Interview with Vipin Jain, CEO/Co-founder - Konstant Infosolutions

Vipin Jain  

CEO/Co-founder, Konstant Infosolutions

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

Konstant Infosolutions is a progressive mobile and web app development company catering to the needs of brands, enterprises, startups and SMBs in transforming their raw ideas into flawless mobile experiences.  

With an expansive 14+ years of experience in the industry, we have impressed over 2,550 clients from 100 different countries. We are informed, knowledgeable and versed with technologies like mobile, cloud, IoT, wearable, on-demand, iBeacon and more.

We, as a team, aspire to solve modern-day real-time problems of the users and help our global clientele flourish at an unprecedented rate. Our journey started in 2003 with the aim to create, innovate, act and satisfy clients struggling with a myriad of development woes. Ever since, it has been a journey to relish accumulating positive client reviews, getting rewarded for our efforts, gaining recognition on a global scale and most importantly, building relationships.

What is your role in the management and development of Konstant Infosolutions?

I hold the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Konstant Infosolutions where I devote my time to strategize business growth. In addition, I keep an eye on the market trends, emerging technologies, growth prospects, which we consider while devising expansion plans and revenue-generation schemes. 

I periodically take out time to study brands’ case studies to draw out useful and actionable insights that we could refer to, for our ongoing as well as the upcoming projects. My industry experience steers me to capitalize on the future opportunities for the company and for the clients as well.

I try to stay ahead of the trends inspiring every individual in the company to think beyond the possible and bring the most innovative to the table.

Tell us about your biggest achievement in the industry

I believe the biggest achievement for a company like ours is to win clients’ hearts so that they keep coming back to us. And I guess we have mastered it. We have a client retention rate of 64%, which is a compelling figure as per the industry standards. Also, our work associations with industry behemoths like Volkswagen, RawBank, United Nations (UN), Wonder Cement, NASSCOM, Wall Street Journal are self-explanatory.

This year, Clutch.co listed us among the Top App Developers in India 2017 and among Top App Developers for industries like Health and Wellness, Social Media and Education.

AppFutura recognized us on the list of Top 5- Mobile App Development Companies, iOS App Developers and Android App Developers.

Silicon India also featured us among the Top 5 Mobile App Development Companies in 2016.

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

We, at Konstant, follow two approaches for app development- agile and waterfall, but only after the comprehensive analysis of client’s requirements, project’s complexities, dependency on critical resources and risks involved. Once the analysis gets completed and scope of the project gets defined, we decide the milestones with subsequent delivery dates and pricing.  

Setting up milestones and short targets make the process smooth. With every milestone being achieved, we deliver a report to the client, gain their valuable feedback, and act upon it before taking up the next milestone task.

We follow standards and guidelines of building an app as described and defined in the SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle). We also comply with ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standards for establishing integration with the organization's strategy, delivering value and maintaining a minimum level of competency.

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

Today, clients are smart and well aware of what’s in trend and how things work in the technology domain. They are clear in their thoughts and understand the technicalities of app development. This makes it easier for us to suggest them about the feasibility and profitability of the app being developed. After analyzing the project requirements, budget and time of delivery, our business analysts suggest them the most feasible option that’s in line with their target audience and can give them maximum visibility for high revenue-generating options.  

iOS or Android? We make the selection simple and straightforward by putting forward realistic stats, app idea dependencies, focus, and scalability criteria.

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?

I would say a right step forward at the right time makes the difference. You can’t really put the hand on either of them. It all depends on the app’s requirements, features the app is likely to include, client’s budget, targeting and marketing tactics, time limitations and more.

Some say that, going native with iOS from the beginning isn’t a good idea due to its low market share, but I would say that though it is a range of 20-30% (which is much lower than Android), by not targeting iOS users, you’d simply cut down your customers by 20% to 30%.

In this case, the best piece of advice is to go with a hybrid solution and give yourself a chance to convert all the customers out there (provided if you are low on budget). Else no second thought, native app development for Android and iOS should be your choice. Gone are the days when only native apps offered fluid user experiences, because with technologies like NativeScript and React Native, it’s time for developing native cross-platform apps, which are hybrid yet offer native-like experience.

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

We offer three pricing models to our customers: 1. Fixed cost model, 2. Dedicated resource model, and 3. Time and material model. In the first model, project requirements, budget and time limitations are clear to both the parties and we determine a ballpark figure for the task accomplished. Plus, in this model, the client is charged for features which weren’t discussed at the start of the project as add-ons.  

While in the dedicated resource model, determining the exact requirements and features to be included at an early stage is tough; therefore, we give clients the freedom to utilize the dedicated resource as per their needs. We fix a monthly price for the resource hired, who works dedicatedly for the client. We deliver work progress reports and raise invoices on monthly basis under this operational model.

Time and material model is where the resources and time can’t be estimated upfront. The scope and requirements keep changing. Following a sorted project management process, we gather inputs from our clients after each phase and embed functionalities accordingly. We deliver progress reports daily/weekly and charge them based on the number of hours devoted by each resource.

How helpful are the mobile apps developed by Konstant Infosolutions for your clients in enhancing their business?

We have delivered over 500 mobile applications to date, which collectively boasts millions of downloads and 5-star review ratings on app marketplaces. Out of which some of the apps solely crossed 100,000 downloads. I would like to share few apps that have performed brilliantly from the day they went live. Here are a few examples from our extensive mobile app portfolio.

• CleanLine - An on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service mobile app offering free pickup and delivery at the tap of a button. This app is live on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. This app has been downloaded collectively by Android and iOS users 7,000+ times in just three months.

• Alrawi - It is an audio book app which allows users to define their reading-related goals, listen to books and interact with a vast community of authors and readers. In just five months, the total number of installs on Play Store reached 10,000. The app is available for both iOS and Android users and is popular in the regions of Saudi Arabia.

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

I believe that client satisfaction is attained collectively by the promptness of the support team (we have a turnaround time of eight hours) and skills and expertise of the development and design teams. The establishment of a continuous communication funnel between client and company is what makes the real difference.

We feel it’s very important to keep our clients updated and informed of what’s happening in the backdrop. This is what we do on a regular basis. We send over progress reports, ask for regular feedbacks and try to improvise in order to produce great results.

A constant interaction helps in determining the client’s mood and satisfaction levels, which thereby gives us a chance to improve and offer better than the best. We are transparent throughout the app development and keep our clients aware of the tasks we’ll be taking up in the upcoming week and modules completed in the past week. This certainly helps us in making them happy at the end of the day. Also, our easy approachability and swift response rate keep the satisfaction quotient of our customers high, all the time.

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

The rate at which technology domain is evolving, I don’t think any other market segment is. Keeping abreast of the latest trends, aligning with new procedures and tools is presently the need of the hour. Having worked in the industry for over a decade now, we have made it a regular practice to research, learn and deploy before putting it to work for our clients.

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

I would say these technologies will dramatically change the way we work, we play, we shop or for that matter, we communicate in our personal and professional life. Our future generations will experience an entirely different world from what we are witnessing now. With immense capabilities and possibilities, technologies like AR, VR and IoT are set to rule the future.

The mammoth success of an AR-enabled game, Pokémon Go, quick adoption of other AR apps like IKEA Place, HouseCraft, MeasureKit and rise of VR headsets are clear indications that technology will boggle your mind more than ever in the coming years. It is probably the right time to switch gears and innovate to produce exceptional mobile experiences.

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

It’s exciting! Over the years, we all have witnessed a massive transformation that the mobile domain has gone through and mark my words ‘the best is yet to come’. The future is about innovation and improvisation. We got to include these two in our approach to app development and present the world with astounding mobile experiences. With endless possibilities to discover, I know the future ride to mobile innovation won’t be easy, but it would surely be a ride to remember for all of us.