Koleda is a Swiss company that focuses on smart home technologies and energy efficient house heaters. The company’s unique house-heating solution has no central thermostat and offers efficient decentralised heating.
A swiftly-changing market requires innovative, responsive solutions. So, the company decided to develop a cutting-edge mobile app with SmartDev. This app allows Koleda’s customers to take better control of their heating costs.
After the successful first stage of the project, we held an interview with Koleda’s Chief Commercial Officer Toma Paro.
How did you come across the idea of this project? What was your ‘key motivator?’
Due to unstable gas prices, we saw a big change in the smart home market. We saw a need for our consumers to heat not their whole homes, but specific zones at specific times.
Since we stand strong for the comfort and the financial safety of our customers, we wanted to empower our customers with a convenient mobile application that would put them in control of their heating costs.
We found SmartDev to have strong expertise in mobile development, and their team offered us a very appealing concept of our future mobile app.
What was the big hairy goal of the project? What were the objectives?
Our long term goal was to create a simple and efficient solution for heating homes.
Our key objectives were:
- develop an MVP with good connectivity and good UI/UX
- create a support structure for users
- scale up through more features and more users
Our project has lasted for 1.5 years as of now, and I can say honestly that we are fully satisfied with SmartDev’s service.
What insights did you gain during the project with Smartdev?
I would highlight the following things:
1. Having a clear vision of the project is very important, and a strong partner for software development helps a lot to achieve this.
2. Focus on UX is really important, so you have to choose a technological partner that is highly competent in this field.
3. Process and documentation are important, because you have to keep things in appropriate order.Our strategy that we have implemented with the help of SmartDev is to differentiate ourselves from competitors through simplicity and constant revision of user experience. I can confirm now that this strategy works well.
What result did you achieve due to the project?
– We have a good reliable app with many unique features, such as smart scheduling functionality and remote heating control.
Our customers often report their satisfaction with the software.The app went viral and generated a flow of referral recommendations and cross-sells, and because of that we are confident to expect a good LTV of the product.
For me personally, the main result is confidence — every month we have new happy customers.
What feedback could you give on the cooperation with Smartdev?
SmartDev is the right partner for us. We enjoy our continued partnership and have developed a great working relationship with our dedicated project team. We have worked with the same project manager and dev team throughout the project. This has resulted in a tailored, experienced team that feels like an extension of our own company.
