Interview with Venkatesh C R, CEO - Dot Com Infoway

Venkatesh C R  

CEO, Dot Com Infoway

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

Dot Com Infoway is an award-winning, end-to-end IT and mobile solutions company. Established in the year 2000, Dot Com Infoway is a CMMI Level 3 certified company that complies with the highest benchmarks in the project management, quality, and operations. 

One of the early entrants in the IT sector in India, Dot Com Infoway was incepted to provide the national market with cutting-edge technological solutions. It is the vision of the company to always be in the lead when it comes to new technology adoption; this is why Dot Com Infoway has evolved from a pure-play IT and web solutions company to become a leader in mobile application development and marketing.

The company entered the mobile app development market about a decade ago with an objective of creating innovative business solutions for clients across industries. Our determination to keep developing high-quality mobile applications using the latest technology has helped us retain a leading position in the mobile app development market.


What is your role in the management and development of Dot Com Infoway?

As the MD and CEO of Dot Com Infoway, my role is multi-faceted; from ensuring that the product and service delivery side of the business is at par with the world’s best to devising market strategies to evaluating emerging and futuristic technologies. Additionally, I actively engage in driving marketing initiatives and brainstorming products and services of the future with my team, continually preparing Dot Com Infoway for new technology adoption and being relevant in a dynamic, fast-evolving market.

More than a decade ago, I foresaw how the Internet and mobile technology would shape commerce as well as our daily lives. Today, I am fortunate enough to drive Dot Com Infoway as one of the reckoning forces in the mobile application development space. My role in the management and development of Dot Com Infoway has been entrepreneurial, diverse and integral.


Tell us about your biggest achievement in the industry

Dot Com Infoway has grown from strength to strength in the mobile app development industry, building a market leadership position through various notable achievements. While I believe that the biggest achievement in Dot Com Infoway’s journey has been delivering successful projects, client satisfaction, project-after-project, there are a few market accreditations that have encouraged us on the way. Some of these include, ‘Readers’ Choice Award for Mobile App Marketing’,‘no. 1 Global Apps Marketing Leaders’,  by one of the leading research platforms. We have also been awarded ‘Top App Marketing Company’, ‘Top Digital Marketing Company’, Top Mobile App Development Company’, and ‘Top App Store Optimization’ by leading review platforms of IT platforms. We also thank TopDevelopers.co for recognizing us as a ‘Top 25 Mobile Game Development Company’.

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

The principal time parameters in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app are use cases, functional points, as well as, complexity. On average, we take 2-6 months to develop the front and back end of a mobile app; the time requisition greatly depends upon the complexity of the requirements. We adopt the Agile methodology to develop apps at Dot Com Infoway and use several plug-ins and tools that automate a solution to a certain extent. Moreover, we use mainframes and other reusable inputs to maintain efficiencies for the clients.


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

We consider a host of factors such as the requisite effort, scalability, reusability, compatibility and environmental considerations for selecting the right platform for the mobile application.

With mobile apps having forayed into every aspect of our lives, businesses can generate a lot of revenue from thoughtfully-designed, engaging apps. Mostly, new businesses and developers choose the free model, offering their apps for free, in order to aggregate a larger client base. However, a more popular model is the freemium model that offers basic services to all the users for free and charges the users for premium services.

It is also possible to have a freemium model with in-app purchases, such as the popular game, Candy Crush. Besides, many apps use in-app advertising to generate revenue. This is one model with huge potential as developers can provide their apps free to the users, collecting valuable data that can be sold to advertisers who use this data to create tailored ads for their audience. Depending on the nature of business and requirement, the team at Dot Com Infoway advises each client on a case-to-case basis, ensuring maximum ROI for each customer.

Dot Com Infoway has been developing high-quality mobile apps that are not only functionally strong but are also aesthetically pleasing. However, at the core of the mobile app development service, we at Dot Com Infoway offer a greater understanding of the business itself. Our team of experts first understands the nitty-gritty of the clients’ business, brainstorm app ideas, and finally, weave business objectives with superior technology and lucid user interface. This three-pronged strategy of mobile app development has helped us creating unparallel applications that add a lot of value to our clients’ businesses.


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?

The choice of the platform depends on the market you aim to capture. Once we engage with a client, we suggest to them which platform would work best for them, after understanding their business requirements in detail. Besides, it is also important to consider factors such as the required technological expertise, scalability, reusability, compatibility and environmental considerations before selecting the right platform for the clients.


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

Our pricing model varies according to our clients’ convenience. Having said that, we generally adopt the following pricing methods:
Fixed cost
Pay per milestone
Pay per month, if it is a dedicated model

Additionally, we take into consideration the following factors before deciding the cost of a mobile application:
Complexity
Supported platforms (iOS /Android/ Windows phone)
Online / offline app
Native / Cross platforms
Universal app

According to our pricing model, we take USD 5, 000 as the minimum budget.


How helpful are the mobile apps developed by your team, for enhancing your clients’ business?

We have developed several apps across industries and markets that have augmented the reach and business generating avenues for our clients. Functionality and aesthetics, our team focuses on both these aspects while developing an app. We are well aware that to add value to the business, an app must be intuitive, responsive, and a breeze to use. However, this is not where our app development process starts. Our team of consultants and analysts brainstorm with the clients’ teams to best understand the nuances of their business, and then offer solutions backed by robust technology.


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

Attention to detail, a better understanding of the target user group and technological superiority are a must for creating a winning app, thus winning client satisfaction. In my experience, the best way to ensuring client satisfaction is by taking full ownership of the solution under development, stepping in the clients’ shoes and fixing real problems. A clear understanding of the terms of engagement and deliverable and adhering to all SLAs is also important for executing client engagements successfully and satisfactorily.


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

Dot Com Infoway has always been an early adaptor of emerging technologies, which has helped the company grow fast and remain relevant. We have a dedicated training and development wing that continually trains our employees on the latest technologies and concepts, periodically upgrading their skills and technical know-how.


What are your thoughts about AR, VR and Internet of Things (IoT)?
 
New technologies such as AI, Virtual Reality, IoT and bots are already bringing a sea of changes in the way most industries work. As these intuitive and smart technologies will power the real world, the need for mobile apps that can host them would increase many times.

Smart-phones would continue to be the single window for managing and operating a plethora of things in real life. For instance, people in the near future would increasingly be using their mobile phones even to do mundane tasks such as opening the door and finding a colleague in the office.

Mobile applications would be the platform for humans to interact with the intelligent technology of tomorrow. In short, the future of technologies such as AI, Chatbots, IoT apps, Augment/ Virtual Reality apps, etc., is indeed very bright.


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

Technology is progressing in leaps and bounds, significantly affecting the way human beings live, work and dream. Mobile and web applications are the vehicle on which technology traverses through our daily lives, connecting the world seamlessly. Through apps, all profound technologies transform into powerful tools for humanity; from entertainment to fitness to work efficiency to social networking, apps make it easier for people to explore the most out of technology. And this is the reason that the app revolution will continue to build, shape and enhance the technology landscape on Earth. In the future, emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Machine Learning and Business Intelligence will play a dominant role in articulating the way mobile technology will serve the human race.