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Verified Profile
Grey Chain is a specialised mobile app and web development firm with expertise in UI/UX, Agile & Devops based delivery. We partner with our clients throughout the product lifecycle from ideation to delivery of efficient and cost effective solutions.
Our core expertise is focussed on Mobile First, Cloud Native, Agile & DevOps.
Started in 2016, we have served global clients from US, Germany, Belguim, UK, Philipines, Dubai, UAE & India which includes brands and large institutions like Bose Professional, UNICEF, Harvard, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Innovations for Poverty Actions (IPA), UN- International Organisation for Migration (UN-IOM).
Locations
India
D-58, East of Kailash,
Delhi,
Delhi
110065
+919667665464
United States
34 South Lexington Avenue, White Plains, NY ,
NYC,
New York
10606
+19146185010
Focus Areas
Service Focus
- Mobile App Development
- Web Development
- App Designing (UI/UX)
- Web Designing (UI/UX)
- E-commerce Development
Client Focus
- Medium Business
- Small Business
- Large Business
Industry Focus
- Retail
- NGOs
- Financial & Payments
Grey Chain Executive Interview
Pallavi Bansal
CEO & Director
Kindly share your feedback on how GoodFirms has been doing so far in increasing your visibility among potential clients.
Goodfirms has been instrumental in making us visible on the internet. Many our clients tell us that they saw us on goodfirms and reached out to us. We consider Goodfirms as a strong medium to build our online credibility as well as let potential clients know that we are a 5 star rated reliable delivery firm.
Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
Grey Chain Technology is a specialized Mobile apps and software development company catering to customers requiring “Mobile First” & Cloud native solutions, adoption of best practices like Agile, DevOps, and process Automation. Founders of the organization hail from diverse backgrounds bringing in a perfect blend of consulting and product development, with an average experience of around 20 years. I am the CEO of the company, and my job is to ensure we make our customers successful by delivering value, strengthen the underlying foundation of the company by having a healthy work pipeline and maintaining the quality of our deliverables.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
We are a purpose-led organization. Our purpose is to enable the customer journey from idea to reality. Through our experience, we saw a big void in the industry where good ideas could not take off because of the lack of vision & skilled resources to implement a great idea. Through our experienced team of engineers and designers, we provide software solutions which we call enablers, to give your idea life. We have based our purpose on 4 main pillars which form the core value of the company. These are Trust, Respect, Collaboration, and Sustainability. We adopt these core values in everything we do for our employees and customers.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
We primarily operate with an in-house project delivery model in our core competence field of mobile-first, agile, dev ops, and process automation. We keep our purpose at the forefront of our work choices. Hence, we do engage with the customers in providing consulting services and embedding our skilled workforce within the customer teams to provide the required knowledge and experience.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
We believe in long term partnerships with our clients, and our core purpose guides us in this path. With this approach, we strive to deliver end value to the customer rather than looking it from a pure PnL lens. Our clients benefit from our core competence at a competitive price point.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
The majority of our client base is large scale non-profits, FinTech, Enterprises, Startups, and individuals, to name a few, and >80% of clients come back to us for further engagements. We hence have a 5 Star rating across any or every online platform.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app.
Some of the key parameters we keep in mind to determine the delivery timelines are
- Mobile platform Android or iOS or Both
- Use of native language like Java / Swift or hybrid languages like Flutter / React Native
- UX design
- Third party integrations
- Content - Dynamic / Static
- Administrative Controls and Panel
- Payment integration
At the heart of every delivery we keep our core competency of Agile and DevOps so that the time to market is reduced and the cost to future change is reduced. This gives us a major edge, because our speed of delivery due to these practices are 1.5x faster and more quality.
- Mobile platform Android or iOS or Both
- Use of native language like Java / Swift or hybrid languages like Flutter / React Native
- UX design
- Third party integrations
- Content - Dynamic / Static
- Administrative Controls and Panel
- Payment integration
At the heart of every delivery we keep our core competency of Agile and DevOps so that the time to market is reduced and the cost to future change is reduced. This gives us a major edge, because our speed of delivery due to these practices are 1.5x faster and more quality.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of a mobile app?
As previously mentioned, Agile & Devops development practices play a major role in delivering applications. Agile practice dictates that we build complete user stories which leads to a hand in hand Front end and backend development and 2 week frequency releases leading to faster feedback incorporation and delivery.
Also, a clear product vision is critical in delivering a project, so we help our clients brainstorm the UX of the application using high fidelity prototypes does in Adobe XD or Sketch, this significantly further reduces development time and rework.
Overall, we have seen that its a 50-50 ratio of Front end and backend work, where we try to use front end power of new age devices for processing information and backend for complex functions / processing. A strong architecture is key to this and hence all our projects have 20% time of an architect built into our proposal.
Also, a clear product vision is critical in delivering a project, so we help our clients brainstorm the UX of the application using high fidelity prototypes does in Adobe XD or Sketch, this significantly further reduces development time and rework.
Overall, we have seen that its a 50-50 ratio of Front end and backend work, where we try to use front end power of new age devices for processing information and backend for complex functions / processing. A strong architecture is key to this and hence all our projects have 20% time of an architect built into our proposal.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for a mobile application?
The key parameters we consider for selecting right platform choice are
1. Functional complexity of the application - If it requires native features like AR then Swift / Java is recommended.
2. Technical complexity to support the required functionality
3. Audience targeted through the app
4. Client strategy to generate revenue from the application
5. Funds available to build the app
6. Ease of maintenance and support in future
1. Functional complexity of the application - If it requires native features like AR then Swift / Java is recommended.
2. Technical complexity to support the required functionality
3. Audience targeted through the app
4. Client strategy to generate revenue from the application
5. Funds available to build the app
6. Ease of maintenance and support in future
Which platform do you suggest your clients to begin with when they approach you with an idea (Android or iOS) and why?
This depends on the functionality that the customer needs in the app. If it’s a low to medium complexity app not requiring the use of any native functionality of the underlying mobile OS, we would suggest to build the app using generic hybrid frameworks like Flutter, React Native, etc. This reduces the time to market and the cost of development for different mobile operating systems. If its for a large scale sustainable operation, we recommend going Native, as it takes care of all future use cases.
Android or iOS, Native or Hybrid — which platform is best to use to build your app? What are your recommendations?
It all depends on the complexity and the features required in the app. It’s completely driven from client requirements. We have an engineering team well versed on all the available toolset for both Android and IOS platform across both native and hybrid platforms.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a mobile application?
Few of the key parameters kept in mind for costing the solution
1. Is there an ongoing relationship with the client?
2. Mobile platform for which app is required (Android / IOS)
3. Is there a need to use native or hybrid stack?
4. Complexity of UX design
5. Is there any third-party integration required?
6. Is the content dynamic or Static?
7. Do we need Administrative Controls?
8. Is there a payment integration required for the application?
9. Do we provide the hosting services or managed servers as well?
10. Duration of the post deployment support required
1. Is there an ongoing relationship with the client?
2. Mobile platform for which app is required (Android / IOS)
3. Is there a need to use native or hybrid stack?
4. Complexity of UX design
5. Is there any third-party integration required?
6. Is the content dynamic or Static?
7. Do we need Administrative Controls?
8. Is there a payment integration required for the application?
9. Do we provide the hosting services or managed servers as well?
10. Duration of the post deployment support required
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
Fixed Price with Pay per milestone payment schedule is the preferred approach and keeps it simple for the clients as well. However, we do provide detailed breakup of the costing for each application module and task.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
We generally like doing projects where we can partner with client and be a part of the journey. This ties well to our purpose as well. Monetary considerations are important only to ensure we get paid fairly for the service we provide. It has a role to play in the decision making but the primary factor is the relationship with the customer and intellectually stimulating work i.e the quality of work. Minimum we have worked on was 4000$.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2019?
$5000 - $100,000
Which business model do you suggest to your clients enabling them to generate revenue from mobile applications? Why?
For revenue generating apps, Google ads or application ads hve become a lower margin business, we recommend going for in-app purchases by offering incentives for end user journeys to progress. For e.g. let users buy coins to move ahead on a step they are stuck with.
For ecommerce apps, we recommend simpler 2 step or 3 step pricing plans.
For ecommerce apps, we recommend simpler 2 step or 3 step pricing plans.
Grey Chain Clients & Portfolios
