The Customer
Frontier Smart Technologies is a market leader and pioneer in technologies for digital audio in DAB/DAB+ radios and SmartRadios. Powering more than 50 million devices worldwide, the company’s solutions are in the majority of digital portable radios, digital clock radios, and digital home audio systems. Headquartered in Cambridge, with sales, engineering and operations teams in London and Shenzhen, Frontier provides advanced solutions for brands including Sony, Philips, and JVC.
The Challenge
Frontier developed UNDOK, a companion mobile app that allows users of compatible radios to control their SmartRadios from their phones. Users can stream services such as Spotify or Amazon Music, listen to DAB, FM and internet radio stations or catch up on their favourite podcasts. Technologies and user expectations have changed considerably since the app launched in 2012. Frontier wanted to build a new, interactive, intuitive app with a modern UI and a strong emphasis on UX.
Key Drivers
- Use a single code-base for iOS and Android devices for easy maintenance and updates
- Be compatible with the latest devices (mobiles and tablets)
- Function in multiple countries and languages
- Support the full-service offering, including DAB, Spotify, etc for compatible radios.
The Solution
Working closely with Frontier and UX/UI specialists Make It Clear, a research, design, development, test and release plan was implemented to build a user-focused application. The UI/UX designs were put through an extensive iterative process of reviews, including validation with users through test labs. The new application OKTIV was developed with extensive unit and automated testing by the Mobile team at Green Custard, led by Principal Consultant William Alexander.
Green Custard and Frontier collaborated closely throughout the project to deliver the best quality outcome. Iterations were made based on user feedback and the ongoing outcomes of manual and automated tests.
The Impact
The new application, ‘OKTIV’ has provided Frontier and its customers with a modern, user-friendly application to control compatible devices. The end product was a high-quality, robust application, built to the latest standards and accomplishing all Frontier's requirements.
The application has been well received and is available for compatible radios on iOS and Android App stores. There are currently 700,000+ radios in regular use which OKTIV can support. Frontier plans to increase functionality in mid-2024 by making OKTIV compatible with older radio models, increasing the pool of supported devices to 2 million+ and reaffirming its position as a market leader in technology solutions for SmartRadio devices.
“William was quick to gain a solid understanding of the radio's API and the functionality of the existing UNDOK app, thus allowing us to minimise engineering support during the development. Regular project meetings and updates to Jira service desk tickets gave us good visibility of development and regular builds were provided to allow us to closely track progress. When I first met James Harding I didn’t understand what the role of a Customer Success Manager was, but he’s gone above and beyond to support us even after the project ended and has proven the value of the role.”
Andrew Laity
VP of Engineering, Frontier Smart Technologies