Interview with Sachin Garg, COO - Daffodil Software

Give us a quick overview on Daffodil Software. When and how did you begin this journey and what were your motives to be successful in app development?

Daffodils are one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring and also symbolizes new beginnings, rebirth and the coming of spring. Just like the name suggests, we have distinguished ourselves from the rest with the ability to look beyond technologies and produce ingenious and progressive solutions. We are a trusted software product engineering company with team augmentation partner to 100+ dynamic organizations across the globe. We reincarnate software products & solutions with the latest technologies, design approaches and development methodologies giving organizations a competitive edge in the market.

Our journey started in June 1999 with a modest objective, to find a simple and innovative solution to large and complex problems. We wanted to play a major role in delivering innovative and progressive software solutions to our clients and help them scale their businesses.

Our motive to be successful is to create powerful and compelling mobile apps that cater to user psychology, their digital behavior, key pain points and the business model. We have helped organizations gain revenue, boost brand engagement and drive new digital business on a global stage.


What is your role in the management and development of Daffodil Software?

As a COO to Daffodil, I am obligated to establish goals, matching the overall vision of the company and set course to achieve these goals. I am a facilitator to the cross-functional team, providing them with the necessary guidance to achieve their goals & objectives.


Tell us about your biggest achievement in the industry

In 2014, Daffodil Software won the award of Fast 50 India Winner at The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific, a technology awards program in the Asia Pacific.


How do you schedule the development phases of the apps to promise the timeline to your clients?

We have a sophisticated process of product development and state of the art infrastructure which allows us to have seamless communication with our clients. We believe in adding value to the project with our domain experience and our clients' benefits of our huge investment in R&D in technology. The process per se depends upon requirement, as variations always exist depending upon the specific requirements.

Time frame to develop a mobile app fundamentally depends upon several factors including the complexity of the idea, the number of features, the technology used etc. It would be difficult to define the exact time frame for a project, without knowing the exact requirements.


How do you help your clients in choosing the right yet profitable platform for app development?

Selection of app platform mainly depends upon target audience (end users) of the app, demographics of users, budget and features of the app. We have dedicated team of Android and iOS platforms; however, we recommend a platform as per the need to the project.
           
We are not biased towards any particular platform. The selection of platform is project-specific.

With the innovation of hybrid app technology, the budget constraints faced by clients are the things of the past. Hybrids have a low development cost, easy to integrate, has a native experience and has high-speed performance.


Which would you suggest for a successful and profitable business progression, Native or hybrid apps? How do you define the factors that influenced you to make this choice?

Android and iOS are the major players in the smart-phone market. A duopoly enjoyed by both of these platforms. Mobile users are well spread between Android and iOS. So it is advantageous to go for cross-platform native app technologies such as Xamarin, PhoneGap, React Native etc. This option works well in terms of a wider reach, low costs involved and the reusability of the code.

On the other hand, hybrid apps have their own set of functionalities with user properties of both native and web. This yields faster development with a single code base. In the end, the choice entirely depends upon the budget constraints and app functionality.


How do you scheme your pricing model? How do you fix your budget?

To determining the cost of mobile app development, we first evaluate the features, complexities, expected delivery timeline and platform(s) of the app. Based on feature listing, we develop user stories and we estimate time effort required for each task for each of our resources. Cost of the mobile app development is directly proportional to the man-hours estimated for development.


How helpful are the mobile apps developed by your team, for enhancing your clients’ business?
            
We work with progressive businesses where technology plays a key role in their growth. Having worked with industries in sectors such as Healthcare, Digital Commerce, Travel & Transportation, Real Estate and Software & Technology, Daffodil brings new ideas to the table all the time every time. We help our clients understand the competitive landscape and how to overcome obstacles, making them formidable forces in their respective industries. We excel in m-Commerce, Internet of Things Mobile Apps, On-Demand Service Apps, AR/VR Applications and Enterprise Mobility. We like to think out of the box and do something that has not been tried.


What according to you are the best practices to attain client satisfaction?

We believe in client satisfaction. We keep things transparent with our clients. We discuss and define the expected deliverables for their project and determine a fixed price and timeline mutually. Best suited for projects are those where there is absolute clarity about the requirements and specifications. We provide a free hand over a team of developers with a high level of transparency, flexibility and scalability. Best suited for long term development projects with continuous requirements and changes.


How do you update your business system to be in pace with the technological advancements?

Daffodil has a dedicated research and development labs to tinker with latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Voice User Interface (VUI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT) etc. and pass on the learning to our clients. Our R&D team keeps abreast of the latest developments and innovations in the digital space to stay ahead of the curve.


What are your thoughts about AR, VR and Internet of Things (IoT)?

We enable businesses to connect their processes with the new generation of Internet-enabled devices in the cloud, helping them enhance business efficiency and customer experience. Daffodil provides comprehensive IoT solutions to generate data-driven intelligence from connected things, people and devices


What do you think will be the future of Mobile technology?

The future of mobile technology is bright. With the release of Pokemon Go, it made it easier for people to understand how AR/VR works. The continuous rise of intelligent apps and using these technologies is slowly changing the way we perceive mobile technology.  Businesses & public institutions, everyone will have to adjust their marketing approach accordingly and create mobile apps for whatever purpose their users might want to use their phones.