WaveAccess recovered Android-based wine discovery app VINILINK

VINILINK SA is a Swiss data-sharing platform connecting consumers and winemakers. The company engages and guides consumers to promote local wines through a digitalized word of mouth and sharing of knowledge. After the launch of their web-platform, the company decided to create apps for iOS and Android, and announced the launch for September, 2020.

Business problem

In August, 2020 VINILINK engaged WaveAccess for a mandate to complete development of the Android version of the VINILINK app. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the development of this version had been stopped by a third-party IT team. In the meantime the iOS version of the App had been successfully completed. As a result, VINILNK ended up facing a real challenge of making sure the Android App catches up with the iOS one as soon as possible.

A third-party development team had worked on the project for 8 months, but in the end, failed to deliver the final product so VINILINK had only 1.5 months left to finish the app, otherwise credibility could be lost with wine producers (paying customers of VINILINK SA) and the user audience. Our task was to speed up the project and get the app ready for the Google PlayMarket within the above deadline.

Solution

We started with an in-depth analysis to get our view of the whole state of the project and the app itself. In order to save client’s resources, we often use parts of a legacy-code. However, legacy code inspection indicated that there were limited possibilities to proceed with it. The third-party team left:

• Some designs in Figma, no ready prototype

• Non-working source code for an Android app

There was also a completed backend for iOS app, which doubled the expected functionality of the future Android app. After a thorough code inspection, we managed to detect the parts of legacy code that we could reuse. The remaining part of the app was developed from scratch, based on the iOS app’s features.

Within the project, we:

• Prepared the detailed cost estimation along with a step by step recovery plan

• Developed some features, partly using the legacy code to optimize the development costs

• Developed all the remaining features from scratch in less than the allotted 1.5 months

Result

The app now is ready to be used by Swiss wine producers and wine enthusiasts. It makes local wine more visible and accessible, shows details about wineries and their wines, and also engages smartphone users in the rich local wine culture:

• Users can rate wineries and wines, utilize the app as a reference when selecting, for purchase, local wines at shops and restaurants

• Users can see wineries’ details, or go to their online store from the app

• Possibility to communicate with friends by sharing wine reviews

• QR code reading feature is available for bottles with the VINILINK sticker

• The app shows special offers, news, events from wineries, and users can subscribe to their favourite wine producers

On behalf of VINILINK SA I would like to thank the WaveAccess team for their professionalism, flexibility, and deep involvement in the projects. A development team working overtime and permanently (24/7) at reach is a rare find.

Andrey Kleymenov

Director of VINILINK SA