

Zach: There was no confusion of who to contact if we had any questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Living Spaces, and we are a home furnishings retailer.

What is your position?

I'm the director of e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Clearbridge Mobile?

We didn't have a mobile app, and this was our first time building one. We needed help building the app because our developers in-house didn't have much experience in that realm. We wanted an app that could augment our customer's user experience while they were in the store.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Our app is available on iOS and Android.

How did you come to work with Clearbridge Mobile?

We talked to three different companies. We had an RFP [request for proposal] and Clearbridge Mobile's proposal most closely matched what we needed and what we were looking for in a partner. They had great references and a portfolio full of business-to-consumer apps. We're hoping many people will eventually end up adopting our app. We needed a team that was willing to be flexible during the engagement. We wanted an hourly rate and Clearbridge was comfortable with that. They scoped the work up front and we had that fixed cost estimate as well. Clearbridge fulfilled exactly what we were looking for.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

 The completed project fell between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our app was completed in early November [2015] and took about two months total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app works like we expected and hoped. We've had a little trouble with adoption, but are continuing to work to have customers use it while they are in our store. 

What distinguishes Clearbridge Mobile from other providers?

Communication is a strong point of Clearbridge Mobile. We used Slack together, which I thought was a good way to communicate. They created a specific channel for us, which allowed plenty of back and forth between our developers and their developers. Their team made it an efficient and collaborative experience. I've never done an app development project like this so I don't have anything to compare it to but, overall, I am pleased.

Is there anything Clearbridge Mobile could have improved or done differently?

The one thing for improvement was frequency of project updates and status on timeline or hours. I think it was a month before we got our first update on the development hours. It was higher than they had projected initially. Then, after that, I requested biweekly updates. I wish we would've had that from the beginning of the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're an app company. We are currently developing a mobile keyboard app for iOS and Android.

What is your position?

I'm the president.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Clearbridge Mobile?

Our challenge was finding a reliable and skillful developer.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Clearbridge Mobile?

We looked around at a handful of companies, but at the end of the day, we chose Clearbridge Mobile because they were transparent to how they do their development. We spoke to a number of other firms who mentioned nothing about procedures or mentioned nothing about their actual workflow process. Clearbridge Mobile's transparency definitely led us to them as a service partner.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This project is in the $50,000 to $200,000 range, more so the higher end of that scale.

What is the status of this engagement?

We completed the first demo of our app with Clearbridge, but it's still an ongoing process. We're currently trying to showcase our demo right now, and we're going to stick with them for further development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We didn't provide Clearbridge much direction. They helped us to design the app from start to finish. We didn't go to them with clear screenshots of what we were looking for, so I think the fact that we were able to come up with such a nice-looking product in our timeframe was great. Clearbridge was great throughout the design phase of the process. They have a very good design team that always works with us to come up with something that we love.

What distinguishes Clearbridge Mobile from other providers?

The Clearbridge team is easy to talk to. They use the messaging tool, Slack, which we like. They also have another program that allows us to track the progress of the project. Clearbridge Mobile puts the tools in place to make it easy for the client to interact with them and to ensure that the project is moving along on time. Again, that adds to the transparency piece that I was talking about earlier.

Is there anything Clearbridge Mobile could have improved or done differently?

That's a tough question to answer. This is our first go at an app, so I'm not 100 percent sure of how other firms do things. There were a couple of times when we were told there would be a restriction in a technological aspect of development. We thought that we could do something in a certain way, but after a little more research, we couldn't. I wouldn't necessarily blame them, but that was something that we were a little bit disappointed with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

I was a senior manager of marketing technology responsible for mobile and digital marketing at one of the largest quick service restaurants in Canada. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Clearbridge Mobile?

We needed a partner that knew about NFC [near field communication] inside and out. The partner also needs to be able to implement host card emulation, which is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity of banking cards using only software. Clearbridge Mobile was successful in bringing the project to life.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They were our partner for the complete development of our company's branded mobile app. 

What was your process for selecting Clearbridge Mobile?

We had an RFP [request for proposal] process. Clearbridge Mobile came out with the best proposal. They were the most energetic and proactive. Their solution was the clearest out of all. They also gave us a good proposal. We chose them because they have experience with NFC technology. The others firms we considered were IBM and Xtreme Labs, which were acquired in the past by Pivotal. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

This was a very significant project and partnership, total cost was more than $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We were proud to say we were the first quick service restaurant in North American to launch near field communication payment. Our company received a lot of public attention and media coverage for being the first to launch the payments in our restaurants using NFC.  We received a good return on our investment.

Is there anything unique or special about Clearbridge Mobile that really makes them stand out?

It would be their skill set. The feeling is that Clearbridge Mobile goes above and beyond what you expect from them. I worked heavily with two other vendors, and I didn't see that in those partners. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I would like them to expand their system. I think they can be successful in other areas of digital marketing. They're really technical. I think they have enormous opportunity to add additional capabilities to their skill set and service offering. However, I guess that depends on their strategy for the expansion.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a large media company and the parent company of many smaller publications.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the senior director of mobile development. I'm responsible for all the native apps for all brands. There are about 720 apps in the app stores across Android, iPhone, and iPad. We also have apps for Windows Phone, Windows 8, and mobile Web.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Clearbridge Mobile?

Our first app completed by Clearbridge Mobile was an app for Blackberry for one of our larger brands. At that time, I didn't have the internal staff to develop it, so we engaged Clearbridge Mobile. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

Clearbridge has developed iOS and Android apps for us in addition to our first Blackberry app. They've continued maintenance on past projects. They're currently working on a user-generated content app. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Clearbridge Mobile?

Blackberry gave us three companies as possible companies they would recommend to help us build the app. We did an RFP [request for proposal], and Clearbridge came back with the best presentation. 

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative? When was the work completed?

Across all the apps they've developed for us, it has been $200,000-plus. We started partnering with them about three years ago, and we still have ongoing work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Is there anything unique or special about Clearbridge Mobile that really makes them stand out?

Clearbridge Mobile works well with our team, and they are quite friendly. I've been pleased with the development staffers that they provided us. Their team is easy to get on the phone and work on a problem if there is one. They do well working with our staff. We've negotiated a reasonable rate with them through the years. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Many of the issues we've encountered originated with my company. Some of our user stories weren't being written properly or some things were not done properly through the quality assurance stage. I have several analytics platforms and that can be challenging. Clearbridge Mobile could have improved upon implementing the analytics piece, but they did a great job with everything else.