Application Backend for Digital Agencies

From individual developers right up to large teams in enterprise environments. But the majority of our users meet some, if not all, of the following criteria:

- Want to use a modern front-end framework (web or mobile).

- Don’t want to maintain backend infrastructure.

- Prefer to iterate and release projects quickly.

- Prefer to build things correctly and for scale from inception.

And, let's not forget entrepreneurs, business executives, and product managers who may be the biggest beneficiaries of 8base projects because they are done quickly, with compact teams, and built to scale the first time around.

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a concept from Lean Startup, by Eric Ries, that stresses the impact of learning in new product development. In the book, he defined an MVP as that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort. Depending upon the type of product you are bringing to market, the scope of your MVP will vary. For instance, the minimum capabilities of a consumer-facing digital food recipe marketplace might differ greatly from those of an electronic prescribing system for physicians. In the latter case, be fully the system needs to fully functional, integrated with the pharmacy network, and even certified before it is useful to the first customer.

It is our belief that creators of products should formulate a hypothesis of the capabilities required in their products to experiment with early users while searching to find product-market fit; and, that market feedback be the mechanism for prioritizing new features.

It is our strong recommendation that creators make every attempt to minimize features while not minimizing the foundational and architectural capabilities of their products. In this manner, feature development is incremental and avoids risky rewrite phases, that often kill ventures. Unfortunately, it is more common than not for ventures to slow down, disappoint customers and investors, stop onboarding customers and even fail as flimsy products begin to fail under load or complex requirements, and then require total rewrites.

The 8base Platform was born so that creators could build incrementally from inception to MVP and then to hypergrowth without ever requiring a rewrite of their application.

Our interests are aligned with yours — we want you up and running quickly on the 8base Platform and successfully executing on and growing your business.

To this end, 8base typically works on projects on a fixed time / fixed price basis. We go the extra mile up-front to ensure there is a very good understanding of needs to be built before committing; however, we also understand that clients don't always know everything they need/want when they start. Our unique approach allows you to change your mind along the way, within reason, and still operate under a predefined budget. 

We sometimes carve out certain aspects of the project, such as integrations with legacy systems, on a time-and-materials basis, due to the uncertainty of time and effort required.

After the initial project is over the 8base Design and Development Team can either transition the project to you or remain involved on either a fixed-price, per-sprint or per-hour basis.

The 8base Team engages each new client engagement as if we are going to turn the project over to a full-time team employed by our client.

When a client chooses to assume responsibility for the ongoing development and maintenance of the application(s), the 8base Team transfers responsibility for all code repositories, test scripts, software-development-lifecycle systems and others to the client and remains available for support on a time-and-materials basis.

If the client chooses to have 8base continue to take the lead, then we have options for remaining engaged that range from additional fixed-price phases of work to hourly rates.

8base enjoys incredibly close relationships with clients because we not only help with design and development, but become their ongoing platform solution. Because of this, we sometimes help clients financially by spreading the costs of our services over a longer period of time and without charging any interest. The decision to finance a project is made on a case-by-case basis and approved by 8base's CFO.

Our philosophy has always been one of employing standards in our platform, wherever possible. Here are some specific topics to consider:

• 8base runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's market share leader in cloud computing.
• Your data is stored in a MySQL database, a widely-used open source database technology which can be ported to a different cloud provider outside of 8base and AWS.
• Your backend code is written in JavaScript and/or TypeScript, which is a language that 70% of professional developers understand and can run on any cloud.
• We use GraphQL as out API language, which is an open source standard maintained by the GraphQL Foundation as part of the Linux Foundation.
• Your web front-end and/or mobile app is typically written using an open source framework such as React, Vue.js, Angular, Swift, Android, Gatsby, Gridsome or other. Your front-end app is completely portable.

There are some elements of your software that might require modifications to run outside of 8base such as switching to another GraphQL API provider, writing your own role-based-security and other things.

8base Platform accelerates software development and maintainability by providing a significant set of capabilities that make up important parts of a client's applications. All code developed for customers during our engagements with them or client-code that runs on the 8base Platform, and any data that is stored on 8base, remains the property of the client.

There's no denying that the process of building software is complex and difficult for any organization to master. This is why companies turn to specialized service providers that know the ins and outs of the process to assist them.

At 8base, we challenge the status quo of build-from-scratch software development which is why we invested millions into the development of the 8base Platform. Our unique approach leverages a platform-first approach whereby we work to utilize as much of the 8base Platform as possible to satisfy the client's needs and then code to deliver the entirety of the client's vision for their digital product.

To augment the capabilities of our platform and assist our clients in the development of amazing digital products, we also provide a number of custom software development services including:

• UI/UX Design - We assist with the design and development of your user interfaces. To this end, we can become involved in user research in addition to facilitating visioning workshops.
• Architecture - We can take the lead on incorporating modern architectural principals into your application design.
• Web application development - We provide coding services for applications that operate in a web environment.
• Mobile application development - We provide coding services for development of mobile applications for iOS and Android.
• Testing and Quality Assurance - We provide services to test and Q/A the software we build on your behalf. This includes development of test scripts for element that we code.
• Deployment and Maintenance - We provide services to assist with the deployment of your web and mobile applications and their ongoing maintenance.
• Project Management - We assume responsibility for the software development lifecycle.
• Integrations - 8base can assist you with development of interfaces between your systems.

These services can be provided for purposes of:

• New product development
• Modernization of legacy systems.
• Application re-platforming.

There are a number of major steps involved in software development. These generally include:

• Analysis and Requirement Gathering.
• Product Architecture and Design.
• Coding and Test Development.
• Testing.
• Deployment.
• Maintenance and Operations.