bloXmoveNG — countdown to GOLIVE
Tadaaa — it’s the FINAL COUNTDOWN …..
As we enter the final stretch of Q3 2024, we’re excited to update the community on our progress with bloXmoveNG. During the past two or three quarters we were mostly in BUIDL mode; finalizing our go-to-market (GTM) with our partners in Jos.
Our steps to the launch of bloXmoveNG
We will follow a phased GoLive along the following steps:
- Switch to PRODuction networks
1.1) internal technical testing
1.2) business team testing - In parallel:
2.1) Onboarding of first batch of drivers
2.2) Final end-to-end (E2E) User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on the PROD network - FINALLY: official start of business and passenger acquisition and onboarding.
What we did over the last months
- Over the last few months, we completed the following:
- After finalising the requested app functionality improvements, such as adding a ringer and the cash payment functionality,
- We have tested the apps in the test environment, including its newly added functionalities
- and focused on fixing any bugs that occurred during testing
- After some back-and-forth with Google Play Store and its requirements, we
- relisted the driver app
- and the passenger app in the Play Store.
Now, we know a lot of you are eagerly waiting for the franchise takers to start operating in Nigeria, ourselves included, but the listing in the app store was not the final work that was needed before going live. The go-live in Nigeria does not just depend on the readiness of the technology, but on the full business being ready for go-live.
Our franchise partners requested to operate the business with Paystack as their payment provider, instead of Fincra, which was previously used as the digital payment provider (PSP) for the driver and passenger apps.
This has now been completed and is in the last round of production environment testing before GOLIVE.
Handover of technical operations to our partner
The second and most important part before go-live, is the full handover to our local franchise team. This means we are not just conducting a business handover, but also a technical handover: we are giving full control of the backend to our Nigerian Franchise partners: Antipas and Joshua and their tech team. This knowledge transfer equips the Franchise partner’s tech team with the expertise to manage the backend and other technical elements post-launch, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations.
What will happen over the next few days & weeks?
The last steps to ensure a smooth launch consist of switching from a test (UAT) Environment to Production Environment (PROD) in the coming weeks and conducting a last comprehensive testing round in the live PROD environment.
We will do this during a soft launch, which is planned before the official launch day in October. During the soft launch, the driver and passenger apps are rigorously tested within a closed group to confirm that all features function as expected. This will include all key functionalities such as payments, withdrawals, ride requests, driver registration, vehicle verification, and driver verification. This helps us ensure a seamless user experience on both the passenger and driver end from day one.
We have made great progress in completing the steps mentioned above and are now heading into the final parts of this stage: executing the last handover, migrating to the live PROD environment and starting the soft launch.
