DEV Community: Arslan Tayliyev

Web Application Architecture: Best Practices and Guides

Arslan Tayliyev — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 10:12:31 +0000

If you are planning to develop and launch a web product, sooner or later you will come across the concept of web application architecture. This term is used by software developers to describe the high-level structure of a digital product, including data storage and server operation specifics.

The quality of the web architecture determines the reliability, performance, and security of your product. In this article, we will describe the most popular types of modern web application architecture, its components, and tips on how you can optimize your work on it.

What Is Web Application Architecture?

Web app architecture is a kind of software architecture that describes the processes associated with programs running in a browser. That’s why the architecture of mobile apps or programs for IoT uses another type of digital architecture.

Web app architecture contains a set of components and a description of their logic interaction. Within the web development process in general, it determines the future design of your product, its IT infrastructure, user experience, software modules (web architecture design), as well as the promotion and monetization of your future web application. Working on it is the first step when creating your product.

Based on decisions related to the high-level architecture of an app (for example, whether it will be monolithic or based on the microservice pattern), the team forms more specific technical requirements for the future software and its tiers and plans further work.

Here are the following parameters by which the quality of web app architecture can be described:

Safety level and stability
Request processing speed
Component reusability
Clarity towards program code
Ability to collect analytics and test different components independently
Scalability of the product and its components
System automation level

In addition, when working on high-level web architecture, the client's business tasks and some marketing factors are taken into account. For instance, the startup owner can focus on the experience of competitors and take into account their weaknesses when designing a web app architecture with their development team.

More on this topic — (Web, Native, and Cross-Platform Apps: What’s the Difference?)[https://lanars.com/blog/web-native-and-cross-platform-apps]

Why Does Web Architecture Matter?

As we already know, web application architecture design is the first stage of software development, and web architecture, in turn, is the backbone of your web app. So what makes digital product architecture so important?

First, the web architecture is literally the foundation onto which you put all the other product components. If this foundation is solid and stable, further work on the product will be time- and cost-effective. If you make mistakes at this critical stage, all the other stages of software development, including scale changes or writing components using a particular programming language, will be slowed down.

Second, high-level web architecture is difficult to amend or modify in the later stages of product development. Typically, major changes of this kind literally mean you have to rebuild the product you want from scratch. Such a decision means postponing the release date, as well as losing financial resources associated with your inability to use components from the previous version of your Node.js, Python, or Java web application architecture.

Third, web app maintenance can become more expensive if you made bad decisions at the overall architecture development stage.

It is, of course, impossible to foresee everything when you create your web application. The technology, market, user needs, and business goals of your company can change very quickly in these turbulent times. However, we will try to arm you with the basic rules of working on a web architecture that will save you time and effort.

Are you about to develop your first IT product? We’ve got a guide for you — (How to Do Market Research for a Startup.)[https://lanars.com/blog/how-to-do-market-research-for-startup]

What Is the Difference Between Software Architecture and Software Design?

If you are new to the process of building web applications, there is a chance that you will confuse the concepts of software architecture and software design. For this reason, we would like to elaborate on the differences between them.

Website development architecture is the result of the first phase of your product development. The documents that describe such an architecture detail things like the high-level components of your system, as well as the connections between them. Within the framework of web app development, digital architecture work involves finding a relevant pattern and identifying other key characteristics of the system components (for example, deciding in favor of NoSQL or SQL).

The issue of software design is raised in the later stages of product development (the code level) once the web application design patterns are already known. Software design is about the direct code writing for the web app architecture components and forming software modules and classes.

Sometimes, at the stage of working on the software design of a new web product, programmers find that they can borrow some parts of the code from open sources and thereby optimize their work. At the same time, an already created web architecture for one product is usually difficult to adapt to a new product.

Web Application Architecture Diagram

Regardless of what your future digital product will be and the high loads it will have to support, the architecture of a web application that you deliver at the initial stage can be described with a simple diagram. In brief, any interaction between a server and a user on the Internet looks as follows:

A person uses a browser to enter their request (this can be an address of the website they want to go to (URL), or a command they send via a web page interface).
The browser translates the user's request into digital language, and then determines the path to the site that the user needs and requests access to it.
When the server is found, it receives the browser request, processes it, and, in response to it, sends the required data.
The user's browser processes this data and displays the result on the user's screen: a new or updated web page.

Modern web architecture is based on the principles described in this diagram. While this scheme of user-server interaction may seem simple and straightforward, there are many approaches and architectural patterns that are suitable for specific types of web applications.

Among the web application architecture best practices, you can find the following example: a scheme in which layers such as administrative, API, application, database, data mining, and client are all present. This configuration is considered the most stable and reliable and allows the system to support high loads.

In the next paragraph, we'll describe the essence of the different layers and components of the web app architecture.

Components of Web Application Architecture

App components are the most important part of web application architecture, but not the only part. As well as this, you will be dealing with data for your database and middleware system design. Nevertheless, it is the components of your system that determine the functions of your future product and the quality of the user experience that your web application will offer to Internet users.

Modern web application architecture operates in two categories of components: structural and UI & UX components. Components of the first group are created using programming languages such as Java, .Net, NodeJS, or Python. UI and UX components are created by designers. After being created, their design layouts are commonly sent for further implementation by programmers in the form of a working web application interface.

Structural (server) components: your server and database

UI and UX (client) components: includes interface notification elements and input controls, navigational components, admin and other dashboards, design layouts, activity tracking tools, informational elements, and many others

The goal of the UI and UX web application architecture components is to design a perfect user experience. At the same time, structural components are more about the smooth running of the web app and its features. You can use a web application model that consists of one server and one database, or you can design an application that operates on multiple servers and databases. The second approach is considered to be more sustainable and reliable.

Layers of Web App Architecture

Components of the web architecture are about the general configuration of the system, without specifying its tiers. And layers of web app architecture are about the vertical structure of your future system. It is the layer diagram that describes how many of them you need and how they are interconnected and gives you an idea of the complexity of your product.

Understanding the logic of layers also enables you to more precisely estimate your web application development budget.

Presentation layer (PL)

This layer is responsible for receiving input data, processing them, then displaying the results that the server provided in the client browser. The presentation layer covers the user interface as a whole. It includes all UI elements, as well as potential interactions that can occur between the user and the web page.

Business logic layer (BLL)

Your web application, regardless of whether you choose a monolithic or microservice approach, has certain features. To make them available to the user, you need to add them as functions in the business logic layer of your system. These functions include the logging-in process, the online ordering feature, messaging, as well as other forms of interaction with the content on the page.

Data access layer (DAL)

This layer is also part of a typical web architecture design. It is a portal to the data that you store in the memory of your server. With this layer, you can access and manipulate your data, including taking such actions as creating, reading, updating, and deleting your stored data (CRUD).

Data service layer (DSL)

This layer ensures the security of your database as well as the data you store after interacting with clients. The data that is stored on your server is transferred to the presentation layer of the system through the data service layer. Thus, you have the option of additional data protection.

Types of Web Application Architecture

There are several popular web application architecture patterns, and below we have described them for you.

Client—Server

Regardless of the programming language and infrastructure features of your product, you are most likely to exploit this type of web architecture for your product as a whole or for its particular features.

This is the basic model for any web application to function. According to it, the client sends a request to a server, and the server, in turn, sends a data packet in response. If you are not using other web application architecture models, then your architecture is called monolithic.

Microservices (Service-Oriented Architecture, SOA)

If you are planning to launch a large and complex online product, this web application architecture design is likely to suit your needs. The key advantage of it is that it enables you to easily change the scale of your product, as well as add things to its functionality.

The model is based on the idea that a separate microserver is responsible for each function in your system (or a group of functions) and is in constant contact with other microservers. This approach simplifies testing different parts of the system, as well as their maintenance.

Serverless

In simple terms, the serverless model is one of the web application design patterns that help you to optimize your budget by outsourcing certain operations using cloud-based services.

Fully serverless solutions are very rare for web applications, however, most modern startups are trying to use third-party services to speed up product launch and even increase its reliability. The functionality that can be provided by using third-party cloud servers (for example, offered by Amazon or Microsoft) is messaging, authorization, banking operations, object recognition in images, and many others.

More on this topic — (Cloud-based applications development: All you need to know.)[https://lanars.com/blog/cloud-based-applications-development]

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Progressive web apps are the latest trend in the world of website development architecture. By opting for this approach, you can offer your client an advanced user experience. In particular, your website will behave like a mobile app but your users won't need to download anything to their devices (as in the case of mobile apps).

Progressive web apps can run offline, send push notifications to users, and interact with your hardware's APIs.

Single-Page Applications (SPA)

Full webpage reloading takes time and degrades the user experience. The longer a user needs to wait to see the content or perform a necessary operation, the higher the bounce rate of your product.

Among web application architecture best practices, you will find many examples of single-page application technology (take any social network to see how it works). So what is a single-page app about? Instead of completely reloading a web page, in response to the user's request, only a certain area of this page is reloaded, thus, it saves resources for each web app layer.

Monolith or Microservice?

As you already know, there are two major modern web architecture approaches. To help you choose the one that is more likely to be suitable for you, let's analyze their key features, benefits, and use cases.

Monolithic architecture

Best works for — small-scale products with simple functionality, single-purpose products designed to handle low traffic (example: currency conversion web apps, blogs)

The advantage of this model is its simplicity. To create and maintain an application of this type, you need the minimum of resources and, accordingly, a small budget. At the same time, monolith architecture does not restrict you in the development of your product, since this type of architecture can be transformed in the future by turning it into a microservice architecture type.

Traffic surges can be a serious problem for monolithic web apps. In cases of significant traffic growth, an application might fail due to the limited capabilities of its servers. That often leads to a high bounce rate, as well as lowering your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) positions.

Microservice architecture of web application

Best works for — large-scale or complex products or web apps that you plan to scale; systems whose functionality you plan to upgrade regularly; testing different approaches to customer service within your product (example: social media)

Modern web architecture should be as flexible as possible to allow you to easily and quickly adapt your product to the needs of the market and the expectations of your users. Moreover, if you are planning to launch an international project, the number of users of which can grow exponentially, the microservice model will be a safe option. It enables you to add new components to the system and fix any bugs without shutting everything down.

Microservice architecture is built on the principle of one server responsible for one function (for example, messaging, uploading files, registering users, and so on). That’s why you can assign different teams to work on each server and thus speed up the development process. Moreover, you can use cloud servers to execute some of your operations.

How do you choose between monolithic and microservice models? We recommend that you always keep your business objectives (including long-term goals) and product requirements in mind.

If you are limited in time and budget and want to study demand before investing heavily in your products, start with a monolith architecture being focused on the main feature of your web application.

If you are up to create an MVP, read our article — (How to Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).)[https://lanars.com/blog/how-to-build-a-minimum-viable-product]

Web Architecture Best Practices

The quality of web application architecture is difficult to evaluate from the outside. Only the development team knows whether their decisions were successful and whether the architecture helps to achieve the goals set for the business.

In the first paragraph of this article, we provided you with a list of parameters that can help you evaluate the quality of web architecture in general and being a part of a team. Let’s recall the most important of them:

System flexibility
Component reusability
Clarity and well-thought structure of your code
Scalability
Stability and reliability
Easy bug-detection
Performance level regarding your system as a whole

Keep in mind that in addition to the modern web application architecture that you applied to your project, the final result is influenced by the performance and location of your servers, as well as the way data is processed and protected. As for web architecture best practices, we invite you to learn more about products that have become the gold standards of their industries:

Microservice apps (SOA) — Uber, Amazon, Etsy, Netflix
Single-page apps (SPA) — Gmail, PayPal, Pinterest
Progressive web apps (PWA) — AliExpress, Forbes, Twitter

At the same time, remember that each case is different, and what has worked well regarding a particular product may not necessarily be a good solution for you. When looking for web architecture solutions, start from your needs and business goals, team competencies, timeframes, and budget.

Bottom Line

Working on a web app architecture is a key stage in the development of your digital product. Mistakes made at this stage are very costly: they can lead to a significant delay in the release date of the web app and budget losses due to reworking your system components.

In this article, we have provided you with the key parameters by which you can evaluate the viability of web architecture design, as well as explaining the various models of such an architecture, along with their layers and tiers. If you still have questions about how to get started on your web app and what to choose, microservice architecture or monolithic, (contact Lanars for help.)[https://lanars.com/]

Custom Software Development Contract: How to Sign Agreements with Vendors

Arslan Tayliyev — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:57:19 +0000

Building trustworthy relationships between the vendor and client is a cornerstone of successful cooperation. But what is the essential part of it and how to set up all necessary regulations? To answer this question we need to explore what is a software development contract and what are main terms of it.

The contract is an official document that sets the rules and conditions between the customer and contractor. It helps to avoid any risks and matches the best results without any issues. Knowing software development contract standards will help you faster and with greater certainty choose the contract's content. With the right choice, you would sign it sooner, start the project on time. What concerns software development - a good contract would guarantee the high quality of the project and great experience of working with a professional dev team.

In this article, we are going to discuss the key points of a good contract, its structure, and the general formation.

Types of software development contracts

The major types of contracts include “Fixed bid”, “Time And Materials” and subscription contracts. Before you decide on the best type of contract, you should choose the best project methodology.

A project management methodology is a set of guiding principles and processes for managing a project. The right choice of methodology defines the further way of the work and communication. The main types of them are:

Waterfall project methodology that guarantees a full and clear vision of the final results, its price and deadlines. This type of methodology is a sequential approach that divides the process of project development into distinct phases. Every phase can begin only if the previous one has been completed. In between phases, all achievements are expected to be documented and signed off. All phases are passed through and completed only once, so all requirements should be prioritized and structured at the start to provide the information in developing the plans, timelines, budget, and resources. The main idea of this approach is plan compliance, so any changes after the project has started would modify the original plan and require a restart.
The agile project methodology is more “floating” and guarantees the general concept of the final product and approximate timeframe and budget. It is based on a teamwork approach that is centered on the deployment of a functional application with a focus on customer’s requirements. This type of project is formed on a time-boxed phase called a sprint with a defined duration of about two weeks. At the beginning of each sprint, a list of goals is prioritized on customer demands. At the end of it, the team and the customer review and evaluate the work with the plan for the next sprints.

To choose the best options, we need to understand what method of funding we are going to use and to evaluate the general idea of the project and the necessity to modify it during the developmental process.

Fixed Bid

Fixed bid software development contract provides a prior assessment of the budget, detailed planning of the application, and its further development. It fits the small projects and MVPs.

On the one hand, the vendor guarantees to finish the project at the set time and provides all agreed terms. But on the other hand, there are risks of an earlier performance of the contract that leads to the overpaid on the client’s side. There is also a possible variant of the breaking deadlines. In this case, it would lead the vendor to financial losses. To avoid these problems, there are several types of fixed bid contracts that can cover every issue:

Fixed Price Incentive Fee contract. Following this software development agreement, the customer pays a contractor defined by the contract amount, regardless of the actual cost. If the seller meets set performance criteria, he can earn an additional amount.
Firm-Fixed-Price contract. By signing this contract, the cost of the project is defined before the work starts and after that remains unchanged. This type of contract places the contractor with maximum risk and full liability for all costs and resulting profit or losses.
Fixed price with economic price adjustment contract. It is a fixed-price contract suitable for long-term projects. The contract is considered to protect both the buyer and seller from the hidden issues over which they have no control. This type provides a provision allowing for predefined adjustments to the final contract price according to changing conditions.

Time and Materials (T&M)

Time and Materials (T&M) model was created by vendors to reduce their risks and provide better development flexibility. It means that the customer pays for the factual working time spent on the program development. This contract is good for its transparency. It means that the whole process of the creation of the app is fully controlled by the client. Every needed change and feature can be added at any time.

What concerns the software development, this approach can involve the appearing of unintended bugs because of the implying new features. To avoid this issue, clients should make a strong plan of the program and think about its functionality in advance.

Dedicated Team

Dedicated team contract provides a client with a software development team for long time cooperation. These specialists are chosen according to the demands of the client for their experience and skillsets. This custom software development agreement has a very simple pricing model. It is based on a set regular payment based on the number of developers.

The main benefits of this type of contracts are:

full control over the development process;
direct communication with a team;
opportunity to modify or add anything at any time;
the team is stable and fully dedicated to only one project.

As a result, the client will manage the team by himself, and in the end, he’ll get a trusted partner that will help in building a stellar software solution.

How to choose the best business outsourcing model? It is important to understand what the actual needs of the project are, and according to them choose the right approach and implement it. Depending on the specs of the project, the client must decide what risks he is willing to reimburse to the outsourcing provider and for which part of the project the supplier will be responsible.

Key Points that Should be in Software Development Contract

After speaking about different types of software development services agreements, it is necessary to clarify the main points of it. In general, this document should spell out what the final product will look like, how it will work, and what the client can expect when using it. The main areas of the agreement are consisting of the following points:

Liabilities

It is one of the main issues that terminate the contracting process. Contractual liability means that one business agrees to pay for any losses or damages caused by another party. Parties should include different provisions on liability. Such aspects as intellectual property rights, conditions of the termination of the agreement, contractor’s indemnification obligations should be indicated in the contract and certified by the lawyer.

Scope of the Project

While writing a contract, try to avoid general and open clauses of scope specifications. A software development agreement should also describe the procedure of accepting changes to it. Any modifications in the scope of work can vary the buyer’s budget and the project timeline. It must be established that any alteration proposed by either party should be documented and verified by both sides.

Intellectual Rights

Software contracts must clearly define intellectual property rights. The customer has to state that he is the rightful and exclusive owner of all developments and all other works of authorship made by the contractor in the performance of this agreement. It would prevent the contractor from reusing his code by the same dev team for a possible competitor in the future. The contract should specify that the legal relationship shall be considered as the work made for hire and all the copyright belongs directly to the client.

Time, Cost & Processes

Depends on the type of the contract, time, cost, and processes should be individually agreed upon by both sides of the treaty. Mostly it depends on the type of software development contract. In general, deadlines can be changed according to the volume of work. They can be regulated by the contractor the same as the processes. As for the question of payment, it is generally accepted to provide a monthly payment but this question also can be regulated by the terms of the contract.

Acceptance testing

Acceptance testing is another important point that should be listed in the contract. As a rule, it is done on the side of the vendor, but the client can perform it on his own. The purpose of acceptance testing is to determine the preparedness of the product that is achieved by passing applying different test scenarios and cases. Usually, these tests are based on the requirements for the software specified in the contract. The main point is that the contract should contain information about the performer of the test, its deadlines, and the form of the test feedback.

Non-Disclosure Agreement

Protecting confidential information and trade secrets is a key issue of every project. And it is extremely important for technology companies. Non-disclosure agreement with the developer allows the customer to protect trade secrets. It should specify the information that is considered to be confidential and the responsibility for its divulging. Generally, the confidentiality agreements last for the period of the contract relevance, but it is also important to maintain them even after the contract completion.

Creating a software development contract is an essential aspect of future success in development and cooperation with the dev team. A customer has a choice to compose a contract on his own or turn to the outsourcing company. In both cases, it is important to consult with a lawyer and pay attention to every risky aspect.

What is Force Majeure? When Does It Apply?

We never know what is waiting for us next and the software development sphere is not an exception. The latest events that are happening now are the greatest example, that no one is immune to different kinds of force majeures. Even if the contract is perfect and seemingly the client is ready for everything, there is a slight possibility of unforeseen consequences.

In this case, the customer should make sure that he is applying different circumstances in his document. Any force majeures as floods, fires, earthquakes, as well as other events like wars and government orders should be predicted.

Today we have another predetermination like a quarantine. It means that most of the teams are working distantly and the impact of such performance could be quite different from what was expected.

If the contract includes such a part, the vendor and customer need to follow the rules set in it. Very often the first step is to notify the other party about the inability to perform and the cause. The party affected by the event proves that there are no alternative means of performing their obligations.

If the contract does not provide any force majeure clause, the party who invokes it may be found to be in breach of contract. In this case, the general rules of law are applying.

Conclusion

To sum up, it is worthy to mention that there is no type of contract that would satisfy all kinds of project, budget and requirement. It is important to consider all pros and cons of every type of document and choose the best option for you. Contract terms impact not only payment but also relationships between vendor and customer. For that reason, any contract that implies collaboration is the right way to achieve great results.

Best Tech Stack for Mobile App Development in 2021

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 09:21:13 +0000

Today making a good mobile application means satisfying a lot of user’s preferences. It is important to provide great work quickly, with a high-level of security, and an attractive interface. To cover all these points we need to choose a good technology stack for mobile applications. It allows us to reduce spending on app development, saves time, offers new prospects and makes future project improvement easier and more flexible. So what is a technology stack for mobile development and how to make the right choice? What are the differences between the creation of Android and iOS apps? Is it possible to make a cross-platform mobile application? Let’s make a quick review of these questions and highlight the main points which will help us to set the right goals.

What Is Mobile Development Stack?

Creating a new app is somehow similar to building a house: you need to have a good foundation in order to provide a good, solid product. In our case, we must pick the best mobile app technology stack, which refers to the union of language, platform, framework, and other tools used for the development of the application.

Mainly we are focusing on such mobile stack categories as:

Front-end, also known as client-side development. It refers to the development of the interface which is going to interact with end-users;
Back-end, a data access layer, which is connected with databases, scripting, website architecture, and server-side development in general;
Development that refers us to the tools which provide libraries and interfaces to build the application;
Supporting, the main idea of which is providing security, high functionality, and future long-term improvement.

But this list can be modified, depending on the client’s needs and the platform that the app is going to be made for.

Why is It Important to make the proper decision?

That leads us on to another related question: why is it important to choose the right mobile app stack? There are several variants of them and inappropriate choices can lead to a deviation from the original idea or even using the wrong application architecture. This issue can cause an increased final cost, lasting error recovery, and an over-running deadline.

Technology Stack for iOS apps in 2021

Android and iOS are structurally different from one another. Due to this nuance, they need their own style of technology stacks. Now let us speak in more detail using an example of actual iOS development environments:

- Programming languages. Two major languages are commonly used for iOS apps development. They are Objective-C and Swift.
Objective-C is an Apple-supported language that is used for building iOS applications. It offers object-oriented potential and a dynamic runtime environment. But because of its complexity, more developers prefer to use Swift. According to a Stack Overflow survey 68% percent of Оbjective-С developers are not interested in continuing to use this language.

Swift is a relatively new language. There are no string identifiers, leading to fewer mistakes. The amount of code required here is much less and it’s easier to understand, edit and debug. Swift preferable language to use in 2021 beacause of it’s speed, readbility and simplicity.

- iOS development tools. There are a few popular toolsets like Xcode and Appcode.

Xcode IDE is powered by Apple and it grants access to all the essential features required to build a native iOS mobile app. This tool provides developers all necessary functions for user interface design, coding, and testing.

Appcode is another integrated development environment, but powered by a third-party. It has a flexible setting system, which allows optimum productivity.

- UI Frameworks. For building user interfaces, developers commonly use UIKit and SwiftUI.

UIKit is the basic framework for constructing and managing graphical components in iOS applications.

SwiftUI is quite similar to UIKit and they can connect to each other. But because of the later introduction of SwiftUI, it supports only the latest versions of iOS. By applying this framework, you may possibly lock-out users running older versions of iOS.

Technology Stack for Android apps in 2021

To build a native app for the Android OS we can apply the following Android app stack:

- Programming languages
There are two popular languages for developing Android apps. Today Java is considered to be the most popular language for making Android apps. It gives one of the best options to build Android applications, as they are based on Android APIs and a huge variety of built-in Java libraries. In this way, Java helps to quickly and efficiently develop applications for the above-mentioned OS.

Kotlin is essentially lightweight and less verbose than Java. It is not an academic language that was invented in the scientific community for specific tasks. It was created by developers specifically for developing Android applications. At the same time, it is fully compatible with Java Virtual Machine and allows us to use both frameworks for developing the app.

- Android development tools
Android Studio and Android Developer Tools (ADT) are great tools to develop Android apps. Android Studio is the official development platform powered by Google. It contains code editing and debugging tools, provides a user-friendly intuitive interface and all the necessary means to create high-quality apps. In this tool, we can find a great variety of visual layouts and drag-and-drop features.

Apart from the basic coding and debugging tools, ADT provides developer specific coding and test automation support, a graphical UI builder, and other specific features. It is a stable and well-supported tool designed to provide a powerful, integrated environment in which to build high-quality apps.

- UI Frameworks
Android provides pre-built Android UI software. It allows developers to easily build user interfaces. Jetpack Compose is another modern UI kit for building a native Android user interface. It simplifies and accelerates UI development. This framework requires less code, introducing powerful tools, and intuitive Kotlin APIs.

Technology Stack for Cross-Platform Apps

If a new project is aiming to support both Android and iOS, the best option is to turn to cross-platform app development. This approach guarantees the same interface and UX for the two main operating systems. One development team and one set of code will bring the application as close as possible to a single UI and UX format across all platforms. This way of developing apps allows devs to use a single code base for both operating systems.

Here we are providing the most pertinent stacks that are commonly used.

Flutter

Flutter is a Google-powered tool for cross-platform development. It’s based on the Dart programming language and with its built-in widgets provides smooth and quick performance. But keep in mind that this tool is quite new and may not support some required functions.

React Native

React Native is a framework based on JavaScript or TypeScript for creating mobile applications. This tool exploits the same UI building blocks which are used in Android and iOS. It provides quick and simple error detection, high functionality, and a simple interface.

Xamarin

Xamarin is usually accomplished with the C# language. This framework provides direct access to the native APIs of both operating systems and allows the use of an open-source and complete toolkit. Unlike the other frameworks, this one has limited free functionality and some specific pay-for-use features.

Technology Stack for Hybrid App Development

Hybrid app development is commonly used for building applications on HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. These programs function like websites and they behave something in between regular apps and rendered-in browser web pages. For this type of development, the usual approach is to use such stacks as Cordova/PhoneGap and Ionic. Let us try to explore the pros and cons of each variant.

Cordova/PhoneGap

Cordova/PhoneGap is an open-source framework that runs HTML and JS-based applications, that can work with hardware features including accelerometer, location, GPS (location), speakers, and other devices. The framework is also supported by a fairly powerful server-side, which means that mobile apps developed with Cordova function faster. It provides its users with a plugin system that omits the limitations of the browser and can access all mobile device capabilities.

Ionic

Ionic is ideal for building hybrid mobile apps using web technologies, including CSS and HTML5. It is a great tool with unique features and services for creating primarily interactive applications. Ionic has a whole library of components and tools optimized for mobile devices. Ionic's cross-platform capability allows developers to spend less time building applications.

How To Choose The right Mobile Technology Stack

Now we have a better picture of possible mobile development technologies, their features, and benefits, let us try to figure out what stack best suits the requirement set. While choosing it, we need to outline project goals and essential features of the future project. This will help the development team to make the best product that will cover all necessary demands.

General app requirements. There are hundreds of different apps that cover different spheres and needs. While creating the general app idea, concretely set all objectives, choose the right target platform and figure out the key features of the future application.

The main Goals of the upcoming App. When choosing the best tech stack for mobile app development, setting the mobile app goals plays a crucial role. The technology stack can vary when a high-latency-based app is compared with a low-latency application. Also, if the app demands heavy load processing, this points towards a better and stronger tech stack as compared to apps with streamlined and precise interactions.

The best platform for mobile app development. The notion of “the best platform” is quite irrelevant in application development. While planning to create a new product it is necessary to keep in mind such features as its functionality, user demographic, and what key expectations & needs should be covered, based on how people use a specific service.

Type of the future project. When you know the main advantages of hybrid, native, and web apps, choose the best type which is going to satisfy your requests. Depending on which sphere the app is going to be used in, the correct choice of project type can improve user experience and lead to great success for the product.

Budget and timelines. Different functionalities can influence the project type, its cost, and required time for the final result. Think about all the requirements and reject any excessive features. This will speed up program development and reduce unnecessary spending.

Data safety and general security. Today this question is highly discussed. Everyone wants to know that their data is safe and even the smallest leak will break a user’s trust and as a result, damage the reputation of the company. This is the reason why choosing the best tech stack is a crucial point that precludes the product’s favorable result.

From our personal experience, following modern trends and trying to join the wave of temporarily popular programs is not a good idea. In the future perspective, such a product will take much more effort to support it and as a result, can turn into a big failure. By researching the market’s needs and predicting upcoming tendencies, this strategy guarantees longer relevance of the program that means higher client’s interest and long-term prosperity.

Mobile Development Stack At LANARS

Based on our experience in developing mobile applications, we can advise you on which dev stack as the best variant for your upcoming project.

Bottom Line
The global expansion of smartphones and the growing popularity of mobile applications has attracted the attention of developers. Entering new grounds where, without much effort, we can easily make a financially successful product creates encouraging perspectives. Choosing the correct technology stack is one of the main points in the creation of a successful project, with prospects for further growth and development. There are no good or bad stacks, but choosing which one is right for you takes skill and expertise..

What an Agile Software Development Team Structure Looks Like

Arslan Tayliyev — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 13:27:55 +0000

Planning to launch an innovative digital product or working on a project that requires tech creativity? In both cases, the Agile approach and methods, like Scrum or Kanban, might be a solution for you. The Agile methodology allows you to make your development adaptive and responsive as it is built on thoughtful and frequent iterations instead of having a general working plan that remains unchangeable.

Understanding Agile methodology phases will help you to build a strong and creative team that can easily cope with advanced tasks concerning your product development. With this article, we’ll guide you through the systems development life cycle (SDLC) in terms of Agile and explain Agile team types, roles, and tools.

The Key Principles of Agile Development

In brief, the Agile software development life cycle is about staying flexible, transparent, and productive at every stage of your product development. Agile workflow is commonly divided into small sprints (up to 3 weeks) that finish with solid result delivery that one can evaluate as a whole. Examples of such sprint objectives: a new version of your product ready to launch or completed work on certain product features.

The key difference between classic software development and one based on the Agile methodology steps is that the Agile team doesn’t necessarily know where it is heading and what the final product or result should look like and what tools they are going to use to achieve them. Instead, they are focused on the continuous delivery of valuable software and results for their clients.

Agile methodology is based on 12 principles that work perfectly for small teams where it is possible to maintain constant communication (both formal and informal) between team members. The most important of them are the following:

Flexibility across project execution
Constant contact between client and team members
Interaction-based software development with each iteration having its independent value
Results are of primary importance (compared to tools)

The Agile approach has several proven advantages for development companies and their clients, including higher software quality, lower risks, and faster delivery. Moreover, it allows you to stay flexible with your budget and business objectives if necessary and provides a product your audience really needs by studying changeable market diagrams and statistics, as well as working hand to hand with the Agile team that can provide you with an alternative vision of your project.

Types of Software Development Teams

Agile product development requires a special type of team. In particular, the difference between this methodology and classic software development is that your team communicates intensively. This way, all team members are aware of each other's tasks, can help each other or exchange tasks if needed, which makes the most of their skills and professional superpowers.

As you already know, the Agile process flow is iterative. Moreover, with each new iteration, the roles of your creative team members may change slightly, depending on the goals of the next sprint. Projects that are based on Scrum (which is an Agile methodology) can be carried out by these types of Agile teams:

Generalist

best for — small projects with the clear and simple tech stack

Such a team consists of universal soldiers who can perform a wide variety of tasks related to software development, transfer them to each other, and at the same time have a clear view of the big picture. Teams like this do well on small projects with a clear tech stack.

Specialist

best for — innovative and niche projects

Members of this team are experts in different technical or creative areas. They are capable of performing tasks of advanced complexity or suggesting creative solutions. The team excels at developing innovative products and complex software architectures. They can also be more attentive to detail and point out product flaws in the context of their expertise.

Hybrid

best for — any type of project including complex ones

In a hybrid Agile team, there are specialists and generalists who reinforce each other's effectiveness. This team model allows you to achieve a high-quality product, as well as save money in areas that do not require exceptional expertise.

Roles in Agile Software Development Teams

The Agile concept is based on the idea that the more flexible and transparent the workflow is, the better it is for the product quality, budget, and timelines. As we noted, Agile team members can take on a variety of tasks, help each other, and make decisions on the go. At the same time, the Agile system development life cycle is possible only with a clear distribution of roles within the development sprint. These are the basic roles in an Agile team:

Product owner

This person has a general vision of the project, including how the product will be useful to future users. It can be the representative of the contracted software development company or someone from the company itself if it is a product company. The product owner makes sure their product contains all features that users might need.

Project manager (team lead, scrum master)

This person plans the team's work, organizes communication sessions, tracks progress, and maintains project documentation. They can also streamline workflows and serve as a link between the customer and the development team.

Architect

This is a highly qualified expert who is responsible for the technical architecture of the future product. It involves high-level design choices, linking the needs of future users of your product, the client's requirements, and the technical (technological) aspect of the product.

Software developer

This team member is responsible for the task directly related to the development, testing, and quality monitoring of the software. Software developers create programs based on the requirements and vision of the software architect. One project can have several developers of different skill levels.

Designer

This category includes both UI designers and UX experts. They are responsible for making the interface of the future product clear and convenient for users, as well as making the product look appealing and stylish. These people are constructing the visual experience.

Tester

At the implementation phase in SDLC, it is important not only to create software but also to make sure that it works correctly. This is the task of QA (quality assurance) engineers. They evaluate the quality of technical and design solutions at every stage of engineering, including the final one, and draw up a list of necessary improvements.

Business analyst

Not every Agile team has its own BA, but having such a person in the team helps to reduce the risks associated with the future business. This specialist studies product demand and market activity to help the team deliver a competitive and cost-effective product.

Agile teams are usually small (up to 10 members) and some team roles might be executed by the same team members. They can also switch roles if some of them have deeper expertise in certain areas. Learn more on hiring experts for your project here — How to Hire Dedicated Developers? Best Tips For Hiring Dedicated Developers in 2021.

Agile System Development Life Cycle

The Agile software development team structure is designed to easily handle tasks of different complexity levels. The more niche experts it includes, the higher quality you can achieve with your project. However, teams of that kind can be scaled and they deal with the same SDLC (software development life cycle) as classic development teams. The only exception is that Agile teams might have flexible roles across different SDLC phases. Let’s review them.

Requirement phase in Agile methodology

Among the key roles in Agile software development teams you might see a BA (business analyst), PO (product owner), and PM (project manager). As a rule, these three people are involved in discussing the requirements for a future project.

A business analyst examines customer and market insights, while a project manager assesses the team's potential and makes customer expectations more realistic. A developer may also be involved in the process as a technical expert. The requirements should be collected in a document called the Software Requirement Specification (SRS).

This phase is similar to the discovery stage in the classic software development cycle (read more here — What is Discovery Phase and How it Helps You Build a Better Product).

Design

Among Agile methodology phases, this phase basically means intensive work for software architects and designers. They study the essence of the project and the technical documentation and then work out ideas of possible digital product architecture, as well as ideas for UX and UI design. At the end of this phase, the team has a design approved by the client or PO. There are concepts such as high-level design (HLD) and low-level design (LLD). The first is about the overall layout of the system, the second is about the design of its components.

Software Development

At this stage, the rest of the team (software developers) get involved in the project. They create technical solutions based on project documentation, as well as documents describing different levels of design of the future product.

This stage is the simplest from a management point of view, but it is often the most time-consuming and therefore expensive. Your developers may include one generalist or some niche experts (front-end and back-end developers, as well as database administrators).

According to the Agile principles, the Source Code Document (SCD) and the working product are the results of this phase, which usually consists of multiple sprints.

Integration and Testing

The Agile software development life cycle contains the integration and testing phase too. A quality assurance expert (QA) takes care of how the product works and proposes a list of improvements to the team. Such testing has several levels, including functional, security, unit, performance, and usability testing. After software engineers have made changes to the product and fixed bugs, the quality assurance manager re-tests the product's features.

Implementation and Deployment

No matter what roles in Agile software development teams we talked about above, the goal of their work is always to deliver a first-class software product to users and meet the customer's expectations.

Despite the fact that testing is in the previous stage of project work, after the project has been released to users, sometimes unexpected technical problems may occur. Therefore, at this stage, software engineers continue their work, fixing newly discovered bugs and monitoring the secureness of the product (for example, preventing hacker attacks on the database).

Maintenance

The Agile software development team structure reflects the functional roles that team members need to take on in order to quickly and easily create a high-quality product. Typically, SDLC ends up releasing a ready-to-use product. But in some cases (for example, working on an MVP, learn more here — How to Build a Minimum Viable Product) the team continues to work on improving it after the official release. Team members study feedback from real users and add new features or transform the product design into something even more convenient.

Agile Project Management Challenges

The Agile approach is a brilliant tool for speeding up project execution and making projects transparent to both the team and clients. But this approach also has its drawbacks. However, if you know about them, you can easily deal with them.

1 You are not working on having a final result in your mind

As you might have guessed, the Agile methodology gives your project incredible flexibility, but this is where the biggest challenge for your team lies. These people will have to work within the implementation phase in SDLC, without having a clear idea of what the future product will be since each sprint can transform the goals and requirements for product features.

At Lanars, this problem is solved by an experienced PM who can motivate the team at every stage, as well as a business analyst who can clearly predict results that sprints will have for your business as a whole.

2 Poor transparency within working processes

You have already heard that Agile increases transparency within working processes, so why do we say that this aspect of the project may suffer?

The fact is that within the framework of the Agile concept, the adoption of many small decisions (regarding design, architecture, and code) occurs within the team of experts only. Thus, the customer has the opportunity to influence the result and express their opinion only after the presentation of the results of the team's work at the end of each sprint.

In our company, we follow the Agile system development life cycle, however (if it is important for our clients), we make you full-fledged participants in creative and engineering processes. You can follow the communication within the team and take part in meetings.

3 New unexpected tasks can occur anytime

The Agile process flow may seem chaotic to those who often deal with predictable work on a project within the classic software development. In the Agile case, new unforeseen tasks can be received by team members literally every day, although the main sprint work scope must be determined in advance.

On the one hand, it is this approach that gives your project agility and increases your chances of business success. On the other hand, the workload of specialists cannot always be controlled, which can negatively affect their motivation. At Lanars, we balance flexibility and task clarity by prioritizing specific tasks at the sprint and project levels.

4 Large teams are hard to manage and track

Agile product development is not suitable for all teams. This concept will help you build a product of any complexity, but direct and close communication between team members, which is an essential part of the Agile methodology, becomes a nightmare if you have more than 20 people in your team. We recommend that you split your team into effective units (distributed teams) of up to 10 people, which have all the roles in Agile software development teams described in the previous paragraph.

What Makes a Good Dedicated Software Development Team?

An effective Agile software development life cycle is not purely based on Agile principles and accurate business forecasting. Such things as a healthy professional environment, corporate culture, as well as the individual features of your team members, matter a lot. For years, the Lanars team has been implementing Agile methodology, and here are some of our takeaways regarding building a perfect dedicated team.

- Stress Free and friendly communication

There is a theory that the communication model within the working group reflects the internal structure of the future product, including the logic of its work. Accordingly, you can hardly build a high-quality product if communication within your team is chaotic.

To implement a communication model that is comfortable for everyone and which allows all team members to reveal their superpower, develop communication guidelines before taking your first Agile methodology steps.

- Establish and maintain an inclusive corporate culture

In Agile software development, it is important that all employees are open with each other and are highly motivated to work with dedication and integrity. Discipline, punctuality, mutual assistance, creativity, openness, and a willingness to share experience and knowledge with colleagues are values that you should promote among your team. Pay attention to retrospective sessions where you will hear team feedback on everything that went on within the project.

- Set common goals, share success but don’t underestimate the value of every person in the team

Achieving ambitious goals is not only down to the result and merit of your team leaders. Agile breakthroughs are only possible with team efforts. Divide a big goal into many individual goals that you can set for certain teammates, and celebrate together the moment when you all managed to achieve the planned project result. Highlight the contribution of each employee to your shared achievement.

- Make Agile roles and responsibilities clear from the beginning

If everyone in your team understands their area of responsibility and what other people in their team are responsible for, they can work in a more comfortable and efficient mode. At the same time, any uncertainty associated with team roles leads to a decrease in team motivation and may lead to tasks not being done, because they are not sure if it is their responsibility.

How to Build an Efficient Software Development Team?

In this article, we’ve tried to describe the general principles behind Agile software development, including Agile methodology phases, team roles, and Agile-based SDLC.

You can implement this methodology within your company and team, however, we want to warn you that it contains many nuances and pitfalls that can prevent you from achieving the desired effect. For example, the requirement phase in Agile methodology does not end with a list of requirements for the final product, where features might change over several sprints.

At Lanars, we have wide experience working to Agile principles, so we’d be glad to help you delve deeper into your understanding of this concept and build an efficient software development team to execute your projects.

IoT in Oil & Gas: Analyzing Technology & Use Cases

Arslan Tayliyev — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 14:56:58 +0000

It is no secret that the oil and gas industry generates huge capital every year, and for some countries the entire state budget is built on the profits from the extraction, processing, and transportation of oil and gas products. Obviously, digitalization has not bypassed this area. It is forecast that by 2023, the market for software and IoT devices for oil and gas will be worth almost $40 billion.

The technologies that are currently applied (or are planned to be used) at oil and gas enterprises are very diverse. They include industrial automation systems, sensor networks for oil asset monitoring, and software for monitoring the safety levels at industrial units.

In this article, experts from Lanars, a company that develops complex solutions concerning the implementation of IoT in the oil and gas industry, talk about the specifics of work for this industry and promising IoT oil and gas use cases.

Challenges in the Oil and Gas Industry

IoT in the oil and gas industry is not a phenomenon of recent years. Various algorithms for optimizing production, improving its quality, and preventing equipment breakdown have been used for a long time.

Before we dive into the challenges concerning solutions for the oil and gas industry, let’s briefly mention 3 types of companies that operate there. Downstream companies are focused on marketing and distribution, midstream business is about logistics, and the upstream sector covers research and production itself.

The tasks and challenges you may face while developing IoT applications in the oil and gas industry at every industry level differ a lot. However, there are also common issues such as the lack of niche experts, the high price of monitors, and the very strict safety and security standards you need to follow there.

Downstream

These companies benefit when they manage to sell oil and gas at the best price and use as few resources as possible on finding customers. If the product they sell is more competitive, the likelihood of high profits increases. In order to make it so, these companies must make an environment-friendly commitment and apply IoT for price and asset monitoring.

Midstream

Companies of this type are interested in optimizing logistics, as well as following strict observance of the rules for the transportation of oil and gas, including the temperature regime and routes. Midstream organizations are also focused on keeping their transport units in good technical condition and avoiding breakdowns.

The main challenge for servicing this sector from the IoT development companies point of view is the need to be up to date with the logistics regulations of certain regions.

Upstream

These companies spend a lot of money on the latest equipment, as well as technologies for finding deposits of raw materials and their efficient processing. They are interested in remotely controlling the processes of research and extraction of useful components.

The major challenges of designing equipment and software for upstream companies are connected with the environment you should deal with (aggressive substances, high pressure and extreme temperatures).

How can IoT-based technologies be useful for the upstream sector? They can simplify and make many processes more controllable within companies, as well as increasing the level of security of enterprises in general. Moreover, some innovative products such as smart oil and gas sensors can become part of the oil and gas monitoring system of a large corporation and allow upstream, midstream, and downstream businesses to cooperate effectively.

Smart Oil and Gas Monitoring Methods

As you may have perceived from the previous paragraph, most IoT solutions for the oil and gas industry are related to monitoring. This can be monitoring the storage conditions of oil or gas, oil analyzing, as well as monitoring equipment and the environment in order to remotely control processes.

In 2021, we can talk about 3 approaches to building a monitoring system using IoT in the oil and gas industry:

- PLC (programmable logic controller) systems

This is a wired IoT technology, which is one of the oldest IoT oil and gas use cases. Machine-2-machine systems of this type consist of numerous sensors interconnected by wires. The problem is that switching these devices takes a long time, and changing the configuration of the system requires a budget. When creating PLC systems, RS-232 and RS-435 standards are often applied.

- Satellite communications

This technology is expensive, but it has been widely applied to IoT in downstream oil and gas enterprises, and to a lesser extent in the midstream sector. Satellite communications have the advantage of being flexible: you can add any number of remote sensors as you need them. Such systems enable you to take remote control of production processes and reduce the number of people who are physically involved in production.

- Physical monitoring

Unfortunately, this approach is still the simplest, most flexible, and cheapest for business. In this case, you have no need for expensive and innovative IoT solutions for the oil and gas industry, since most of the monitoring tasks are performed by employees. But you can focus on making their working conditions safer with an automated safety system.

Check out another article to learn more about IoT — How Much Does It Cost to Develop an IoT App.

Why Should Oil Companies Use IoT?

These days, we can find hundreds of examples of custom solutions of IoT applications for the oil and gas industry designed to resolve various issues. In terms of business, investing in development, and then adopting a certain IoT innovation for oil and gas, increases the value of the company's products for clients, boosts its status, and reduces business maintenance costs in the long term.

Here are some examples of how you can benefit from the use of IoT in oil and gas.

Automation and control of the process

Automation can cover research, raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and even tracking product demand areas. This approach makes it possible to save the company's budget and reduce its need for human resources.

Making big data-driven decisions

The future of IoT in oil and gas is not only about outsourcing ‘dirty’ tasks, but also about opening new horizons. The digitalization of this industry is giving stakeholders more insights for making smart decisions. Moreover, using IoT, it is possible to predict with high accuracy what is happening in the market and beyond.

Reducing the risk of accidents, leaks, and breakdowns

IoT adoption in the oil and gas industry is about how to make the industry safer for humans and the environment. Things like monitoring IoT devices for oil and gas working in conjunction with a security system can save lives.

Eco-friendliness and a better reputation

The key value of IoT in oil and gas for businesses is that such innovations make the sector more transparent and environmentally friendly. As a result, eco-friendly companies (that is, those that can prove they are not polluting the planet) gain a significant competitive advantage.

IoT Use Cases Regarding Oil and Gas Industry

There are numerous IoT oil and gas use cases. In fact, you can improve almost every aspect of your business by creating a network of smart interconnected devices. In this section, you will find just a few of the most popular examples of the use of IoT in oil and gas.

IoT Sensors

The adoption of IoT in the oil and gas industry started with smart sensors, which marked the process of mass transition from manual methods of controlling the safety and quality of manufactured products to the automation era. The sensors are used in gas and oil analysis during the research phase. Tanks for storing and transporting industrial fluids are almost always equipped with such devices.

Smart Analytics

IoT in upstream oil and gas is one of the most promising areas for applying the IoT technology. The upstream sector is the riskiest and most costly, so smart analytics, powered by local and global IoT data, can mitigate these risks.

Big data analytics are often used for revenue forecasting, logistics optimization, and automation of production processes. For example, there are IoT solutions for the oil and gas industry, which are aimed to fully automate production.

Managing Supply-Chains

Smart oil and gas sensors are a multifunctional tool that can simplify processes at every level of the industry. For example, you can install an oil and gas monitoring system at your customers' facility that will resupply them with resources when they are running low.

Industrial IoT in oil and gas also covers areas such as route management and oil transporter weight measurement. In addition, sensors can help you avoid dangerous situations when transporting oil or gas, as well as violations of the rules of such transportation in a specific geographic region.

Transport tanker temperature sensing and fleet tracking are tasks that, thanks to IoT, today are performed remotely and almost without human intervention.

Leak Detection

Real-time pipeline leak detection is an essential task, which can be simplified by IoT application in the oil and gas industry. Smart leakage sensors together with a real-time alert system reduce the risk for upstream and midstream companies that deal directly with extracting and transporting oil and gas. Methane gas detection is one of the most common cases of use of IoT in oil and gas.

The future of IoT in oil and gas is also associated with downstream companies that may invest in technology to make their product generate higher profits. Sometimes it is the downstream business that insists on installing remote area pipeline monitoring.

Tank Monitoring

IoT adoption in the oil and gas industry is also related to the remote monitoring of storage tanks for industrial liquids and other hazardous substances. The most common tank level and temperature monitors can be found on most upstream and midstream industrial units these days.

IoT devices for oil and gas also includes water pressure monitoring equipment and smart sensors for remote oil well monitoring. As a rule, such solutions are created taking into account the characteristics of a particular enterprise, in order to make it possible to monitor oil tanks remotely.

For three years, three teams worked on a single tank monitoring system: one from LANARS and two specialized foreign units. During the entire time of remote tank monitoring system (liquid concentration scan) development, design, and testing, ten specialists were involved full-time on the project.

The experience of the specialists we chose to complete the project ranged from three to fifteen years in their areas. Our main team consisted of iOS and Android engineers, Java, JavaScript, C ++, Python engineers, as well as specialists in embedded development, design, and manufacture of software boards.

Hardware solution: compact, autonomous, highly accurate sensors and a control unit for data storage and ancillary hardware made from plastic and aluminium

Software solution: a remote tank monitoring system which included software for sensors, mobile apps to collect data from sensors, datastorage, or transfer to the main controller, UX solutions, and integrations with the existing industrial software our client uses

As a result, the project extended the working life of industrial machines and made their maintenance less costly.

Steps for Adopting IoT in Your Oil & Gas Business

The introduction of IoT innovation for oil and gas often entails huge business transformations that are painful and costly. Before starting such a process, it is better to carry out a series of preparatory operations that will allow you to avoid budget overruns and other risks. Here's the way our team recommends you to move towards improving your business with cutting-edge IoT technologies:

Step 1. Clarify your task

The value of IoT in oil and gas can only be high for your business if you have a good understanding of the problem you need to solve with new software and equipment.

It is true that you can improve the efficiency of literally any department or production unit using IoT, however, it is always better to start with something small, controllable, and measurable. This can be introducing smart sensors for monitoring the temperature in a tank, or a system for monitoring the composition of a substance in a pipe for example.

Define your problem, analyze what positive consequences its solution will have, and only then start developing the solution itself.

Step 2. Search for ready-made hardware

Despite the fact that gas analyzing, oil asset monitoring, and smart oil and gas sensor production are areas that have only recently received impressive funding, there are many companies that specialize in developing ready-to-use hardware for all of those purposes.

You may find equipment that fits your requirements in the off-the-shelf device market. You should also consider that IoT devices, including tank and field sensors, are mostly quite adaptable.

The main thing at this stage is to determine whether you can find a ready-made hardware solution on the market or that you need to create it from scratch.

Step 3. Check if your new hardware is compatible with the existing one

The incompatibility of newer (usually more modern) Internet-connected equipment with older controllers or other monitoring devices is a common problem you may encounter. We recommend that you check the compatibility of old systems with new ones in advance.

Step 4. Get your data processing and protection to a truly competitive level

IoT-powered modernization at your company is not only about collecting data, but also about efficiently processing it and using it to make important decisions.

Think ahead about where you will apply the new data (for instance, data collected with friction points monitoring sensors) and how you can automate or optimize production using them. You will definitely need a team of engineers who can work out a data architecture, develop data processing algorithms, and configure the controllers.

Where there is a transfer of data from one device to another, there is always a risk of theft and hacking. In industrial IoT in oil and gas, the rates are high, so it is better to eliminate risks where possible by applying high-quality digital data protection.

Step 5. Set up your system and check the results

No matter how carefully you’ve designed your custom industrial IoT, there will always be room for improvement. Moreover, it is impossible to foresee some rare real-time issues with sensors and controllers.

Once the launch of the IoT at your industrial unit is complete, we recommend that you closely monitor the results. Use this to improve the system in the future and make your business even more efficient.

IoT Solutions for Oil and Gas by Lanars

The oil and gas industry still generates enormous capital (global industry revenue in 2020 was over $1.47 trillion, (even though there was a 40% decline year-on-year due to COVID-19). IoT is called one of the most profitable tech areas to invest in. That means combining both you can end up having a sustainable and efficient business with high quality and safety standards.

IoT in the oil and gas industry takes many forms, and some of them, including the use of smart interconnected sensors and remote controllers, is already considered the standard for upstream and midstream companies today.

Among the major benefits that you get from IoT adoption in the oil and gas industry are better control over production processes, a high level of security, business optimization based on big data, and a chance to reduce the prime cost of oil and gas products as well as their logistics. Lanars can offer you custom IoT solutions that help to achieve such results.

At Lanars, we have wide experience of cooperation with oil and gas businesses of downstream, midstream, and even upstream types and are ready to find or develop industrial the IoT hardware you need, as well as design software to make it work for your business.

How to outsource app development smartly: the nerves-saving guide

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:06:31 +0000

If you have an app idea, the question “How to outsource app development successfully?” appears to be an intriguing puzzle to solve. To begin with, we’d like to point out that it’s a wise choice to select outsourcing concerning app development. Why? If we compare hiring in-house vs outsourced developers, the latter option can significantly reduce your costs along with providing a high-quality outcome. Besides, it can offer you the following advantages:

a wide technology stack to choose from since outsourcing companies often face with various projects for various customer demands;
comfortable and professional support including communication with experienced project managers and business analysts throughout the whole project lifecycle;
quicker market entry;
development outsourcing helps you forget about worries concerning app development to better focus on marketing goals and gaining profit from your app

Looking at these tempting benefits, no wonder that 72% of companies outsourced their IT development globally in 2016.

Nevertheless, choosing the most suitable company to outsource app development is crucial. It’s because this choice affects so many valuable aspects like the users’ satisfaction of your app, its profitability and the proper expenditure of your time and budget needed for its creation.

That’s why in this article we’d like to tell about how to choose outsourcing development firm the best way. You’ll learn about the criteria and tips on how to choose an outsourcing company, websites where to look for them, how to pick outsourcing and pricing models and how to minimize risks involved in outsourcing app development.

Let us begin!

Know your app requirements

For a start, you should have a clear understanding of what your application is going to be. And though caring project managers from Lanars outsourcing company can assist you in figuring out your application requirements, only you can say what they are. To achieve the finest outcome try to be as specific as possible if you want the final product to fully meet your expectations.

You can start by searching and analyzing applications that are similar to yours. Besides, try to google a list of questions to help you specify your application specificities. Here’s an example of them:

The app purpose. Define the problems it is intended to solve for them. Define your application’s target audience.
The platform (OS) and type. For instance, if you want to outsource mobile app development. Then what platform will your app be written for - iOS, Android, maybe both of them? As for type, you should consider whether you want a native, cross-platform or hybrid application.
The features. What specific features should your app have? Should your app be capable of executing payments? Do you need a couple of versions of the app such as “lite” and “full”?

Define your criteria for selecting an outsource app development company

Various criteria can have a higher or lesser priority to you when choosing an outsourcing agency. However, here is the list of the most basic as well as important ones:

Expertise

A safe and steady working process on your project requires an app development company with high expertise. They should have an extensive track record of quality apps. Mobile or web programming is a challenging process that demands in-depth knowledge of technical tools, creativity and the target audience preferences. So it takes years of practice.

Also, a significant point to consider would be to find an outsourcing development company that developed apps similar to yours. In case they have no expertise in your particular industry, check if this company developed analogous apps for the other ones.

Client reviews

A valuable factor that helps to identify the comfortability of working with the development firm can be defined according to their previous client reviews. First of all, you can try to find them during an online search for “firm name” + the “reviews” word. Also, trustworthy rating sites like Clutch as well as GoodFirms contain detailed customer reviews of application development companies. Likewise, it takes a little time but you can phone their customers and ask them for reviews.

Clear and fast communication

This aspect is extremely important concerning every cooperation and it’s doubly true for software development. Such indicators as good understanding of your project requirements, transparency and absence of language or cultural barriers are an absolute necessity.

The communication goes well if both you and the outsource agency can freely ask questions, resolve ambiguities and provide on-time feedback.

On the other hand, the lack of communication can cause such consequences as additional code corrections, extra money expenses, and quarrels.

Search and shortlist app developers

The digital era has brought us an incredible option to choose any app development company around the world. So there isn’t a problem discovering the outsourcing development company online according to your liking:

There are specialized review websites that can assist you in finding app development firms. They are the above-mentioned GoodFirms and Clutch. There you can search for software vendors by category e.g. mobile development or VR/AR and by location.

Just google. For instance, “best web development companies in Ukraine” if you want to outsource web application development.

Recommendations. Never underestimate the power of social networks. For instance, simply posting in social media that you search for a software vendor can bring you lots of useful recommendations. Besides, if you know someone in your contact list who probably faced app outsourcing, don’t hesitate to call or write them directly.

Choose the perfect outsourcing agency

If you have prepared your shortlist, get ready to check portfolios, conduct interviews and establish the time frames for your project.

Check the portfolio

If you want to find out about the experience of the development team, the easiest way is to look at their portfolio. There you can find the list of apps they’ve made, the technologies they used and form your assessment about this company. The best way is to keep in mind your project requirements and find a firm with sufficient expertise to comply with them. Here you can find the Lanars company portfolio.

Talk before hire

Although portfolio and technical expertise are certainly important factors, they can’t substitute the necessity of comfortable communication. You should set an interview with the desired outsourcing development company. However, both email and text chat are not enough for this case. It’s because real-time communication always gives you much more info about the team. For example, if the company you’re going to hire doesn’t show a keen interest in your project by asking questions, don’t assume they will after you hire them.

Establish important milestones

If the communication went well and you found the appropriate app developers then the final stage is to negotiate about your project’s milestones. By milestones we mean the time frames when the development team should accomplish certain assignments. Furthermore, that’s where you’d better negotiate when to conduct payments. Two standard options are after project completion or after each milestone.

Establishing milestones is important as it helps you track the current progress on your project and make sure that it falls within the specified time frames. If you don’t prefer dealing with milestones, the least you can do is to set a connect calendar. This measure is intended so that the software vendor can contact you on particular dates to keep you aware of the progress of your project.

How to choose an outsourcing model for app development?

There are two basic models concerning outsourcing programming: outsource (or project-based) and outstaff.

The project-based model implies that the outsourcing firm has full control and responsibility for your project. There won’t be a possibility for you to contact the programmers and give them assignments directly. Besides, the project-based model implies that the developers are often involved in several projects simultaneously.

Outstaffing model means that a team of hired workers employed by the outsourcing firm performs work assignments of another firm (customer). The hired developers remain officially employed by the outsourcing firm which is still in charge of human resources records and providing them equipment, dealing with taxes and calculating their salaries. However, your company as a customer gains the possibility to set assignments and manage the hired programmers.

In fact, outstaffing provides you with the remote developers who become a part of your staff members. You can manage them using your staff employees or by hiring remote managers via outstaffing.

Hence, development outsourcing means developing your app on a turn-key basis. However, outstaffing allows you to hire and control individual developers or managers.

How to choose an outsourcing pricing model?

If you outstaff programmers, the payment you should make is a monthly salary to them. As for outsourcing programming using project-based model, there are two variants:

Fixed price

The fixed price approach is suitable solely in case you’ve precisely defined the project requirements and know that no changes will occur to them. This model implies assigning a strict time frame of the project’s completion and negotiating on the fixed outsource app development cost. Programmers will have to stick to the specified time frames as well as budget so they’ll ignore some technical problems to remain within them.

Time-and-resources

Time-and-resources approach’s main advantage is its flexibility. It’s because it doesn’t rely on fixed prices and strict time limits. The actually consumed resources and time is what you pay for. Thus, you can alter the primary plan and respond flexibly to any changes.

The final cost of the app can vary concerning time-and-resources approach but that’s what you trade for great quality and market-fit.

Hence, the choice of pricing model depends on your preferences, budget and previous experience concerning outsourcing programming. However, with the appearance of the time-and-resources model, it has become highly demanded among customers and almost fully displaced the fixed price model.

What are the risks involved in outsourcing and how to tackle them?

Let’s talk about two main causes of client worries when it comes to outsourcing software development:

Confidential data diversion
There is one key difference concerning in-house vs outsourcing software development. Outsourcing causes entrusting some confidential data about your project to a third-party firm. Thus, there is a chance of valuable data diversion, no matter how reliable the outsourcing firm is.

However, since it’s a common case concerning the IT industry, the solution has been found long ago. To secure your data you’ll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as well as an intellectual property (IP) protection agreement. Beyond that, if you require even more protection, it’s better not to limit yourself with these specific documents but use additional legal measures to protect your data.

Misalignment between client expectations and the final product
Despite the high expertise of the desired outsourcing development company, the risk of expectations misalignment remains. The outsourcing firm might interpret your app requirements differently or not gather the required data about your project. Anyway, it eventually leads to additional money and time expenses.

To prevent such a risk, your communication with the developers should be as unambiguous as possible. In addition, your project requirements should be necessarily stated in a signed contract.

Conclusion

Outsourcing software development is a common practice these days as it brings a pile of benefits. Of course, one of them is cutting your costs as different countries offer various hourly rates.

Among the best countries to outsource software development take a precise look at Ukraine. The hourly rates amount here to only 25$ - 70$. Ukraine holds the 8th place as a country with the most skilled developers, according to SkillValue. And in 2017, this country was called the "Outsourcing Destination of the Year" by the Global Sourcing Association. The entrepreneur magazine can tell you more about why to outsource to Ukraine.

To receive all the benefits of development outsourcing, you’ll have to put some effort into choosing the outsourcing company. But it’s definitely worth it, as a well-chosen company can take your app from ordinary to extraordinary.

One of the companies that exceeds the client expectations has clear communication, and delivers high-quality products is Lanars. We specialize in mobile (Android, iOS) and web development. We also create hardware such as the Internet of Things (IoT), embedded software and PCBs.

How to Create a Dating App? Make an App Like Tinder

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 12:06:35 +0000

Nowadays, nobody could deny that dating philosophy changed dramatically within the past 5 years. Love is currently not just in the air but also in everybody’s smartphones. Also, there are no reasons to be in shame of telling friends that you’ve met your soulmate on Tinder.

Statistics said that over 46% of Americans use online dating apps in 2019 and, what is more astonishing, near 20% of relationships in the USA started from online communication. For other countries, statistics tend to become similar within a couple of years.

As a result, the online dating app market is still growing and there is a constant demand for innovative dating apps everywhere from China to New Zealand. In this article, we’ll figure out how to create a dating website and make it profitable in 2019.

How to Make a Dating App from Scratch

Everybody uses dating apps to create a couple or hang out, but we will hardly find two identical apps.

Tinder gives us a chance to decide on whether we would like to proceed communication with the person quickly, while OkCupid works with detailed profiles trying to push us to look for a partner that 99,9% suits us for months. Facebook Dating which is now been testing in Columbia looks similar to the native Facebook marketplace while Badoo had been grown from a regular dating website with its classical interface.

Naturally, it’s impossible to answer the question on dating app development procedure without considering which special features your app should have.

But, speaking generally, dating app development looks pretty similar to any other iOS and Android apps development.

In article about mobile app development cost, we’ve already described key stages of the process in details. Here, let’s recollect them briefly:

Choose your app principles
Find and develop a revenue model
Decide on MVP features and plan marketing campaigns
Work on structure and UX / UI design
Develop an MVP and launch it
Study feedback and work on mistakes

However, the thing you need to start building a dating site with is marketing research. There is no need to create a product that is identical to any other and there are no reasons to waste investments on development of the app that doesn't really have its audience. Marketing research helps to avoid those mistakes.

To save your time and money, learn more about the niche, keep your target group detailed and try to plan the financial success looking through already existing cases.

Choosing a Catching Name

Naming is a great issue for dating app startup. When it comes to love affairs, not all existing marketing models are well-applicable due to Google and social networks’ policy. Sometimes a brand name is the only thing you can say about your product legally.

And another reason for dating app marketing to be tricky is the public attitude to dating fever. Nobody wants to be caught on extra effort for trying to find a partner. Therefore, the name of your product should not shout from the screen of the smartphone “Look! This person does not have a loved one”.

That’s why naming as a part of marketing is extremely important for building a dating app. And if you’d like to learn more about it and apply bits of knowledge during startup planning in another field, go for our big guide on app naming.

But what is most important in dating app naming? Let us name some principles and rules:

The name has to reflect app core features. Examples – both OkCupid and Match emphasis on the ability of apps to connect users with their future partners. Tinder hints fiery passion topic.
You need to differentiate your app from the competitors and have your unique domain. Don’t use too popular words and already existing names. Check name availability before making the final decision.
Make your app name easy to spell and remember. Mind that most short and memorable apps’ names consist of 2 syllables and not more than 10 symbols. Examples – Badoo, Bumble, and Pure.
The name should be searchable but don’t name an app too keyword-sounding. Remember that you also have the description field to throw several keywords into it. However, having a searchable keyword in its name your product would be likely shown highly in the search listing. Example – Do I date with a date keyword and Luxy standing for luxurious dating.
Play with words in order to make the name not sounding like “Hey! I’m using a dating app”. Tinder, Plenty Of Fish, and Coffee Meets Bagel are good examples of how to create a memorable name with indirect meaning.

Also, you need to decide if your product name needs to sound familiar to your audience and evoke pleasant associations or it should sound gorgeous and even a bit snob. Use your target user description to find answers and determine the core naming vector.

Make an amazing UI/UX dating app design

No doubt any app needs great UX and fabulous UI to be adored by its target audience. At the same time, dating app development has its specific design brackets. Here, we would like to list and describe the most important of them:

Navigation and functionality. Think of classic dating navigation. It has to be easy and understandable from the first glance. Profile editing, partner search, and communication sections – all of them should be clarified for users.
Introduce key feature. Why do users use a dating app? Naturally, they want to meet someone. In other terms, you need to provide them with easy and quick access to partner search. Let searching screen to be the basic one. Give users a chance to search for partners without long profile editing procedure.
Plan chat options. Chatting interface is the second important feature of the dating app. People use them to find partners and then to meet with them. Chat gives an opportunity to decide whether a person worth meeting or not and to discuss the future meeting. Before designing your chat, learn what chat features your users really need. It may happen that you don’t have to waste money on video chats as people use your inbuilt messenger to exchange phones or Facebook profile links only.
Develop an empathetic environment. Remember that dating is an emotional area. People may feel overdressed chatting with somebody they like a lot. That is also kind of heroic for some of them to text unknown person. How to make Tinder app? Be friendly and playful! Create a pleasant and safety design environment to make people forget about their hesitations and fears. Right UI will help people to avoid conflicts and devastation. Use clear buttons, bright colors, and short texts.
Think of matching engine. People would adore your app if it proposes them lovely partners all the time. But how to make partner search quick and precise at the same time? UI is an answer. Tinder managed to automate the procedure using geolocation principle and analyzing social networks profiles. Happn pushes its users to fill in detailed profiles. Some apps are more creative – Badoo turns profile editing into funny game proposing users to select beloved celebrities; Hater connects partners who hate the same things. Most of the dating apps use AI permanently improving search mechanics. Decide what and when are you going to ask users about themselves in order to meet their expectations about finding a perfect partner.
Design profiles carefully. Most people lie in their profiles. That causes user disappointment during 44% of offline dates. That’s why some app like Badoo added a live video chat option to the chat. But that is not the only way to strive for truth and user happiness in dating apps. Your app may check Instagram and Facebook information and browse some pictures automatically as Tinder does. Think of what your users may need in addition to the standard profile overview interface. For example, the well-spread trick is to create a two-tabbed interface for toggling between profile and chat. A great idea was also developed by Dine. The dating app integrates with Yelp and matches people with the same gastronomic preferences.
Rise safety and control issues. No one wants others to ruin his or her privacy. That’s why not everybody is OK with logging in through Facebook or Instagram. But here, it is better to rise the feeling of control and safety generally than to lose social networks linking. How to evoke safety feelings? Bumble gives women some privileges – they text their male matches first and men have 24 hours only to respond. Dating app like Hinge pushes its users to browse video to the profile while others could give likes to it. Zoosk the dating app that describes itself as a tool for people looking for serious relations has phone and photo validation feature.

MVP for a Dating App

How to create a dating app? Building an MVP is the best way to test your app idea and prevent yourself from wasting money on an idea that would not work well.

Use our full MVP-building guide to learn the process in details and avoid critical drawbacks. Here, we’ll apheresis the key points and highlight specific rules of creating a proper dating MVP taking Tinder as an example.

First, let’s analyze the Tinder application. Probably, it is the most minimalistic dating app ever created. And the simplicity of Tinder is likely to be its strength, that’s why Tinder hasn’t been changed too much since it had been launched in 2014. To create something similar to Tinder, it is mandatory to consider the app key features. Don’t worry we’d already done it for you:

Sign In. Long registration with creating a unique password and email link verifying process is now the part of the past. If you don’t want to lose half of your potential users, you need to create a quick sign-in feature with registration via Facebook, Instagram or other social network profile.
Profile. The user profile should be editable and indicate a person’s appearance and other facts such as interests, hobbies, occupation and something from the bio. Make sure that users will guess how to fill the profiles. That is also important to arrange the profile sections in a simple and convenient way to help other users to read the information and make decisions without hesitations.
Geolocation. Not only Tinder, but most of the dating apps use mobile geolocation tracking to show users the potential soulmates who are easy to meet with. Integrate the feature in order to gather people from the same area.
Matches. Nowadays, matching algorithms are mostly AI-based. Consider this! AI development may cost your extra money and requires skilled teammates.
Chats. Users need a tool to contact each other. Chats may fulfill their need to know partners better and decide if they meet the expectations. Video chatting integrations, voice clips, GIFs and stickers posting – all of those features are obligatory for the dating app if you want to keep your users inside the app all the time. Otherwise, they would jump into another more functional messenger soon after matching.
Notifications. Users will spend more time inside your app if you give more reasons to do so. Notifications are a good idea of how to let the user check the app frequently and stay in instant contact with potential soulmates.
App settings. Most users are OK with default app settings, but not all of them. App setting dashboard integration includes notification muting, filters customization, and visibility modes.
Admin panel. That one will be hidden from the users and that is you and your support team who will access an admin panel through the desktop version. Admin panel should be created to provide you with a possibility to block users, solve conflicts, and study user experience.

Dating App Marketing Plan. What’s special?

How to gain first really loyal users of yours and attract millions of others? For that, you need a proper marketing plan.

To develop app carefully you need to have at your hand at least target audience and market researches.

The last one includes competitive niche analysis, index of market niche growth and some numbers performing how much money you could get from launching a brand new dating app right now.

Having all this you are able to calculate marketing outcomes, compare them with expected incomes and finally decide what kinds of marketing tricks are most profitable for you.

Consider that dating app promotion has legal restrictions. For example, there is no chance to promote such apps within Instagram or Facebook, so you have to create a lead form to gather email and forward ads to subscribers’ mailboxes.

Most of general informational portals would refuse your advertisement pointing that it is adult content. As a result, your marketing arsenal may seem very limited to you. But that is far from the truth. Here are some tips that will help to answer the question of how to make a dating app and build its marketing plan right:

Look for your niche and promote your solution on specialized platforms

Is it possible to create an app like Tinder or Facebook now? No, but it is not a problem anymore.

Face the fact that you don’t need everybody's’ attention for launching a product successfully. Take your target user portraits, list key problems that you help them to solve and then find out where the best place to tell the potential users about the advantages of your solution is.

Example – Bumble app allows nobody but women to make the first move so not surprising that it is promoted through women magazines as well as psychological communities. Tastebuds dating app is aimed at music lovers and Bro App for Men was created for those who want to start a bromance. They also use specialized promotional channels.

Work on corporate image. Let people think they are just having fun!

Tinder was first who turned the soulmate search into a swiping game where users could pretend they were just playing. However, dating experience gamifying is not the only way to make an app exciting and engaging. The other one is to design an unpredictable searching award such as fancy animation.

You may also create limited offers. Examples – Coffee Meets Bagel shows you only one match per day exactly at noon and Happn sends you a push notification when you’ve crossed paths with a partner.

Encourage users to share their love stories!

Due to fun dating gamification, more and more people are not shy anymore about the fact they use dating app. And moreover, millennials share their digital dating experience with great pleasure turning it into a thing to be proud of.

In 2019, your task is to let people share their successful love stories and generate app-related content wherever it is possible, especially on Facebook and Instagram. Promote your app using hashtags and user content.

Examples – Tinder has 5,000 social networks mentions daily having sharing options inside the app.

Make Friends with Influences

Yes, you are not allowed to promote yourself on Facebook and Instagram, but there was nothing said about crowd marketing, feedback-based promotion, and other types of organic buzz.

Invest in the search for people your target audience respects. Invite them to try your app and share the experience with their subscribers.

Don’t use straight forward promotional video with stars using your app (especially if they don’t). Collaborate with those who would like to test your product. That was a brilliant Hinge idea to mix user and influencers marketing content using a memorable hashtag.

And one more tip. Your marketing plan should be ready before the development process or at least 2 months before the official launch. Include plan A, B, and C to it, set success indicators, and calculate costs carefully. Prepare marketing road map and budget in advance.

Principles and Mechanics to Build a Dating App: Tinder and OkCupid Examples

At first glance, most dating apps look similar. Users register, search for soulmates, choose between them and then the conversation begins. But, depending on the particular app idea, the dynamics, a number of founded partners, searching time and conversation style may vary.

Here, we would like to compare the principles and mechanics of the two polar dating apps. The one is Tinder that is considered to have the most minimalistic dating app design in the world. The second app is OkCupid, Tinder nearest competitor. See, how different approaches could be applied while building a dating site:

Tinder

Established – 2012

Number of users (2019) – 57 million

Monetization model – Freemium

Tinder is a world dating leader and the explanation of its success is the fact that the app is very simple and therefore quick and understandable for everybody. It is also the first dating app that has turned soulmate search into a game of swipes.

And yes, Tinder is a pioneer of the dating app field. Its breakthrough was such a brilliant that the team still doesn’t have much to improve – Tinder of 2012 looks similar to Tinder of 2019.

Dating mechanics. User needs to download an app and sign in using his or her Facebook or Instagram account. People could also sign in with an email and by creating an individual password, however, everybody has to prove that they are older than 18.

Then user set up a profile writing 500-character bio and downloading up to 6 images. Linking an Instagram account means that others could check your Instagram photos. The user finishes the profile with additional information about his or her working place which is optional.

When the profile is complete, the user goes to partner search. There, the Tinder app shows full-screen photos with names and ages. Tapping on the photo, the user could check other information like bio, the number of mutual friends on Facebook or employee name.

Right swipe stands for a like and left swipe is for passing the candidate. To give a person super like user needs to swipe up. If users liked each other, Tinder shows that they are matched and invites them to text one another.

The app doesn’t allow people to text others if they didn’t like them in response. Paid Tinder version unlimits daily swipes and gives you more super likes.

OkCupid

Established – 2004, launched as an app in 2012

Number of users (2019) – 10 million

Monetization model – Freemium

Back in 2004, OkCupid was launched as a regular desktop dating service. In 2012, it has been also started as an app with all the features and ideas has been performed by its web version.

In 2019, all dating apps tend to become similar to Tinder. OkCupid is not an exception. However, it has its own specific features and unique selling proposition.

Dating mechanics. A user downloads an app, creates a username and starts filling out the profile. The user could link an Instagram account to the app, but the main idea is to answer a very long list of specific questions. Some of them are about your expectations as for partners’ answers for the same questions. The user could choose to make the answers public or hide them at all, mark some of the questions as important and the rest as optional.

From its side, OkCupid app compares answers and gives scores to users in order to create an ideal match. There is a slide-out menu where you could find people you may like, but if you don’t want to read profiles or compare potential candidates, click quick match option and choose between several photos selected by the app.

The user could give likes to others, but, in fact, the better idea is to text the person directly. Likes are shown to paid users only (A-list status users).

OkCupid allows anybody texts anybody else which is a serious drawback according to users’ feedbacks.

The app interface also may look clunky and too complicated as in fact an app is just the simplified version of the web site, where same features work well.

The Technology of Attraction: How to Make an App Like Tinder?

In 2012, Tinder was a revolutionary app that became popular within several months. It is a niche leader and at the same time a flagman everybody would like to learn from. But what is Tinder and what had dating app developers done to it to make the app so unique?

Tinder is a location-based social search mobile app aimed at matching people from the same area. The name of the app means fuze or candlewick which probably hints that the application allows you to find a partner for a hot relationship.

Tinder has a Freemium revenue model and 4.1 of 57 million of Tinder users around the world are Tinder Plus and Tinder Gold subscribers. In 2018, Tinder year revenue reached $800 million.

So what is behind those numbers? The answer is the technology of user attraction. Let’s explore some of its features:

Interface simplicity

All you need is to sign in and swipe. Big pictures, simple gestures and easy to access chat features.

Location basis

Tinder was first who matched dating platform with GPS tracking mobile feature successfully. The trick is we are more likely to start relationship with somebody from the same street than the one over the ocean.

Finding similarities automatically

OkCupid went further than other applications in this question, but its weakness is that no one wants to fill out questionnaires for years.

Tinder analyzes profiles automatically, compares our Facebook and Instagram profiles and browses information on our friends from social networks without our extra effort. We don’t need to spend much time on our profiles – all we need to do is to check what Tinder picked up for us.

AI approach to behavior analysis

The user produces a lot of data. Tinder algorithms analyze it immediately, learn from it, and try to adopt the search engine to the particular person dating style. The app shows more people of the kind you supposed to like according to your previous behavior and doesn’t show those who are not of your favorite type.

But no matter how attractive it looks to repeat everything that Tinder has done on a market that it has not reached yet, think about this twice. In the global market, the platform is already known. Instead of copying, try to create a niche resource based on Tinder concept. Tinder for LGBT, people of a certain age or interest – these are always some free niches in many regions.

How Much Does It Cost to Make an App Like Tinder?

How to make an app like Tinder? Tinder-like app development is a process which is pretty similar to any other mobile app building. You need to start with an idea and general marketing plan, switch to design and finish with native, cross-platform or web app development.

In the previous article, we’ve already described factors that affect development budget. Here, we are trying to calculate the final development costs of Tinder clone according to our pricing.

Tinder has two native versions of its app – iOS and Android ones. To count how much it would cost to build an MVP app, we listed all the features performed in Tinder and accompanied them with a number of hours required for development and integration:

Instagram integration – 40 hours

Profile photo editing and gallery arrangement – 10 hours

User profile editing – 40 hours

App settings – 10 hours

GPS tracking – 8 hours

Matching algorithms (plus AI engine development) – 200 hours

Matching menu and swipe effects – 40 hours

Push notifications – 8 hours

Chats – 80 hours

Payment methods integration – 20 hours

Admin panel – 80 hours

Mind that features development is not the only services you need to pay in order to get a ready to use solution. Your team also need UI and UX design, QA, and marketing support.

To provide you with admin access to everything that is going on inside Tinder world, developers also have to create a web-based admin panel. That is also a good idea to create a dating website for users who would like to check what's new on Tinder being at work.

To calculate the final bill we’ve taken the average Eastern Europe hourly rate which is also the rate of LANARS work – $50 per hour. So here, you may find general project costs split by type of work:

Project management – 100 hours

UI / UX design – 100 hours

Native mobile development (iOS and Android) – 600 hours (300 for each platform)

Web app development – 180 hours

Marketing strategy development and implementation – 200 hours

QA assistance – 220 hours

There are 1,400 hours and $70,000 in total. Usually, dating app developers team that could cope with tasks like this consists of a backend developer, a designer, an Android developer, an iOS developer, a project manager, a marketing specialist, and a QA engineer. To speed up product development, you can double the number of all team members, except for the designer and project manager.

How Do Dating Apps Make Money

There are more than 1,500 dating apps currently matching people around the world. Most of them are free, but it doesn’t mean that they get zero revenue daily.

Speaking generally, most dating apps are using one of the three business models – subscription model, freemium or in-app purchasing model. To learn about all existing monetization concepts read our big app monetization guide.

In addition, app owners could sell in-app advertisement space or propose some kinds of offline services like table bookings and interpreter hiring.

Let us describe those concepts and give you some examples:

Freemium

Download an app and use its key features for free. To use extra features, such as account boosting, profile verification, unlimited amount of swipes, super likes or direct texting to the chosen person, you need to pay once.

Freemium apps also get extra revenue from ad-based collaborations that sometimes get even viral (like Tinder campaign for Ex Machina movie where the profile of movie character had appeared in the system). Other Freemium examples – Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel and OkCupid. Premium version of Freemium apps also doesn’t have ads.

Subscriptions

The concept is popular among luxurious apps for serious relations, or those who provide extra privacy and exclusive types of partnership. Some of the apps ask for payment weekly – most of them are aimed at people who search for legal commitment, but the rest has a monthly subscription plan. Longer periods are usually cheaper. Examples – Luxy, Raya, Zoosk, and Chemistry.

In-App purchases and extra offline services

Sometimes an app could propose its users to upgrade profile, enable particular features, or purchase digital gifts. Those things are usually cheaper than entire subscription where you could get some of them for free on a regular basis.

Additional services often include services related to dating arrangements. Examples of apps pursuing on in-app purchases – Happn, Plenty Of Fish, and Hinge.

In-App advertisement

The audience of dating services can turn into an excellent base of future customers for brands. An app already knows a lot about these people including information on what they love, where they eat, how they relax, and that’s not counting their gender and age. That is a great advantage for brands.

It is not surprising that in free applications we find targeted advertising of restaurants, lingerie shops, and jewelry salons.

Examples of apps with ads – Match (check ad campaign for Starbucks) and Tinder (has regular collaborations with brands and organizations like Domino’s, Amnesty International, and Diageo).

Despite the fact that most of the applications on App Store and Play Market are free and show advertising to their users, in the world of dating apps advertising-based concept is not that profitable. Half of their revenue still comes from premium users.

Conclusion

According to eHarmony research, by the end of 2031, every second married couple will have met online, which means that there will be a constant demand for dating apps during the next 10 years. And one more fact. Nowadays, as much as 48% of online dating services users reach their soulmates via mobile devices and the number continues to grow.

Everything suggests that you can not lose a minute. The main players on the modern dating app market are Tinder, OkCupid, Bumble, and Hinge, but their users have a lot of claims to the products.

In your dating startup, you can use the experience of leaders to create an app like Tinder and even better.

Ask yourself how to create a dating website with competitor research at your hand.

The market is on the side of dating applications. The most profitable model of monetization of this product is Freemium which is easy to build. But the most interesting thing about dating apps is that there can be as many of them as there are segments of the audience. So study your target groups, find intriguing insights, build your marketing plan and rush into the market.

How to Make an App Like Snapchat

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 11:17:28 +0000

What is Snapchat? While 90% of US youngsters from 13 to 24 years old consider the app to be part of their lifestyle, Snapchat remains a brilliant example of how to launch a digital startup in a highly competitive field such as social networks and messengers.

Snapchat wasn’t the first app that performed instant messaging or media-based social networking features. But it is definitely the one that managed to sell its unique communication style to the public and gained an astounding revenue. In 2019, Snapchat ad-selling revenue is likely to reach $1534.2 million.

Let’s follow the Snapchat history in order to find out what made it so successful, calculate Snapchat clone development costs, and your chances to set Snapchat-like business in 2020.

How to Create an App Like Snapchat? Study the app’s story!

In 2020, Snapchat is not just an app, but a cultural phenomenon. Back in 2011, it had been developed as a student project at Stanford by Reggie Brown, Evan Spiegel, and Bobby Murphy. And since then the company has developed rapidly. In confirmation of this, we can recall that current Snapchat estimate is over $22 billion.

The app is now the number one social media in the US and France and the second most popular social platform in Germany, Canada, and the UK. The app reaches not less than 60% of smartphone users aged from 13 to 34 years including the most solvent audience there.

To create app like Snapchat you need to understand the nature of it. So what is Snapchat? Everything started from an instant messenger that allowed users to share photos and videos with captions, drawings, and filters. You may find some common features between Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat of recent years, but keep in mind that things like self-destructing media content (Stories and Snaps), as well as face recognition tools, had been originally implemented in Snapchat.

The core feature of Snapchat is the ability of uploaded media to disappear after the viewing. With snaps, it happens in a few seconds and its owner can decide how many seconds is enough for observing the content.

Current Snapchat is not a classical messenger, but a private messaging space where Chats and newsfeed (Discover section) are brought together. At the same time, there is a bunch of really innovative media editing tools inside the app. You may create quick photos, videos, add various elements to them and then make the content visible to particular friends, group of them or all Snapchat users.

The main strength of Snapchat is its innovativeness. If you dream of commercial success like this, think of a feature that could be as astounding for your target audience as self-destroying content for Snapchat was for its first users.

How to Develop an App Like Snapchat Step By Step

There are several steps for your team to follow in order to find your unique selling proposition, profitable niche and appropriate marketing strategy. To learn more about app development process look through app development service.

Step 1 – Market research

Study the market and name your direct and indirect competitors. Describe your target audience, list their needs and discover their style of making decisions and willingness to pay for the application. Study the names of your competitors’ apps also and try to figure out what name must be most appealing for your target audience. To learn how to create a memorable name for apps.

Step 2 – App features

What features are you going to borrow from Snapchat and what kind of features you need to add to your Snapchat-like product as a bonus? List all of them and make sure you didn’t miss anything. Start from the idea that you need to develop an MVP that can change in the future. Focus on features that are essential.

Step 3 – Budgeting

How much does Snapchat cost? Basing on the list of feature calculate how much money will you need to implement them. Don’t forget that the overall cost will include marketing, project management, design and development expenses. Choosing between native and cross-platform development also affects the cost. For more information on what an application budget consists of, read the article on how much an application costs.

Step 4 – App design and development

Assign tasks to your design and development members, follow their progress and be flexible. On this stage it is impossible to identify if all of the planned approaches were applicable, so be ready to change and improve the design and polish the project before realising.

Step 5 – Marketing strategy

The marketing aspect is inseparable from all the stages of the project. Naming, visual identity, UI and UX approval, copywriting and the promotional plan itself are parts of a general marketing strategy developed by the marketing team. A marketing strategy should be ready at least 2 months before the launch date.

Step 6 – Releasing MVP and collecting feedback

MVP is just the beginning! If this version of the product does not become insanely successful, do not be discouraged. You’ve created it as part of an experiment. Collect as much feedback as possible, follow the behavior of your users inside the app and track where they get to know about your product. Fix gross errors by updating the application. Read what does MVP mean and why you need it.

Core Technologies of Snapchat

In 2020, as many as 190 million active users access Snapchat daily and its DAU rate still continues to grow (in 2018, the number of active users was 2% less than today). What is the trick? A set of technologies is the answer. Snapchat looks clear and simple for the end user, but its data architecture, inner digital mechanisms and even UX are the product of careful study and recent discoveries in the field of machine learning, augmented reality and visual object recognition.

Keep in mind that to build an app like Snapchat you need to stay ahead of technological curve or be ready to purchase technologies for developing your startup.

Machine learning

The machine learning technology is implemented in several Snapchat operation areas. The first is Discovery section self-management.

The mechanism analyzes users’ behavior, builds an algorithm to figure out who is likely to watch the content of particular type and then arranges stories in a way we would adore them. The idea is to keep our attention as much as possible and and make us addicted to Snapchat. As a result, the average app user checks the app 20 times per day spending 30 minutes on those actions.

Machine learning helps Snapchat to sell advertisement spaces inside the app. The algorithm works out which users are likely to be interested in particular sponsored content and then optimizes the targeting.

The technology was also applied by the Snapchat team while developing face recognition and augmented reality features. It helps to categorize face types and adopt animation to real life objects. For example, it makes possible for the app to identify racial differences.

Face detection and tracking

Face detection is not a self-standing Snapchat feature. However, it is an important part of image and video framing and editing.

To create a single static snap or animated story with your face you need to point a smartphone camera at the face. Immediately, the face detection mechanism will scan image coordinates. The mechanism works well even with non-frontal tiny or partial faces, turning them into pyramid-based digital shape.

At this point, Snapchat outputs coordinates for all facial feature such as eyes, lips, and nose and start tracking the face in real time. Then image processing begins and chosen animation features could be applied onto your face image.

Snapchat uses active shape modeling plus machine learning to adopt animation features to a particular human face. It also provides users with some options like swapping faces with another person in the picture.

Augmented reality

Snapchat offers augmented reality filters to its users. Some of them need face image to be applied, other work with any time of visual content adding some virtual elements to it.

Augmented reality is a type of computer vision technology which remains an opposition of good old computer graphics. Instead of building 3D objects from nothing, it turns visual data into 3D space. To detect different objects on the screen Snapchat uses recognition features and machine learning mechanisms.

Geolocation

Location tracking is still a significant feature of Snapchat. There is a Snap Map where you could find information on current location of your friends and get to know what they are doing at the moment. This feature is only available if a user permits other users to see their location. Snaps that exist for several seconds and stories that vanish in 24 hours are being geotagged and could be pinned to the map.

Snap Map also gives you an opportunity to scroll around your current position and find who’s near, connect with them and agree to meet. ActionMoji which is a version of cartoony static BitMoji avatar gives you quick access to friends’ stories and direct messaging.

Location tracking mode is also useful while adding people to your contact list. Add Nearby menu shows you Snapcodes of Snapchat users around.

Another type of geolocation usage is Geofilter. The mode allows showing your snap for people on the particular area only.

Money sending and user tags

These are not the core app feature, but still, they are some of those that show how many technologies were empowered to make Snapchat number one app in lots of countries. In 2014, Snapcash feature has been launched as a collaboration with Square financial services group. Thereby app users can now send money to each other through messages.

This year, it became possible to tag other people on your pictures and video. Brands also could link their webpages to the uploaded content.

Snapchat Features and Cost to Develop

How to make an app like Snapchat? To calculate Snapchat MVP budget you need to list all features that should be integrated into it. In this paragraph, we are trying to focus on the core functions of the app and guess how much did it cost to make Snapchat. We determined the number of working hours that are required to develop a native iOS/Android app like Snapchat.

Login, profile editing, and settings

12 hours

That is simple to become a Snapchat user. You could sing in with your phone or Facebook profile or create your account using email and unique password. There, you could customize your BitMoji avatar and app general settings like your privacy restrictions, visibility or notification policy.

Taking photos and videos

60 hours

Snapchat idea is to helps others to create visual content quickly and then to send it to friends or to share it with the public. For this, a smartphone camera should be integrated into the app. An access to inner phone galleries also should be provided.

Media editing and Lenses

200 hours

How much does Snapchat cost? Filters, drawings, and text caption editing are main tools provided by Snapchat and they are also the most expensive features there. Some of these options such as Lenses are powered with complex machine learning algorithm and 3D modeling engine. Lenses perform animated elements that could be automatically overlain on the top of the real-time picture from the camera.

Media self-destruction

12 hours

That is the firm app feature from which the whole story started. Users can choose how many second their friends could see a multimedia message.

Geofilters and location tracking integration

40 hours

The app uses smartphone location tracker to geotag media content. Having a geotag on your photo or video you could make them visible only in distinct locations, automatically attach them to your Snap Map, or just give others a clue where they were taken.

Friend searching and listing

40 hours

The one could add friends using Facebook friend list or phonebook, scanning their Snapcodes or using Add Nearby option. Friend list will be performed in a special chat section.

Chats

180 hours

In fact, Snapchat considers itself to be a chatting tool and, moreover, it was born as a messenger itself. The difference between the already existing Facebook at that time was the content vanishing feature of Snapchat. And the idea of quick span sharing, obviously. Snap Chats are different from regular messaging. They are media-based.

Video and audio calls

200 hours

That wasn’t the basic feature of Snapchat, however, you cannot imagine a messaging app in 2019 with no possibility to call or video call your partner. The feature also allows leaving audio and video notes.

Stories

48 hours

How much did it cost to make Snapchat? The Snapchat app of 2019 is more complicated that the one from 2011. To make a clone of the currant app you need bigger budget than Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown had 8 years age.

Unlike snaps, user’s Story can be viewed numerous times during 24 hours after being uploaded. The user sees how many people saw the story and even can check their names.

Stories are played one by one making the user to watch span broadcasts as long as he or she wants. Stories from people and companies outside user friend area could be found in the Discover section. Snapchat arranges content personally to each user based on behavior analysis made by its algorithm.

Push notification

30 hours

A user can be notified about new messages and other updates immediately when they occur.

Admin panel

120 hours (web application)

To keep your application in order, provide technical support to users, as well as manage ads and get customer insights, you need an admin panel. It should be secure and used by your team only.

Keep in mind that Snapchat is an existing app and to conquer the market you have to propose people something brand new, but not a Snapchat clone. That could be a niche product serving a group of users with the same interests (like an app for pet photos sharing) or for those who lives in the same area. Additional feature development could be calculated for you individually by LANARS team. Contact us to know more.

The Cost to Make an App Like Snapchat

App development means much more than just abstract working hours.

First, you need to hire a team.

Second, you need to set a working plan and management process.

Third, you need to approve the design, work out the marketing concept, and test your product carefully.

Here, we’d like to look deeper into project development stages that are essential for Snapchat-like startup.

Team hiring

To answer the question like “What does Snapchat cost as a startup to be launched?” you need to calсulate the number of wages of all workers involved in the development process. To make a Snapchat MVP app you require the standard team of a project manager, Android and iOS native apps developers, a UX/UI designer, a QA engineer, a copywriter, and a marketing specialist.

To speed up the development process you could hire more developers. And if you’d like to develop some complex features like face recognition algorithms without buying ready to use technology from other company (like Snapchat once did), you need highly specialized employees in your team.

Design and copywriting

It’s obviously not enough to list app features and to pass them directly to your developers. UX and UI aspects is a huge issue that helps Snapchat to gain its popularity.

Design costs depend on the number of features and screens to perform them clearly. To make Snapchat-like design from zero your designer should spend at least 120 hours on wireframing, 80 hours on UI design, and over 100 hours on UX design for both platforms.

You may wonder how much is Snapchat app copywriting cost. Text work for the clone of the current app and its marketing-related tasks will take around 20 hours.

Features development

The more features your app will have, the more money you need to spend on it.

In the previous paragraph, we’ve already looked through the main Snapchat MVP features. Let’s name them briefly: sign up feature, friends adding , uploading media, location tracking, notifications, chats, media editing, audio and video calls, self-destruction mechanism, Discovery section arrangement, etc. That will cost you 742 working hours in total.

Project management and QA

That is needless to say that you need a person to manage the team, let it fit in the work plan and be in charge of the project in general.

Project management also includes setting meetings, solving upcoming issues and coordinating outsource work. For the project like Snapchat MVP launch, you need a skilled project manager for not less than 110 hours in total. A QA will spend around 180 hours looking for weak points of your almost-ready product.

Marketing

Branding, monetization strategy development, app promotion and different types of market research should be done by professionals. The marketing team could include market analysts, marketers, brand managers, copywriters, designers, market campaign coordinators, SEO managers and lots of other specialists depending on what promotion style you’ll choose.

We advise you to assign not less than 30% of the general budget on those needs.

So how much is the Snapchat app? The total bill will cover 1400 working hours of various specialists and lets you spend on the MVP not less than $70 000 if you decide to hire your team in Eastern Europe instead of the US or Germany. The Eastern Europe hourly rate is around $50. That is also the LANARS average rate. Contact us to get your personalized calculations.

Snapchat-like App Monetization

How much does Snapchat make per year? Snapchat revenue increased dramatically during a couple of years. In 2019, its growth rate reached 39% comparing to last year statistics. That turned Snapchat into an extremely successful case in the field of social networks.

And while most of the app revenue comes from global advertisement ($1534.2 million is expected to be gained by the company this year), Snapchat users continue to spend up to $1.5 annually purchasing premium features. Sounds awesome, right? Let’s study Snapchat monetization strategies deeper and choose which one could be borrowed by your startup.

Snapchat monetization concept is Freemium. The free version contains sponsored content, while the premium one has no ads and gives users access to some extra features.

At the same time, the app follows the AIDA marketing model combining it with recent technology innovations (face recognition, augmented reality, and self-learning data engine). The app attracts users rising their Awareness, Interest, and Desire and then provoking a target Action.

There also plenty of services and features that are provided by Snapchat for money. Here, we listed all of them:

Regular advertising (Stories).You’ll hardly find a global brand that doesn’t have its account on Snapchat. To promote commercial content brands pay to the app. Such content will be shown to targeted Snapchat users in Discover section between Stories of their friends. Snapchat will automatically choose people who are likely to appreciate the ad show it to them. Usually, brands pay $0.10–0.15 per view having millions of them daily. Links could be attached to the ads.
Sponsored geofiltered content (Snaps). Brands and public people can purchase sponsored geofilters and upload snaps with them in order to promote themselves on local markets. Example – local shopping offers. Such snaps appear between regular ones with a special sign.
Snap Ads and API. Companies have special status on Snapchat and have access to additional promotional instruments that simplify ad management and makes it easier to analyze the efficiency of their market campaign. Snap Ads allows brands to put their animated advertisement between regular friends’ snaps.
Commercial partnership. A company can become a Snapchat special partner. In this case, they can use specially designed promotional tools like marks of events on snaps, customized profile design, and sponsored lenses to raise brand awareness and increase customer loyalty. Sponsored lenses can be used by Snapchat audience for free. Such campaigns are not necessarily commercial, but sometimes are charitable or just social.
In-app purchases and premium package. Snapchat users can pay to view snaps again or get premium access to the app. The premium version contains additional lenses and extra features. Premium Snapchat accounts are private and sometimes the premium concept of the app is criticized for being used for adult content sharing for money.

Conclusion

In 2019, Snapchat is an intriguing hybrid of multimedia-based private messenger and social media platform. In just a few years, the startup has managed to become the leader of the US and several European markets, having successfully completed such giants as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The success of the app is based on several factors. First, its developers managed to create their own hybrid niche by introducing text messenger alternate. Second, Snapchat is always armed with the latest innovations. For example, it was one of the first to introduce face recognition feature in the app.

Snapchat's current profit is colossal, and the audience consists of the most active young class. That gives the company an opportunity to earn a lot from advertising while running a Freemium app.

If you want to create a successful application just like Snapchat and have a couple of revolutionary ideas, all that we can advise you is not to lose a minute. If you do, your competitors will not.

Custom ERP Software Development: All You Need to Know

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:40:59 +0000

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a process that helps businesses to manage their financial situation as well as their potential to invest resources into new challenges. Digital ERP solutions include business data analytics, internal process automation, and enterprise infrastructure management. The system is based on integrated database processing.

However, the idea behind ERP isn’t new, since the approach has long been used by enterprises big and small in a form of manual calculations and human management. Modern ERP software could be tailored to any industry and decreases business operating costs almost automatically. In addition, ERP developers can help you to create custom software that will not only optimize resources and make your enterprise cost-effective, but also mitigate risks.

According to Gartner’s research conducted in 2016, 65% of ERP projects failed. Although the percentage of successful ERPs has increased since then, there are still numerous difficulties you may face when applying your custom ERP application. Learn how to avoid common mistakes with LANARS experts!

What is ERP software?

So, once again, ERP (enterprise resource planning) software is a tool for managing business components such as human resources, inventory and hardware, marketing, sales, and, of course, business planning itself. ERP design might be standardized or custom and it should match your enterprise business area, operating specifics, business scale, and strategic commercial aims.

Integrated ERP solutions facilitate interaction between the various business components and optimize internal processes. ERPs can be created in various forms. Some of them have machine learning modules and are AI-based, so they can execute management tasks without deep human involvement. Others just track business process information, store and analyze it, and then present it to C-level managers in an easily understandable format. This can provide them with valuable information when making critical business decisions.

As each business has its own specifics, ERP customization is usually required. Small service industry businesses (local shops, cafes, cleaning companies, taxi or delivery) usually prefer off-the-shelf solutions, as their business structure and processes are typical. Mid-sized and large scale enterprises opt for custom solutions, as it is cost-effective for them to tailor all their needs to a single custom ERP without having to adapt a huge enterprise to comply with a standardized tool.

Who Needs a Custom ERP Development

It’s not only mid-sized and large businesses that need custom ERP development. The more unique your enterprise and business goals are, the more difficult it is for you to benefit from ready-made solutions. Check if you need a custom ERP by reading about the issues your business is usually dealing with:

No quick access to essential business data

ERP development unites all databases and provides you with a tool to check ongoing business efficiency at various levels, as well as checking the productivity level of departments and employees. Without keeping abreast of your resources you can’t keep your business flexible. While ready-made solutions can’t take into account business factors and require manual interaction, a holistic automated custom ERP provides you with a real-time picture of what’s going on.

There is also a common negative feature of most off-the-shelf solutions: they provide users with false analytics since they do not take into account all of the factors regarding your business processes.

Confusing software diversity

Your enterprise is already working with software to run internal processes, however, different departments and employees use different software tools for their own needs. As a result, they face difficulties trying to integrate their working databases and enhance each others’ efficiency.

Another related problem — you workers can’t substitute each other, as not everyone is familiar with the tools their colleagues use. In this case, scaling means loss of productivity due to extra training, which decreases departmental performance and may require dedicated training staff.

Problems with accounting

Account management is an essential business component that helps enterprises to stay afloat. If it takes too much time for your accountants to process invoices and sales orders, and you haven't found an off-the-shelf automated tool that meets your needs, we highly recommend that you opt for custom ERP software development. You’ll be able to maintain financial data including project budgets and corporate assets and make your accounting staff significantly more productive.

Poor customer experience due to regular inventory management failures

No matter what sort of industry segment your enterprise is working in, you will have customers that want their orders to be executed on schedule. If your selling, production, supply, storage, and delivery departments do not use a single database where they can track orders, you may face order deadline violations, due to departments being overloaded as well as insufficient products to meet customer needs.

With a custom ERP, your reputation will not suffer, as you will be able to monitor order processing and each manager will be aware of what’s going on. In addition, you will have a chance to automate material maintenance contracts between you and your suppliers.

Benefits of ERP Customization

Custom ERP development evolves business opportunities regardless of your business operating field and product specifics. This holistic system unites your departments and turns them into a strong efficient unit, which allows the customer support manager to provide clients the best possible service.

ERP customization also helps optimize business resource consumption and facilitate distribution and supply. However, the benefits you get out of using a custom-tailored ERP depends on the structure and logic of your system. Let us define the most common benefits of a custom solution into several groups:

Relevant instruments included, you only pay for what you really need

ERP as a service which means you are using an out-of-the-box solution with limited customization features. At the same time, you have to pay for the whole functionality of the package — whether you use it or not. With a custom ERP, only the required integrations and features are included.

Test, add features and keep control of your budget

A custom ERP approach allows you to develop an ERP step-by-step and conduct thoughtful testing at every stage. If you need something extra in the future, you can add new functionality anytime. Also, you choose the design, languages, software structure, programming environment and can use internal analytics to ensure that everything works as it should.

Scale your ERP, scale your business

Custom ERP software development makes the final tool flexible and easy to scale. That gives you a chance to stay ahead of competitors if a crisis occurs, or to save time and budget costs on moving to another offshore ERP if the current one no longer meets your expectations.

Customer’s Guide to ERP System Development

A custom ERP development has a lot in common with any other software development (check our articles Cloud-Based Application Development and I Have an App Idea, Now What). Any successful development process has a deep understanding of future product functionality, a strong tech team, and an excellent software development tool awareness background. Considering ERP specifics, we recommend you take the following steps:

Step #1 Why do you need ERP software? Who will use it?

Decide on whether you need to build a custom tool or an off-the-shelf solution. Sometimes, it is possible to opt for ready-made integrated ERP solutions and combine them with custom corporate software. Think of how much money you can spend on development and what you’ll get out of it.

To answer all these questions, you need to know why you need a custom ERP in the first place. Then, define the target audience (departments and employees who will be using ERP). There are lots of options including HR, Sales, Purchasing, Stock control, Financial, and Distribution departments. ERP can also be integrated with your CRM.

Speak to the head of department to collect insights. More on this topic (software product targeting) — Mobile App Development Process: From Idea to App Maintenance.

Step #2 Decide on functionality and general design features

Considering your project budget and team potential, you need to choose between in-house development, and outsourcing (or a hybrid approach). Find the benefits of each approach in our blog article Advantages and Disadvantages of IT Outsourcing. In any case, you will need a development team to execute your task (developers, designers, project manager, QA managers, etc.; a detailed team description is given here — How to Start a Startup.

Having target departments’ insights at hand, gather your development team and work on custom ERP functionality and UX design. Start with creating a list of requirements and then proceed with project documentation. Your basic tech document should include features description, platforms, programming languages, required integrations, projected future product capabilities, project timelines, and other significant details. Present the tech development document to a specialist (a business analyst is the best choice) who’s got a deep understanding of your business processes.

At this stage, you’ve got two options of how to proceed with development:

In-house development

It’s a good option for you, if you’ve got in-house developers with the relevant skills and opportunity to spend time on ERP development instead of ongoing tech tasks.

Development outsourcing

Choose this option if you’ve got a small or no in-house development team or it is not skilled enough to handle ERP development. In this case, you’ll not be required to micromanage task execution and receive a ready-to-use tool in the end.

ERP hosting is one more option to be discussed at this stage. You can use a cloud-based third-party service or your corporate hosting. The first option is more flexible and up-to-date, while the second is believed to be less vulnerable and independent. Read the detailed comparison here — Cloud-Based Application Development: All You Need to Know.

Step #3 ERP software development

Start the development process and track that everything is going according to the project timelines and budget. Be attentive to developers and encourage them to provide you with feedback regularly. If there are any difficulties within the project, it’s better to resolve them as soon as possible.

A good idea of how to optimize the development budget is to develop a custom ERP as an MVP (a minimum viable product). Learn about the MVP approach from our other blog article How to Build an MVP. In brief, the idea behind an MVP is to build a product with only the essential features and test the software hypothesis, spending less than on full-scale software development. Then, you can add other features.

Step #4 Integration, testing, and improvement

ERP development is about making business management more efficient and improving customer experience. At the same time, ERP should be secured and reliable in terms of its capabilities and operations with data. Compared to common app development, ERP requires more time for quality assurance, as it needs integrations with the business digital ecosystem as well as any third-party services your enterprise works with.

That is also important to create a focus group to test your product in a real working environment.

Step #5 Deploy, use and collect feedback

After ERP software development is complete, deploy the solution and try to collect employee feedback. That will help to plan tool updates and evaluate the benefits you are getting from ERP.

Who Will Use ERP in Your Team?

Сustomized ERP software development is a long-term investment. Traditional ‘manual’ business management models might seem convenient until the moment you realize that your enterprise departments aren’t working together as a strong unit and you are also unable to scale.

However, a data-driven custom ERP does not necessarily mean flawless scaling or advanced centralized management. To build a great product for internal use you need to decide for whom — or, rather for which purpose — it is designed. The answer will influence product features and platform solutions. Here are the main reasons:

Human resource management (HCM)
For — HR managers, C-level executives, staff

Evaluation of employees’ performance, work time compensation management, talent acquisition, payroll, general working control (workplace control, work time tracking, access to online office space, storing employee documents and profiles, etc.) could take a lot of an HR managers’ time. A custom ERP can have them as the target audience. Employees may also have access to it — for communication with an HR manager and work issue clarification.

Inventory management
For — supply managers, tech team, HR managers, C-level executives

Flexible inventory management is a top priority for companies dealing with logistics, retail, or production where hardware, transport, and equipment is expensive. Most have their own manual or automated systems for inventory management, however, custom ERP system development makes it possible for owners to monitor resources and evaluate the profitability of their business.

Automated and integrated inventory systems also saves the time of production workers, as it allows them to request resupply or find hardware items easily.

Business and work planning
For — C-level executives and staff

What is ERP software? Basically, it is a tool that evolves your business by optimizing its resources and monitoring the department's activities. An advanced ERP may include tools for scheduling meetings and calls, setting tasks and deadlines, analyzing corporate and department efficiency, communicating online, and the reporting of various metrics.

The idea behind ERP focused on planning is to keep work data secure and instantly available. In addition, it helps to establish a corporate communication policy and keep the same message across the enterprise.

Reporting
For — staff and heads of departments

Manual reporting in a written form takes time. Instead, your team could use data-driven ERP solutions that are used to track their professional activities, count work hours, evaluate workplace visibility, and make the reporting process automated. Also, such type of report is easy to check for managers.

Custom ERP Development: Cost and Features

It is almost impossible to estimate the final cost of a custom ERP development as it depends significantly on the features you’ve decided to include and required integrations. The form of cooperation with your team (in-house or dedicated development) as well as the region where you’ve decided to place your development and host the product database is also important.

Below, find 6 groups of the most common ERP software features and the average number of hour required to develop them:

ERP integrations
from 40 to 160 hours per API integration

ERP development differs from any other software development due to the special requirements for its integration. Your custom software should become a part (usually, the central one) of your internal digital business ecosystem. ERP should integrate with other existing systems and work with them to help you with monitoring and executing business management tasks. ERP unites departments: sales, inventory, marketing, HR, accounting strategic management, logistics, analytics, and office maintenance.

Management task automation
from 120 to 180 hours

Invoicing, payroll, entry, reporting, accounting, inventory calculations — there is always room for thoughtful automation across any department. A well-designed ERP saves staff time greatly, automating tasks that could be described in clear algorithms that makes human-factor mistakes impossible.

Advanced analytics
from 60 to 120 hours

Up-to-date ERP solutions are data-driven. They collect large amounts of data and process it. With the help of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning), the system becomes capable enough to monitor patterns in complex business processes and offers solutions that may lead to bigger profits. Marketing and strategic planning departments are mostly interested in this ERP feature. Detailed reporting is included.

CRM (customer relationship management) features
from 120 to 240 hours

ERP developers should also think of CRM development. This tool is extremely helpful for companies with a large customer base. A CRM is an interactive database that helps managers to store client information and have quick access to it whenever and wherever they need it. A CRM may be interconnected with other systems such as delivery tracking, customer billing, emailing, etc.

Financial management
from 90 to 180 hours

Accounting is a basic area within the enterprise that needs your attention. ERP systems usually include accounting tools: for billing, receiving payments, asset fixing, tax payment, revenue calculations, and risk management. Most of the features are supposed to be automated and easy to customize for accountants. Also, the accounting ERP section should meet banking and Financial reporting standards, (GAAP, IFRS etc).

Process and performance tracking
from 100 to 160 hours

Client support managers can monitor payments and delivery, HR and senior managers might be interested in an employee’s performance and department productivity, and marketing specialists will be always wondering if their marketing hypotheses and actual efforts are not wasted.

Other significant factors — UX and UI design (from 140 hours), QA (from 160 hours), hosting, maintenance costs, and tech support.

ERP makes business processes clear and visible across departments. Analytics, statistics, and detailed reports are all forms of how the data can be presented.

As you can see, we’ve got from 600 hours (from $30,000 at LANARS) in total and everything depends on the set of features you need in your custom ERP. There are no two identical ERP systems, but you should be able to receive a realistic budget estimation after having listed your product requirements

Platforms also can change your bill: mobile plus a desktop solution is 40% more expensive than desktop-only.

How to Choose Your Technology Partner for ERP Software Development

Custom software development is an expensive task. Please note that your investment will not bear fruit immediately. Referrals, thematic resources like Clutch.co, LinkedIn, and Goodfirms.co, or dedicated events? All options work for you if you know what you are looking for. There are a number of tips that will help your company reduce the costs regarding ERP software development:

#1 Outsourcing in Eastern Europe instead of in-house development in Norway or the USA

Dedicated development is a way to optimize costs without compromising the quality of the final product. The hourly rates of programmers and designers in developed countries are two or even three times higher than in developing countries. In 2020, we advise you to choose the countries of Eastern Europe where the average cost per hour of a developer of the right qualification is $50. More about this — How to Hire Dedicated Developers.

#2 Look for a vendor with similar ERP customization projects in their portfolio

ERP is a specific product. You can opt for a company with extremely positive feedback from customers, but with a complete lack of experience in developing ERP. At the same time, if your potential partner has already worked on ERP design and programming for business in your market area, give preference to this company.

#3 Evaluate soft skills, cultural background, and English speaking skills

ERP customization requires constant communication between developers, representatives of different departments and top management. Poor knowledge of English within your remote team, its inability to understand you perfectly and synchronize working schedules (because of a time zone gap) — all this slows down production and increases risks. Choose a team whose mentality and working rhythm is close to your company.

#4 Give preference to technology partners of your scale

If you maintain a small business, it will be more comfortable for you to work with a small outsourcing company with ERP specialization. Large companies are not interested in preparing custom solutions for small businesses. A company like LANARS works with small and medium-sized businesses. Find more tips on How to Minimize Risks in App Development Offshoring in our article (shortlisting, cooperation model and many more).

Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, B, C. How It Works and How to Get Funding in 2020

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 16:39:48 +0000

For any startup, finance is a key issue. Attracting financing is not an easy task due to the high risk factor and the complex process of launching startups. There is also another problem — finding the right way to work with investors interested in your project.

Knowing how investment rounds are divided and what requirements for startups should be met can help greatly. At each stage, money is attracted for clearly defined tasks, but there are also some limits to financing. Why else is funding divided into rounds? Because it gives investors a clear understanding of what stage a particular startup is at and what tasks it is currently solving.

In this article, we will talk about each of the rounds in detail, including its tasks, opportunities, and “pitfalls”.

How Does Funding Work?

First, it is good to know what venture capital means. Venture capital is money from private investment funds or companies for the development of startups in their very early stages. A venture capitalist receives an equity stake in the company being funded. Venture fund holders often invest in startups at the idea level, if it looks promising to them, hoping for big profits in the future.

The distinguishing feature of venture capital investments is the high degree of risk. CB Insights has found that “70% of upstart tech companies fail — usually around 20 months after first raising financing (with around $1.3M in total funding closed).” However, the profit from one successful transaction can cover the losses of dozens of failures.

The main task of a venture investor is to find a company that can become the next new Facebook or Amazon in the future. A company that can grow into a large corporation from a small startup, with a $10K stake, can earn the investor $1 million as a result. That’s what makes venture investments the most profitable, but at the same time, the most risky.

As a rule, the period of venture investment is 7-10 years. After that, investors sell their shares in the company on exchanges or to strategic buyers. Most investment funds operate in the homeland of venture capital investments — the United States. About 1000 venture funds operate here, most of them are concentrated in Silicon Valley. The most famous are Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, to name a few.

To understand how venture investment works, you need to know that each startup goes through certain development levels, with each development level associated with an investment stage. Conventionally, there are several defined stages: pre-seed, seed, Series A, B, and C. We’ll focus on each major stage in more detail below. However, some companies can go on to Series D and Series E funding rounds as well.

What Is Pre-Seed Funding?

The first stage is a pre-seed funding round. In this primary phase, founders invest their own resources to start a business, including funds from FFF (Family, Friends, Fools). This is when the money for your idea comes from your family members, friends, or “fools”. The word “Fools” is used figuratively and refers to people with little or no investment experience. They may not understand the risks associated with such initial funding. Also, founders may look for options to get grant financing or funds from private investors (Business Angels) who have expertise in their industry.

The main tasks of pre-seed funding are to test the hypotheses of a business idea, select an activity vector, and turn the hypothesis into a product. In a typical pre-seed round, the founding team receives a small investment to achieve one or more of the milestones needed before “true” seed investment. At this stage, investors are, more often than not, investing in the team, rather than the product itself. For instance, if you or your co-founders have worked in a large company at a senior level, or already have experience in launching successful startups (not necessarily successful ones, but with good prospects), they will invest in your idea much more willingly. The main questions at this stage are: do I trust this person with my money and do they have a good understanding of the business they are dealing with? It is also possible that the initial product concept will completely alter after the MVP release, with a sharp change in direction at this stage of launching your startup.

Average Evaluation of Pre-Seed Startup

According to the WSGR Entrepreneurs Report, the average amount raised for pre-seed loans globally amounted to $0.45 million in the first quarter of 2020. In general, the usual funding amount of pre-seed startups is less than $1 million.

How to Find Pre-Seed Investors?

The most common “pre-seed” investors are the founders themselves. The process is also called ‘bootstrapping’ - which means financing a company with your own money, without attracting external investment. Borrowing from friends and family can be another funding resource here. Meanwhile, other options for startups in the preseeding stage include small business loans, crowdfunding, grant financing, and sometimes accelerator programs.

How to Get to the Pre-Seed Round?

At the pre-seed stage, startups are evaluated according to a kind of checklist, or scoresheet. Let’s take look at the key factors that influence the decision-making process:

Team — Creating a startup is an energy-consuming process. There might be other barriers such as lack of money and constant pressure, but having a good, reliable team will give you a better chance of implementing your idea
Saleable Idea — ‘Selling’ your idea for a new product or business is all about how you present it, justify it and backup your words with solid, dependable business data.
MVP — Minimum Viable Product is something that can be sold and the customer will be satisfied. Read more about MVP in our separate article How to Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Capacious market — Startups are risky investments and sometimes they fail even after having received the money. This happens if the profit a startup can make is too small
Confirmed demand — The most popular reason why startups do not survive is a product that no one wants or needs. The sooner the team realizes that people are willing to pay for the value provided (or MVP), the better their chances of success are.

What Is Seed Funding?

The second stage of investing usually stimulates the substantial growth of a startup. At this stage, a startup already has not only a team and a product, but also one or more sales channels. The task of a startup at this stage is to scale the business through these cost-effective channels with the help of new investments. It includes both team expansion and product development, but the main task is to scale the business (quantity of customers, client segments, geography, and so on).

Funds are given not only for marketing, development, or other specific things. Primarily, money is given for scaling. This is when a team multiplies its sales volume, while not increasing the staff, or the costs of the company as a whole. With the help of investments, the global goal is to accelerate the company’s growth, so that it captures the largest possible market share in the shortest possible time.

Average Evaluation of Seed Startup

Typically, a seed funding round produces up to $2 million for the startup in question. Some founders think that their companies only require seed funding for successful growth. Such companies may never participate in a Series A round. The majority of startups raising such investments are valued at somewhere between $3 million and $6 million.

How to Find Seed Investors?

Beyond friends and family, a major source of seed fundraising is an angel investor. Angel investors, also known as business angels, refer to high net worth individuals who invest in startups (usually at a very early stage of their development). They invest their free financial capital, often accompanied by accumulated knowledge, expert opinion, and contacts. Another great source is accelerator programs. Accelerators offer knowledge and contacts to help with business development. Also, some large corporations (e.g. Intel, Google, or FedEx) provide seed funding to promising startups that work on innovative technologies.

How to Get Seed Funding?

Raising this type of funding is one of the major accomplishments of a startup. In the seed round, a product and go-to-market strategy have already been built and developed. At this stage, it is important for investors to be sure that this is not an accidental success, but the result of effective business practice.

To convince an investor, startups should have developed a product prototype, tested the market, and readied investor interests needed for future financing rounds. Such steps require a significant amount of research and planning. In a nutshell, a seed funding presentation should demonstrate the unique value of the product, the startup’s achievements, and the reasons the founders are willing to push their concept further to the market.

What is Series A Funding?

There is a team, there is a product with verified sales channels, and there are significant amounts of money flowing into these channels. This is the stage of rapid growth. At this point, you can attract not only money but also expertise and connections, the so-called “smart money”, that can help your startup hit big. Usually, good startups in this phase can already choose who they would like to see on their list of investors. This point is important, since later-stage investors may be reluctant to fund a startup that has “weak” investors on board. In attracting round A investments, companies can raise funds from $500 thousand. The main goals include the organization of mass production or 24/7/365 service work with the recruitment of a full-fledged team. Generally, Series A funding gives a startup several years to develop its products, team, and begin implementation of its go-to-market strategy.

Average Evaluation of Series A Startup

According to the Fundz startup database, just in the U.S., the average amount of Series A investment has grown steadily over the years and is currently at around $15.5 million as of July 2020. It is estimated that around 700-750 Series A deals will take place in 2020. Based on the average Series A startup valuation in 2019, Series A startups have an average pre-cash valuation of $22 million.

How to find Series A Investors?

While most startups before this stage have generated only passing interest on the part of large investors, Series A funding creates competition between funds. As stated in PitchBook Data, some of the biggest Series A investors in software startups include New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greycroft Partners, GGV Capital, and many others.

How to get Series A Round?

To start with and to set specific goals for your team, you can join an accelerator. For example, if you want to increase revenue five times or to find a channel for attracting new customers. It is about processes that take much longer without accelerators. Accelerator programs offer knowledge and contacts that will help you develop the business, attract investments and give access to a large community of mentors and experts. They will also help you quickly identify and correct mistakes in your business building processes. In addition, having access to an accelerator is a kind of “quality mark” for startups.

To qualify for a Series A funding round, a network of contacts with potential business partners should be well-nurtured. Concentrate on the people that you’ve already built in-depth relationships with. Building lasting business relationships won’t happen overnight, since you must show your business is trustworthy and capable. Ideally, meeting with potential investors takes place as early as possible, to give them an idea of your future business goals.

As you continue to prove that you are trustworthy and the fact that your business is meeting important milestones, you’ll find that it’s easier to attract the investors your business needs. In a nutshell, the following factors may influence the evaluation of a startup’s value at this stage:

proof of project concept;
development progress made with seed capital;
quality of work of project managers;
market size;
perceived level of risk.

What is Series B Funding?

At this stage, a startup project has already been on the market for some time. A Series B round is needed to further scale the business, increase competitiveness, capture a larger market share. The goal of this stage of startup financing is to become a profitable project. Investment risk is lower, therefore the amount of financing is higher than in Series A.

Average Evaluation of Series B Startup

As stated in Investopedia, the average capital raised in a Series B round is averaging $32 million in 2020. When we talk about a Series B company, it usually needs $2-10 million worth of investments to enter global markets.

How to find Series B Investors?

A strategic investor is a large company operating in the same or associated, industry, which is interested in acquiring a controlling stake. The list of the top Series B investors includes Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, General Catalyst Partners, etc.

How to Get Series B Round?

Usually, a company should show some great achievements in its Series A round before Series B funding rounds can occur. Here, the value of a startup is estimated based on the following:

comparing company performance with other competitors;
revenue forecast;
assets (e.g., in terms of intellectual property, etc.).

What is Series C Funding?

Regarding this type of funding, venture investors usually participate in financing when a project has proven its sustainability and success in the market. A startup participates in Series C when it plans to take on an even larger market share. It may want to purchase or develop more products/services, (which may include buying a competitor). In round C, a company increases its shares in the business and begins to make substantial profits. It is in this round that a company becomes profitable and capable of independent development without further support.

Further rounds are also possible if there is a growing need for a significant increase in production or the potential to sell a company to a strategic investor. Many companies remain at the Series C stage and only a few of them reach round D, which involves preparing a company for an initial public offering (IPO) or selling to a strategic investor.

Average Evaluation of Series C Startup

The average Series C funding amount in the U.S. has reached $59 million in 2020. Generally, Series C funding is between $30 and $100 million settling on an average round of $50 million. The evaluation of Series C companies is often between $100 million and $120 million. However, companies can be worth much more.

How to find Series C Investors?

Some of the most common investors in Series C funding are late-stage venture capitalists (VC), Hedge funds and Investment Banks. It can also be private equity firms that invest in startups or businesses through shares or ownership in that company.

Traditional bank loans can be a valuable financing option during this growth phase if you can secure favorable terms. Banks usually provide startup loans with the lowest interest rates. Also, they do not receive company shares. However, be ready for an in-depth application process that requires a strong credit history.

How to Get Series C Round?

When approaching Series C, the strategy here will likely be different from the previous rounds. As we mentioned, the average funding amount is around $50 million. That means that such startups are usually established and successful companies in their later stages of development. Previous investors may be keen to further invest in Series C, but the remainder will have to be filled by other investors. The assessment at this stage is not based on expectations, but rather on accurate data. Investors estimate how many clients such a company has, what income it has, and what are the current and expected growth rates.

Conclusion

In this article, we have described the main startup funding rounds. Dividing startups by investment rounds gives us an idea of where in the business cycle they are and with what dynamics startups are developing. Not all startups go through each of the rounds and often rounds are combined or intermediate ones allocated.

As you can see, there is no shortage of funding options when it comes to developing a startup. Detailed research is required at each stage of development. Make sure decisions are made according to your company’s specific needs, aligned with your goals as an entrepreneur, and that provide the best chance of future success. Whatever type of financing you choose for yourself, make sure you have a plan for the return of funds invested. Choose what works best for your company.

If this article was interesting and useful for you, be sure to stay tuned for our updates and subscribe to our blog.

Pizza Delivery App Development: Opportunities, Features and Challenges

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 12:47:48 +0000

Food delivery apps have become extremely popular today as they allow users to quickly and conveniently order ready-made meals from restaurants directly to the office or home. While pizza delivery is a relatively new business model, on-demand pizza delivery apps are rapidly gaining popularity among users around the world. With such an application, customers can receive their pizza within 20-30 minutes of placing an order. Thus, it becomes clear that high-quality mobile delivery is vital for pizzeria owners to attract more customers.

Based on our experience in developing projects for similar solutions, we have decided to explain in detail how to create a performant pizza delivery app. Check our fullest guide below.

Market Potential & Reasons to Invest in a Pizza Delivery App

The global food home-delivery market is expanding and becoming even more powerful. The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted people’s movements and, therefore, food delivery over the internet has become a viable solution. Thus, according to Statista’s Online Food Delivery Survey the online food delivery market is showing annual revenue growth of +27.9% and will only increase due to the situation with the coronavirus spread. What’s more, the State of What Feeds Us Study reveals that 64% of users have at least one application for ordering food, groceries, etc. on their phone.

What’s in the pizza delivery market?

The pizza-making industry occupies an important niche in the global food market and is quite competitive. For example, Domino’s Pizza announced last year it would exit some Nordic countries because they could not withstand the competition, high labor costs, and weakening economic conditions. With dozens of examples of successful pizza brands, the market might seem a bit overloaded. However, there is plenty of room for innovative and promising names.

In general terms, the pizza industry can be divided into three areas — full service, express service, and delivery — with different rules for each segment. Delivery services and fast-food restaurants have made the most profit in the tough economic environment of the past few years, and they are also the ones announcing the most ambitious expansion plans.

To show the main trends in the on-demand pizza delivery market and determine the functions that make up mobile applications, below we have listed some major players in the chain pizza restaurant segment:

Pizza Hut, with 18,000 restaurants in over 100 countries:

The Pizza Hut mobile application provides convenient and quick orders. It offers a large selection of pizzas, the possibility to create a pizza according to your own recipe, convenient payment in several ways (cash, card, online payment), easy re-ordering, tracking order status, a bonus program, as well as the ability to place an order to be delivered at a specific time and day.

Domino’s Pizza, with more than 17,000 stores in 90 countries:

The app built for this world-famous pizza chain is a great example of how to properly design a branded pizza application. Some of its most notable features are ordering in a few clicks, a large selection of dish sizes and additional ingredients, a unified order database, and re-ordering features. The app is available to mobile users in countries around the world where Domino’s Pizza restaurants are located.

Papa John’s, with more than 5,000 restaurants in 45 countries around the world:

This is another great example of a well-designed pizza delivery app. The application has many features offering a convenient choice of dishes, editing ingredients, various types of payments, tracking order status, setting up one-click re-ordering, promotions, etc.

While some big chains in the market have their brand-specific pizza delivery applications, there are also aggregators built on the traditional model of food delivery — for example, Uber Eats, Foodora, Wolt, Just Eat, etc. In this business model, restaurants and aggregation platforms are in direct cooperation with each other. With the help of such food delivery aggregators, users can access several restaurants through a single online portal and compare their menus, prices, and reviews.

What are the reasons to invest in a pizza delivery app?

If you decide to invest in building a pizza delivery app, it can bring a lot of benefits to your business — primarily profit and satisfied customers. Such a mobile application will also help your customers to save a lot of time choosing the desired dishes and placing an order in a convenient way. This, in turn, will increase customer loyalty to your brand. It is not uncommon for restaurants to prepare good pizza but lose a significant amount of money due to poor quality applications:

Why Restaurants Should Invest in Delivery Apps

Customer loyalty

Customer trust is a long and difficult process. In most cases, modern buyers have a wide variety of similar products or alternative service providers to choose from. A high-quality mobile app can be the backbone of your business, providing excellent customer service and offering great loyalty programs for your customers.

Location-based marketing

Location-based marketing is an emerging trend nowadays. With the help of a mobile delivery app, you can send push notifications and text messages about upcoming promotions depending on the location of a customer. In other words, a customer will get your offer of the moment which they can take advantage of in the easiest way possible.

Better customer data

Who are your regular customers? What do they like to order from your restaurant? What pizza types are popular? Do they know about promotions and offers on the site? Do they prefer to place orders through the website or app? These and many other related questions can be answered using analytics and information provided by a trusted mobile ordering system for restaurants. You can use this data to target promotions and encourage your customers to keep coming back.

Delivery

Thanks to mobile app development, it is possible to significantly improve your delivery service. Traditionally, people had to call to place orders, or drive to restaurants to buy take-out food, and then wait for the food to be prepared and delivered. Restaurant owners can instead create an app that not only simplifies the ordering and delivery process for customers but also simplifies the restaurant’s operations.

Must-Have Pizza Delivery App Features

It is not enough to develop a mobile application — it must fit into the ecosystem of the enterprise and correspond to its business processes. When making a pizza delivery app, its must-have features can include scheduling, order placement, real-time delivery tracking, push notifications, in-app payments, order history, instant chat for communication with customers and drivers.

Pizza delivery app functionality can be divided into three panels — for customers, for couriers, and for pizzerias.

Pizza Delivery App Features for Customers

During the development process, it is necessary to determine the main functions that need to be created for customers. Here is the basic client-related functionality:

Menu screens — to access the menu with clear descriptions of dishes and high quality photos
Ingredient adjustment — to add or remove ingredients
Online payment — to pay for food and delivery online
Order tracking — to track orders and movement of couriers in real-time
Locating restaurants nearby — to access a map of restaurants in the customer city
Loyalty programs — for example, discounts, bonuses, promo codes
Order history — to see the history of orders with the possibility to repeat orders in a few clicks
Help and customer support — for example, live chat and call option
Social media ordering — to provide social media-enabled ordering

Pizza Delivery App Features for Couriers

Here is the main functionality for the courier panel:

Sign up page — to register a courier account through different authentication forms (for example, phone number or email)
Communication channels between couriers and clients — the ability to contact clients, without the need to reveal customer data and vice versa for security reasons
Order details — to access details like expected delivery time, size, pick-up location
Status update — to manage order statuses (e.g. accepted, canceled, delivered, etc.)
Navigation — access the built-in map so that couriers can easily find the route
Account history — to check how many orders are delivered, hours worked, etc.

Pizza Delivery App Features for Restaurants

The panel for restaurants should have the following functionality:

Integrated content management system — to add new dishes, their descriptions, and photos
Order management page — to manage orders, create orders inside the application (e.g. if the user called the phone), see the order status, etc.
Payments — to accept payments, track earnings, etc.
Marketing tool — to launch promotions and offer promo codes
Cross-interface communication channels — to interact both with the courier and the client inside the application
Estimation of delivery time — to calculate the time for transportation, taking into account the load of the kitchen/situation on the road, etc.
Feedback management — to collect reviews about the order or courier, store and process them
Reports & analytics — to see the statistics of orders in general and information about couriers, display information in the form of dashboards, transfer information to internal CRM, accounting systems, etc.

Important Factors for Great UX of Pizza Delivery App

There are many factors that contribute to a great UI/UX of pizza delivery apps. Based on our experience with analogous applications, we have compiled a list of the most important software development factors to consider when designing UX:

Convenient registration process

From the moment of installing the app, it is obvious that clients would expect the sign-up and login process to be easy. For example, users can just enter their phone numbers and the SMS verification code comes to it, or they can register through social networks. Also, users should be able to create a profile and add payment information as easily as possible.

Convenient ordering

The key to a successful pizza app is a quick and easy ordering process. Convenient search and find functions allow users to place orders faster. No one likes endless searches. Besides, showing exact delivery times and costs should also be a top priority since, for example, hidden taxes and fees will only make the customer distrust your app.

Main screen with promotions and popular products

For a great pizza delivery app design, we also recommend adding the functionality of promotions, popular products, and news that can be displayed on the home screen. Connecting push notifications and implementing loyalty programs to increase the interest of the target audience using the application also contribute to a great UX.

Location tracking and live support

The next important factors that influence the UX of a pizza delivery app are tracking in real-time and customer support. Real-time tracking is basically where users can track their orders throughout the whole delivery process. Along with this, the application should have a real-time support system to help users if any order-related problems arise.

Tech Components for Pizza Delivery App Development

Application development for pizza delivery is a complex process that consists of different stages. In the table below, we have illustrated the technology stack that can be used when developing such an application:

Budget and Processes to Create a Pizza Delivery App

The cost to develop a pizza delivery app depends on many factors. You can make an application only for Android or iPhone or develop a cross-platform solution for your business. The functionality that you would like to add also affects the price and development time. It is important to understand that there are minimum requirements that must be considered for the service to be popular. You can also implement additional features to differentiate your business from online competitors. However, the cost will rise. Typical development prices range from $10,000 for a medium-sized application.

Once you have identified the list of features to include, you can move on to application development. Here are the main stages of the development process:

Conclusion

Nowadays, restaurants using food delivery services and apps for their businesses are seeing these innovations have a strong impact on their sales. As you can see from the article, the development of a pizza delivery application consists of several stages. First of all, you need to set aside the necessary marketing and development budget, and then develop a comprehensive strategy to enter the market with your product and ensure its popularity.

If you want to build a similar application for your business, our Lanars team will be happy to share their experience in application development.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Mobile Peer-to-Peer Payment App Like Venmo and Square Cash

Arslan Tayliyev — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 20:55:29 +0000

Before asking yourself “How to make an app like Venmo?” make sure you fully understand the peer-to-peer mobile payment specifics.

P2P money transfers have lots of features that were not common for a global banking world. Square Cash, Venmo, Dwolla, Google Wallet, or any Venmo clones are usually card-free and cashless, they use contactless payment technologies and execute money transfers in one click.

The key idea of P2P payment services is to provide users with a tool to send and receive money without ATM cash withdrawal or payment terminals designed by banks.

Although there are several types of mobile peer-to-peer payment apps, we’d like to focus on the question of how to create an app like Venmo and Cash. Both of them are free for users, they are also self-standing digital products for their developers and considered to be global leaders of their niche.

How to Develop an App Like Venmo or Cash App? Peer-to-Peer world rules

The first thing you need to get accustomed to creating an app like Venmo is that mobile peer-to-peer (or person-to-person) payment services have very few features in common with basic PayPal or Western Union if you look at them from a user experience point of view. However, both of them offer person-to-person money transactions. Here are some critical features of Venmo and Cash App:

For whom? Venmo and Square Cash App were developed for people who know each other regardless if they are friends, relatives, or colleagues. At the same time, Cash Apps has a business version.
For what? Apps are designed to solve the problem of various cash payments like borrowing money from a friend, paying a landlord, splitting a lunch, sending money as a gift, paying for services online, etc.
How quick? It takes from seconds to hours for the transaction to be executed. In some cases (for example, you need to use credit money) it could take days.
The source of money. Apps should be connected to a bank account, credit or debit card. They use an in-app wallet to transfer money.

P2P payment services differ by business model, location, character, and even field of usage. In this case, Venmo and Cash App are cross-border standalone financial services, created for all types of peer-to-peer money transfers and payments. Other examples — Alipay and Airfox.

How much does Venmo cost? To answer the question we need to look deeper into Venmo nature. Venmo and Square Cash are services for online P2P and C2B (client to business) payments. They have an online wallet feature that allows users to store some money inside the services and use them for quick payments. If there is no money on the Venmo or Cash App accounts, apps will charge from your bank account or credit (debit) card.

Don’t confuse Venmo with bank-centric apps (Dwolla and PopMoney) and social platforms’ inbuilt online paying tools of Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and WeChat.

Mobile OS native payment services are another type of Venmo and Cash App competitors. They are device-based and more secure, often linked directly to your bank account. Examples — Apple Pay and Google Pay

How Much Did It Cost to Make Venmo? Step by step development explainer

In our article titled “I Have an App idea Now What” we gave details on each mobile app development step and in our article named “How Much Does It Cost to Build an App” you may find general calculations separated by the project stage and teammates involved into the process. Check them to get more information on the topic.

And here, we’d like to look through those peer-to-peer app development stages that are significant for your commercial success.

Discovery stage. Consider what modes of payments and features you really need All P2P mobile apps have similar functions — they help people to pay others cashless and quickly receive payments from mates. To meet users’ needs, you have to create a P2P network, develop a way to support various online e-commerce payments, and link your service to bank systems.

To understand what payment modes you need, evaluate what kind of money communication you expect. Maybe, you’d like to focus on on-the-spot payments? Or you plan to work with a special audience that would use an installment plan to pay their landlords? Or, perhaps, your app will be dedicated to those who’d like to respond friend-to-friend borrowing requests wisely?

Development & Testing stage. Consider a security level of your app and financial data synchronizing potential What does Venmo cost? Developing apps like Venmo means taking a huge responsibility. Fingerprint verification and identification, several security check levels, personal and financial data encryption — all those features will cost you money, but it’s impossible to launch a payment app without being sure that it is secure.

Another question sounds like — are you sure that your app will accurately transfer money? Losing money while trying to transfer them from one bank account to another is another serious risk that you need to consider. Deal with the fact that you will need to invest a lot of money in product testing to avoid such drawbacks.

Development stage. Proper data architecture and app capabilities
Most likely, you assume that the audience of your product will grow rapidly. Keep in mind that financial transactions (as well as their verification) require the huge power of your servers. Get technically ready to serve a large number of people to avoid system overloading and loss of client data. The correct data structure will also help to cope with the task. At this point, you will need to collaborate with experienced digital engineers.
Discovery & Development stage. Tech solution and integrations
How to make a Venmo? As we wrote above, you should know which customers you serve and what problem you are solving for them. For example, Venmo is designed for individual users' payments as well as regular transactions to private entrepreneurs’ accounts (homeowner, taxi driver, a seller in the market, and others).

Your tool will probably work more efficiently if you integrate e-commerce platforms, calendars, platforms for calculating the family budget and social networks into it. Analyze your audience to find out what services they use and what might be useful to them.

Also, consider the devices these people use.

Core Venmo or Cash App Features

How much is the Venmo app or Square Cash? The basic factor that affects an app development budget is the number and complexity of features you’d like to have in your product.

Consider that Venmo and Cash have a different set of functions and are designed to serve different types of customers. Below, we gave you the list of their core features. The same ones should be implemented in your MVP. Read more about MVP development and the Lean approach in our blog.

Venmo app

In 2019, Venmo is the most successful app in the category created by the University of Pennsylvania roommates Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Kortina. It helps people to proceed with fast money transfers between each other without using ATM or writing checks. The Venmo MVP looked like a tool to send money using text messages.

Venmo startup was raised by Braintree fintech payments company which is a part of PayPal since 2013. In 2015, PayPal started Venmo promotional campaign and added several features to its operating algorithms that soon made the app significantly popular among youngsters. In 2019, Venmo gained 40 million unique users.

Today’s Venmo functions are the following:

Peer-to-peer payments and money tracking
Bank accounts and cards linking
Point of sale (POS) purchases
Payment sharing and bills splitting
Facebook and phone contacts integration
Sending tickets via email or messengers
Money requests sending
Comments and emojis
Authorization, profile editing, and account setting
Inbuilt mobile wallet
Regular or planned payments
Cash-out to a bank account

Venmo has also data storage and uses a reliable data encryption mechanism. But why is it so popular? The answer is — Venmo is simple and fast. Its users need to follow just 4 steps to execute their first transaction: download the app, sign-up and link bank account (or card), find a person to send or request money, and approve the action! Venmo will check inbuilt Venmo wallet balance and then proceed with your request.

Cash App by Square

How much does Venmo make comparing to another P2P payment service called Cash? The last one was developed by Square and dedicated to both private users and businesses. You could have one or two accounts on Square Cash depending on your aims to use it.

A personal account is suitable for those who plan to send money to friends. The business account was designed for enterprises that plan to receive money for the products they sell online.

Square Cash is a former name of Cash App which was developed in 2015. Its MVP idea was to provide individuals, organizations, and businesses with a tool to send and receive payments using a short tag called $cashtag. The number of Cash App active users reached 7 million in 2018.

Today’s Cash App functions are the following:

Personal and business account types
Cash App money account with physical free Cash Visa Debit card
Phone number and email verification
Bank account linking
Fingerprints scanning to unlock the account
Peer search by entering Cash App code or email
Money requests sending
Online stores payment with virtual Cash App card
Protection program for businesses (chargebacks)
Bitcoins trading

Square Cash is not just a single app. You could reach its functions using Cash App on your mobile devices, Cash.me website, iMessage (for Apple users only), and even Siri. Those integrations made Square Cash more flexible and multifunctional comparing to Venmo. However, Cash could only be used on the US territory.

How Venmo and Square Cash App Make Money

How does Square Cash make money? Both Venmo and Cash app are free to download and use. They also have no ads inside. However, PayPal, the Venmo’s current owner, reported $15.5 billion 2018 revenue gained by the app and Square reported that Cash App generated over $166 million in bitcoin and got a profit of $1.7 million for the same period. So what’s their secret? Let’s analyze their revenue sources!

Venmo monetization algorithm

How does Venmo make money? Venmo-powered transactions cost you nothing if you are a private user, but businesses that receive payments through the Venmo system have to pay a 2.9% fee. 2 services generate Venmo incomes — Venmo API and Venmo Touch. The first one allows third-party websites to get and send Venmo invoices. Venmo Touch is a tool for quick purchases used by sellers to speed up deals.

The only case in which Venmo will charge you money is a credit card transaction. Individuals are charging 3% by the app if they are spending money they don’t have.

Cash App monetization algorithm

Creating Cash App means working out a more complicated monetization strategy comparing to Venmo. First of all, it serves a wider range of clients. The main revenue source is a transaction fee. The commission is paid by a seller and is 2.75% for card-based actions and 3.5% + $0.15 for each no-card transaction.

One more difference of Cash App from the Venmo app creator is the following — Square produces software and hardware solutions considering its field. Examples — a collaboration with Starbucks and Caviar delivery service.

Cash App is also integrated into a larger fintech ecosystem which includes Square Capital, Square Appointments, and Square Customer Engagement. Square hardware revenue comes from Square Stand and Square Readers for EMV chip cards, cash drawers, receipt printers, and barcode scanners. Those items could be integrated with Square Stand that works as a POS system.

How Much Does Square Cash Cost? Cash App and Venmo Development Estimation

According to the Lean Startup concept, there is no need to develop a full scope app to find out if it is demanded or not and check how much money it could bring you. Start with MVP, an app or other product that performs core ideas and functions only and wait for user feedback.

In our blog article dedicated to MVP development find more information on the approach and here, get to know how to make an app like Square Cash App and Venmo as an MVP. Here are minimum viable product features:

Fingerprints scan and security code verification 60 hours

Your app needs to have a high-security level as you are dealing with people’s bank accounts and funds. Develop a good-working and fast-operating authorization algorithm. Fingerprints scanning is now the most appropriate technology to make the process secure and fast.

Money sending and requesting tool 80 hours

It’s impossible to make Cash App without this basic feature. You may skip bill splitting or credits for the first time, but you can’t avoid developing a money transfer feature. Consider that an app needs to be incorporated into a global (or local) banking environment. In other words, you need a bank account linking inside the app.

Virtual card, account, and wallet 160 hours

To proceed with P2P payment one needs to find a peer inside the app. Cash App and Venmo have inbuilt personal electronic wallets that are money buffers for all transactions. The wallet can be used as a money source while purchasing goods, or you can use money received on it to send to someone else.

Account setting and activity monitoring 24 hours

Cash App and Venmo have something in common with social networks. They also have personal profiles and link people. Any app like this needs to have a tool to set up notifications, change profile information, manage contacts, and monitor past transactions.

Looks too simple? Remember, that fintech apps are rather about UX, data architecture, and security level than features. In other words, you are likely to spend a lot of money on designers, data engineers, and QA, and less money on developers. Some factors will influence final estimations:

Supported devices and mobile platforms
Integrations (bank databases and commercial apps)
UX and UI complexity
Hardware features incorporation
Ongoing tech support level

In this paragraph, we’ve decided to estimate the lowest level app of Venmo or Cash App kind. For that kind of app development, you’ll probably need such teammates: developer and data engineer (could be one person), PM, designer, QA, and marketer.

Your potential designer is likely to spend 100 hours on a basic Venmo-like app with features listed above. QA will spend 120 hours as a minimum to evaluate the quality of your product. Project management will cost you around 15% of all development budget.

The entire app building process will normally consist of 4 stages — Discovery (Research), Design, Development, and Deployment. The last one also consists of testing substage.

We assume that a Square Cash clone MVP will cost you 25 000$ and the development can last from 3 to 5 month. Remember, that LANARS has Eastern European hourly rates (from 40—60$ per hour).

How to Make an App Like Venmo? Conclusion

The mobile payments market is still growing and it is believed that soon most of the transactions will be cashless. Significant fact: Allied Market Research says that global mobile payment transactions will generate over $4.3 trillion by 2023.

Mobile wallets like Venmo, virtual or physical card-based payments, carrier billing, as well as contactless NFC payments and direct P2P transfers are major technologies adopted by modern customers and businessmen these years. Although WeChat Pay is the biggest mobile payment platform of 2019 (it has 1 billion users) there is still enough space for fintech mobile payment startups similar to Venmo and Cash App for local markets.

That was also forecasted that the global user adoption of mobile payment apps will increase to 28% till the end of 2020 globally (comparing to 16% of 2019) which means that there will be even bigger demand on P2P payment solutions next year.

The cashless transaction app niche also becomes more attractive if you look at it from innovative solutions prospective. Perhaps it's time to invest resources in new solutions, not clones?