NFN Labs

Please describe your company and your position there.

We set up The Learning Community at Quest three years ago as an inclusive space where learners of all ages could pursue doing things they were interested in. Over time, this space evolved into an inclusive environment for children of different backgrounds and abilities to freely use the resources at Quest and build the habit of learning.

The idea of Breadcrumb flowed as a natural corollary to provide a safe digital space for children so that the physical and virtual world seamlessly come together as a playground for the child to navigate and learn by doing.

Today, Breadcrumb - The Learning App is an iPad app for children to feel a sense of ownership over what they learn as they traverse through content that helps them explore a variety of interests and discover their own potential. I am the co-founder.

For what projects/services did your company hire NFN Labs, and what were your goals?

We engaged with NFN Labs for the design and development of our app. We wanted to create a classy, minimalist app that intuitively helps learners feel comfortable as they explored, learnt and journaled.

How did you select NFN Labs and what were the deciding factors?

I've known one of the founders of NFN Labs from a previous project I'd worked on. The quality of their work was phenomenal and I wouldn't have done this with anyone else.

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

We wanted the interface for the learner to be on the ipad; but for the entire backend to be on the browser. So we requested that we have individual access for the various stakeholders in the learners life including the learning centres, experts, curators and also an admin who would control the quality of the content that is approved.

The parent also got to access their child's progress through a beautiful interface that helped them understand everything their child enjoyed learning.

For the learner using the iPad interface, we required 4 sections - An Exploration section where they child could discover content, a Schedule section where they could plan their work, a Journal section where they could record their everyday learnings and a Profile section where they could understand the progress they've made.

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

From NFN Labs there was a design team member, a backend developer, web frontend developer, iOS developer, Quality analyst and a product manager.

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

The app was well received by learners at our learning centre and at a school where we piloted the idea of a 'Breadcrumb class' through their normal hours of schooling. Our team is happy with the product as we've had a very smooth experience with little to no glitches. A true testament to the product was when Apple reached out to us inviting for a consultation with them.

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

NFN Labs is our Technology Partner in making this dream a reality. They’ve been our greatest support in helping plan priorities to being pixel perfect. With a very mature and talented team, they pack quite a punch with every version we roll out and we could not have asked for better.

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

Their willingness to explore the unknown with us, transparent and clear communication, attention to detail without losing the big picture, willing to go the length with us and ownership.

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

I would not have had this any other way.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an audio conferencing company. We provide a conferencing service through our solution. I am a project manager for the company, working on our mobile apps.

What challenge were you trying to address with NFN Labs?

In 2012, we wanted to launch a mobile application. We had been using traditional methods for audio conferences, and we wanted to make an app that would make calling many as easy as calling one person. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started working with NFN Labs several years ago. I have worked with the same UX [user experience] and UI [user interface] team since then, and NFN Labs helped us evolve our idea into a complete product. We used another company for app development.

We gave NFN Labs a very detailed requirements document. They produced our design based on those requirements. We were starting from scratch, so NFN Labs helped on the design front. They designed a logo, wireframes, and all the graphics for the first version of our product, which was done in 2013.

We have recently engaged NFN Labs again for a retail version of our product. We are launching the same conferencing app called MultiCall on a larger scale. Our MultiCall app allows users to call multiple people at once, with the touch of a button.

How did you come to work with NFN Labs?

NFN Labs was referred to us by one of our partners.

How much have you invested with NFN Labs?

The cost of our initial project with NFN Labs was around 13 lakhs rupees [approx. $20,000]. The cost of our current project will be similar.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with NFN Labs in 2012. The initial project completed in 2013 and the first version of the app was launched. We engaged with NFN Labs again in 2014 for a website. We are currently working with them on the new version of our application.

Our app is available for Android and iOS. The earlier version is in closed circulation, but it's not up in app stores. The current version should be launched during 2017.

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

NFN Labs' UI/UX work was fairly good. It did require a few corrections and review from our end, but we have been satisfied. The app hasn't gone live yet, so we have no user reviews.

How did NFN Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

NFN Labs' delivery was on time, but they could improve regarding precision. There have been elements which needed reviewing. They use Trello for tracking the status of the work. We monitor the progress on a daily basis, we also communicate with NFN Labs' team via email and meet in-person once in a while since we are both based in India.

What did you find most impressive about NFN Labs?

NFN Labs has a team of enthusiastic people who are up-to-date with their industry. They're a good company to work with.

Are there any areas NFN Labs could improve?

While we are largely happy with the work done by NFN, they could concentrate on internal reviews before the deliverable is given to the customers.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a FinTech startup that helps make credit accessible. Our startup works with employers to provide credit to employees as an alternative to advance payments, which is a drain for every company. We've combined multiple platforms technologies into an online solution. The platform is accessible to anyone online, providing branchless lending.

What business challenge were you trying to address with NFN Labs?

We required a partner who could understand our financial process, and who could work with our other developer, in order to launch our platform as soon as possible.

In India, credit is not accessible to every individual applicant. There are many traditional banks and vendors who are able to lend only to people who have a credit score. This means that a large part of India is not able to access their services and have a financial backup. Our goal, therefore, is to limit the barriers of this population between themselves and their loan applications.

Our aim is to allow employees to provide credit to other employees as a financial wellness program and as an employee welfare initiative. We needed a technology partner who would be able to understand the entire process of developing a loan application form, integrating with other systems, and making the entire process seamless for the applicant.

What was the scope of their involvement?

A previous developer we worked with messed up a few things which needed to be solved in order to meet our deadline for getting to market. We had a fixed timeline in which we needed to launch. Because of these issues and the fixed deadline, NFN Labs' work was a combination of developing from scratch, setting the previous development in order, and performing integration work.

NFN Labs has worked on our web-based application. As a second phase, we plan to develop a mobile app, which is the most efficient way of penetrating the market. The design came from NFN Labs as well. We gave examples of what we liked from other companies and wanted these to come together to make something that represented our company. In the end, NFN Labs provided us with a design that fit with our goals, and they were able to use their experience to help guide us to the right end product.

How did you come to work with NFN Labs?

A friend of mine referred NFN Labs to me. I did some research on them and found that NFN Labs had already worked with other startups. In fact, they had worked with a FinTech startup, though it was not in our space, this gave me a sense of comfort.

How much have you invested with NFN Labs?

The cost of NFN Labs' work has been $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with NFN Labs in April 2016. We have an ongoing support package with plans for future development.

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

There is no direct correlation between development quality and user reception, but we've been successful in reaching out to ten companies with a cumulative headcount of 5,000–6,000 employees. We’ve also started receiving several loan applications.

The demand is extremely strong, and we do have the advantage of being a unique player for this segment of the market. Our daily users are in the high hundreds, which is good for a recently-launched startup.

The design of our application form is dictated by the data points we need to receive from the applicant. This requirement is in-turn mandated by Reserve Bank of India's norms. Because of this, we did whatever was workable within that window.

How did NFN Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Every time we set up a project plan, we received a single point of contact for project management. We worked directly with one of NFN Labs' co-founders. Having access to a top-level person helped speed things up in case of any issues. There was someone there to take responsibility and ownership of the entire project.

Deadlines were sometimes missed, but I wouldn’t put it on NFN Labs. We've had some minor deadline issues, but they were outside of NFN Labs' control.

In terms of our processes, we track and follow-up on issues through Bitbucket. We also had some internal communication channels that helped take care of the entire process.

What did you find most impressive about NFN Labs?

Because of my previous experience, I've found that developers who can see a product from the customer's point of view are extremely rare. Working with NFN Labs has been a serious change. NFN Labs understood my concerns over cost, convenience, design, etc., and took them to their side of the table. I don't see that many developers doing this nowadays.

Are there any areas NFN Labs could improve?

After every development, I would like to receive some consultation from NFN Labs on whether I should internalize further development, or helping us with identifying tools which can catalyze the platform and reach the audience much better. NFN Labs should do more proactive work in this area, rather than having me follow-up with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are Kumanti Consulting Services. We’re part of a 100-year-old group, mainly in distribution of FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] and pharmaceutical items in West Africa. We represent many multinationals and pharmaceutical companies. We typically carry about 6,000 to 10,000 storekeeping items, and we distribute in Nigeria and Ghana, with sourcing offices in Dubai. I am the group’s CIO.

What challenge were you trying to address with NFN Labs?

Our main business is on Oracle E-Business Suite ERP [enterprise resource planning]. In 2012, we wanted to create an application to help our salespeople with booking orders, issuing invoices, and so on. We had already developed a tablet-based Android application. We were looking at mobile as more of a typical enterprise application, and our frontend looked very rough to our users. It was not user-friendly at all. We needed to find a firm that could translate our application into something easy to use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

NFN Labs designed the UI [user interface] for the application, which was something users in our company could easily relate to. I gave NFN Labs a rough draft of what we wanted, and they came back with a product that was beyond what I expected. I was always excited to see what NFN Labs brought back to me. We’ve now been using the app for five years, and it’s very stable and very intuitive for our employees.

The app’s UI allows salespeople to organize all customer data, including order history, scheduling, and invoice details. They can set up surveys and ask for responses from customers. It also shows the salesperson’s personal performance metrics on a day-to-day basis and what kind of incentive is earned.

We also asked NFN Labs to create two web applications. The first is an app that gets GPS data from Oracle showing a salesperson’s location history. It shows the expected route for that person, any deviations from that route, and his current location.

The other web app that NFN Labs developed deals with point-of-sale items from our suppliers. Suppliers expect us to display these items in retail outlets. Our company had a challenge while trying to ensure that this expectation was carried out. NFN Labs developed an app that allows us to tag pictures and GPS data provided by salespeople, showing that the appropriate item was displayed. We’re able to create an album, which is then reviewed by a group within the company and rated. Based on the rating, points are accumulated, and the salespeople can receive rewards.

We then worked with NFN Labs to develop an MIS [management information system] application. We would feed NFN Labs all our sales data, and we wanted it to be analyzed and presented in a graphical manner in multiple dimensions, such as product, geography, and salesperson. The application was quite effective; however, since then we switched to another application for this process.

Recently, we developed an Android application to help our executive team to see a breakdown of our sales numbers. We wanted to have this app available for iOS users as well but didn’t have the skills in-house to do that. I asked NFN Labs to assist me with this project.

How did you come to work with NFN Labs?

We heard about them through word-of-mouth.

How much have you invested with NFN Labs?

We’ve spent approximately $50,000 over the course of the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship started in 2012, and the work on the first project was completed within two months. The two web applications took about 4–6 weeks each. The most recent project was in 2015 and is complete.

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

Quality was never an issue with NFN Labs. Anytime we had issues with something put into production; they were quick to fix it. Anytime I asked NFN Labs to do work that was outside the original scope of the project; they were very happy to do so without charging extra. NFN Labs worked like part of our organization rather than as an external contractor. Whenever I have an issue, my first call is to NFN Labs. I have the confidence to seek them out every time.

Our users are always happy with the applications that NFN Labs has done. There have never been any complaints. It’s all been very well-received.

How did NFN Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve had no challenges with NFN Labs' timeliness. They were always on time, within acceptable limits. We were always updated on the project status. When we had a critical deadline, we asked their developers to work in our office, and they did. NFN Labs has been very flexible and professional.

What did you find most impressive about NFN Labs?

I like that NFN Labs is neither a small or extremely large company. They’re the right size, and they’re always eager and fresh. NFN Labs is happy to help and get things done. I believe their prices are fair.

It was very easy to get ourselves aligned in the way we think about the requirements and how that’s translated into a solution. Technically, NFN Labs is absolutely brilliant. They’ve never given me false promises. If something can’t be done, they always explain why.

Are there any areas NFN Labs could improve?

There may be areas where NFN Labs can improve or grow, but I’ve never been disappointed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of FundsIndia, a mutual fund platform catering to retail customers in India.

What challenge were you trying to address with NFN Labs?

Initially, we needed a firm to create PowerPoints for our investor presentations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Primarily, the projects NFN Labs worked on have centered around UX and development. They did a good job with our first PowerPoint project and we secured significant funding using that deck. Based on that experience, we asked NFN Labs to do some UX [user experience] work for our website. Later, we engaged them again for some mobile UX work for our Android and iOS apps.

Initially, they came up with a UX design that we implemented using our in-house team. We told them the objective, which was to make the UI [user interface] more modern. They came up with the wireframes and the design ideas.

Subsequently, they developed a mobile app for both iOS and Android. We wanted a functional equivalent of our website, which is a full-fledged investment platform. Investors could use a dashboard to track their investments, look at reports, modify account information, and complete monetary transactions. We gave them the concept and business logic, and they did the UX and frontend programming for Android. They created the wireframes, the interaction flow, and the functional flow. We provided the backend business services and the concepts of the application. Their final product on our iOS app was limited to the frontend design.

How did you come to work with NFN Labs?

We have mutual contacts and we’re both in the same city. I knew some of their team through social circles, and I reached out to them.

How much have you invested with NFN Labs?

Over the course of the relationship, we’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first project started in June of 2012, and we completed the last one in early 2016.

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

The first project was instrumental in securing funding for our company. The second project increased our conversions by about 30%. The app they created has been received well and got a 4-star review in the App Store. It was a good starting point for FundsIndia.

How did NFN Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Although they didn’t always hit the deadlines, the quality was good. I understand that some projects can take longer than expected. We had constant interaction and communication, so there were no surprises. We used Dropbox and Google Docs at times to share information.

What did you find most impressive about NFN Labs?

They’re flexible and willing to adjust their processes to match the needs of their customer. I didn’t feel forced into a particular structure that wasn’t comfortable for me.

Are there any areas NFN Labs could improve?

It would be helpful to do more formal research and groundwork before starting development, possibly engaging external entities. Talking to our customers would have yielded more insights. I believe integrating this approach into their process going forward will make them more successful.