Lab3 Apps

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the sales and service manager for WilliamsWarn NZ Ltd. We produce and sell a range of brewing hardware and ingredients for both home and commercial use. We are based in NZ and also have a 3PL in Australia to compliment our Australian online shop. We sell to distributors in the US, France, India, Denmark and the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lab3 Apps, and what were your goals?

We tasked Lab3 Apps with designing and building a mobile app for recipe development. Our customers had previously used an interactive excel spreadsheet we had created to help calculate their final beer analysis showing things such as ABV, colour and bitterness. This is a useful tool for people entering beer into competitions as you need to categorize your beer correctly. It is also helpful for people who do not necessarily know a lot about beer as they can compare different recipes and see what the end result will be before brewing,. The challenge for Lab3 was to put this information into an app based platform which was clear and easy to understand and much more user friendly. In the long term we wanted to add extra functionality to compliment hardware additions to our range so the app needed to be built in a way that could be expanded on in future.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

A university student who worked with us over the Summer period put the info from the spreadsheet into a web based application which worked well. He has a relationship with one of the Lab3 staff so it made sense for us to use them to take what he had done and take it to the next level.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Met with lab3 to discuss the scope of the work, what we wanted and what we thought we might want in future. Lab3 then put an action plan together with all of the steps throughout the process. First up was the initial design and layout of the app. Nick did a great job using our existing website design and implementing this same look into the app. We then needed to build the actual app and transfer the calculations across, as these had already been done this was a pretty straight forward process. Once the initial build had been done it was just a case of testing the app and making slight changes where needed.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We initially talked with Chris who is one of the founders. Once he had an idea of what we were after he passed the project on to another one of the Funders Nick who took care of the rest of the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We now have an app on the Play Store that we are proud to call our own. Lab3 delivered on every request on time and to an exceptional standard.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Frequent emails with very clear communication.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Loved the hands on approach to everything they do. The team are friendly and extremely knowledgeable in their field

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Couldn't be more happy with the service we received so as such I have nothing to add. Keep doing what your doing!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner and trainer of the company. Our company does training in and resourcing of effective early reading programmes

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

Creating an alphabet app that two previous companies were unable to do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

All the technical side of creating the app.

What is the team composition? 

Edward and Nick.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

Googled for a company to make the app and liked their website. 

How much have you invested with them?

I have not invested with them. I just paid them to do the job.

What is the status of this engagement?

Completed the project but planning to work with them again in the future on another project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is now out and working well and receiving much praise. I wish I had found Lab3 at the start. It would have saved me years of frustration and money wasted going with two previous companies who failed to produce the app.

Right from the start, Lab3 really listened to us and took time to find out what we were trying to do. They are innovative and solved problems the previous two companies couldn’t. You could not find a nicer company to work with. Every interaction we had with Lab3 Apps was positive and productive. I highly recommend Lab3.  

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent. professional, easy to work with, genuine and they have integrity. Much better than the two previous companies that I engaged.

What did you find most impressive about them?

That they were solution-focused and so easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of  Reactar Labs, an AR product development company. We're focused on transforming the buying experience for new construction through our homeAR platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lab3 Apps?

We have a vision for homeAR but missing were missing some of the skills required to bring it to life. Lab3 augment our in house development team to provide both specialist skills and capacity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lab3 have been involved from the outset, from technical scoping of the designed solution, through initial development and now ongoing development and support. They support all areas of product development, apps, API, back-end, databases.

What is the team composition?

We work with Nick, Chris, and Edward — Lab3 Apps’ co-founders.

How did you come to work with Lab3 Apps?

They were referred to us by another company we were working with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $150,000–$250,000 NZD (approximately $103,000–$172,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off our ongoing engagement with Lab3 Apps in November 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Lab3 Apps has worked as an extension of our team and have been instrumental in what we've been able to deliver so far.

Their expertise in augmented reality has really developed since we've been working with them and together we're pioneering some really exciting solutions. 

Overall, they’ve been a proactive and solution-oriented partner — we can’t ask for anything more.

How did Lab3 Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a broad project scope — the fact that Lab3 Apps manages to understand that and deliver accurate solutions further highlights their impressive project management skills. Additionally, they always adhere to our timelines and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lab3 Apps continues to prove that they have the exact expertise we need to flourish, and that’s what stands out about them. I’ve worked with similar service providers before, and I can confirm that Lab3 Apps is on top of their game. They deliver quality and cost-effective results when we need them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we're very happy with our relationship with Lab3 Apps

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any project partner, it's always good to have a concise project plan from the get-go to avoid any misalignments. A defined scope is a great instrument to kick off any engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Director of AimHi Education Ltd, a live online interactive education company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lab3 Apps, and what were your goals?

Our goal was to build a live interactive online education system, that was not only extremely easy to use, but looked well put together, had a full functional back end and a great user system, both for students, teachers and admin users.

We hired Lab3 Apps to build the full system from the ground up, from wire frame designs to the final live product build.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We ran a number of interviews with potential vendors and by a margin, Lab3 were the standout. Lab3 were not only exceptionally professional in their RFP response but also showed that they had fully considered the whole process in a way that none of the other vendors had.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope was broad involving wireframing all screens from a student, teacher and admin interface, through to building the back end to deliver the finished product.

Workstreams were split into sprints and then again into smaller sub sprints, with deliverables including a full teacher student live interface, ability to set up, amend, cancel and send out reminders for lessons for teachers, the ability to sign up, cancel and follow particular teachers and courses for students, and a a payment structure using tokens and money, both subscription and one off payments. 

In terms of the tech used: The frontend of the web app was written using Angular as a web framework, with a backend using Google Firebase and other Google Cloud Platform services including BigQuery. Live streaming was provided by integrating with live-streaming API’s from mux.com and embedded Vimeo. AI was hosted through AWS (run by AI specialists but implemented by Lab3

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Two of the vendor team worked with us for the majority of the time, effectively as a full time project, with additional members being brought on as the project approached completion to ensure deadlines were met. Chris M. - Co founder and Director Jake C. - Co founder and Director Not only are their technical skills brilliant, but they are also a pleasure to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Lab3 has created a unique, bespoke product for us that has allowed us to increase our reach ( to 10,000 people per session), our engagement, our moderation on live lessons and ultimately our impact on the learners that come through our system.

The project was part of an R&D Innovate UK deliverable and the monitoring team there, who see hundreds of these projects a year, were astounded at the developments made in the short timeline and the unique build of the product

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Project management was brilliant. They kept us abreast of timing for any sprint deliverables, when glitches came up they worked overtime to deliver the key points, they fed in ideas above and beyond what we had communicated with them and were constantly thinking about how to make the product better. They kept all communication channels open to us and were available at short notice whenever anything went wrong

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We had access to the full team at the drop of a hat. They were engaged constantly, never had to be chased, and were proactive in giving us feedback on what they thought would and wouldnt work throughout the process, from the design to the AI integration, to the push notifications and even the user flow. I think they are a unique company in this space.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I do not think that there was anything that I would say needed improvement. They outperformed our expectations on all fronts. Highly recommended

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Campaign Coordinator at Narrative Campaigns. Narrative works with socially conscious entrepreneurs and organisations to help them ‘change the narrative’; we bring communities together, we tell stories and we showcase impact. We couple admirable purpose with savvy copy and we work with people creating impact on the issues that matter through strategy, campaigning and crowdfunding.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lab3 Apps, and what were your goals?

We worked with Lab3 on creating a companion app for children throughout New Zealand to use while watching an after-school TV programme on one of the nations most watched channels. The aim was to allow children to interact directly with the show through a range of fun and engaging features presented to them via the app. The show relied heavily on content from viewers, including images, video and creations made at home. The app needed to host the large amount of content submitted daily, while allowing for the team behind the scenes to grab that content and use it on the big screen.

SOLUTION

How did you select Lab3 Apps and what were the deciding factors?

The team at Lab3 were an obvious choice to work alongside during this project - their knowledge of the technical skills required, along with their ability to communicate clearly during all stages were highly valuable to us. This project was done under extremely short timeframes and tight budgets, which they managed with ease.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Deadlines were set from the outset, with the turnaround of the final app needing to be delivered in just six week. Weekly meetings were had with the "full team" - Lab3, Narrative, the TV show production team and the designer. Daily meetings were had between myself, the client and Lab3 - as the project coordinator, I fed information between groups. This took place through project management tools such as Slack. Testing was carried out in a number of school, organised by our team - the Lab3 team then adjusted the final outcome according to the use of the test groups and their feedback.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We primarily worked with Nick, with support from Jake & Tom, later in the process. The full team at Lab3 were around for creative and technical meetings as required.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The website and app were used by thousands of children across New Zealand weekly - with a significant proportion of users returning daily. The show aired at 4pm, which is when the app received it's largest spike in users - which was its purpose as a companion app across devices. Though targeted at 7 - 12 year olds, the app was used by children (and their parents!) of all ages. There were over 2 million impressions across social media on the Fanimals platforms in 2019. There were 200,000+ sessions on the app in 2019, over 2 million screenviews and 60,000 unique users. There was a "Club" as part of the app which had 40,000 profiles, 33,000 pets registered and 60,000 messages were sent within the app (2019).

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We had daily contact with the team: across Slack, Teams, phone calls and email, we had their full attention as and when required. Weekly updates were provided to keep the full team on track and aware of timelines.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team had an ability to see hurdles and challenges as opportunities - even in the most stressful of deadlines, they were calm and delivered what was required. What was especially appreciated was the thought put into the users of the app: children. The team ensured that technically the app was as easy as possible for children to use, and that the language used across the app was always understandable. Additional research went into this, which we really valued. Time was taken to make even the smallest transitions interesting and engaging for young people, which was beyond the brief.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Testing the app with the primary users (children) earlier in the development could have helped avoid small issues when testing further down the line - this was an issue caused by tight timeframes, not by the fault of anyone from Lab3.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sentro is a cloud native group insurance policy admin platform that allows insurers around the world to grow their business without complex manual administration by connecting their customers, partners, and systems. I'm the technical product manager at Sentro, responsible for leading the product development and implementation with customers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lab3 Apps?

We needed a improved core administration front end to allow our customers to manage their own policies in a more efficient way. It was a greenfields project, but very complex as it spanned many functional areas related to group benefits administration. We didn't have the internal resources to implement such a large project ourselves so we looked externally to Lab3 for assistance

What were your goals for this project?

Allow administration of an insurers benefits and their policies. We wanted to make use of all the latest platforms and tools. As a result the project was implemented using Angular 9 responsive web applications. Security is also a major factor for us, so privileged role based access was key.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a local provider that was small and responsive, just like our team at Sentro. Lab3 felt like the perfect fit for us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We provided rough UX mocks and relatively high level functional requirements, Lab3 were entirely responsible for the delivery of a working administration platform. One of the best aspects of working with Lab3 was that we could trust them to fill in any blanks in our specifications with logical assumptions and later raise them with us, avoiding blockages along the way. It really felt like working with an internal team.

What was the team composition?

Lab3 was supported by a single project manager from Sentro and they had four developers working with us at the peak of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The finished administration platform is in use with our customers already. We're constantly making more improvements and look to retain Lab3's services for future projects.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was largely "hands off" from Sentro, we let Lab3 get on with delivering it without any real project involvement apart from weekly progress meetings. We used Microsoft teams primarily for communication and all shared code was checked into a BitBucket repository for code reviews and CI checks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It's a small but growing team that think and operate like a startup. They're nimble and provide value quickly, and are always willing to think "outside the box" on how something can be improved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Very little