Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
I am Vikram, driving the business operations from India, in co-ordination with our offices in UK, Canada, and the US. Antier was started with an aim to help startups leverage the full potential of technology to develop seamless products which can live up to their customers’ needs. Over the last three years, we have built our reputation of being the best cryptocurrency exchange service provider. Our blockchain solutions come with biometric-enabled mobile wallets to ensure full security of customers’ assets.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
The dot.com bust had seen the rising demand of web and mobile application development in B2B and B2C space. However, we identified a big void where startups with innovative app ideas were lacking the technical know-how in building the product that they had envisioned. This was the very reason we entered into this space, and, which, in turn, enabled us to offer better opportunities to the local talent pool, honing their skills and providing bright career choices; an intent which was always close to our hearts.
What is your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
All of our development happens in-house and we don’t outsource our work. We have 10,000 sq. feet of the facility located near the Mohali IT Park which houses our 100 + team of techies working in different streams. Our team covers all stages of the product development cycle from system analysis, wireframes, designing, code execution, quality assurance to launch. We provide our clients with highly dedicated teams combined with our product vision and technical expertise.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
As a part of our business strategy, we always provide our customers with solutions which fit into their budget and needs, helping them build the core functionalities in the form of MVP and then going back to their users for validation. Our team provides suggestions at every step of the software development process and keeps them posted on the upcoming challenges they need to be aware of.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
We are quite horizontal and have worked with clients ranging from B2C in healthcare industry, building their second opinion platforms to CRM solutions for fortune 1000 companies. Of late, our entire focus is on helping clients to utilize the power of digital currencies and token economics to power their innovative business setups. We take immense pride in introducing our flagship white label crypto exchange solution along with biometric-based mobile wallets. In addition to this, we are also helping our clients with Security Token Offerings and Initial Coin Offerings.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app.
The most critical component in building successful mobile applications is how clear we are about our customers’ needs and if any particular feature really needed to be part of phase 1. If the foundation of the project is set right, right from the start, which includes working closely with business analyst and developing wireframes and business rules, and then it sets the pace and ensures timely delivery of the project.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of a mobile app?
We spend roughly 20% time on front-end UI, where our experienced web designers craft designs that provide rich user experience; 80% of our time goes into development and user acceptance testing.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for a mobile application?
The various parameters we look into include:
a) How much native hardware functionality is involved such as working with custom camera or Bluetooth, NFC etc.?
b) How much data is being exchanged between mobile and server?
c) Whether the app is to be used in remote areas or in cities where internet connectivity is good?
d) Does it need an offline version so that customer can access critical things instantly?
e) What about the UX of the mobile app? Should it fulfill the design guidelines of iOS and Android both?
Which platform do you suggest your clients to begin with when they approach you with an idea (Android or iOS) and why?
We usually go native; however, the rising demand of react native and hybrid platform is also a good option on a case to case basis. Plus, we also look into two other factors before offering our suggestions and these include customer budget and go-to-market strategy.
Android or iOS, Native or Hybrid — which platform is best to use to build your app? What are your recommendations?
As mentioned above, it will always be a combination of customer budget/needs/time-to-market and challenges involved in the execution of the critical functionality pieces of the project.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a mobile application?
We take into account number of user scenarios and complexity involved in their execution viz-a-viz development platform.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
We are quite flexible working with the payment structure. We offer a fixed fee, where the requirements are crystal clear and ongoing monthly model where agile development process is to be adopted.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
Our minimum budget starts from 5k for approximately a minimum of 4 weeks of effort.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2018?
They have ranged from as min. as 5k to over a 100K.
Which business model do you suggest to your clients enabling them to generate revenue from mobile applications? Why?
It largely depends on the solutions which are being offered. Recurring subscription-based models are best for the success of any mobile application, specifically, in terms of its sustainability and increasing outreach.
Kindly share your feedback on how Goodfirms has been doing so far in increasing your visibility among potential clients.
Goodfirms has helped us in helping our clients raise their confidence level before initiating their engagement with us. As a business, we understand the challenges of working remotely and having not met the people in person can be like measuring the height of the mountain without actually seeing it. Reviews really help people to make informed choices.
