Sonin App Development

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development, and what were your goals?

The development of my live streaming fitness app. I wanted to create a platform for people to enjoy live and on demand workouts from anywhere in the world at an affordable cost. I wanted to app to be easy to navigate, excellent quality and super interactive with members.

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

We search online for developers around our area. We spoke to 4 other developer companies. Sonin stood out amongst the rest because they seemed so hands on, helpful and willing to please. They gave me ideas as well as listening to all my dreams and ideas of what this app should provide and look like.

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

We had weekly meetings to discuss the wireframes and design. Within 3 weeks they had already build the basic wire frame for the log in and sign up section. After this was confirmed the design went ahead and was presented to me 2 weeks later by Sarah. After this the app went in for the first build, I was kept up to date with everything going on via Trello which Sophie kept very up to date.

I was aware of all the steps they were taking and they were always on the end of a phone call if I needed them. Within 6 months they had released the trail version of the app for testing. After a few minor tweaks I was able to launch the first version of my app in October 2021. We are now full steam ahead with the 2nd lots of features.

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

A project manager, Sophie was appointed as our main point of contact throughout the first app build. I have now been handed over to Laurence who is managing my 2nd lot of features.

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

My app is still in the soft launch phase but all my current members who have access to it (over 1000 women) are absolutely loving it. Sonin have been very hands on with any teething problems we have come across fixing them within 24 hours.

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

The project manager was easy to communicate with, Sophie always kept us up to date with weekly calls and the Trello board. She is very helpful and super friendly.

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

The rate of production. After speaking to others who have developed an app Sonin seems to be extremely fast at turning things around and creating something of high quality. They also are very willing to learn and grow, my app was the first live streaming too they have ever developed. They never and still haven't turned down an idea of mine. They always find ways to make my ideas come to life within the app. This is just the beginning of our journey together as I will continue to grow and develop this app over the next few years.

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

Just one thing, seeing as I was only able to test properly with my members in early hours of the morning (7am) I didn't have any form of contact with any of the team for when things didn't go to plan with a live stream. I would have liked it if we could have done the first few together to eliminate problems there and then.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CCO of a groundbreaking CleanTech business based in the U.K.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development, and what were your goals?

Our North Star was “To increase business efficiency across-the-board while raising visibility and enhancing the customer experience at every step throughout the entire process”. We hired Sonin to develop a mobile app and web portal for viewing all pertinent information from energy generation, storage, consumption, and recycled plastic relating to our CleanTech products.

Our initial workshop goals were:

• For Sonin to gain a foundation knowledge of our brand and its business objectives.

• To understand our key stakeholders, our target users, and their requirements.

• Identify the biggest opportunities available to us.

• Explore and prioritise the desired product features.

• Build an actionable product roadmap that will provide us and our users with the most value, quickly. Our ultimate goal was to make the mobile app and web portal as simple as possible to understand and use so that people are more likely to embrace and ultimately enjoy using our CleanTech products on our shared journey to reducing carbon emissions and achieving ‘net-zero’.

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

We organised meetings with a number of app development companies that we felt were a good fit as far as their personal approach, knowledge of our business, the technical aspects of our products and skill sets of their employees to work as a team. We felt Sonin came out best by far in all categories and I firmly believe this is largely influenced by the leadership qualities of the MD Paul Jarrett.

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

We had a series of discovery workshops to explore our goals and objectives and then went in to the finer detail to explore the specifics of each function. We developed app pages initially with wireframes and then added design and functionality in real time with our designer Sarah who was incredibly patient and could read our design ideas / direction intuitively with lightening fast execution. Due to the pandemic, everything was completed remotely via video conference and screen share.

To deliver the quality that Sarah and the team achieved with these limitations was so impressive to us and the final product more than exceeded our expectations. We made use of multiple software platforms in order to collaborate. Miro was particularly useful for our workshops as we could all share and discuss ideas quickly and clearly in order to progress to the development stage.

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

Sonin made everyone available to us whom we required and were willing to adapt their work approach where necessary to suit ours given the unique nature of our app, our attention to detail and design and technical requirements. We had a project manager, designer, technical / app development team and Paul the MD would always be on hand for progress meetings and feedback.

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

Our app is still under construction and coming to its final stages of completion so we do not have any measurable outcomes as yet however we anticipate it will be met with great enthusiasm as we roll out our technologies very soon. We had minor delays on our (client) side regarding information required for our web portal however Sonin helped us grab time back by being active in other areas whilst we sourced the information required while being patient and calm with us throughout!

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

We particularly liked Sonin’s communication style as the chosen medium was appropriate depending on the communication at hand. Any important meetings for discussion were handled over video conference calls where we all had plenty of time to ask questions and make sure on both sides that we understood eachother and that objectives and deliverables were clear.

Emails were used for transactional interactions where necessary to assist with progression and phone calls either side of the working day would be commonplace to discuss wider feedback and program updates. We were massively impressed with communication in general from Sonin.

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

People are always a deciding factor for our business when we consider sub-contracting to a partner or collaborator. The most impressive thing to us was Sonin’s personal touch, appetite to understand our mission, and to put that same care into producing an app that is going to change people’s lives and the way they live. Paul there understood this very quickly and together we were able to articulate this very easily to the team so everyone was up to speed.

We were particularly impressed with Sarah in the design team who blew us away with her skills and speed of execution. Ray, our project manager has also been incredible at keeping us on track and asking for information/direction to ensure nothing is forgotten in the final product and so that we met all of our deadlines.

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

We really have nothing but praise for Sonin, they went truly above and beyond for us. We even had an urgent requirement from them that was time-sensitive and wasn’t quite part of our original scope and this was accommodated without complaint and undertaken with true professionalism. Again, I believe this is due to them understanding the scale of impact that we want to create in the world and they acted as a true partner all of the way through.

We cannot thank them enough, as they put themselves forward at every opportunity to help us bring our solutions to market as quickly as possible so we can start reducing the worlds fossil fuel consumption and put a real dent in CO2 emissions causing the exacerbated climate change problems we see year on year.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of an Escape Room company. We've got several locations across the South of England and thousands of players have enjoyed our unique hand-crafted experiences.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development, and what were your goals?

We partnered with Sonin to connect the different steps in our booking experience through a customer-facing app and a scheduling system for our staff. We wanted a better experience for customers and more visibility into the buyer journey.

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

It involved a lot of research. We were looking for a partner with the experience and capacity to develop a platform on mobile and web side by side. We narrowed it down to a shortlist of three and then sat down with each agency. From the start, Sonin seemed like a great cultural fit for us. They understood what we were trying to do. They clearly cared about what we were building. Last but not least, they had the experience and skills to back it up.

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

The first step was a workshop. When you're looking at the entire booking experience, there's a lot you can do. The workshop helped narrow down our feature set to what we should do. The roadmap out the back of that workshop is what drove the whole project. The first major milestone was getting escape room bookings synced up between our website, the new native app, and our existing backend. But since then, we've added lots of new features that add value to our customer journey. Users can explore 360-degree previews of all our rooms.

The app remembers which rooms they've already explored to prioritise new experiences. Once they've selected a room and checked out, all their booking information along with an accompanying QR code ticket is saved for easy access. One especially great feature (that came from the process mapping activity during discovery) is using geolocation to pin users' tickets to their screens when they arrive at one of our locations. Every one of these interactions is recorded to our content management system where we can see an aggregate of the customer journey and where users are dropping off.

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

It was different levels of resource at different stages of the project. The Project Manager was our main point of contact. That was consistent. We also worked quite closely with one of their designers a lot. During development and deployment, we had web, Android and iOS developers on the team. Being able to switch up resource at different stages was a big deal for us. It's just not something we could do in-house with all the different functions that go into building a complex platform like this.

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

The integration between our website, the native app and our booking system has given us the visibility we need to better manage bookings and pinpoint potential problems during the customer journey. We've already seen an uptick in sales. That's entirely thanks to the app. The ability to follow up with customers using promotional push notifications has also been a game-changer for our marketing team.

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

Communication was super important for us. We spoke through phone and email and received weekly project updates on the progress of each sprint. Everyone in the product team (their side and ours) also had access to a shared Slack channel which was great for one-off questions and allowed us to share information quickly. In my opinion, the effectiveness of the workflow between our team and theirs is the number one reason the project was so successful.

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

The output of the workshop was impressive. We've done similar discovery pieces with other agencies before and, while the learnings are always useful, the proposed solutions always seem to be tied to the agency in one way or another. With Sonin, I felt like we could have gone through an RFP based on the specification report they delivered. We didn't. But the fact that we could have offered a nice level of flexibility.

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

We had a really good experience with Sonin. The results have been fantastic, and I highly recommend working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Commercial Director at OpenAir Medical Devices. OpenAir Med builds user-led products to provide peace-of-mind and the improve quality of life to our users suffering from respiratory illness.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development, and what were your goals?

We needed an app that would work seamlessly with an IoT-enabled healthcare device we were building. The device records peak flow and lung capacity data. The app would have to instantly feed this data back to users. This data needed to be presented in a way that was easy-to-understand. We wanted to give control back to patients by helping them to better understand their conditions.

To do that, we needed an agency that would be able to work on the integrations required as well as the overall platform experience. Every week, over 10,000 new people are diagnosed with a respiratory illness. These conditions affect every aspect of a patient's life. This is why we launched OpenAir Med. The goal was to provide patients with peace-of-mind wherever they are. Meanwhile, the vision was to use the data collected to deliver proactive, personalised healthcare advice at an unprecedented scale. To do that, the app had to act as a flexible foundation for future development and enhancements.

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

We wanted an agency with experience in healthcare as well as with the Internet of Things (IoT). Sonin had both. Their portfolio showed their team understood how to use mobile to make personalised healthcare happen. They were also working with Smarter on the iKettle's accompanying app. We felt safe knowing Sonin could deliver a best-in-class IoT-enabled healthcare app. That's why we chose them to develop our digital platform.

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

Sonin built an IoT-enabled app for iOS and Android as well as the accompanying back-end to view the data collected. Set-up is seamless. This is where the emphasis on user experience came into play. Users can register for OpenAir Med and take their first reading in just a matter of minutes. Feedback is then instant. A universal traffic light system makes it easy for patients to understand their peak flow and lung capacity readings. During all this, in the background, OpenAir Med uses device data and third-party integrations to automatically capture contextual information like location, weather conditions and pollution levels. With OpenAir Med, patients don't just understand when their health is in danger - they understand why. We've continued to work with Sonin to support and enhance the OpenAir Med app as we move into production of the hardware.

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

We took an agile approach and worked in focused sprints. This meant that the team composition changed depending on what challenge we were solving or features we were building at the time. The core team, however, remained consistent which helped to maintain a nuanced understanding of our business throughout.

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

While the app is still in a closed beta, we've already built a foundation for making personalised healthcare happen at an unprecedented scale. As more users join the platform, we'll be able to develop an invaluable dataset of seasonal and conditional trends, which we can use to provide proactive healthcare advice that saves lives.

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

Very effective across-the-board. The collaboration between us, Sonin, and the hardware managers was excellent. From a project management point of view we interacted with Sonin using Trello as well as standard communication from email, phone and Zoom

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

When we initially approached Sonin, we were still defining the OpenAir Med platform. We didn't have hardware providers in-place but Sonin had a partner who managed the hardware procurement alongside their app development. Doing this simultaneously meant progress on the platform was much faster than it would have been otherwise.

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

Overall we have been very happy with the deliverables. With remote working and lack of face to face project meetings the only point to add is I think we could have utilised some more regular WIP touchpoints

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a Healthcare chain, as part of which we are developing a health and fitness app that gives people the motivation they need to get the 150 minutes of exercise per week that's required to stay healthy.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development?

We needed someone to work with us on the strategy and design behind our health and fitness app. As we were bringing a new product to market on a tight timescale, it was important to understand where we should focus our efforts first to create the most impact.

What were your goals for this project?

We all have time for exercise. It's just making it a priority that's the problem for so many. The goal for the app is to make it easier for people to fit exercise into their lives. Through the app, we're helping people turn exercise into a sustainable habit.

How did you select Sonin App Development?

We were impressed with their portfolio, the quality of their work and their client list. What made them stand out among the others though was their approach. Their whole process was based around building and validating the business case for the app first which was exactly what we needed.

Describe the project in detail.

The app uses gamification and competition to incentivize exercise. Users get points for every minute they spend working out against a weekly target that's directly tied to the World Health Organisation's recommendation. These points then get added to a weekly leaderboard of friends and family members which incentivizes users even more.

Sonin worked with us as we built out the business case for the app. They helped us to organise our roadmap based on what would bring the most benefit to our users and help them improve their health.

What was the team composition?

We dealt mostly with the Managing Director, our Product Manager and their UX and UI designers who helped us work out the strategy and turn it into a prototypes. They fed back recommendations from different departments like design, project management, development and product success which was incredibly useful.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

In a short space of time, we were able to plan and launch the app. The reason we were able to move so fast was thanks to the practical advice Sonin provided and the strategy they helped us to implement.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow and communication between the teams were excellent. I always had access and time to discuss anything I needed. Every team member that I spoke to has always been open, enthusiastic, and demonstrated a high-level domain knowledge.

Using their experience in the healthcare sector, they were also able to provide us with recommendations on the revenue model that would best support the app's growth.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their advice was amazing. What was most impressive though was how they communicated it. They explained every decision in detail. This meant we built our own understanding of product strategy and management instead of just implementing their suggestions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are no areas where I would suggest improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an HR talent management organization. We have clients who come to us to set up their HR and talent management systems.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonin App Development?

Our system wasn’t digitized; it was effectively run on spreadsheets. We originally started doing this on a paper system. We then morphed it across to a Lotus 1-2-3 which was a very early version of Excel. 

After we moved onto Excel, we wanted to digitize it, so we hired Sonin to digitize the whole system for us which gave us an opportunity to start from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first had to sit down and write the spec. We sat with Sonin and specified what we wanted. We were lucky in the sense that we were already running a system, albeit it wasn’t digitized, so we were able to get our specification pretty accurately. 

With that specification, we then agreed on them producing wireframes. They wireframed the whole process. We then troubleshot the wireframes and worked out what would and wouldn’t work because some things that worked in Excel wouldn’t work digitally.

They were able to tell us that we didn’t have to do it a certain way and that they could cut it and make it a lot faster. They were also able to tell us they could crunch much more data than we had been doing at that moment which is exactly what we needed. 

After the wireframes, we then agreed on the cost and a program in terms of time and off we went. We had a good understanding as to what we needed because we had been doing it for over 20 years, but of course what we didn’t know was what they could do for us, and what they were capable of doing. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 people, but it depended on the volume of the work at the time. At the peak, there was a maximum of 5–6 teammates, including Lauren (Project Manager).

How did you come to work with Sonin App Development?

Sonin was recommended to us by someone else who had used them. We had looked at 10–12 businesses, and we brought it down to six and then again to three. We brought it down again to one, and we were quite rigorous in our selection process.

How much have you invested in them?

It is well over $1,000,000 and possibly over $2,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in December 2014, and we went live in September or October 2015.

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

We have seen an increase of over 100%. We knew we had to digitize our system. What we produced in partnership with them was absolutely fantastic. They were core to the success of our business, no doubt about it. There was a strong partnership, and they improved upon what we asked for quite considerably.

How did Sonin App Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Sonin did well. They used a tool to log all of the requests, and another tool was used to demonstrate the wireframes. If communication was outside of the project management tool, it was either through text, email, phone call, or a face-to-face meeting. 

That was then logged in the system so that there was a complete auditable record of our discussions and what was agreed, which was important, especially when building a system the size of ours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What separated Sonin from the other teams we interviewed was that they were more personable in their dealing with us. We interviewed a couple of really big organizations, but we were concerned about the fact that they were huge and that we would be a very small cog in their overall client base. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind right away. The improvement came with the project. The more the team got to know us and the more we got to know them, the better we worked together. I wouldn’t say that was necessarily an improvement from their side. I think it was a learning curve from both of us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask to meet the project team and thoroughly get to know them. Get to know the project manager and the person with whom you will be dealing with. Lauren was fantastic, but we made the effort to get to know her and she made the effort to get to know us which was very important.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder, we are a business seeking to use technology to help people life safe independent lives through their senior years

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development?

Initially to build a working prototype of a home care platform. The opportunity we wanted to address was using technology to keep people living at home for longer at reduced costs. After the success of this we are working with Sonin to expand the platform and commercialise the offering

What were your goals for this project?

The objective was to build an MVP quickly; a concept that we could user test and collect feedback from. The first focus was functionality and a clean UX/UI over full designs.

The goal was to raise the visibility of elderly care and improve the quality of care that residents were receiving. A secondary goal was creating a foundation platform based on video call technology and reporting that we could adapt for other industries.

Describe the project in detail.

It's a healthcare platform that uses video-calling tech to connect care residents with their families.

To date, the platform involves an app for multiple types of users who all need different experiences. The platform uses behavioural analytics and connected sensor to try and understand when something's wrong and take action.

Residents also have access to an instant panic button at all times to connect them with their carer straight away. The platform provides residents independence and a higher quality of care while providing family members more peace of mind.

What was the team composition?

It was a focused product team made up of a product manager, designer, three developers, and QA. My main contact was the PM who was consistently great and really enthusiastic about the product we were building.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

In just 20 days, we built and tested an MVP to prove the concept. That in itself was fantastic. Following this, we've been working with Sonin to build on top of the foundation as we talk with investors. Right now, we're working to integrate sensor and connected devices to increase their safety proactively.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I always felt like I had a good grasp of where things are with the project board and demos. When you're working sprint-to-sprint on an MVP, that level of visibility helps a lot. The only time I was worried was when during the move to remote under the new lockdown rules. This was never a problem, though. Communication was always excellent and the momentum never stopped.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Above-and-beyond approach. Everyone always seemed to be thinking about the product. The business-case was front of mind. The speed of delivery was thanks to several key integrations which Sonin suggested and using their existing hardware partners which has made the IoT work remarkably straight forward.

It also helped that everyone from the Sonin team genuinely seemed to care about the mission behind it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No. As I said, following the success of the initial sprints we're continuing to work with Sonin to build on the MVP.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Chief Visionary Officer at Buddyng, a business focussed on ensuring everyone has the opportunity to travel outside of their country and expand their perspectives. We are currently developing a travel social network app and online platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonin App Development?

We needed someone to develop our mobile app that allows users to connect to others before they go traveling. They can share their experiences with friends and the Buddyng community. It was important that there was a really high level and high standard with the app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re developing our iOS and Android mobile app which is a travel social network. It’s a global business with the aim and ambitions of travel being a form of education. We met six months prior with Paul (Managing Director) and he suggested that rather than an MVP but the concept of a minimum desirable product (MDP) where you’re not just looking to make your product viable for your consumers but you’re also looking to make it desirable with how it looks and feels.

The first challenge was enabling users to connect to other users while traveling. They developed that section of the app with the first stage of things. They used the development not just in one form but in Android development, iOS development, APIs, and web development. They were able to cover all aspects of that.

They use Swift, Xcode, and a lot of different software. We’re starting to migrate everything over to our core team so that our tech team can process it internally.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Sophie (Project Manager). Sarah (Design Lead) is the head of design. There’s a team of iOS and Android developers. There are 4-6 backend developers.

How did you come to work with Sonin App Development?

I was introduced to them through a mentor of mine. We had meetings to discuss the idea and Paul was very friendly and gave us advice and feedback. It was a good six months before I started putting my money into it. I decided to go with them based on their high quality and their friendliness.  

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent £92,000 (approximately $117,000 USD) for 12 sprints. We agreed to an additional two sprints to completely finish. It will take it to £105,000 (approximately $134,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019 and the work is ongoing.

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

The agile approach they’ve taken has been really phenomenal in addressing our core foundation of the business. It’s then allowed us to adapt to varying different areas of the app that we’ve been looking to expand into. It’s been really high quality and not just in terms of the visual aspects. The code seems quite good but we’ve just started migrating it over. Having them has been really useful. Sarah is an exceptional designer. She constantly recognized if a certain button shouldn’t be there, for example, because the user wouldn’t like it. Their expertise comes through in the recommendations they’ve made during design and development.

How did Sonin App Development perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a really good team behind the app which is fronted by a phenomenal project manager. She’s able to coherently provide me with the sprint plan, the operations they’re doing, and is a really good core point of contact. We have regular standups twice a week. We use Slack and it’s been really efficient.

We work in an agile approach so that we can attend to any changes that come along the way rather than having an archaic waterfall approach to app development. We had design workshops initially in person and since COVID-19, we’ve had them online. The designer will share the screen, we go through designs, pick and choose, edit the way it looks, and give a bit of feedback. I go through the development with the backend developers.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Due to their friendly nature and collaborative approach, other people will give little bits of input as they see fit as they’re looking over the shoulder of other people working. They recognize the needs of their customers. They’re always willing to help and be available whenever needed. They’re very agile and they recognize that business and tech does change. They’re very willing and ready to move with the times. Any issues or scenarios that come up, they’re willing to adapt and make changes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The idea was quite raw and the clarity of what we wanted to achieve could have been better defined. The timeline in which they accomplished what they have has been very good. It’s a huge, global app and there’s a lot of work and foundations towards it. There are many more areas we were looking to develop with it. The only potential criticism I would have is trying to get that sprint plant completed in the timeframe and maybe do a little bit more. However, the reason that hasn’t been accomplished is very much a two-way street. We’ve tweaked and changed little things and that eats up times that would have been reserved for other things.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The project manager will ensure that you have a clear line of communication. Just make sure that your ideas are clearly shared and that everyone that’s working on the project understands what your business is, why you’re doing it, and what you want to achieve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is Averma, a digital agency. I’m the owner. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonin App Development?

One of our clients needed an enterprise platform to create and collaborate on presentations internally. Common templates needed to be branded, easily accessible, and relevant to each employee's job function. Workflows had to update stakeholders in real-time as each presentation progressed.

A key requirement for the client was the ability to use interactive multimedia elements that would help sales reps and staff to create more personalized and engaging presentations than is possible in other off-the-shelf options.

The solution also had to integrate seamlessly with live data from the client's existing systems.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sonin developed an enterprise presentation app for a corporate client on the iOS platform. My team provided the designs. Sonin then handled the development, user-testing, and deployment of both the iOS app and the accompanying content management system.

What is the team composition?

For the majority of the project, we worked with one person from Sonin’s team: a project manager. They were a great communicator and showed a strong enthusiasm for the project from the start. In my opinion, this was instrumental to its success.

How did you come to work with Sonin App Development?

I knew the founder from my professional network. I was aware that Sonin had already worked on similar projects in the enterprise app space. It was reassuring to know that they had experience in both building bespoke demonstration tools and integrating with third-party data sources.

How much have you invested with them?

The entire project was split between my company and Sonin, and it came to just over $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started the project last summer. We began conversations and the procurement process about six months before that. Throughout those conversations, Sonin was a huge help with pitching to the client and planning the project. We wrapped up the project in January 2020.

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

The client was very happy with the end result, and we received great feedback from the users. The high quality of work was clear to everyone involved. Everything was completed on time and within the client's budget.

How did Sonin App Development perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they were excellent. We typically communicated over the phone, email, and Dropbox, but Sonin was pretty flexible when it came to the tools we used. They adapted their approach around us and the client, which was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by how smoothly the project ran. There were no barriers at any point, which was impressive, given how many stakeholders were involved. Sonin was very good at identifying any potential problems ahead-of-time so that nothing slowed down the momentum once we started.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, Sonin exceeded all of our expectations. The end-product was great. They met all the requirements within the time allocated, which resulted in a successful project and a satisfied customer.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder and Director of Partnerships at Netcon Resourcing, an integrated partner to recruitment teams. We embed talent acquisition experts into our client's companies to fill vacancies fast and develop long-term recruitment strategies - all at a fraction of the cost of a full in-house recruitment team.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sonin App Development?

The challenge we wanted to address was how we could continue to effectively screen and interview candidates under lockdown. We experimented with several off-the-shelf options at first but quickly found that spreading the hiring process across different apps made applicant-tracking very tricky.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to allow our talent acquisition experts to effectively screen, interview, and track candidates from a single system. Business intelligence is also a key part of why our clients trust us. We needed the full picture of each candidate's journey from start-to-finish and accurate data to feed back to each client.

As an internal project, we were looking for an MVP that would meet our criteria. At the same time, however, we wanted to make sure that the MVP was flexible enough to be built upon and added to in future phases.

How did you select this vendor?

We needed a working solution in a short space of time. Sonin had previous experience building video-based MVPs which is why we chose them. They were very familiar with technology required and had already worked with the third-party integrations that would ultimately save us time and resources on the project.

Describe the project in detail.

To date, the platform includes a custom candidate-facing web app and an Applicant Tracking System. Every client, candidate, and job record in the ATS has a full history and quick links to things like meetings, interview invitations, custom timed tests, and comms templates.

Both products integrate with Twilio for video calls. Not only was this much faster for to build but the quality is also great, giving our talent acquisition experts, candidates, and clients something as close to the face-to-face experience as you can get.

Each member of our team has their own dashboard with custom KPIs and current progress. Myself and the other managers can access an admin view of all the activities being recorded. With this feature, it's been easy to manage the team remotely.

What was the team composition?

Our main contact during the initial stage was the Account Director who worked with us on the digital strategy behind the product. These conversations and the advice we received during them were another key reason why we chose Sonin in the first place.After we began sprinting, the project manager acted as the main point of contact. What was helpful was they opened lines of communication with other members of the team. When time is such a big factor, being able to ask and answer questions without everything being filtered through one person was great.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The platform has received fantastic feedback from our team as well as the candidates we've trialed it with. Choosing a custom solution has given us the opportunity to add new points of data to our candidate and client experience.

For example, every candidate test we send and video interview we conduct now automatically ends with a simple satisfaction survey. We now have a completely new metric to measure our success, feed back to clients, and use in our marketing.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Extremely effective. Their communication so far has been especially good. We received weekly updates from the project manager. We are also shown demos frequently which are a great way to see the progress being made throughout the project

What did you find most impressive about this company?

One of the most impressive things was the remote workshop Sonin held to kick-off the project. I wasn't sure how effective it would be over video but it worked great and we covered a huge amount of ground.

Across two sessions, we built out two target personas, mapped out the entire candidate journey from start-to-finish, and prioritised all the features for the MVP. We now have the workshop report to refer back to as we continue development.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can't think of any areas of improvement. I would recommend Sonin to anyone else looking to build an app