16 latest digital services to improve Mobile UX

1. Analyze the behavior of mobile applications and present findings to improve performance

Upsight Analytics is an enterprise level solution that analyzes the execution situation of mobile applications and provides important insights for improving performance. Most mobile dashboards are now able to see KPIs such as MAU, DAU, and ARPU. Upsight contributes to recognizing and monitoring specific metrics. Setup is very easy. We will integrate the SDK in just 10 minutes. In addition, you can analyze application performance with a powerful data search tool, identify useful user segments for marketing campaigns, and enable ad hoc analysis.

2. Improve UX analysis analysis of purchasing behavior of mobile users

Amplitude Is A Real-Time Analysis Tool For Mobile Apps. Funnel Report Measures The Conversion Rate, To Identify Where The User Is Away From The Sign-Up Flow Or Upgrade Sequence, You Can Help Improve The User Experience. In Addition, Confirmation Of The User of the application frequency of use in the retention reports, understanding the behavior within the user timed report, in the user flow report enable the user to aggregate the route for a particular action.

3. Warning the problem to monitor the performance of the mobile app

New Relic Mobile Is A Performance Monitoring Tool For Mobile Apps. To Diagnose The Different Performance Operating Systems And Devices, Depending On The Version, Warns Report The Crash, The Problem Of Serious Performance. It Is Possible To Measure The Third-Party API Call Performance As Well As Internal Services. In Addition, These Performance Information Carrier, OS, Device, Or Application Version, It Is Also Possible To Grasp Classified In Each Region. In Addition, CPU Utilization And Memory Utilization Of The Device, It Is Possible To Understand The crash information.

4. Easily create an app and the web page for the contest held

Video contests, story contest, presentation contest, audio contest, Instagram contest, contest of mobile apps and promotion in order to hold a contest. , Quiz, Vote And The Like, Because The Design Templates Are Abundantly Available, The Base Is Selected From Among The Create. Color From The Base That Was Created, Image, Can Be Fully Customizable Such As A Field Of The Form. In Addition, Because of a statistical function as a management function, it can also be made aware of information and posts the contents of the contributors to real-time.

5. Social-media promotional tools

Votigo Custom Contests & Sweepstakes is a promotional tool in the social media site. Facebook, to integrate Twitter and Instagram to Facebook apps, to display all of the entries, and so such APIs for developers. Prepare a Hashtag To Integrate A Custom Landing Page And Contests And Sweepstakes To Display The Entry In Twitter. In Web Promotion, It Integrates Multiple Channels Or A Stand-Alone Site Or The Like. Other Mobile-Friendly And Also, Video Contests And Contests In Instagram In YouTube, supports such as the promotion in Pinterest.

6. Realizing the operation check of multiple browser on the cloud

Sauce Labs Is, Corresponding To The Number Of The Browser Version Is A Browser Check Products In The Cloud. The Test Cycle To Speed Up, An Automatic Cross-Browser Test To Scale Without The Hassle Of Management Of The Infrastructure, It Is Possible To Test The Safety And High Speed On The Cloud. Manual Test, Also Correspond To An Existing Tool, It Offers A Variety Of Utilization Scene. iOS, Test Of The Scale On The Android Simulator And Emulator, In The Auto-Mobile Tests Such As Source Test , After the completion of the test, complete meta data, run reports, mobile OS log for Appium, screen shots, video recording, full command list It is such as, you can enhance the development efficiency.

7. Instantly report the crash of mobile apps

Crashlytics Enterprise is a mobile application crash reports collection process. 18 milliseconds in any crash. Jenkins, Hudson, TeamCity, correspond to the build server of custom infrastructure. Well equipped with an analysis function about the crash to be used , The analysis results are displayed in the single view into the crashlytics dashboard . Raw data will continue to hold 30 days. If more of the retention period is Required it is also available.

8. Management recruitment and human resources, evaluation, etc. in real time

Workday Human Capital Management Is A Platform For Human Resources Management. In Personnel Management, Organization Of The Global Work Force, Deployment Management, And Provides A Self-Service Function Of Payroll Efficiency. Company, At The Same Time To Model Different Types Of Tissue, Such as affiliation, to help the decision-making. Personnel placement and evaluation, compensation in accordance with it, also help planning related to education. For adoption, the analysis of the jobs demand , The gap specific, visualization of the talent pool, there are such possibilities scrutiny of candidates from mobile. In payroll, it can also integrate with external solutions.

9. Tools to manage a large number of personal computers from a remote

LogMeIn Central is a tool for managing work with remote access to multiple users. The PC, you can monitor and file transfer, operations such as anti-virus management from remote. If Even The Environment That Can Be Connected To The Internet, Time And Method, Regardless Of The Type Of Device, It Can Be Accessed From Anywhere. Not Written In The Productivity-Up Offers A Management Function. Basic Of Different Functions In LogMeIn Central, Plus, there are three versions of the Premier.

10. Tool to contribute to the customer lifetime value increase in e-commerce

Marketing Platform Is Bronto A Marketing Tool That Specializes In E-Commerce. Cart Withdrawal Recovery Measures And Customer Behavior Analysis, Due To The Creation Of Campaigns And Real-Time Analysis, And Increase Customer Lifetime Value. Can Create A Visual Campaign Workflow With Drag- And-Drop, It Can Be Easily Integrated With E-Commerce Systems That Have Been Built Already. For Connection To An External Data Source, API Of Bronto That Are Published Can Be Used. Responsive Design, Mobile Social Cooperation, RFM Analysis, Has Features Such as order import, A / B test.

11. Mobile marketing automation tool

Campaign in the app, you can be customized targeted. Divided out the content in the A A push notification to the mobile app. / B test, it is possible to provide the next campaign tips. In addition, Sweet will be able to report the user trends. By finely analyze the user behavior on the basis of the report, it Will allow for more development of effective campaign.

12. Providing a stress-free search capabilities to mobile users

BloomReach Mobile Helps To Be Able To Find Things Easy To Visitors In A Mobile Environment Is Seeking. Many Of The Visitors, I Feel A Strong Stress On That You Do Not Find What You Need. BloomReach Mobile, Use Your Own Web Relevance Engine, Only A few characters in the input, and providing a search function for can be presented what you need for to personalize the content navigation for each visitor, offers and cross-device Functions of the mobile and desktop.

13. SaaS that covers the functions of the project management

The main function, schedule and progress management, time sheet such as surrounding the project, various functions for the project manager has been enhanced. , Report submission management, cost management, information exchange of SNS format, there are a resource management and the like. The characteristics of Clarizen for Project Managers, and that aim of efficiency management management and planning, document management and templates use of project portfolio , Salesforce.com, Box, Intacct, Quickbooks, Jira, is SharePoint, integration with, such as Google Docs possible.

14. Adoption support tool to take advantage of the social media

Ongig Is A Recruiting Service On The SaaS, We Aim To Collect An Excellent Candidate. Companies To Use The Ongig, Create A Job Information In Interactive, Distribution, Can Be Handled. Ongig Is, Google, Glassdoor, Indeed, The Job Seekers Who Saw Such as LinkedIn, consistently to create a charming and duties information at a glance . On gig in its own recruitment media library, are mapped to the work of each employee, we can provide Photos And Videos The In One Place. Google, Facebook, Comparative Analysis Of Career And Work From Each Of The Information Source Of Twitter, It Is Also Possible To Display.

15. Optimization solutions to enhance the mobile SEO effect

Mobile Optimization Solutions Of BrightEdge Is, In The Era In Which The Majority Of Search Traffic Is Becoming Via Mobile, And Provides The Functionality Required To Maintain A Dominant Position Against Competitors. Search Engine Side In That We Have To Change Day-To-Day Mobile Algorithm Provides The Necessary Measures In Order To Continue To Optimize The Mobile SEO Marketers Of Companies. For Example, Recommendations For Improving The Mobile SEO Performance, Mobile SEO Ranking Reports, Offers Such As The Display Of The Mobile Corresponding Situation Of Competitors. It Also Provides Feature called Content Optimizer to coach how to write such a blog.

16. To be a UX design that matches the mobile user of operation

ClickTale Touch is a web site optimization tool for smart phones and tablets. Capture mobile specific gestures such as tap, double tap, zoom, pinch, scroll, swipe and tilt. ClickTale Touch’s unique session playback function simulates gestures, zoom, scrolling and skewing and duplicates and reproduces every interaction with your mobile site. Also, playable videos of user sessions reproduce the actual behavior of individual visitors and appear on the actual size screen of each device. Other features include heat map analysis and form analysis.

We are Technology solution provider who can serve you with Web and Mobile App development. We are expert in PHP Software Development, Ecommerce Solutions, Drupal Development, Symfony Development, Agile Solutions, iPhone and Android App development.

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Hiring Professionals – Successful Concept from Offshore Centers

Nevertheless it’s far much better approach for the outsourcing companies hiring team or individual software developer to get release from the heavy work loads of their existing IT projects or if they are into any other business and required for the IT services. It is really beneficial as it saves the money if you have some small portion to complete or to integrate some extra in the existing project.

Offshore companies are staffed with talented professionals; you can get professionals for all programming languages prevailing in the IT market. Outsourcing firms can easily get PHP and all open source languages specialists, they are available to work only for outsourcing firms, and just you have to choose from them which ever suits for your business.

Advantages are countless of hiring special IT professional for your business, as you can contact him according to yNews of outsourcing the IT projects not so doddering for the online business market and now another adjoining advantage of hiring the individual developer or IT professional sounds interesting.

Scanning the internet with word “hiring” comes out with thousands of advertisements results on your screen. You can easily access the more information by just sending an email to the advertiser; you will be able to get all the details for proceeding forward.

our set schedule of timing and it helps you make it complete in the time. Hired dedicated developer works only for your project and delivers his/her total concentration on your project.

Whole Dedicated team of professionals sounds great for the bigger projects, saves lots of time and extra expenses for the busy organizations. It seems much better idea then putting up extra unit for the extension of work also saving of over heads of business such as building, staff, infrastructure etc.

Any time Technical support specially for you, conversation with the single person helps to maintain mutual understanding that ultimately helps to get productive results for your project.

Timely completion of the project is most attractive element of the concept that is foremost requirement of any outsourcing firm.

Over all its great working with the professionals from different culture which adds more productive experience for your business as well as social & cultural development between two different communities.

AUTHOR

We are Technology solution provider who can serve you with Web and Mobile App development. We are expert in PHP Software Development, Ecommerce Solutions, Drupal Development, Symfony Development, Agile Solutions, iPhone and Android App development.

www.stepin-solutions.com
hello@stepinsolutions.in
+91-79-27774404

Hire Dedicated Developers

HIRE US ON MONTHLY/WEEKLY BASIS

If you are a independent software vendor, digital agency or technical consultant looking to set up your own team of web / mobile developers or designers for your regular or clients’ projects then you are at the right place and right time. With stepin solutions you will have a liberty to choose suitable experienced developers. We have made sure that we have experienced team member for web development, iPhone and android development, designers and quality analysts. We, at stepin solutions will be open to suggest you meaningful solution and processes that will be instrumental for your business success. Whether you require continuous up-gradation of your product, want to setup product and continuous development, seeking offshore developers for regular maintenance or migrations of your enterprise applications – our hire dedicated developer service proves to be a solution to all your needs.

We understand that, it’s more difficult for you, the decided hiring models, because requirement requires different types of functionality and hiring models. We give you the flexible hiring models suiting your needs on Monthly/Weekly or Hourly basis for website and application development.

Here are a few more services that are available to you for Hire a Dedicated Developer Model:

• Hire Mobile App Developers.
• Hire iPhone App Developers.
• Hire Android App Developers.
• Hire API Developers.

Why Hire Dedicated Resources From Stepin Solutions?

• Flexible Hiring Models.
• Supreme Code Quality.
• Highly-Skilled and certified resources.
• Track team’s performance with Project Management Tools like Basecamp etc.
• Total involvement and control on your team.
• 24/7 Technical Support.
• 100% Confidentiality Assured.

To get your project completed on time. Hire us on hourly, part time and full time basis. If you are confused about which model suits best to your requirements, do contact us.

WE OFFER OUR HIRE DEDICATED DEVELOPERS SERVICES

We create with passion & use creativity to persuade

Hire PHP Developers.

We offer Monthly/Hourly dedicated PHP developers for Web development companies, Marketing agencies and individuals who need a team to support their business.

Hire Drupal Developers.

Our dedicated Drupal developers have extensive skills for delivering excellent results working on Drupal template integration, Drupal CMS development, Drupal module development, Drupal eCommerce and Content Management System design.

Hire Symfony Developers.

When it comes to symfony development, no one does it better than our developers. Our team of Symfony developers deliver highly specialized and dynamic Symfony projects.

10 Advantages of Offshoring Software Development That Other Successful Companies Don’t Want You To Know About!

Discover the Secret of Saving Thousands of Dollars Each Month While Increasing Your Web and Mobile App Development Productivity

Here’s the ultimate ‘Offshoring Discovery’:

If you think about it Google hasn’t even reached its twentieth birthday, yet it is one of the fastest growing companies in the world. How is it that some companies seem to have accelerated growth and others have come out of nowhere to become leaders in a really short period of time. How do they do it?

Answer: Leveraging Time and Talent

They are not stuck in the old traditional (comfortable) ways of doing things. In fact some would say they are rule breakers or industry transformers. But, the one thing they all have in common is a Global workforce. They have figured out how to leverage highly skilled and talented people from around the world.

They take advantage of the world economy and provide great jobs in countries where the cost of doing business is much lower. They have figured out how to leverage the time zone differences to extend their days and get things done faster.

You can do the same for your department and your company. All you need to do is leverage the advantages of offshoring.

Top Ten Offshoring Advantages And How To Make The Most Of Them

Advantage #1 – No Real Estate

Where is the person going to sit? The cost associated with that desk space is a big consideration in the leading corporate cities around the world. The price per square foot in any major city in the world is a big factor in the overall cost of providing for an onshore employee –desk, chair, computer, etc. On top of that there is the time needed to find the space, negotiate the lease, and build out the space. Plus you need to be comfortable taking on the long term commitment. All are things that can slow you down.

When you setup an offshore development office you are not paying the high rents associated with onshore offices.  Nor are you taking on a multi-year commitment.

Advantage #2 – Highly Talented People

For many companies a limiting factor affecting growth is the ability to find smart, highly skilled employees. There are smart people born everywhere, and many pursue a University Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. The cool thing about computers is the language they understand transcends spoken language. Computer languages have a much smaller lexicon therefore allowing many people to understand and decode what is being done.

Advantage #3 – Different Time Zones

What began as a disadvantage, smart companies like Google have parlayed into a strategic approach that speeds development by creating a 24 hour development cycle.

Having developers work both onshore and offshore allows development to continue when one group finishes their day. Development speeds up as the project is handed off from one team to the next. Some additional management time and co-ordination between teams is required but the result is staggering. What would take 3 days to develop using a resource in a single time zone can now be completed in a day with round the clock development.

Advantage #4 – No HR Headaches

Have you ever wished that you could just have a conversation with someone about the type of people you are looking for, and they immediately got it. They then went off and wrote the job posting, prescreened all the candidates for you and then just brought you the list of candidates for you to choose from. That’s what happens when you work with an organization that manages the all of these details for you. An additional bonus is that you don’t need to get approvals for various job sites, salary levels, etc.

You establish your budget for your offshore team and then you’ll get just one invoice, which is a pure expense to the business. No need to manage payroll, or benefits.

If someone doesn’t work out it is then easy to release someone from the team with no HR issues.

Advantage #5 – Easy to Manage

Everyone wonders about managing people half way around the world, the key is to have your overseas staff working for one organization that takes care of all the basics like checking to see if everyone arrived on time and put in their full days work. What you need is while you are sleeping, someone else is watching over the team for you and creating for you the basic reports.

You get to focus on the tasks they are working on, the challenges they need help with you don’t need to deal with the petty little stuff.

Advantage #6 – Responsiveness & Scalability

As your needs change it is easy to change your workforce. When you need more people or you need to shrink your workforce you can just pick up the phone or send an email and say I need more or less. You are not managing space, infrastructure or employee termination processes.

You can also easily swap out someone that is not working out for you because the relationship is with the Offshoring Company you are working with. The relationship they have with you is larger than that one person.

Advantage #7 – Security, Control and Confidential Information

Having security, control and protecting confidential information is easier today. With today’s technology it is easy to setup a VPN or virtual private network access or VDI virtual desktop access to your current infrastructure. This gives you full control over the access to your systems. You can even install monitoring software that lets you check-in on people from time to time and see what they are doing with or without notifying them.

Advantage #8 – No Hidden Costs

When you have a dedicated team of developers offshore that is provided to you through one provider you pay just one price per month: there is no hidden costs.

When you hire for a project, you often run in to additional costs because of natural evolution of change as the code moves through the normal testing and release schedule of alpha, beta, release candidate, live.

This process creates a natural conflict between the offshore development company and yourself due to the management of scope creep. Scope creep is eliminated when you use a software dedicated team.

Advantage #9 – Culture

When you outsource a development team (rather than a project team) you can indoctrinate them in your corporate culture – Wear the logo – etc. They become your employees, they know your standards and understand what it is that you are trying to accomplish. This naturally leads to a better outcome. You know this to be true. Your best developers are the ones that have bought into the company goals and culture. It is no different when you move development offshore.

Advantage #10 – Continuity – Same Resource – No Retraining

When you hire an offshore development team they are your team dedicated to you. As the scope of the project changes it is no different than how you manage your home team. As new projects arrive, you assign them to your team. These are the people you are comfortable with and you have developed trust in.

When you work on a project basis when the project ends the team is disbanded and moved to other projects. You may or may not be able to have the same people.

Take the next step…

Get any and all of your questions answered about offshoring at Stepin Solutions, simply email at hello@stepinsolutions.in to schedule time to get any remaining questions you have about offshoring answered. We have an experienced web and mobile development team. And if you need a dedicated developers we will reach out to you to achieve your dream by providing a full stack development team.

API Programming : Backbone of Mobile App Development

Do you think mobile app development needs API support for flexible, light weight and robust application development? If you don`t have any idea about it then you are at the right place to be aware about the truth and hidden scenes.

APIs, or “Application Programming Interfaces”, have revolutionized the way that we use web and mobile applications by allowing computer programs to talk to each other. Because of this revolution, software development and innovation has periodically sped-up over the last 10 years and apps get integrated and communicated in an amazing new ways.

What is an API?

We use our PCs, laptops, mobile phones and tablets very day to communicate with our friends, family and colleagues. But how do computer programs communicate with each other?

Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) are the hidden backbone of our modern world which allow software programs to communicate with one another. Although most of us don’t know it, behind the scenes of every mobile app and website we use is a mesh of computers “talking” to each other through a series of APIs. As you see in figure, every mobile and digital watch make use of APIs to run their native applications by making a request to web server for getting app relevant data. And web server will send a response of that request via API response. So it makes each mobile app works smoothly without getting heavy. Today, the “API economy” is quickly changing how the world interacts. Everything from photo sharing, to online shopping, to hire a cab is happening through APIs. Because of APIs, technical innovation is happening at a faster pace than ever. If you already write software, you are probably familiar with APIs. But the rest of you may be wondering: what exactly are APIs and why are they so important?

APIs: A Software Backbone

Michael Bock has said in its blog that at the most basic level, an API is a set of rules that dictate how one application communicates with another. APIs aren’t that new either; as written in “What APIs are and Why they`re Important”, APIs were just a way of building applications for a desktop operating system like Microsoft Windows. But in the age of the internet, they have the power to plug applications into, well, almost anything. They’ve already transformed websites like Google and Facebook and Twitter into services that talk to a world of other applications, across PCs as well as mobile phones. But that’s small potatoes. They’re also breathing new life into old-world operations, including mobile carriers and even auto makers.

On the Web, APIs make it possible for big services like Google Maps or Facebook to let other apps “piggyback” on their offerings. Think about the way Yelp, for instance, displays nearby restaurants on a Google Map in its app, or the way some video games now let players chat, post high scores and invite friends to play via Facebook, right there in the middle of a game.

APIs do all this by “exposing” some of a program’s internal functions to the outside world in a limited fashion. That makes it possible for applications to share data and take actions on one another’s behalf without requiring developers to share all of their software’s code. Sharing code at that scale would be massively inefficient in addition to posing major security threats. APIs allow for this type of integration without sharing the actual code that makes the software run. APIs are useful even for open-source software (where the code is freely and publicly available): most developers don’t have the time or patience to look through thousands of lines of code just to use one piece of functionality. Instead, that functionality can be offered through an API.

Without APIs, applications would be incredibly disconnected and therefore confusing. APIs allow applications to talk to each other and for more innovative and consistent applications to get built. Imagine, for example, if Google Maps didn’t offer an API: every mobile application and website on the internet would have to figure out how to implement their own mapping system from scratch, an incredibly difficult task. APIs can also be useful internally for a company in addition to sharing resources across companies. Instead of having to duplicate code for each of other apps, they can share data via one API. APIs simplify much of the complexity of software development by limiting outside access to a specific subset of functionality — usually data exchange. Because of this, new software can often be built in weeks instead of months or years.

Why APIs are so important?

These days, APIs are especially important because they dictate how developers can create new apps that tap into big Web services—social networks like Facebook or Pinterest, for instance, or utilities like Google Maps or Dropbox. The developer of a game app, for instance, can use the Dropbox API to let users store their saved games in the Dropbox cloud instead of working out some other cloud-storage option from scratch.

In one sense, then, APIs are great time savers. They also offer user convenience in many cases; Facebook users undoubtedly appreciate the ability to sign into many apps and Web sites using their Facebook ID—a feature that relies upon Facebook APIs to work.

When you search for nearby restaurants in the Yelp app for Android, for instance, it will plot their locations on Google Maps instead of creating its own maps. Via the Google Maps API, the Yelp app passes the information it wants plotted—restaurant addresses, say, along with the Yelp star rating and more—to an internal Google Maps function that then returns a Map object with restaurant pins in it at the proper locations. Which Yelp can then display inside its app. (On iOS, Yelp taps Apple’s Maps API for the same purpose.)

We see APIs like this all the time. Elsewhere on page you may see the icons to share anything on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube. These are just links that call on the APIs associated with each of those services to allow users to Tweet or post about the thing you want to share without leaving the site itself. Mobile devices like iOS and Android phones and tablets have many  built-in APIs. For example, Apple recently announced a new API called “HealthKit” as part of iOS 8 that allows developers to access a user’s health data from a a central place.

An API is a Promise

A major issue with APIs is that they aren’t necessarily permanent. Just because a company is making an API available now doesn’t necessarily mean it will be available tomorrow. Twitter infamously limited third-party access to its API at the end of 2012. This had the effect of killing all alternative Twitter clients and forcing users to use Twitter’s official apps and website, where Twitter can show users ads as it pleases. This was done under the guise of providing a more cohesive user experience, but for many developers who relied on the Twitter API, it meant shutting down their business because of Twitter’s decision.

Other examples of this API abandonment are common. Startups that provide an API often shut down or get acquired, and Google is notorious for closing down services that people rely on like Google Reader (that allowed people to aggregate all the news services they read into one place). Since web APIs are still in their infancy, there is still a lot to learn. One of the things API providers should understand is that an API is a promise: once other people are relying on it, it is crucial maintain it and keep it active.

APIs and Innovation

The good news is that for the most part, APIs encourage innovation and don’t stifle it. Without APIs, communication between apps would be stifled, software developers would continuously be re-writing software that performed the same functionality, and generally innovation would slow. APIs have allowed for more trivial things like sharing photos with friends, but also for the potential to re-imagine government. As the world moves further and further into the technical revolution, APIs will have an even bigger role powering the apps and websites we use every day.

Power your mobile apps with APIs

We have an experience API developers in our team. If you want to hire a trusted API developer to develop APIs for your mobile apps , we will gladly assist you to reach to your dream! We provide a full-stack development teamto create a valuable product. Just drop us an email at hello@stepinsolutions.in

Billing Dilemma: What is better for client? Fixed cost or hourly rate?

Many years of my experience in web and mobile development, including complex and often risky quoting processes I was involved in during my career at Stepin Solutions, has left me with the same dilemmas: how to accurately quote web projects? What time buffers should I assume? What risks to consider?…

The final quote sent to the client is based on the time estimate and aforementioned factors. I’m sure the same patterns are applied by the most of worldwide web agencies which struggle with clients requesting fixed-bid assignments.

What are the client-side results of fixed-price approach?

Quotes sent in by potential project managers are probably not free of overestimating. Let’s face the truth – in most of the cases it is the project managers who is more aware about the real costs and potential risks of a project.

Of course, years of experience in managing software projects allow to estimate resource needs more accurately, however even with the help of Nostradamus we are not able to predict every possible situation. And I’m positive there are more situations like this than characters in this article! Even solid track-record and extensive experience in custom web application development does not make it much easier to predict problems with various website components or with integrating the software with an external APIs.

Medium- and low-budget developments created with a help of open-source solutions such as Symfony or Drupalor Magento can be delivered within accurately prepared estimates and without major issues. On the other hand, custom development can create complications and getting into more and more specific requirements brings unwanted project growth. And then, we either start to try and force-fit the project in the budget or debate on whether the requirements meet preset project scope or not. Instead of working on the real project development, we waste days or even weeks talking about it, negotiating and clarifying the specification.

What if the projects were charged by only actual time spent by the agency and their developers? What if we could forget the full specification and manage the project on the go? Impossible? Well, there is a way that make it easier – the Agile approach and charging projects by man hour costs.

The software is being developed iteratively (in so called ‘Sprints‘), and the goal of each iteration is the delivery of a product (e.g. a particular, predetermined set of software features). Each sprint is followed by testing and compatibility verified against business requirements. Successively, features or even the whole project can be redone or pivoted.

Let’s try and answer the question: Why hourly rates are a better solution to charge projects than fixed pricing?

1. Gathering requirements
   Starting a project with creating a full specification means the crucial decisions are being made in the very beginning. Well, the question is whether we know enough about the nature of project at the moment. Changing requirements later can be difficult, not to mention how costly it can get.
   Using Agile, we start working having only the business requirements and key features. The features are being adjusted after their core is created and when we have the essential information. Changes in the project are just a natural part of it in Agile approach.
2. Financial risk
   I suppose we can all agree that words “precise” and “long-term” assessment stay in opposite. During an estimation process we are forced to introduce project risk factors. Charging hourly rate eliminate potential risks because we cover only the real time spent to achieve particular tasks and goals.
3. Common priorities
   In fixed-priced projects the priorities of both sides, although common, can lead to a situation where the contractor wants to complete the project as effectively as possible in order to maximize its profit (which is dependent on spent man hours). On the other hand, the client desires a product of the best quality and the time frame is not of his concern, since it doesn’t drive any extra cost. What’s the solution to that? Decide on working with the best contractor and charge the project by the time.
4. Meeting expectations
   In the waterfall model, acceptances are made by stages, therefore it’s harder to track progress. Any changes made can mean throwing out parts of work already done. In the Agile model you can review the work results more often (sprints usually take weeks, rather than months), so we can track our expectations on the go.
5. The project can be started earlier
   In Agile approach we don’t focus on creating complex and full specification from the start. There are only particular business requirements and incremental work – from the general key features to the details. Everything is more clear, the documentation is rather simple and comprehensible as it covers only the particular iteration.
6. Tracking progress and verifying requirements
   In fixed-price approach the project is verified by the client after certain stage is fully complete. In fact, we don’t have a possibility to verify the requirements as they go. In Agile model we track progress constantly, we are well informed and have full transparency in terms of requirements, especially those financial.
7. Changes in the projectCharging hourly rates allow us to change priorities at all times. Agile gives us full control – we can pause what we do at the time and simply change direction. Constant tracking of the outcome enables us to improve the project on the go – sometimes the best ideas come up in the middle of the work. Agile makes them real without the necessity to renegotiating, meetings, quoting and futile documentation.
8. In the end, it’s… cheaper
   That’s right! As I mentioned before, when charging fixed rate, the agency must calculate any risks and problems, what can lead to overcharging. Charging hourly rate is actually cost-effective, because the client pays only for the real work done.
9. The time we don’t track
   Discussion whether a particular piece of the spec means this or that is a waste of time. Have you ever calculate time spent on discussions and negotiating? Not to mention planning every little detail of the project before starting it.

OK – I believe I’ve done my best to convince you to charge projects hourly, using Agile methods. I’m sure that during the next initial negotiations it’s very likely to hear following question:

“Agile is great, the sprints are awesome, that’s it – let’s do it! But first I need to hear how much it’s going to cost?”

 There’s no way to charge by fixed price in Agile – it just doesn’t work like that. I’m aware, though, that cost must be somehow estimated, so it’s always helpful to conduct couple of workshops and specify business requirements (having a list of user stories and wireframes help a lot to determine estimates). With a help of workshops and tech-planning and project analysis it allows us to estimate the number of sprints (cycles) required to deliver the outcome by a particular team and pre-calculate the cost. We can also give a range to the client based on how many cycles a project of similar nature normally takes.

Mind that nobody can promise the estimates which match the final budget. There’s no way to predict any modifications or the elements that would need further discussions. Full transparency and control is crucial to approach the project holistically, especially from the financial perspective.

Sound good, doesn’t it? Well, another doubts can arise – what if…

“If I pay for each man hour, how I can be sure that they won’t tweak the hour count?”

A diligent analysis of the potential project manager is crucial. A product of the highest quality that fully meet client’s expectations can only be made by a team we fully trust and the team than can have proven track-record.

What to consider when choosing an agile development agency?

The size and the experience. If the agency runs for years and its portfolio shines with robust projects, delivered for trusted brands and employs top experts of particular competencies, it’s sure a way to go with. It’s always a good idea to reach out and get to know the tools the particular agency uses to track progress.

And if you’re searching for coding and programming partner, Stepin Solutions is the one which can be the best fit for your project.

So, Now what? If you will work with an experienced team like us whom you trust and ycan be a part of our development process, the success is sure. Agile approach following hourly rate is likely to deliver much better outcome than the fixed price projects.

At last we would like to thanks merixstudio for publishing this topic as its very important to clear this dilemma before starting a project and when clients are unaware about the risks involved with fixed costs. As we found merixstudio`s artical very useful for our readers we have published it on our site.

How much does it cost to build a taxi app like Uber?

Being a Trusted Mobile app development company, we have been asked questions like;

– How to Build an App Like Uber?
– How much does it Cost to build an App similar to Uber?
– I want to build a Taxi App similar to Uber. How can we go about it?

Being a responsible solution provider we thought to bring you the exclusive information which helps to answer all above questions.

Uber, being released in March 2009 has changed the way people think of a Taxi and Transportation services worldwide. Despite the fact that it’s in the market for almost 7 years — market there is still pretty competitive. Things that matter are the quality of the services (such as price, cars quantity, on time delivery, etc…) and the usability of the application itself. Also, you should not forget that we are basically talking about 2 apps instead of 1, as there is one app for a driver and the other one that is used by passengers. To keep things under control you would also need a web based admin dashboard.

I will provide you the information about Uber’s features, the way it works, time estimates and some interesting facts. In the end of the article, you will receive clear infographics with all the numbers needed to get a full pricing picture.

How does Uber work?

• Passenger sends a booking request through the taxi app, which is being directed to the nearest driver
• Driver can accept or deny the offer, in case he rejects the deal — user’s request will be automatically sent to the next nearest driver available
• Once a driver accepts the offer — connection between both of them appears. Taxi app shows the driver’s info to the passenger (that includes driver’s account info, his location on the map and the estimated arrival time)
• Payment might be done either automatically through the card entered on the passenger’s account or with the old-school cash payment

Uber for Passenger

Registration

Every user should be able to register in the app. Some Uber-like apps require your phone number from the very start, some of those allow you to register via Facebook or any other social networks and some require your email address etc… The good manner would be to implement all the features listed above.
Efforts in hours: iOS 40-46, Android 36-42, Backend 16-20

Taxi Booking

Once your app lets you in – it’s time to use it. What is the main use of the mobile taxi app for passengers? Correct – summon a cab to the location needed and make a trip to the desired place. This includes: from → to location selector, booking request, waiting and confirmation.
Efforts in hours: iOS 78-84, Android 72-78, Backend 24-36

Payments

Nothing is free in the world we live in, everything has its cost (for sure you can argue with me and feel free to do that in the comments to the article). If you want to use some taxi service as a passenger – you will probably need to pay some money for a trip. In the modern world where payments are not limited to the cash exchange taxi app will need to know how to manipulate with all the payments done. Integration with the payments systems will be required on the backend part of the app.
Efforts in hours: Backend 32-40

Card Details

The сashless approach is becoming pretty popular nowadays. That’s an easier and faster way to pay. Uber allows you to put in your card (or a list of cards) just once to charge it later automatically without any extra moves. For sure there is always an option to pay with cash.
Efforts in hours: iOS 36-52, Android 34-40, Backend 24-30

Fare Calculator

Should the passenger pay? But how much? Fare Calculator answers the question, allowing to calculate the actual trip cost before the ride itself happens.
Efforts in hours: iOS 16-20, Android 14-18, Backend 18-24

Track an Approaching Taxi

An option to track the coming cab on the map via GPS services is pretty useful and comfortable, and it’s actually the way to plan your time efficiently.
Efforts in hours: iOS 46-50, Android 40-46, Backend 24-32

Notifications

Receiving push notifications from the application, while it’s opened or it’s running in the background is essential, as no one wants to miss his car or any other important information. We shouldn’t forget about SMS notifications. Uber taxi booking app works with Twilio telecommunication service provider. You may always choose from any other global providers such as Sinch, Plivo, Nexmo or take a look at your local one.
Efforts in hours: iOS 22-28, Android 22-28, Backend 16-24

Ride History

Sweet memories, an option to reuse your common trip locations in a few clicks or just the way to recall the places you’ve visited yesterday (after a solid hangover). Sounds pretty user-friendly.
Efforts in hours: iOS 40-46, Android 36-42, Backend 20-28

Driver`s Review and Rating

Review and rating option plays a huge role in the transportation segment. It gives an extra motivation for the drivers to perform well while allowing passengers to make some choices and predictions to increase their satisfaction of the trip and the service overall.
Efforts in hours: iOS 38-44, Android 38-44, Backend 16-24

Profile Settings

People (due to various reasons) might have a need to change some of the user data. That may be a phone number, an email, a card number or any other profile details.
Efforts in hours: iOS 34-40, Android 30-36, Backend 16-22

Uber for Driver

Registration

Would it be a driver or a passenger it doesn’t really matter App needs to recognize a user to load all the user related data at launch. This data is essential for payments, rating, history, and other features.
Efforts in hours: iOS 40-46, Android 36-42, Backend 12-18

Status Updates

Is taxi driver ready to pick up someone? Or is he already engaged in any ride? Or is not available for his personal reasons? Driver should be able to notify the app (and obviously passengers) about his availability.
Efforts in hours: iOS 24-30, Android 22-28, Backend 10-16

Reply to Booking Requests

Once the driver is in the active mode and he is ready to pick up some passengers he should have an option to confirm passenger’s request for a ride or decline it.
Efforts in hours: iOS 40-46, Android 38-44, Backend 24-32

Booking History

Driver would most likely want to check the amount of the job that was done, his earnings, places he visited and all the related stuff.
Efforts in hours: iOS 38-44, Android 30-36, Backend 16-20

Push Notifications

Notifications in the driver apps work as a reminder that notifies a driver about the available ride requests, his activity status, visibility on the map etc…
Efforts in hours: iOS 22-28, Android 22-28, Backend 14-18

Admin Dashboard

Admin dashboard is a web-based tool that allows administrators to manage drivers’ and passengers’ accounts and activities, generate various reports, change and adjust promotions, etc… The amount of settings and tools available in the admin dashboard depends on your needs and time needed for development process can vary. Average developer`s time needed for building an Admin Dashboard with the basic features varies from 60 to 80 hours.

UI/UX

The idea of UI/UX is to make a journey through the application easy and enjoyable, to build experience users would love and make them coming back again and again. Some lovely custom design for taxi app will add 160 – 200 hours to your project.

Additional Expenses

While building an application you shouldn’t forget about the supporting processes such as quality assurance, project management, and DevOps. Book some additional (in percents from the overall development) time for those : 15% for quality assurance, 10% for project management and 5% more for DevOps.

Rates

Now we have the information about the time needed to build features that allow a taxi app to exist. But what about the actual cost? To calculate the total cost we would need some information about the app development companies` rates. According to statista the average rates of mobile app development companies in India, USA, UK and Europe are as following:

• India — $15-60 per hour
• USA — $60-250 per hour
• UK — $60-150 per hour
• Europe — $40-120 per hour

Let’s sum things up

 Want to create a taxi app like Uber?

We have experiences iPhone and Android App developers in our team. If you want to hire a trusted team to develop a taxi app, we would gladly assist you! We provide a full-stack development team to create a valuable product. Just drop us an email at hello@stepinsolutions.in

How mobile applications can help Travel industry & Tourism industry?

There was a time when people used to travel around the world with guide books, maps, and different awkward printed material; that era has died out. The future is always on: it is portable and always in your pocket in the form of a smartphone or a tablet.

As a result, the relationship between travel and technology has become closer than ever, with more and more businesses turning to mobile apps to promote their services and reach customers in a more personal way.

The travel and tourism are a huge 6.3 trillion dollar industry according to the 2015 statistics. A huge part of this success has been played by mobile apps. As the partnership between the tourism industry and technology grows, both of them have earned several grand slams and much more are on the way.

Interesting facts supporting the partnership of the travel industry and apps

The 7th most downloaded app category
85% use smartphones to plan their travel when on leisure tours
72% people will post photos about their travel on social platforms like Facebook
46% check-in via their smartphones when on holidays
30% use mobile apps to find the best hotel deals
29% use mobile apps to find the best flight deals
15% users specifically download travel apps to plan a trip ahead

If truth be told, Travel & tourism industry is indeed lame without mobile apps. The wise travel company have already understood & opted for most advanced travel & tourism mobile app development and are extracting high ROI. What is your strategy for minting money by contriving a perfect Travel & Tourism mobile application for business? If you are still at sea, consult the right App design & development company to strategize.

Then You Are at the Right Place. We are trusted Mobile App Development Company to make Travel apps. Our Apps will Promote And Reflect Your Travel Business Interests. Our Apps will be Specially Designed to Impress Your Customers. Be a winner with your custom apps for your Customers!

Contact Us to DiscussYour Custom Mobile Travel App Requirement Emai us at: hello@stepinsolutions.in. Visit our website to know more about us and our services http://www.stepin-solutions.com