Tactical Electronics Mobile Application Development
- Mobile App Development
- $10,000 to $49,999
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 5.0
- Cost
- 4.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
"They’re very responsive, timely, and reliable. I constantly tell them how great of a job they’re doing."
- Other industries
- Washington, District of Columbia
- 1-10 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Omega-R is developing a personal-use app for marksmanship coaching simulation. Omega-R has completely taken over all design elements and reshaped the app framework.
Omega-R communicates effectively in a timely manner. The team is fun to work with, highly skilled, and reasonably priced. Omega-R could do more to explain app development to non-experts, but overall, they are highly recommended.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company.
I’m in the startup phase. I’m a statistician and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. I make processes better by studying them. I look at the way people do things when it comes to instructions, and I apply Lean Six Sigma to that to make it better and faster, and to increase efficiency.
What is your role and responsibilities?
I’m the CEO.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What is your goal for this application?
I’m working on a personal app that teaches marksmanship, and Omega-R is helping to fix it and make it complete.
I was a marksmanship instructor for the Marine Corps, so I applied Lean Six Sigma there. I was able to predict what people's scores would be, for instance, an hour in advance. We did that to identify bad shooters before they failed a week later. I decided to make an application that can simulate the coaching abilities of a Marine marksmanship instructor. The coach looks at the target and based on how he instructed the shooter to stand, he can see where the shots landed and tell the shooter exactly what they did wrong so they can get their shots at the center of the target. That’s what the application does.
In this latest phase with Omega-R, we're trying to turn it into a paradigm shift in marksmanship because nothing like this has been done before. You can have a duel with someone in another country or state. By using the accelerometer feature that we just built into it, you would attach your phone to your wrist using a quarterback sleeve. When you hear the noise and the vibration that tells you it's time to draw, you'll hear a shot and feel that vibration. You have to reach for your weapon as fast as possible, pull it out, and take the shot.
The app will record all that information and, after you plot your shots into it, it gives you a caliber rating. When you go into the PIMP [Pistol Instructor Marksmanship Program] Nation section, you can compare your speed and accuracy to everybody else that has the app. So far, there are about 30,000 people using it. In the future, we want to pit users in different nations against each other in the app, so there's a virtual war going on, where everybody's ego and national pride is at stake.
Users can create teams and build a social network for marksmanship enthusiasts, so they can see where they stand. You may have just bought a handgun, and you think you’re ready to defend yourself. If you use this and realize that you’re in the bottom 10 percent, the last thing you want to do is get in a gunfight. You know you have to practice.
We're going to release it for free initially, and our target date is May 17, 2014. We think it will be free for the first month or so. After that, it will be cheap, like 99 cents. We'll do a monthly subscription package if you want to see how you compare to everybody else. We're following the Lumosity.com model, where you can play free all you want. But, to see how your brainpower compares to everybody else, you have to pay for a subscription. That's the idea: If you want to be in PIMP Nation, you would subscribe.
SOLUTION
Please describe the scope of their work.
Because Omega-R is so good, I’ve given them free rein to do whatever they want. I tell them what I want done, and they decide how it will look. They do a lot of the design. They reshaped the framework because they understand what my big picture plan is for the end stage. We're doing the project in different phases, and they restructured it to make growing the app a lot easier in the future. They do the coding and design.
What was your process for selecting Omega-R with which to work?
I went through Elance and reviewed a few people there. I decided to go with them because their portfolio matched my idea the most.
Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?
It's been ongoing for about a year and a half. We’ve released versions of it since then. Omega-R has had three people on the team that I’m aware of, but I’m sure there are other developers involved.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
How did Omega-R perform?
They are always on time. They are very responsive, so if I send them a question, they always get back to me within 24 hours. I haven’t found a challenge for them yet that they haven’t been able to code. They are competent, and they know what they’re doing. I’ve worked with developers in Russia and India before because they’re usually less expensive. The communication barrier can become a problem. It's great that there is no communication barrier with them. They are not super expensive. They’re highly skilled. They’re very responsive, timely, and reliable. I constantly tell them how great of a job they’re doing. I’m very happy with them.
Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?
I’ve worked with about four other developers. They have a personality because many developers don’t. Other foreign developers are too serious and hard to deal with. Omega-R has a fun team to interact with during the project.
Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you would do differently?
I never know what I want when I’m the customer. I have a general idea of what it's supposed to be in the end, and when I see it, I'll like it or I won’t. I would say that if they had a process template, things would be smoother.
For instance, if you go to GoDaddy.com, it's a barrage of options for you to buy stuff. You see things that you didn’t even know you could do. Not so much to try to sell features, but to inform their customers better. I’m still learning as I go along. I’ve learned a lot with them because they’re patient. If they could alleviate some of the confusion associated with app development for non-experts, that would be helpful.
They’re working with customers that are new in this realm of app development, and that would definitely make customer's lives a lot easier. It would help the customers have a more realistic expectation of what the project will take to get them to their goal.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
5.0On time / deadlines
-
Cost
4.0Value / within estimates
-
Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"I’ve already given their name out.
