Top app development companies interview: Umbrella

Stanislav Meshkov is the CEO at Umbrella Alliance. The mobile app development company was founded in 2009 by himself and is located in Taganrog, Russia. The company employs more than 100 IT professionals and developers.

Stanislav started his IT-career as a programmer in a company engaged in custom development. Later he joined another one that specialized in web and mobile development for hospitals and health resorts where Stanislav Meshkov was in charge for interaction with clients as a Project Manager.

Several years later he founded his own company which was actually one person from the very beginning and has grown to incorporate over 100 people today.

Let’s see what Stanislav Meshkov has to say about Umbrella and the mobile app development world.

What does Umbrella do?

In the field of mobile apps development, we offer the full cycle of development activities: starting from prototyping through release and support to launching new versions.

What makes us different from others...I would say we differ from other mobile app development companies due to quality assurance and avoidance of risks. We strive to eliminate any kinds of risks both related to quality issues and to developers staff.

Recently we have intentionally moved towards increasing the number of app developers thus making any staff replacement in teams possible if required. The key goal is to provide our clients with a risk-free model, and this is once again confirmed with our “reliable partner” slogan. Our partners are engaged in the sphere of business, and they do appreciate these principles and our way to follow them.

On our part, we are happy we have always succeeded in finding a reasonable way to solve any challenges and troubles we had to face.

What clients has Umbrella worked for?

Mainly our clients belong to the business world and can be divided into two types: startups in the early investment phase and medium-size businesses (up to 500 employees).

As for the types of mobile apps we develop, they may be social networks, B2B and B2C portals.

Additionally, advertising and marketing are two industries that stand alone in our portfolio. In these fields we have gained significant experience in data processing and visualization, which we are really proud of.

As for our clients, they are distributed worldwide. But most of them are from the USA, Canada, Australia and there are famous companies like SheKnows Media Group (a key player in the women’s lifestyle digital media market), GoodSearch LLC (top executive search firm) and Yash Global Services Ltd (a management consulting company).

If you had to choose one category, what kind of app do you think is your mobile app development company’s specialty?

The first example that has struck me now is JellyChip, a social network. This app is our special one as it is socially-oriented and really helps and engages caring about people. The scope of issues covered with this app includes helping children in need, environmental assistance of any kind and animal care.

Everyone is offered an opportunity to improve the world around us through simple everyday activities - chatting, sending Snaps, answering surveys. I would say that our company’s speciality and inspiration are mobile apps that help changing lives and making our world better.

What is the average budget of the mobile apps that Umbrella develops?

We develop mobile apps with the budget starting from 20k USD. Besides, many of our projects are ongoing and have dozens of app developers involved, this means their budget is up to hundreds of thousands USD. We never work on prepayment conditions and Umbrella issues invoices for the time worked only. Actually this confirms that the apps are in effective and successful use and our clients are ready to pay us as they are aware of the opportunity to earn more.

On our part we invest the best endeavours and forces making the client’s aims and needs a priority - and this is exactly the way the win-win partnership works.

Do you develop all mobile apps in-house or do you outsource some parts of the process?

No, we do not outsource. Our mobile app developers are 100% an in-house team, and I am absolutely confident this contributes greatly to the efficiency of the development process.

I would say more, we are not an ordinary in-house team as our app developers form a team to work on a project, their working places are arranged close to each other so that they can communicate. This allows increasing efficiency by 5-10% because it is much more convenient to ask the neighbour than to chat, open ticket or send an e-mail.

We believe that a 100% in-house team is our huge benefit and would recommend this approach to anyone who cares of the increased efficiency.

Nevertheless, this principle implies a significant challenge: it is not an easy task to find many qualified mobile app and software developers in one city. Our company has to hold up to 100 interviews for one position as competent and experienced employees are really rare.

In this context, if you are not a company and cannot afford large-scale recruitment procedure, you will have to work with a distributed team, which is less effective. It is much more profitable to cooperate with us than to form your own team as we offer services of the highly-skilled in-house developers.

Which would you say are the best mobile apps that Umbrella has developed?

Actually, every app is created with care and affection. We place emphasis on a useful future life of our projects and are proud of the mobile apps that may contribute to the world improvement.

From this point of view, I would name one more application, Bounce. This app is going to change the global payment approach. The world is turning to mobile payments using QR codes, verification and confirmation - that is to new safer standards for funds transfer. For this reason, we are happy to feel involved in the process of positive global changes through the apps we develop.

Do you prefer to build mobile apps with native, hybrid or web languages?

When we have to choose between native, hybrid and web languages, we rather proceed from needs of an specific project than from our preferences. Things shall be approached reasonably to results in effective implementation of the client’s ideas.

Of course, there are some general recommendations. For example, if you intend to create a simple app for simple tasks, then hybrid will be better as you can launch on two platforms with a single budget. But if your future app is going to be complicated, with a non-standard user interface, where every millisecond plays a critical role, then we would recommend to develop a native app.

But anyway, as I have already mentioned, every single case requires an individual approach.

Let’s focus on iOS and Android mobile app development. Which are the Pros and Cons of each platform?

I would ask what point of view shall we consider?

If we speak from a client’s side, then iOS is more favorable as its users are able to pay more while Android prevails in a cheaper segment.

On the other hand, Android provides more quantity-related possibilities, while promoting in iOS market is rather challenging.

If we speak as mobile app developers, then I would say, in general, everyone shall do things they can do best. The experienced Android developer shall better work with Android and the iOS expert shall develop iOS apps.

And once again, I repeat, that every single case requires detailed consideration and unique solution depending on needs and goals of the moment. As for these two competitors I believe that both platforms are equal and have proven their right to exist and improve further on.

Which one will evolve more within the next 5 years?

Both platforms are in the process of constant improvement and the progress will definitely continue.

As for me, personally, I am rather an iOS enthusiast and use exclusively Apple devices and gadgets, and I find convincing the way Apple is moving forward. Every new product they launch is of high quality and well-designed, and even if some functions are missing, the functionality used is well implemented and executed. For this reason I believe that iOS will continue to prevail in quality issues.

The only iOS disadvantage for me is that any new feature appears first for Android, as the platform is more open and allows more changes. Many Android possibilities dated back to one or five years ago have never been implemented for Apple devices.

Based on this, I would say that both platforms will continue development in their own ways and in their own rates and users will only rely upon their personal likes/dislikes and needs.

Which device is the best in the market right now?

iPhone 7, of course, because I use this one! I'm just kidding.

As a loyal Apple-fan I shall stand for iPhone 7 here, but to be honest I am not sure that any device can be called a must today because the choice we are offered is manifold and inspiring.

Two platforms, iOS and Android are competing in OS functions and features, where each of them has its own Pros and Cons. And today we have an opportunity to choose exactly the device that bests suits specific needs and wishes.

On the other hand I do feel impressed with the latest Samsung device as it sets up a new approach to existing mobile devices. Samsung as the third major player in the mobile market has chosen the way of improving hardware as they do not have their own OS and cannot compete with iOS and Android in this area. And the new ‘infinity’ display is a sufficient and impressive proof of their success in this context.

And which device do you feel more comfortable developing an app for?

I would choose iPhone 7 as the most rewarding device for iOS development because of its high-quality, well-thought-out design and user and developer-friendly characteristics.

Why is AppFutura useful to you?

To my mind, the huge advantage of AppFutura lies in the detailed and comprehensive processing of any posted job. As a result, looking through jobs I am aware of the time spent by professionals to compile them, and every phrase and word possess actual meaning and are properly ground.

AppFutura approach covers both its own jobs and posts of the professionals offering their services, like ourselves. And I was really inspired to experience that this is not an easy task to register with AppFutura as they treat seriously every detail, every review and every action on our part. This competent approach seems to me the key success factor for assuring AppFutura is a safe platform for a reliable partnerschaft.

Go to AppFutura's Umbrella Alliance developer profile to get more information about them.

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