Portfolio Skills

1888 Information – Digital Senior Citizens Phone app

by bsl | Jun 8, 2021

1888 Information Line

Senior Citizens Phone app for Android and iOS

Senior Citizens Phone app

Because of its extensive experience in the Telecom sector, 1850 B.V. now also manages the 1888 Number Information service. The company operates in the customer service market (e-mail, chat, telephone) too, on behalf of third parties such as local authorities, webshops, and answering services. In essence, 1888 helps you find the number you need and then connects you directly. Both in the Netherlands and abroad!

1850 B.V. asked us to design and develop a new Senior Citizens Phone app for Android and iOS. That is to say, made for people who have difficulty using modern smartphones. Therefore they asked us to keep the app as simple as possible. This request is a challenge for our enthusiastic designers and developers, who naturally keep up-to-date with the latest gadgets. However, we managed to build a simple interface with which everyone is happy.

The trick is keeping it simple!

There are already phones available for technophobes. But ironically, these ‘simple’ devices are often more expensive than the latest high-tech smartphones. So what 1850 BV wanted was a Senior Citizens phone app for iOS and Android, which makes making phone calls easier. We worked with them to design a simple app designed specifically for the elderly or technically challenged.

Called the “1888 Digitale Seniorentelefoon”, this new app:

Connects to your contacts so that you can populate a simple phonebook with significant numbers (doctor, close family, neighbours) in just a few minutes
Lets you drag and drop contacts for ease-of-use
Uses icons and images for each chosen contact
Secures the phone set up so that users can’t accidentally delete or lose numbers
Offers quick and easy access to the 1888 number information service

The trick is keeping it simple!

There are already phones available for technophobes. But ironically, these ‘simple’ devices are often more expensive than the latest high-tech smartphones. So what 1850 BV wanted was a Senior Citizens phone app for iOS and Android, designed to make phone calls easier. We worked with them to design a simple app designed specifically for the elderly or technically challenged.

Called the “1888 Digitale Seniorentelefoon”, this new app:

Connects to your contacts so that you can populate a simple phonebook with significant numbers (doctor, close family, neighbours) in just a few minutes
Lets you drag and drop contacts for ease-of-use
Uses icons and images for each chosen contact
Secures the phone set up so that users can’t accidentally delete or lose numbers
Offers quick and easy access to the 1888 number information service

At BSL, you have come to the right place for…

Fast, agile development - Involving the client at every step

We moved quickly on the Senior Citizens Phone app, using Agile development methods. We initially produced designs and animations demonstrating the app interface and navigation, inviting feedback from 1850 BV. We completed the app design, and after a single sprint, delivered the first Android release. The Android app underwent a series of test cycles, making new releases available at the end of each week. As the Android app neared completion, we quickly created the iOS version from the same codebase. Once we completed the test process, we prepared the Google Playstore and Apple app store pages for the first public release.

Minimum Viable Product - Early to market

An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is the minimum version of your app that provides value to your users. You can satisfy them and win their loyalty. Building a well-functioning MVP ensures that you can go live and do business as soon as possible. And you can start gathering feedback and learning from your users right away. Both BSL and 1850 BV see this first release of the Senior Citizens Phone app as a Minimum Viable Product. Once we’ve released the app, we’ll work with 1850 BV to design new features. No shortage of ideas!

React Native – Fast, easy cross-platform app development

We chose to develop the app with React Native. React Native is an open-source mobile application framework that makes it easy for developers to build mobile apps that can fully use native platform capabilities. And if you need to extend the capabilities of your app, you can easily add your own code, using other languages.

React Native uses a single JavaScript codebase to deploy the app on Android and iOS with minimal changes. So React Native saves us a lot of development time – and reduces costs for our clients. Supported by a global community of developers, it’s one of the most popular open-source platforms. No matter how complex your application is, React Native makes your application lightning fast. And React Native is future-proof. The standardised components and structure mean that applications are easy to maintain and extend with new features.

“For 1888, we built a relatively simple basic app that offers room to expand later with more functionality. We chose one codebase for iOS and Android app. In terms of design, it was important that it all makes sense for older, less tech-savvy users and that everything looks good at different (accessibility) zoom levels and text sizes.”

Roderick

Front-end Developer, Bright Side of Life

PwC – Pulse, Profiled Business News

by bsl | Apr 30, 2019

PwC Global Services

Pulse – Profiled Business News

PwC – Pulse: Profiled Business News

PwC is an international accounting and consultancy company, providing high quality tax, assurance and advisory services. Their consultants therefore rely on direct access to up-to-date, reliable and relevant business news.

Prior to the arrival of Pulse, PwC Nederland employed six information specialists. Their task was to keep consultants up-to-date with the latest business developments. Firstly the specialists gathered news from various premium sources, such as Factiva, Lexis Nexis, and Gartner. They then combined the information, producing about 60 weekly newsletters. Each one focused on specific lines of business. This approach was obviously time-consuming. What is more, 60 newsletters could not cover every line of business. Which meant PwC consultants often resorted to Google, spending 26% of their time searching for information online. An inefficient method that produced results of doubtful quality.

PwC was convinced they could address this issue more effectively. Therefore they approached BSL. We have experience with knowledge management solutions, business intelligence and search. As a result our developers came back with a custom-made news-alert system. Called Pulse, our software delivers profiled news alerts to thousands of consultants within PwC.

“In order to introduce Pulse as a global service, we have worked with many different teams, each with their own technical and functional requirements. These wishes all had to be supported, making my work on this project both challenging and varied.”

Peter

Java/Sr. Software engineer, Bright Side of Life

Business Intelligence, a custom solution

BSL designed and developed Pulse using Oracle ™ and Exalead technology. It imports around 80,000 new articles each day from global news services (Bloomberg, Factiva, Forrester, Gartner, Lexis Nexis, ISI…). It also imports local news sources, along with RSS feeds, selected website contents, and Twitter. Pulse imports articles from over 10,000 sources, updating the Pulse database in real-time. But Pulse isn’t just a database. It also classifies, indexes and maintains profiled news feeds for PwC employees.

Just four information specialists now manage over 1,000 profiled business news feeds in the Netherlands. PWC consultants subscribe to these feeds via the company’s website. But also via email and smartphones. And our technology ensures that every feed provides reliable, high quality content. Which means PwC consultants are at the top of their game when they meet their clients.

PwC first rolled out Pulse in the Netherlands, but its success has led to international growth. It’s now used in more than 20 countries. With over 10,000 users, and more than 30,000 subscriptions to news feeds. Most noteworthy is that over 92% of users would recommend Pulse to their colleagues! And PwC management teams are also equally enthusiastic. In PwC Germany the cost of briefing consultants decreased by 95%. Their consultants save time, they’re well-briefed, and they can focus on clients – not on Google searches. This success has been rewarded. Pulse has won two prestigious business awards.

Business Intelligence, a custom solution

Just four information specialists now manage over 1,000 profiled business news feeds in the Netherlands. PWC consultants subscribe to these feeds via the company’s website. But also via email and smartphones. And our technology ensures that every feed provides reliable, high quality content. So PwC consultants are at the top of their game when they meet their clients.

PwC first rolled out Pulse in the Netherlands, but its success led to international growth. It’s now used in more than 20 countries. With over 10,000 users, and more than 30,000 subscriptions to news feeds. Most noteworthy is that over 92% of users would recommend Pulse to their colleagues! And PwC management teams are also equally enthusiastic. In PwC Germany the cost of briefing consultants decreased by 95%. Their consultants save time, they’re well-briefed, and they can focus on clients – not on Google searches. This success has been rewarded. Pulse has won two prestigious business awards.

“As we all know, time is precious. I’m using Pulse on a daily basis, because it saves me so much time. It is easy to scan the news and then drill down to the full article if necessary. I have subscribed to several feeds that keep me up to date with all the news which is related to my Clients and the Industry.”

Sr. Consultant, PwC

At BSL, you have come to the right place for…

Search expertise

BSL has expertise with many search and business intelligence technologies, including Autonomy, Exalead, Oracle Text, Elastic Search and Sybase FTS. The full contents of documents can be indexed. We use language intelligence and semantic search techniques to recognize words, sentences, concepts and synonyms. These technologies ensure that we can find and select the most relevant information, even from millions of documents.

Award winning software

Pulse has won two important international MPF business awards. In 2008, the Best Use of Technology Award. And also the Best Collaboration Across International Borders award in 2013. The jury of the MPF award ceremony praised the simple way in which the ‘knowledge and management platform’ enables efficient collaboration between international teams.

Innovation and experience

Although Pulse started as a Dutch project, it has become a worldwide success within PwC. It was recently upgraded to a global service. Which goes to show that no bridge is too far for BSL to find suitable solutions for challenging projects.

This is a great example of BSL creating a custom solution designed specifically for a single client. And it’s grown to become a global solution! If you’ve got ideas for your own web applications or service, then why not get in touch – no strings attached!

Martyn Simpson

Director, Bright Side of Life

EnToen Nu App – Learn more about Dutch history

by bsl | Feb 28, 2019

EnToen Nu app

An introduction to Dutch History

EnToen Nu app – The Canon of the Netherlands

The EnToen app is a BSL development, created together with the foundation “entoen.nu” and pedagogical consultancy firm Mediant. Most importantly, the app focuses on the Canon of the Netherlands. This comprises 50 carefully selected snapshots that tell the story of the Netherlands throughout history. Each describes one of the key historical figures, objects or events that contribute to the Netherlands in which we now live. So it’s easy to understand why the Canon is one of the core objectives of Dutch primary and secondary education.

Using the app, children can learn about the history of the Netherlands in a playful way. As a result, the EnToen Nu App is one of the first apps that fully meets core educational objectives. We designed the EnToen app for children in group 5 up to and including 8. Consequently we have developed the app so that the age of the user can be used to influence the contents we show.

EnToen Nu app - An introduction to Dutch History

Interactive possibilities

First of all, children scroll through a timeline containing many historical events and figures. They can then choose individual topics like ‘Anne Frank’ or ‘Slavery’. Once they choose a subject, a new window opens. Usually this contains a more detailed description, along with an image or video. Most noteworthy, these basic details are supplemented by illustrations, online videos, links to books, museum exhibitions and more! Also, some subjects contain illustrations with hidden information. So by clicking within these pictures, users can interactively discover more details.

Furthermore, we have assigned a number of small projects or tasks to each of the chosen subjects. So by means of a “wheel of fortune”, users spin the wheel, and receive assignments. They can work on these individually, or sometimes in small groups. However, users can spin the wheel again if they want a different assignment. There are three chances to select an assignment, and choose in which size of group to work.

Intelligent app management

We manage the contents of the Entoen app using a web-based CMS. Furthermore, the contents are automatically updated from the main entoen.nu website. So any changes are immediately visible to app users. In other words, there is no need to release an app update for each change. The Entoen Nu app was first launched in late 2013. We have since released regular updates between 2014 and 2016. Followed by version 1.4.0 in November 2017.

The EnToen Nu app is a great example of what we do best. Building apps for iOS and Android that access online databases. In this case, the Canon contents can be maintained on our server. What’s more, any changes are pushed to app users instantly. And of course, we develop native apps using Swift and Java. But also cross-platform hybrid apps based on Phonegap/Cordova. In other words, if you want your data made accessible via mobile apps, get in touch.

Martyn Simpson

Director, Bright Side of Life

DilemmaMatch app – Find new friends, share your views

by bsl | Feb 27, 2019

DilemmaMatch app

Find new friends, share your views

DilemmaMatch app – Find your soulmates

With our popular DilemmaMatch app you quickly find new friends across the world. In a fun and original way. These are people who think the same as you. And as a result share your interests! By simply answering a series of diverse dilemmas, we instantly find matches for you. Using our own unique algorithms. Your closest matches are shown in your ‘Soulmates’ list. The higher they score, the better the match! This list is constantly changing. Because it depends on choices made by you and other DilemmaMatch app users. Users of the Pro version can even add their own dilemmas. That is to say, you can look for people who share your views on tricky moral dilemmas.

DilemmaMatch is linked to Facebook. You can therefore choose to share information in your Facebook profile. This is updated automatically when something changes in your profile. If you don’t yet have a Facebook profile? Then DilemmaMatch can create an account for you! View your own DilemmaMatch profile and that of your Soulmates directly in the app. On your profile page you can also view your past answers to dilemmas. What’s more, you can see who has answered the dilemmas you’ve added. And finally, you can add motivations for your answers. And view and comment on motivations from others too.

Interests

Entertainment & media, Business & Finance or News & politics? Choose dilemmas that interest you. To this end the dilemmas are divided into 10 different categories. Which means you can choose dilemmas that truly interest you. In addition, you can adjust the order of interests to your own preference. All in all making it even easier to find people with whom you have a real click. Moreover, if you find an interesting dilemma, you can of course share it with your Facebook friends too! Ask them to take a look.

But do you have trouble understanding the English language? No problem. After all, the DilemmaMatch team wants to make it as easy as possible for everyone. Whatever your language. For this reason we’ve added an option to translate any dilemma into your preferred language. One click is all it takes!

Badges

To make the app even more fun, we have added badges. You earn the different badges by simply using DilemmaMatch. Most badges have three levels. But you can also earn some with a single action instead. Check out the badges you’ve earnt on your profile page within DilemmaMatch. Collect them all!

Availability

We developed the DilemmaMatch app for use on Android and iOS smartphones. But equally important it works just as easily on a tablet. To put it another way, DilemmaMatch is 100% cross-platform. It therefore does not matter what type of mobile devices your friends use. With this in mind, just download the app. And get ready to share your opinions straightaway.

The DilemmaMatch App is a great example of what we do best. Building apps for iOS and Android that access online databases. Equally important, placing information in the palm of your hand. We develop native apps using Swift and Java. But also cross-platform hybrid apps based on Phonegap/Cordova. In other words, if you want your data made accessible via mobile apps, get in touch.

Martyn Simpson

Director, Bright Side of Life