Holiday Taxis - a transport booking service

Introduce your business and what you do there.

HolidayTaxis is a ground transportation travel technology company based in Brighton. We’ve made travel easier for 5 million customers in past 12 months, transferring them from the airport to their hotel. Our pre-booked transfer products include private taxis, limos, mini-buses, shared shuttles, helicopters, and water taxis.

Our headquarters is located in Brighton, which is a stone’s throw from the sea front and Brighton Pier. We also have offices in Berlin, Shanghai, and Colombia. We work with global airlines and travel brands including EasyJet, British Airways Holidays, Ctrip, Thomas Cook, Thai, and Singapore Airlines.

My role as head of IT delivery is to manage all aspects of technology utilization at the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Boldare?

We were rapidly growing and had requirements for key strategy projects that demanded a long-term development partner with specific skill sets that were missing in our current team. We needed to rebrand and launch a new website and companion mobile apps, we also had a key integration with a new partner that required a completely different technology to be implemented.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We traveled to Poland to meet with the team and discuss possible solutions. We then also had a core part of the Boldare team travel to Brighton on a couple of occasions to spend a week with us, learn about the business, and meet the internal development team.

Boldare provided both frontend and backend teams to enhance and supplement our project overflow. We broke down the projects and allocated aspects for the Boldare team to deliver.

We worked with Boldare over the course of a year, where we would feed in the requirements of each project. They would then manage the work, deliverables, and estimations.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

On a whole, the development team is professional and they deliver good quality products. We were extremely satisfied with the design and technical resources assigned to us. The team was keen for business contact and wanted to learn about our business/requirements and how they could improve their processes in order to help us.

How did Boldare perform from a project management standpoint?

We did try a couple of projects that were not as successful, in which they could not commit to deliverables and scope. I think Boldare is brilliant when working on new projects but we also have legacy systems that at times, they struggled to adjust to.

What did you find most impressive about Boldare?

Pawel and his brother really care about the company and the quality of the products that their teams deliver. I found Pawel to always be available for any concerns and addressed them quickly. Boldare has a wealth of knowledge within their company and will discuss problems that they may be having to find a suitable solution. They work really well collaboratively, and you need to have the time to give them the daily touch points required. Boldare can easily complement your own team, increase productivity, and improve missing skill sets. We really enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas Boldare could improve?

I found all of the developers to be professional and courteous. I never had any issues when dealing with them directly and managing the scrums and scope directly. I would recommend having the right scrum master on your team, as this is key to success. Like any company of their size, Boldare has some amazing collaborative team members and some that are not.