In an interview with TheWebAppMarket, Nikola Peric, CEO of Lilcodelab shares his vision on how to build a trusted partner for your clients that can help them to scale their business with new digital solutions.

Let’s check his journey!

Q1) Tell us about your background and your journey with the company. What are the key services offered by your company?

From a young age, I had an interest in computers, games, and software/hardware in general. Already through primary school, I started with my first programming tasks and the development of my first apps in Visual Basic. The make or break it event was learning C++ which gave me the confidence I could really do the programming ‘for a living’. Continuously improving during the teenage years, I started working in IT when I was 20 and from there worked for a few different companies and mainly on larger scale enterprise projects. After years of working for other companies, I started to feel that I won’t fulfill my true potential while not having the freedom of decision making, so I decided to start my own company with a former colleague and that’s how lilcodelab was born. I saw the growing need in the market for software development services and different software products that can help companies digitize their processes, save money or create new revenue streams, so the goal from the beginning was the position the company as a trusted partner that is there to help the clients and not just develop apps to make quick money. Now after three years since the company was launched, we started to give back to the community and take summer interns, organize meetups, support hackathons, and other local events as much as we can. 

Since we are a Microsoft Gold Application Partner, we focus solely on developing solutions on the Microsoft stack. 

Our main services include custom software development of mobile and web apps, third-party product customization, legacy application migration, systems integration (integrating ERP, ECM, CRM with other solutions, API integration etc.), IOT, technology consulting (finding the right technology for each solution), Infrastructure development and DevOps on Azure. 

It is important to highlight that our goal is not just developing mobile and web applications, it is to be a one-stop-shop for companies that are looking for a trusted partner that can help them scale their business with new digital solutions. We can help them with dedicated developers that will augment their team and as a project-based solution partner that will handle the whole scope of the project from the initial business analysis phase to the development and delivery. 

With the power of Azure, .NET, and Xamarin our team can help companies in their efforts to optimize processes, connect different lines of business, and become an innovative market leader.

Using UiPath and RPA companies have the possibility to automate repetitive manual tasks such as:

• Extracting data from scanned documents such as PDF.
• Generating emails/monitoring an email account.
• Reading and creating invoices.
• Automating Payroll processing.
• Automating complex software-based tasks in static environments.

Q2) The tech industry keeps on changing, for instance, the current COVID-19 situation leading to mass adoption of remote working? How have you prepared your company for these changes? 

The tech industry was always more flexible when it comes to remote working and for most tech companies it was not something completely new. I don’t believe it was that big of a change for the tech industry. What we will see from now on is definitely a stronger adoption of remote working and companies will change their processes to adapt to the new challenges. As a company, we tried to provide our employees with all the tools they need to work from home (Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, SharePoint, task management tools etc.), but in the end, the productivity itself depends on the individual, their work ethic, time management skills, how much they need their colleagues in their everyday work, and on the project itself that their working on. Some projects require more team involvement, some are more task-based. In the end, efficient internal and external communication is the key to continue to provide value to our clients. 

So far, I have to say we did not see any drop in productivity or effort and all our employees were remarkable during this time and gave 120% to keep business running as usual even during these challenging times.

Q3) Since Lilcodelab is a leading Xamarin development service provider, can you take us through the evolution of Xamarin in the app development market?

Xamarin is one of the first cross-platform technologies which produces truly native applications. As early adopters, we have seen a rapid evolution of the xamarin platform especially since Microsoft bought the company originally behind the xamarin. In the beginning, it was not even called xamarin and the level of abstraction of the platform-specific differences was far lower than it is nowadays, but still, it was a very promising approach where we can leverage c# knowledge to use Android and iOS native APIs to build the mobile applications. Business logic could be shared between Android and iOS easily, but the GUI needed to be created for each platform separately which was more than good enough‘ compared to other available cross-platform solutions at that time. The team behind xamarin was very quick with support of the latest Android and iOS versions which definitely helped with confidence in the future proof value that xamarin provides. Support for different app store rules is also supported by rapid new versions and patches from the Xamarin team which made it possible to publish the applications and not being afraid of it being rejected because of bad Xamarin tooling. Development progressed towards abstracting UI, and we got something that is called Xamarin Forms. In the beginning, it had its quirks and specifics but was a great step ahead to the ultimate goal of sharing even more code between different platforms. Xamarin.Forms resemble the functionality of Microsoft WPF (and Silverlight) technology which lowered the learning curve needed to get into mobile development for programmers not familiar with native Android and iOS platforms. We’re happy to see an interesting roadmap aiming for .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI) which will narrow the gap between mobile and desktop development even more and we could focus even more on bringing business value more quickly and more consistent.

Q4) According to you, what are the most helpful technological platforms and tools to use for app development? Have you implemented them in your company?

From experience I could say that the best tools are the ones you have the most experience with, given they are not obsolete. In practice what we see is that focusing on the deep knowledge of your chosen tooling and building experience with it pays out the most. 

We are focused on Microsoft technologies, and over the years it’s proven that it’s really a good choice because historically Microsoft is creating great tools for developers (Visual Studio, .net, Azure, DevOps…)

Q5) If we talk about game development, what are the key differences in mobile and web app development? What is the overall cost and time estimation of building a gaming application?

Game development is completely different from mobile and web app development, from setting up the project to the whole development and delivery. It takes much more involvement from the team, everybody needs to work together as one and with the same goal in mind. To develop is much more time-intensive and expensive. Also in game development, there are different risks involved. You’re constantly fighting to have a unique part ‘of game mechanics’ that will set you apart from the competition and it’s a huge gamble. In game development, there is a significantly different approach to marketing which is a discipline for itself so to say.

Q6)  Can you elaborate the key points why Lilcodelab stands out amidst thousands of other app development companies?

Differentiating yourself from the competition is crucial, but also becoming more and more difficult as there are many companies that have highly skilled teams. What we are trying from the beginning is to find people that on one hand have a strong technical background, but on the other also understand the business side. Nowadays IT vendors need to bring additional value other than just developing a solution, they need to understand the market, what problems the client is trying to solve, and even help them market the solution. That is why we are trying our best to help our clients with more than just developing solutions, our goal is always to become a trusted and long-term partner.

The key and very measurable difference would be that the founders of the company are three experienced software architects backed by a highly-skilled business development professional which all together brings unique, future-proof and precise solutions to business needs.

Q7) Over the years, Lilcodelab has successfully delivered many of projects, can you share one of your favorite case studies that you can say as your claim to fame moment?

Each project has its own charm and it is hard to single one out. Maybe one that was quite specific was the app Sarahah. That was one of our first clients and they had a huge growth in users within just a few months. Such growth puts a strain on the whole infrastructure and it was important to help them scale. We managed to help them scale their app and provide their users a seamless experience while building new features while maintaining almost zero downtime.

Q8) What major opportunities do you foresee for your brand? How do you plan to handle them?

In the coming years, I expect that the need for IT vendors will grow rapidly. More and more companies will put more effort in digitizing their business, this will open many opportunities not only for our brand but for other companies as well. The key will be to recognize market trends, picking the right project, finding a niche, and sticking with it for a while.

Q9) What do you think will be the biggest challenges the industry will face after the COVID-19 situation gets under control? Would you like to share some tips that can benefit small-scale enterprises that are just hitting the app development scene?

I believe the way people do business will change, fewer meetings in person, more online. Companies will embrace new technologies and become more digital more quickly. If they don’t do that, they will not survive in the new era. 

For young companies I would suggest staying agile, always adapt, and treat every client the same. You never know if a small startup will grow fast and become the next big thing in the coming years.

Q10. Lastly, any word of advice for our users?

If you are looking for a trusted partner that will help you build a mobile or web app, understand your business needs and help you scale your business, feel free to reach out to us, discuss your business needs and benefit from our experience. When the COVID-19 situation gets under control, visit us in our office in Split, Croatia and while enjoying the Adriatic sea use the opportunity to bring ideas to life with our help.