Our work with Moduurn Mobility is something that we are extremely proud and passionate about. Moduurn has taken the market by a storm with their mobile ordering technology. In the process of innovating this space, typically owned by the biggest players, they have also created local jobs, brought investment to the community and enabled other local businesses. Recently, they have been nominated for the Chamber of Commerce Awards, which is something we are excited about! Our benchmark for our own success is seeing our clients doing exceptional things, and Moduurn’s awards and accolades make us so proud!

What are the main takeaways from this article?
1.    Cloud Native: Architecting highly scalable, high traffic cloud native systems is key for applications like Moduurn, that need to be configured to suit multiple clients with diverse needs.
2.    User Centric Design: When designing a service-orientated product, such as the till, kitchen and mobile experience, a user-centric design is a necessity
3.    Integration and a Data First Approach: A machine process can be developed for white-labeling apps, capitalizing on plug-and-play capabilities and therefore, meeting the needs of a bigger market

In addition to providing businesses with mCommerce and eCommerce capabilities, Moduurn software platform uses customer experience metrics, trend analysis of “big-data” and artificial intelligence to provide businesses with relevant, localized and timely information. Businesses are enabled to better adapt their offerings to their target market, gain more customers and better serve their guests.

What is Moduurn’s mission? When asked they make it clear: “We are setting out to disrupt an old tired business model that is quickly losing relevance in today’s world. We will replace the old models with a single solution that is current – one that meets the needs of today’s up and coming customers.”

Here in Victoria, our largest industry is technology. We are a tight-knit community, and part of that is due to a local organization called VIATEC. They exist to cultivate the most cohesive tech community in the world by providing resources to tackle shared opportunities and challenges while boosting a sense of belonging.

It was through VIATEC that the Moduurn team connected with us. They were looking for a way to address many of the platform’s challenges and when we met, we both realized that we could help each other.

Moduurn had recently acquired another company that owned a mobile ordering solution, and decided that AOT was the right choice to help take them from mind-to-market, using the acquired company’s system as inspiration and taking over their past list of clients to offer a more modern solution.

The Project Priorities

This project, like many, offered its own set of challenges, with varying degrees of complexity. Our job was to work alongside the Moduurn team to design and implement a solution that was functional and from a usability standpoint, exceptional. We really had to isolate what our main challenges were and the priorities of the project.

1) We needed to provide businesses with an affordable solution that was still able to be branded to their business and customizable to meet their unique business needs. Typically, the more customized a solution, the more costly it is. We had to find a way to make the customization accessible to the target market.

2) We had to give businesses an option for mobile and web ordering that didn’t result in them having to pay large amounts of admin and service fees, skimming from their small margins. Many of the users were independent businesses – entrepreneurs who were trying to build their dream and Moduurn was committed to ensuring that a business using the platform had control over their online offerings.

3) The platform had to allow businesses to offer their customers the ability to place their orders through the medium of their choosing – on the web, iOS, or Android.

4) Simplicity was a major focus of this project. The solution needed to be easy to set-up – the user ideally would be able to plug and play. We aimed to provide businesses with a low cost, low-risk option that would allow them to be competitive in the current business landscape.

5) We needed to build a robust system that could be customized enough to cater to a variety of scenarios, industries and clients while still being effective.

Solution
·       Back-office platform to manage the business, menus, etc.
·       iOS application
·       Mobile application
·       Payment gateway

Project Execution
The project was run in an agile method. The team ran 2-week sprints and released new features to the Moduurn team for review and UAT. The product manager was a member of the Moduurn team and worked closely with AOT’s business analyst to groom the backlog and complete sprint planning.

To make the solution affordable for a startup, AOT offered a lower cost offshore/onsite model where the business analyst work and design happened locally, but the development and testing took place abroad. Our business analyst worked part-time out of the clients’ office so that AOT could be immersed in the company and work closely with stakeholders to outline requirements and get feedback on new mockups and sprint releases.

Technology
MVP, technology stack, Web Mobile iOS Android, WSO2 API gateway, White labelled app for each client, UX, user research, wireframing,

The project followed the Agile Scrum model development process.
Technologies Used: Angular 2, Node JS, Express, Mongo DB, Ionic 2, WSO2, AWS
Project Management: Agile Scrum, Jira
Wireframe, Mockups: Balsamiq, Adobe Experience Design

Results
We were able to take the idea that the Moduurn team had, bring it to life, and introduce it to the market. We continue to support them – improving the product and adding new features constantly.

Based on demos and the MVP product, Moduurn was able to draw in investment from angel investors, which allowed them to grow their offering and presence in the market significantly.
They are currently a finalist in the Chamber of Commerce’s Business Awards and are used by many local businesses – this is something we are proud to see. We love to see the success of our clients, and it’s particularly great to see the Moduurn team succeeding. They are ignited with passion for the work that they are doing and we are confident that this is only the beginning for them.