Engagement: Dedicated Development Team – End-to-end build of a real-time ride-booking mobile app (SmartROTRO) including driver and rider interfaces.
Challenge & Risks: Sacs Ops aimed to launch a next-gen smart taxi app in Tallinn within 3 months. This high-stakes urban mobility project required tight schedules and flawless performance under load. Risks included integration with live tracking (GPS/IoT) and achieving high user satisfaction on first release. Downtime or poor UX would severely damage the brand.
Kontorva Solution: Kontorva assigned a specialist team of 6 (2 React Native developers, 2 IoT/backend engineers, 1 QA, 1 DevOps; assumption: balanced senior/junior mix). We began with a 1-week sprint zero to define all user stories and set up simulators for IoT data. Agile ceremonies (planning, demos) were held daily via remote stand-ups. The CI/CD pipeline was equipped to auto-deploy to staging after each merge, with automated smoke tests. We also instituted rigorous performance testing (e.g. Gatling load tests) to meet the 99.9% availability target.
Key Deliverables:
- Mobile Apps (iOS/Android): Developed in React Native, featuring real-time ride matching, in-app chat, and secure payment via embedded Stripe.
- Backend & IoT Platform: A Node.js + MongoDB server handling booking logic and integrating with an MQTT broker for real-time driver updates.
- Driver Dashboard: A React web app for drivers to manage rides and payments.
- DevOps Automation: Kubernetes clusters with rolling updates, and integrated monitoring (Prometheus+Grafana) for real-time health checks.
Outcomes & Metrics: Kontorva delivered the app 2 weeks early and 15% under budget by optimising workflows. The deployment achieved 70% faster developer hiring (4 engineers onboarded in 4 days vs. 14), accelerating development start. Post-launch metrics were strong: rider wait times dropped 60%, user satisfaction (via surveys) hit 92%, and crash reports fell to near zero – evidence of the mature QA process. The on-time, under-budget delivery underscored Kontorva’s predictable, accountable model.
Operational Scope & Exit: The engagement was treated as an ongoing fixed-price project, with scope for the MVP clearly defined. Kontorva’s role included all operational management (EOR, payroll, compliance) for remote staff. We specified an exit phase at project completion: production handover documentation, deployment scripts, and training. After launch, Kontorva provided a 2-week intensive handover (assumption: 1 senior dev on-site) before transitioning support fully to an internal team.