Case study

Applying Enterprise Level Experience and Thinking to Delivery at Torqn

Energy and Resources
A front loader excavating in a quarry

Challenge

A mining start-up, Torqn, identified a gap in the market for platform connecting users based on the equipment they use. It sought to combine the best bits of social media, forums and a knowledge base to cut through the noise and provide meaningful information.

Outcome

With our support, Torqn developed a mobile app prototype to showcase what the end product would become, before even touching a line of code. This unlocked a pathway to securing over A$3 million in private funding and a successful app launch.

With extensive careers in the mining industry, the founders of Torqn saw the opportunity to develop a unique social networking app for the sector and its vast workforce. This innovative platform sought to help people build connections and share knowledge based on the commodities they mine, and the equipment they own, use, fix or make.

 
 
However, it needed support to get its ideas off the ground and into a prototype to share with investors. The team turned to Endava for support, from initial prototype through to final app launch and beyond.  

A truck on a road

Balancing a startup mindset with a global vision

With ambitious goals to expand globally and into other industries, the Torqn team needed support in applying an enterprise mindset. A clear, functioning prototype would be needed to showcase the app’s offerings, rather than a simple minimum viable product (MVP). Quality was a key guiding principle; to compete in the social media space means providing a quality product that exceeds the expectations users of other platforms have. 


 
Our teams worked closely with Torqn’s to keep the end vision in mind through design and delivery, future-proofing the technology stack through cloud infrastructure to ensure global growth could be supported.

A couple of people working in the office

Combining expertise for an outstanding prototype

From the beginning of the collaboration, Torqn had clear concepts and core ideas for the platform. Together, we ran scoping workshops which helped narrow down the problems and opportunities it wanted to solve.  

 
We defined user personas, which became the basis of user experience and product decisions. This allowed Torqn to plan out features and releases that aligned to user needs and desires. 

 

The app prototype allowed the audience and potential investors to experience the future end-product, without any coding. By using Axure’s advanced prototyping techniques, we included personalisation and a data-driven feed. 

This interactive prototype was then used in user testing with engineers, operators and service providers within the mining industry. This user research demonstrated the demand for such an app and highlighted opportunities for improvement to ensure the needs and expectations of users were met. 

A guy presenting in front of his coworkers

Funding secured sparks app development

After 12 months, the Torqn team had successfully secured capital thanks to an impressive pitch deck and interactive mobile app prototype, which brought the concept to life. Validated by the backing of leaders within the mining industry, the team set its sights on launching the app. 

 

To reflect the values of the brand and the audience, the app was given a clean and functional design language, with flair in the right places. Dark mode was included from day one to cater to the environments in which people would be using the app, such as low-light environments. 


 A Revolution Design System was created to accelerate design and enable component-driven development. This design system formed the basis of the interfaces and enabled the team to work fast and collaboratively. 

 

Meanwhile, our product team ran sessions to dive into the roadmap to ensure clear user-centric values and align the teams on all the app requirements.   

 
This enabled the team to form release plans that delivered the right features at the right time, adapting when needed to provide the most value for users.  

Two colleagues watching a presentation

Cloud based architecture allows growth and scale

React Native was chosen as the app software framework, allowing one code base to be used to deliver to multiple app stores. This enabled quick changes to both Android and iOS versions. Our architecture paired with the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) build pipeline, allowed us to make fast updates to production, while feature toggling enabled granting testers access to different features.

 

Other key considerations during development included: 

  • Security features to protect user data  
  • Smart management of media transcoding and storage  
  • Enterprise-grade event sourcing for high performance and responsiveness  
  • Smart searching capability to navigate large datasets 
  • Quality assurance through automated unit testing, manual acceptance criteria and design validation
A man working on a laptop

Since launch, we continue to partner with Torqn to monitor the performance of key flows including sign-up, onboarding, posting and key interactions so we can identify conversion rates and look data-informed improvements. 

 

We look forward to partnering with Torqn to continue to support the app, develop future releases and create new products. 

The partnership with Endava has been a fantastic experience. Their team's expertise in digital transformation, enterprise architecture, and cross-platform mobile development helped us deliver a product that functions seamlessly and scales globally. We couldn't have done it without them.

Troy McDonald

Co-founder, Torqn

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