Application Services

• Application Development — custom application development tailored to the client's specific business requirements. We deliver rich internet applications combining our solid cross-domain experience, technological expertise and an established development methodology.
• Application Migration and Porting — our migration services include porting applications to a new technology platform, database and server porting, data migration, standalone-to-web migration of legacy applications.
• Application Reengineering and Enhancement — we provide reverse engineering of existing systems to understand their business functionality and technical architecture and introduce new/enhanced business logic and improved performance.
• Application Audit and Testing — independent software audit and testing of your web application including code reviews, functionality-to-requirements verification, GUI usability and HTML standards compliance testing and performance/security/stability testing.
• Application Maintenance — our web application maintenance and support services are aimed at ensuring stable and uninterrupted operation of your business system. The services include problems analysis, resolution and application enhancement.

Technical Expertise

SkyLab specialists use up-to-date technologies and latest industry trends to deliver technically complex and yet easy-to-use solutions with the optimal cost/performance ratio.

Development Platforms	Application and Web Servers	Databases
Microsoft.NET, Node.js, Java	Apache, Microsoft IIS, JBoss, TomCat	Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Oracle, PostgreSQL

Business-oriented Solutions

Our seasoned technical and project management team will guide you from a business idea to implementation of a cost effective software solution. We will deliver a valuable business tool specially designed to serve the specific needs of your business:

• Enable effective management of online business including customer service, inventory, supply chain management, procurement, etc.
• Generate additional sales by building a lasting profitable relationship with the clientele through a more responsive customer service
• Facilitate direct communication with customers, vendors, suppliers and employees
• Reduce resource requirements and operating costs through business processes automation.

Going Mobile? We design advanced mobile solutions for business, communication, social networking and entertainment.

• We specialize in mobile clients to web services and web portals
• We develop autonomous mobile applications
• We build end-to-end mobility solutions

Our technology competency covers iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry. We are proficient in Mobile Web with a specific focus on HTML5 solutions.

Mobile App + Web Service in Back End

Rising Functionality and Data to Mobile Devices

SkyLab helps businesses establish mobile access to functionality and data provided by their back-end software. We deliver native mobile applications seamlessly connected to an online service, corporate business application or informational online resource.

Our mobile experience allows completing the objectives in a range of domains working with various data / content types and their combinations:

• Business data
• Media content
• Financial data
• Geographical positioning data
• Data obtained from hardware devices

Context

We generally outline two major business models related to a mobile client-service solution. The distinction is made depending on what is in the center from the user's perspective.

Extending User Experience and Service Access by Providing Mobile Client	Building End-to-end Solutions Aligned Around Mobile Functionality
Generally, a mobile client is the continuation of an existing proven online service or a corporate business application. It is aimed at adding value by improving user experience and availability options. The objectives are clear ― to create a competitive advantage for an e business web application or increase field operations' efficiency for an enterprise mobility solution. To succeed in this model the developer has to be very agile in understanding business priorities and logic and, from the technology perspective, experienced in application integration and data interchange.	Fast-moving mobile technologies offer new opportunities and inspire innovative thinking. As opposed to the other model, here the main business value is delivered by the mobile solution itself, while a web service operating in the background is almost invisible to the user. This actually means that the idea of a mobile app comes first but the implementation requires efforts not just to develop the mobile app but rather to design a seamless end-to-end solution that would include custom web service development, third-party software integration and innovative engineering.
Online Services	Innovative Mobile-centric Solutions
SkyLab creates native mobile applications seamlessly integrated with web services or informational online resources. Our experience covers: E-commerce Social Media Media Content Distribution Financial Services Online Games and Gambling	SkyLab helps both established businesses and ambitious startups uncover the benefits of new mobile user experience. Social Commerce Augmented Reality Advanced Graphics Processing Location-based Apps Cloud Computing in Back-end
Corporate Business Applications	From Proof of Concept to Live Software
SkyLab designs enterprise mobility solutions supporting corporate software: Accounting, CRM, Business Intelligence, ECM, Inventory Management etc. Electronic Forms and Catalogs Barcodes processing & RFID support Data Visualization Task Management Digital Assets Management	Our full cycle services obtain real significance when talking about an innovative project. We offer a smart approach from the very early stages to mitigate risks and boost the development process. Strategic Technology Consulting Consistent Architecture Design In-depth Mobile App Prototyping Prototype Usability Testing

Mobile Web

What We Do

Here at SkyLab we offer two types of services for those who look for fast and cost-effective presentation on mobile devices.

1. Designing and optimizing websites for mobile browsing
2. Mobile HTML5 applications with native-like user experience

Our customers always benefit from SkyLabs advanced web development experience.

Mobile Web Pros …

The true advantage of mobile web is its natural cross platform compatibility. This reduces costs for development of multiple mobile platforms on mobile front end significantly. Mobile web keeps all the benefits the web technology has comparing to fat client-server architecture.

• In most cases no mobile download / installation is required
• Easier to maintain, improve and update ― updates are immediately effective on the user's side
• Supported on the absolute majority of smartphone devices

In our practice a mobile web solution is often ordered complementary to an iOS native app (targeting two specific devices ― iPhone/iPad) to support a variety of Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry or Symbian smartphones.

Mobile web is a perfect solution for online information resources such as news portals where simple navigation and one-way data flow (source to user) prevail.

… and Cons

The major concern associated when talking about choosing mobile web is that you can miss the user experience provided by the device for native apps ― touch and slide navigation experience, feedback mechanics like vibration and sounds, gyroscope physics, etc.

To overcome (at least partially) this challenge SkyLab delivers rich HTML5 mobile solutions including location based apps and solutions supporting offline mode.

Share your objectives with us ― and we will invent, design and launch the right solution for your specific situation.

Autonomous Mobile Applications

Defining Autonomous App

By autonomous applications we mean applications that themselves encapsulate the main business logic and functionality. Apps may communicate with a web server to exchange portions of data or with an app store to get updates but the kernel functionality is executed right on the mobile device. Good examples of such apps are offline games, compact business apps, mobile gadgets and utilities, etc.

Experience

Our experience in developing autonomous mobile applications allows overcoming mobile development challenges such as screen resolution, hardware performance limitations and device diversity. We designed feature-rich mobile apps in a variety of domains:

• Augmented Reality
• Entertainment
• Advertising Games
• Task Management
• Mobile Utilities

Product Development Outsourcing

SkyLab offers you a transparent approach to product development which is different from custom development in scheduling and delivery management. A mobile product that you will sell or leverage as an additional competitive advantage will take the most of our project management, development and quality assurance processes.

UI Design Principles

SkyLab highlights and unites the core principles of a highly usable solution, and applies them practically in UI:

Effectiveness & Visibility — each user's action should produce a result. Effective UI increases customer satisfaction and employee productivity, so we carefully treat both frontend and backend usability. SkyLab adds maximum visibility to objects, so that users can easily identify the function and take a correct action spending minimum time to accomplish a task.
Performance — in addition to careful software architecture design which is vital to the application performance, our experts tune the application interface for quick response by implementing RIA technologies and features.
Consistency and Predictability — once a function is learnt users reasonably anticipate that the next time it will behave identically. We ensure that the similar looking functionality produces similar results throughout the entire application.

Process

We utilize a highly transparent iterative approach that allows achieving better usability results and increasing application productivity. The following 4 phases describe how we handle UI design tasks within the development process:

Requirements and Conceptual Design

SkyLab delivers user-centered UI design paying great attention to the analysis of use cases and business scenarios, highlighting target user groups and identification of critical success factors.
At this stage SkyLab develops data models, entity relationship schemes and workflow diagrams to eliminate possible vision gaps and serve as guidelines for further project stages.

UI Prototyping

Depending on the business goals, functional scope and complexity level of the project SkyLab delivers a number of prototype artifacts:

• Static Mockups
• Clickable Wireframes
• Fully Designed Prototype

The professional software prototyping is also available at SkyLab as a separate service.

Construction

UI Programming Approach - At the development stage the SkyLab's goal is to deliver functional interfaces as early as possible to leave enough space for possible changes and improvements.
Technology Factor - Actual interface implementation depends strongly on the chosen technologies, so SkyLab strives to cut project costs by utilizing best-practices for the particular technology and get maximum technology benefits / comply with restrictions at the earlier conceptual and prototyping phases.
Usability and UI Testing - The SkyLab QA team executes business scenarios and use cases to detect interface issues or inconsistencies that distract and mislead users from arriving at their goals. SkyLab utilizes several testing methodologies and options in order to minimize possible issues at the earliest project stages, enable quick response to changes and organic refinery.

• Prototype Testing
• Iterative Testing
• Acceptance testing

The professional software testing is also available at SkyLab as a separate service.

Visual Design

In most cases (for some types of web apps UI has a very minor importance or even doesn't require UI at all) visual design is an integral part of web application development project.

SkyLab always keeps in mind that visual design is a vital tool to increase usability by fastening interface learning, memorability and consistency, and provide additional value to the application making its usage enjoyable.

The SkyLab graphic design team works in close collaboration with analysts and usability testers, providing high quality results.

All the layouts, forms and their elements and controls produced by SkyLab designers are tailored to easy HTML slicing, thus avoiding expensive efforts for implementing visuals to the application engine.

Professional Design

Look-and-Feel

With the help of modern design tools our designers create appealing, exclusive designs that highlight your uniqueness and let you stand out from the crowd. Our designs combine:

• Appealing and professional style
• Consistent overall layout
• Consistent corporate identity
• Colors compatibility
• Rational space usage

Usability

Irrespective of the website's functional complexity we aim at keeping interfaces simple and easy-to-use. We pay attention to various aspects to ensure positive user experience:

• User-friendly interface
• Intuitive navigational schemes
• AJAX-powered interactivity
• Task-oriented workflow
• Accessibility standards

Comprehensive Functionality

Front-end Functionality

Functionality is what turns your website from a "shop display" into a powerful business tool. By delivering custom-built solutions SkyLab is able to provide the functionality that would completely match your actual business requirements. Modular approach to development allows us to expand the existing or add new functionality easily and cost-effectively when your business requirements change. As a result, you will receive the best return on investment into the current solution and decrease your expenditure on future system extension.

Back-office Administration

Depending on your requirements we can integrate different back-office management tools that will give you efficient control over various site operations. This may include non-technical content creation and publishing, dynamic structure generation, document management (incl. images, PDFs, video and audio files, etc), user management, access rights and permissions, business operations management (incl. clients, catalogs, payments, orders, etc.), site statistics module and others.

Expert Back-end Programming

Our specialists are able to create dynamic, highly interactive and functional websites, making cutting-edge technologies effectively back clean interfaces. We offer our clients a full spectrum of back-end development including dynamic page generation, database design and development (incl. database performance optimization and tuning), distributed database development for websites dealing with large amounts of data, data encryption, advanced search mechanism integration, built-in security, real-time payment processing, audio/video streaming, etc.

Due Approach

Throughout the entire website development cycle we will help you define, conceptualize and implement your business web strategy in a cost-effective solution.

Due Communication

Effective communication is vital for the success of any project. We at once establish a two-way knowledge transfer process that would let us, firstly, clearly understand client requirements, and secondly, provide a sound and transparent advice on technology and solution options. From the very beginning of development every project has a project manager involved. The client is able to solve all project related issues through a single person at SkyLab. We use different communication means: e-mail, phone, instant messengers, Skype, as well as onsite visits, to secure the required level of communication.

Due Process

Our development methodology derives from the best industry practices like RUP and Agile methodology. We follow a practical approach to the development process. We know when to apply a "light-weight" approach for a small project to get the optimal cost-time balance. We also know how and are able to expand it for a complex development project. But regardless of the applied process model all projects go through stringent quality verification procedures.

Due Solution

By utilizing our extensive cross-domain expertise and technology competence we deliver the right solutions for specific situations. Prior to project implementation our analysts study your business requirements thoroughly. The detailed analysis allows us to define the appropriate approach, design consistent architecture and select the right tools and technologies taking into account the current needs and laying foundation for future growth.

Due Quality

A dedicated Quality Assurance department is responsible for quality monitoring and testing at all stages of website development to ensure high quality of the final product. Verification includes various aspects of entire project including GUI testing and HTML standards compliance, functionality-to-requirements conformity, error-free coding, performance and stability testing.

Complex Approach to Securing Web Applications

The most secure web applications are those that are developed initially with security in mind. SkyLab specialists follow a holistic approach to designing, building and supporting secure web applications. We address security issues on all application tiers (web server, application server and database).

While developing secure web applications we analyze vulnerability categories and potential threats (external or internal) depending on application scenario and technologies used. This enables us to develop an effective security architecture and take proper countermeasures.

Vulnerabilities and Potential Threats	Securing Practices and Countermeasures
Authentication Network eavesdropping, Brute force attacks, Dictionary attacks, Cookie replays, Credentials theft	Partition of public and restricted areas Account disablement policies Proper credentials verification and storage Proper password handling Authentication data protection Communication channels securing using SSL
Input Validation Buffer overflow, cross-site scripting, SQL injection	Thorough input validation Proper input filtration Centralized validation strategy Proper database access
Authorization Privilege elevation, confidential information disclosure, data tampering	Multiple gatekeepers Authorization granularity Role-based security Strong access controls System level protection
Configuration Management Unauthorized access to application administration, hacking of configuration data	Role-based administration with strong authentication Secure communication channels for remote administration (SSL, VPN) Restricted access to configuration data Least privilege approach
Sensitive Data Sensitive data discloser, network eavesdropping, data tampering	Role-based access to sensitive data Sensitive data on demand approach Data encryption Proper information storage and secure communication

Securing Applications through Development Life Cycle

From initial stages of the web application development cycle SkyLab specialists thoroughly consider security implications. This allows defining potential risks early and implementing effective countermeasures.

Securing Categories and Practices	Development Life Cycle Phase	Roles Distribution
Threat Modeling	Architecture Design	Architect(R), Developer(I), Tester(I)
Security Design Practices	Architecture Design	Architect(R), Developer(I)
Security Architecture	Architecture Design	Architect(R)
Code Development and Review	Implementation	Developer(R), Tester(I)
Technology Related Threats	Implementation	Developer(R)
Security Testing	Testing and Stabilization	Tester(R), Architect (C), Developer (I)
Deployment Review	Deployment and Maintenance	System Administrator (R), Architect(C), Developer(I), Tester(I)

Legend: R – Responsible, C – Consulted, I - Informed

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is described by Microsoft as being "the business collaboration platform for the enterprise & the web". But what does that actually mean? SharePoint can mean different things to different people but essentially SharePoint is all about sharing – 'collaborating'. Sharing information, data, content, knowledge, expertise – sharing anything which allows organisations to work better, faster and more productively. Whether your organisation needs to share internally (via an intranet), externally with certain people (via an extranet) or externally with the world (website) – SharePoint can deliver. SharePoint removes the need to invest in disparate IT systems and brings together the following capabilities into one central platform:

• Document management
• Web content management
• Portals (intranet, extranet, website)
• Social computing & social media

Why Microsoft SharePoint?

Information is one of an organisation's greatest assets, yet in many companies members of staff have to spend great amounts of time and effort in locating information. Microsoft SharePoint provides a single, integrated location for collaboration and sharing. These intranets and extranets allow individuals to search for resources, share information and manage content. Teams can work together more effectively, gain better control over information, maintain task lists and implement workflows. Critical information can be accessed easily and information can be searched across applications via the enterprise search tools.

Key SharePoint services

Whether your organisation is in the early stages of considering SharePoint or if you are half way through a project, we can support you with some or all of the following:

• SharePoint consultancy
• SharePoint architecture & configuration
• SharePoint custom development
• SharePoint installation (SharePoint server) & deployment (web parts)
• SharePoint design & branding
• SharePoint integration
• SharePoint migration (MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010)
• Training

Excessive diversity of business applications and software on the market in recent years has created a minor chaos within the enterprise IT systems. Incongruous operating systems and distributed applications installed on diverse hardware, with hundreds of different types of messages being sent and received simultaneously from the web and inside the organization require businesses to devote special attention to application integration possibilities.

Application integration ensures:

• Higher organization efficiency through uniting the uncoordinated IT ecosystems ensuring the ongoing simplification of the IT systems' maintenance and support process and reducing operating costs.
• Consistent and unified decision-making leveraging the benefits of business automation through information and processes integration across the company.
• Real-time connectivity between installed applications across the enterprise: internal business software, web-based systems and ready-to-use solutions. Secure and efficient B2C and B2B communication integrating communication channels with internal business processes and systems using the Internet, thus automating the supply chain.

Application Integration Services

SkyLab is a seasoned systems integrator, employing highly competent professionals who will guide you through the integration process, making it precise, cost-effective and incident-free by utilizing the principles of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Business Process Automation (BPA).

We offer a comprehensive end-to-end approach to application integration, assembling the solutions that will maximize the value of your current systems without sacrificing your potential for growth. A standardized integration process is as follows:

Consulting

SkyLab thoroughly analyzes your business needs and goals, indentifying the specifications and possibilities for your integration project and advising on strategy, design, and tools best suited for your IT infrastructure.

Planning

We cooperate with you to determine the most suitable integration approach including requirements management, risk assessment and solution architecture. We take into account both your present systems and capabilities and your future growth targets.

Implementation

We create tailored solutions that operate according to your specifications and maximize usability, efficiency and ease of maintenance.

• Application Integration: Implementation of web services and other tools enabling automated data exchange and business process integration across diverse applications.
• Portal Integration: Displays information gained from many applications on a single user interface, enabling users to easily and quickly access the needed information.
• Process Integration: Streamlines processes across the enterprise for real-time information access for all users, and integrity across all systems.
• Data Integration: Developing data connectors and middleware to integrate the application data and data storages.

Technical Support

We provide an ongoing 2nd and 3rd level technical support ensuring that your solution will operate effectively and without a hitch for years to come.

Web applications and websites require maintenance and support as your needs change and grow. SkyLab provides maintenance and support services freeing you from maintaining expensive in-house support staff. We partner with our clients to help their online business running smoothly and error-free.

SkyLab provides a comprehensive set of maintenance and support services depending on your business needs:

• On-going Support (bug fixing, problems analysis and resolution, on-call support)
• Adaptive Enhancements (modifications to support business or technical requirements' changes)
• Perfective Upgrades (new functionality/features)
• Technical Improvement (optimization restructuring/rewriting)

For each project undertaken by SkyLab we provide a free warranty period to ensure stable and uninterrupted work of your system.