Web-Based Software Dev for City Government
PROJECT DETAILS
Custom Software Development, Web Development
Aug 2020 - Ongoing
$50,000 to $199,999
"They’re one of the easiest companies I’ve ever worked with, and I enjoy working with them."
PROJECT SUMMARY
MOBIKASA developed a web-based software to allow candidates to collect signatures and qualifying contributions remotely. It is connected to the Secretary of State’s API to use the registered voters’ database.
PROJECT FEEDBACK
The software created by MOBIKASA works as intended, and it was helpful for the candidates during the latest elections, allowing them to collect over 50% of their required signatures. The team is helpful and easy to work with, and they fix issues promptly. They also offer excellent customer service.
The Client
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the deputy city clerk of a city’s governmental agency.
The Challenge
What challenge were you trying to address with MOBIKASA?
Due to the ongoing pandemic, we faced having to manage our
municipal elections during a time when it was difficult for
candidates to qualify for the ballot and public financing.
Traditional campaigning requires candidates to go door to door
to collect the required petition signatures and qualifying
contributions to qualify for our public financing program.
We launched an RFP to find a company that could help us meet
this challenge remotely or in an electronic format. We wanted
to build a program to allow our candidates to collect the
qualifying contributions in a web-based format, instead of
them going to the population in person to collect them on
paper.
Deputy City Clerk, City Government
Government
New Mexico, United States
The Approach
What was the scope of their involvement?
MOBIKASA first spend a lot of time building into the scope that
we had written to make sure that it was specific enough for them
to start working. Then, they spent a couple of weeks building the
program frame. They showed me how it would look to ensure
that it matched our needs before they did the actual
development.
The program is live now, and although this is a finite project, we
still have a maintenance contract with them. It is built on an API
that runs through the Secretary of State’s office because we don’t
have access to a voter registration database.
What is the team composition?
Richard (Delivery Manager) is my main point of contact from
MOBIKASA, which is nice because I’ve got to know him really
well. He acts as the project manager, so I don’t have to bounce
around with different people.
However, whenever Richard is gone, they provide me with enough
contacts so that I can get something done if needed.
During the onboarding process, I also met MOBIKASA’s president
and all of their developers, so I had a good experience meeting
the people who would be doing the work.
How did you come to work with MOBIKASA?
We issued an RFP, so this was a competitive process. Among all
of the companies that responded, MOBIKASA seemed to
understand our scope the best; they matched better to what we
were looking for.
Additionally, they had already worked with other governmental
agencies similar to ours. For example, they had experience
working with the New York City’s election bureau, so I knew that
they would understand our language.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent $75,000 on the development, and the ongoing
maintenance will be $15,000 per year.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together around August 2020, and the site
went live in April 2021. We will shut it down in August 2021, but
we hope to keep using the program for the municipal elections
and keep upgrading it based on what we’ve learned so far.
The Outcome
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the
impact of the engagement?
Even though we built this program due to the pandemic, this has
been a very successful project, and we hope to continue using it
in future elections. Some candidates decided to have door-todoor campaigns still, but others decided to make broad use of
this tool.
Overall, the ones that decided to use it found great success in it.
Some candidates got over 50% of their required signatures and
qualifying contributions through this site.
On the other hand, we as a city are very happy with the program,
which is an additional useful tool. The site works exactly how we
wanted; it is very simple and allows our registered voters’
population to sign a petition or donate to a candidate.
How did MOBIKASA perform from a project
management standpoint?
MOBIKASA uses Trello, which was especially helpful before we
went live when we were doing a lot of testing. There were a lot of
moving parts that we didn’t have control over, so managing the
project through Trello helped us keep that moving pieces
together while we were building tickets and trying to fix
everything before the site went live.
What did you find most impressive about them?
MOBIKASA’s customer service is impressive. I know that they
have offices in the US, but as they built the program during
COVID-19, they managed all the development from India. I was
initially worried about the timelines and how much it would take
them to fix issues. However, when we’ve faced issues, it takes
them no more than a couple of hours to get us back online.
They’re one of the easiest companies I’ve ever worked with, and I
enjoy working with them. Additionally, from my experience, it was
nice that MOBIKASA spent time walking me through the process
instead of just coming in to do it.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I faced some inconveniences throughout the project, and if I had
been asked this question during the development process, I
would have some constructive feedback to share. However, we’re
about to shut this project down for now, and I’m happy overall.
This has been a pleasant experience, and I’m thrilled with the
product, so I would definitely work with them again.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Make sure that you have a very specific scope in mind before you
go in. We made a lot of changes before we went live, and
because of that, we faced problems in the first couple of weeks
after launch. If you have a clear enough scope, those issues can
be resolved earlier, and you’ll not be fixing them once the site is
live.