Website Owner’s Guide to Google’s 21st April Mobile Friendly Algorithm Update

Google launched a major update on April 21st which was about extending the use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal throughout mobile search results. This change will affect worldwide mobile search results in all languages, and Google says it will have a “significant” impact.

To be precise, this update involves 2 things.

1. It basically separates Google search results for Mobile and Desktop where in Mobile search results, mobile friendly websites get significant advawill be ranked higher.
2. This is not as significant as 1st one but it is better to know that from now on, in google search results you will occasionally see content from installed app on your device.

As you can see out of the 2 updates launched, the one with mass impact is about considering mobile friendliness as a ranking signal. Let’s talk more about the important one then.

Will This Affect You?

Possibly Yes. The first thing to do is to use Google’s tool to determine whether you’re mobile friendly or not. It’s easy to use and gives you a quick “Yes” or “No” as to whether your page will pass the check.

Keep in mind is that this tool checks one page only. (Not a site-wide check) You may have several pages on your site that are responsive and mobile-friendly while the rest are not. If your design isn’t mobile responsive site-wide, I would suggest checking each of the most important pages on the site to make sure they pass.

The second thing to consider is how much of your website traffic today is coming via mobile? If this percentage is small (i.e. under 10%) and you’re not yet mobile ready, don’t fret too much. While you may see a significant change in the mobile search results, this should only affect rankings for searches on mobile – desktop results and rankings will likely remain unaffected. (For now). As Mobile local search is going to surpass PC in 2015, sooner is better to go mobile friendly in terms of getting organic search website traffic and better user experience for mobile visitors.

What Can I Do?

If your site did NOT pass the test, you have a few options:

1. Implement A Responsive Theme

Google has already stated that they prefer responsive web design and feel it’s the best option for users. Before exploring this option you should know that this option is suitable for you if you are using any Open source CMS or ecommerce platforms. For custom build websites the other options stated below makes more sense. If you are using any open source CMS platform like WordPress, Drupal or Joomla,  Check out the responsive CMS themes from Themeforest and in case of ecommerce websites check out few ecommerce responsive templates.

Advantages: Google/User preferred, applied across entire site, updated look/feel

Disadvantages: Time consuming, frontloaded work/costs, may lose conversions

2. Have A Designer/Developer Redesign Your Site

If switching themes is just not possible, you can look to hire a designer + developer to switch your current design into one that’s responsive. You’ll end up with a site that looks much like the one you have now with only a few tweaks/changes.

Advantages: Long term solution, Can continue to use current design, no conversion loss

Disadvantages: Most expensive, time consuming, may miss certain pages

3. Create A Mobile Site On A Subdomain

Rather than switching themes or hiring a designer/developer to redesign your current site into one that’s responsive, you can instead opt to create a mobile-specific site on a subdomain. You’ll have the advantage of leaving your current theme alone completely and still providing for a good user experience for those on mobile. i.e. m.YOURSITE.com. In this option too, you will need to hire the designer and developer to build a mobile friendly website from existing website.

Advantages: Can customize for mobile users, cheaper than a full redesign

Disadvantages: Costs and hassle of updating mobile and desktop sites, adjustments required with browser changes

4. Fix Issues That Are Keeping You From Passing The Test

We came across few clients whose  site was built on a responsive theme, but customizations done on theme to build the website restricts from passing the mobile friendly test. In such cases, we merely followed the quality standards and theme documentations to maintain the responsiveness of theme along with the customizations required.

Advantages: Quick/easy fix, least expensive

Disadvantages: Can’t always tell where the issues are, doesn’t always give surety to pass the test

Things To Keep In Mind

1. You should really be building mobile-friendly sites for your users, anyway.

We’ve crossed the tipping point – the majority of digital media consumption now comes through mobile. This may have hit you differently and at different times depending on your niche, but it’s clear where we’re headed. As more and more of your customers are looking for your website or business on their smartphone, it just makes good business sense to give them what they want.

2. This is not a penalty. It may feel that way, though, if you find yourself slipping down the page in mobile search results. The good news here is that because you haven’t been penalized or deindexed, you’re in a much better position to fix the problem and gain back your lost mobile traffic.

Conclusion:

It is quite evident that google’s mobile friendly update is going to affect some way or the other to the mass of website owners. Individually you can evaluate the impact and options shared above to deal with it. Even if google has not presented this, mobile friendly digital presence is anyway instrumental for providing uninterrupted user experience for larger chunk of users who are using mobile and as stated above that chunk is close to 50% now and growing on daily basis. If you already have mobile friendly digital presence, While choosing the right option for you to go mobile friendly, it would be best to go for a solution that is long term in nature.

10 Reasons why Drupal should power your websites

So why should you have it? Let’s make the decision easy:

1. Your content is fresh. Let’s be honest, if it’s hard for you to edit the content of your website, one of three things will happen:

1. It simply won’t get done;
2. Some poor guy in your office will have stacks of word documents to go through and convert to your content (with never ending rounds of amends) … or …
3. You will make your web development agency rich as you continually send them small edits that they charge at their day rate.

Drupal is easy to use: log in, go to your page, click edit, make the change, save, you’re done.

2. It’s at the top of its game.

Drupal powers more than 8 million websites worldwide. Some of those include: http://www.puma.com and http://www.runnersworld.com/

3. Your site is safe.

Drupal is Open Source and that means that there are thousands of developers worldwide who are working at keeping it safe against any security threats. That agency that wants to sell you their proprietary product might tell you otherwise – but it’s only 4 developers working on their security – is that going to be as safe?

4. It’s free.

Drupal is Open Source and the software is completely free. That means that a lot of the hard work in building your site has been done. That’s like buying a car and only paying for the bodywork and paint.

5. It’s flexible.

Don’t think that because your site is powered by a framework, it has to work or look a specific way. There is literally nothing that can’t be done from blogging sites, to e-commerce to custom apps, there is literally nothing you can’t do.

6. It’s a big community.

There are literally thousands of good Drupal Developers and Drupal Development Company in  worldwide so you are never tied in to anyone. Wouldn’t you rather that than your current “maintenance contract” where you can never get hold of anyone and when you do it feels like the cost of that new feature you really want is the combination of a made-up price with a few zeros added at the end.

7. It’s multi-lingual at its core.

We live in Europe where there are 23 official recognised languages. Drupal handles languages (including right-to-left) and translation at its core. There are even services to help you translate your content

8. You can power multiple sites.

If you own a number of websites, you can host them all with the same set of code on the same server so you only have one thing to look after!

9.It’ll make you money.

Drupal Commerce is a hugely powerful and flexible E-Commerce module for Drupal. With it, we can build any type of online store from complex product ranges and product search to customisable products and multi-currency checkout, we have done it all.

10.It’s beautiful.

Drupal gives us all the tools to deliver your content looking great no matter what device. We build responsive sites that adjust to your display to make your desktop site look native on your phone too.

We could go on but if you want to know more, get in touch with us… www.stepin-solutions.com /  hello@stepinsolutions.in /

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

How to Choose The Best Company for Outsourcing Your PHP Based Projects

PHP web programming is the best option to develop rapid and functional web applications and services. Numerous small and large scale IT companies are offering PHP web development services.

There are many qualities that should be present in an ideal PHP development company; however finding out all of them in one company is not an easy job. So let us see some of the qualities that make a company an ideal choice for PHP projects outsourcing.

Portfolio

The portfolio of work of a company shows the way it works. So you must check the portfolio of the companies before choosing one. See the types of projects done by them in the past.

It will show their domain expertise and their abilities. Make sure that they have done projects on the technologies that suit your project requirements. It will be nice if you could find projects similar to your project.

Website

While searching for a company to outsource your PHP based projects, first of all check out the website of the company. Check out the functionality, navigation, graphics, contents and SEO of the site.

If they own a good, professional and unique website of their own, then they could be efficient enough to work for you. If they do not care about their own website, how can they deliver the best services to you?

Development Methodology

Generally all the companies work on a project development cycle for developing websites and applications for their clients. Ask them about different project development methodologies they follow and compare them with the other methodologies popularly followed. The documentation is an unavoidable part of the development cycle so it is very important to know which documents are required and where you can help them.

Get Details About The Company

There are many questions related to your project requirements that you must ask the company. Check out for how long has the company existed, how many members are there in the development team, are they efficient enough to complete your project effectively. Check all their certifications and get reviews about the company from its past clients.

Technical support

Just getting your project completed is not all. What if you face a problem after getting the website or app complete? So make sure you choose a company that offers round the year technical support and maintenance services as well. Hence whenever there is a complex technical issue, quick services will be available with you to restore your website.

Once you are content that the PHP development company is perfect as per all the above parameters, you do not need to go anywhere else. You can outsource all your PHP based projects to it

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

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.

Web Development

WE DELIVERS SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLEX NEED

Complex project we delivered in a simple solution – creating powerful custom web development capable of heavy lifting. If you think, your business is unique and your website should be as well. We will work with you to define your unique needs and create a site that accomplishes your objectives. We can help you to build website successful, customized web-enable solutions, for any purpose and with minimum risk, using agile development techniques.

 

Advantages for Custom Web Development :

• Structured Framework and Architectural Pattern Development.
• Multi-browser compatibility.
• User friendly Interfaces
• Your business and vision related development

Our website development process is tailor to suit your needs, will create a series of mock up to share with our client and revise them as inputs requires. Often times, the demand for custom development is centered in the needs to automate an internal or external process. We develop creative idea to step up and grow up your business successful.

We will also provide you the information you need to make an educated decision about which technology & framework is best for your project needs at the cost you can afford.

You can see the custom web development in our previous work. We built with stunning user interface that have helped our clients manage their business efficiently. We bring the same experience when we work on your project and can promise you that you will be amazed by what you will get for your time & money.

We use our custom PHP MVC framework programming which is design and developed using best programming practices. We already have implemented our MVC framework to large scale projects and it is not well tested. lightweight and scalable framework for any project. We also don’t mind using other framework such as Symfony Development, Zend, Yii, CakePHP or any other one of your choice.

 

WE OFFER OUR WEB DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

We create with passion & use creativity to persuade

PHP Web Development

We have a professional team of qualified PHP Programmers, who help PHP Application Development Clients across the globe.

Symfony Development

Symfony development is our forte when it comes to developing complicated web applications requiring scalability, extensibility and ease of maintenance.

Enterprise Application

Stepin Solutions development team is familiar with industry practices to ensure that your application is build to the level of scalability that your organisation needs.

Saas Application

We have expertise in SAAS applications. We add SAAS to your enterprise in such a way that it causes fundamental shift in the IT department`s role.

Database Application

We design each data management application for fast, efficient performance in different environments and for specific uses.

iBeacon App Development

We develop smart and beautiful mobile applications compatible with iBeacons technologies, and we deliver Beacon solutions across the globe.

API Development

We build robust websites and applications using owned and third-party APIs.

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.

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!

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