Back in March, we had a royal launch of the ADDA Android App.

And got a royal showdown from you.

Because it had only 3 of ADDA’s 25+ Features.

And it did not have the Pole Stars of ADDA Navigation – The Resident’s Dashboard and Admin’s Dashboard.

While it worked flawlessly and had a sexy splash screen, we realized that our Users expect a LOT more from us.

The Tech Team went into Coding Banwaas from then, seeking no other joy other than winning your love back.

The hunched and red-eyed men have finally come out of their cave, with a shining new Update…

Do upgrade the App, and tell us if they’ve redeemed themselves!

If you haven’t yet downloaded the App yet, let’s erase your memory of last 5 seconds! Download it here: The ADDA App

Here are the Updates in a Cave Bat’s eyeview.

Introducing Resident’s Dashboard and Admin’s Dashboard. 

You are used to the two different views on ApartmentADDA.com – and first time you launched the Mobile App – you expected a similar interface – and you were disappointed – and you told us – and we agree with you. This version mimics the 2 distinct Dashboard views. You can keep work and play apart

My Account Statement

You can now view your Flat or Villa’s Account Statement, View the Invoices ( or Bills ) and Receipts. 

Attach Photos to Helpdesk Tickets

You can now raise a Ticket or attach a note to an existing Ticket – and attach a Photo from your Mobile Phone’s camera. 

Broadcast

Send out Email, SMS or Flash Broadcast messages to all your members, or certain subgroups like Only Owners or Only Association Committee Members etc. Also all the Essential SMS Templates that you have on ApartmentADDA.com have been recreated here. 

Process Helpdesk Tickets

Your Estate Manager need not be tied to the desk anymore. He can walk around your property with an Android Phone or Tablet and easily update or close the Tickets immediately after inspection. He can attach a Photo to the ticket also.

Visitor & Staff Attendance Tracker 

You can give an Android Tablet to the Security at the gate, and he can capture the details of the Visitors coming into your Apartment Complex. An SMS will be immediately sent to the Flat this Visitor is marked against. Also when a Staff comes to the gate, the Security can check in this staff. When either party leaves the Apartment Complex, the checkout can be made and the Checkin/Out times are logged automatically. 

Other than these we have done lot of improvements on the performance and usability. Do upgrade ADDA App or install it from Google Play Store.

Cheers

ADDA Tech Revolutionary Department

Have you ever wondered what ApartmentADDA Team uses at the backend to keep your ADDA running 24×7, 366 Days a year?

Well, it is not as pretty as your Resident or Admin’s Dashboard – the tech team loves you more.

Here is a tour of ApartmentADDA Factory

Here are some of the Applications we have developed in house to run ApartmentADDA.

DNA 

This is our internal CRM. Any interaction with any ADDA gets logged in here. When we started we were tracking our leads using Excel. However at one point we had to move to a robust CRM tool. We analyzed a few – Salesforce, SugarCRM – but in the end decided to develop a solution in house. Here is a blog post on why we decided to build it in house - Do It Yourself!

It was named DNA by Ashika from our team. 

Growth Hacker

This was something built a couple of months ago – and it is yet to take off fully. This is to track and convert the leads into customers. 

Support

When you raise a Software Help it falls into our Support System. We moved away from Emails and Phone calls to this system in October 2012. We average around 50 Tickets a day now. This works very much like a ZenDesk or FreshDesk – but tightly integrated with ADDA. Again built in-house. 

Deploy

Once a customer signs the agreement, they get into the Deployment Zone. Lot of FAQs, Upload tools are present here for our Support Team to quickly and accurately fill your ADDA and get you up and running. We track each and every ADDA meticulously to take them to Complete Go Live. 

ADDAs

The full database of all the ADDAs. The approval, subscription start,end, trial period – all are tracked here.

Finance

Here is where the Payment Gateway Transactions are verified, aggregated, prepared and transferred to the ADDAs on a daily basis. Also all backend accounting work – setting up your Accounting happens. 

Top Secret Feature

We are doing a pilot now. You will hear about this shortly. 

Digest

The weekly digest has 2 major sections. Your ADDA’s activity – which is compiled automatically. The second section are the ADDA Announcements, Local News section etc. – which we compile and then push the Digests to all of you.

Moderate

We get lot of comments written on the wall of every ADDA. We check this on a daily basis, and any junk, spams are purged.

Webinar

Online webinars are tracked here.  

Status Bar

We track the Deployment Status of Each Premium ADDA – what percentage of existing Applications each ADDA has deployed. Tech team has to give a face lift to this – so we can share this view with you – individual ADDA Admin as well.

Buzzar

The Ads getting posted in Buzzar are classified here. Also we manage the Buzzar for Associations here – adding, removing vendors, tracking their ratings etc.

FAQ

Here is where we update the FAQ. We are moving to an open source FAQ system and this will be retired soon.

Updates

Here is where the Software Updates are pushed to you. You see the "Software Update" notes on the right panel of any internal ADDA page.

TestRest

We have a REST API which the mobile App uses. All the REST APIs that we expose can be tested from here. 

Product Newsletter

We tried using an online service for sending Product Newsletter. But having the mailing list updated was a pain. So our Tech Team has now built a Product Newsletter framework to quickly push important Updates. 

Other than the above web applications we also use the following.

Google Apps – For our Email, Internal Chat,Online Documents and Calendar

Dropbox – Syncing Files within our Team across Bangalore and Mumbai

Trello – To track Wins on a monthly basis, Payments etc.

Wunderlist - To track and share daily tasks 

Join.me – To give demos, support queries, or internal discussions

That’s all folks! Thank you for joining the ApartmentADDA Factory tour. 

 -Venkat

If you did read till the "Sign Up Here" link or noticed the "NoBell Prize", you would have figured that ADDA Tube was an April Fool Creation.

If you chose not to figure it out, we love you more!

Since 2011, we have maintained a Heritage of doing a Prank Product Launch every April-1.

April-2011: ApartmentVille – A Social Game

April-2012: ADDAbot – The Ultimate Security Guard

April-2013: ADDA Tube – The Revolution in Door Delivery

They are all inspired by our Demo Meetings with highly Creative Management Committee Members.

They are all built with the same detailing and love that we give to the actual Product – your ADDA.

And why do we do it?

For the below Reactions – to see and laugh with the Child in each of us!

Thanks for playing along!

Door Delivery is a way of your Life now. Right from the Morning Milk Packet, to the Gas Cylinder, to the Pizza, and now your Shoes too, get Delivered right to your Doors.

But there is one major Problem in this.

It is the "Door".

You need to Answer that Door to take the Delivery!

When you are out with Family, you are wondering which Door Delivery may be going RETURN, again.  And when you are at home, you can’t watch that Game undisturbed, or lose yourself in the heart-wrenching moment of the saans bahu soap, or have a much deserved siesta at peace!

You are a Slave to your Door Bell.

No More.

The ADDA Tube has been launched today to ease your pain!

What is ADDA Tube?

You are used to getting Emails, Facebook status updates, Twitter Streams, Maintenance Bills ( thanks to ApartmentADDA of course ) – all delivered to your smartphone, laptop or tablet through the DSL Lines or Fiber optic cable or 3G Internet. None of them wait for you to Open a Door for them.

Have you ever imagined – if you can get your daily milk packets, tomatoes, bread, eggs, newspapers, couriers delivered right INTO your home, without you having to Open a Door for them?

Well - ADDA Tube – is the answer.

Once you sign up for this package, our technicians will descend on your Apartment Complex and will wire your Apartment Complex with ADDA Tubes right into your house from the Security Gate.

How does it work?

You need to authorize the service providers ( your milkman  for instance ) who will use ADDA Tube to your door. All he has to do is to just punch in your door number and the ADDA Tube Portal door will open and he drops it in.

It’s an open and shut case for him.

Our Routing algorithm – Apartment Door Delivery Algorithm ( ADDA )  then takes over, and makes sure your Milk gets delivered right into your home – guaranteed – with no spills or kills within the next 2 minutes.

You need not even get out of your cosy couch or bed, to open the door. Our Mobile Apps will soon have a facility to order anything you would want – in partnership with the top E-Commerce Companies in India – and will get delivered right into your home.

What’s better, for a revolutionary product, the installation is very affordable! Depending on the distance of your Flat from the Security Gate, the Price varies from Rs.29,999 to Rs. 39,999 only!

FAQ.

1. No kids ( as of now )

Currently ADDA Tube does not allow live  human beings – so your kids after they get back from school cannot be delivered using ADDA Tube. Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Pesky School Kids ( SPCPSK ) does not allow this. However we are in talks with them to cut some slack so you can focus on more high priority things in life instead of waiting and picking up Kids from the security gate. We are on it.

2. It’s One way ( as of now )

Also currently it is one way – you cannot jump into ADDA Tube and get to the security gate. There is always the danger of an upcoming Egg colliding with you and spoiling your work Suit. Do note that this is not a dedicated Tube to your home from security gate, but it is sharing the bandwidth with many other Apartments. Any time anyone can order  something and depending on your past Karma you might collide with an Egg Box or a Bunch of Flowers.

But be assured that we are working on the next version of ADDA called ADDDA ( Apartment Dual Door Delivery Algorithm ) to handle 2 way routes. If you want to be part of the Beta Testing, please send us your date of birth and time so we can factor in your past Karma in ADDDA to calculate the correct time of departure and routing path.

3. How will I convince The Wife?

Well the same way you convinced her about the shiny X-Box or PS3 you have in your living room. You can tell ADDA Tube is green, it is for added security, gives you more time to exercise ( sleep is exercise and is recommended by WHO ) etc. We have a discussion group where some best practices are shared on how to convince The Wife. Do participate and share your ideas. The more people who sign up for this from your Apartment Complex, the cost will go down for you.

4. Where is the sign up page? I want to start right now.

You can sign up on the below link and choose the relevant size of Tube – we give 3 options – Small, Medium and Large. ( We recommend the largest configuration as someday your Mother-in-Law can also be delivered through this  - we are already in talks with Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Mother-in-Laws – SPCML )

Sign Up Here!

Cheers

ApartmentADDA Team

Related Product Launches: The ADDABot, ApartmentVille – The Social Game.

PS: Update on 2-April-2013: Disclosure.

An Appeal to Cultural Committees

This one got shared by 93 people on Facebook, and one of them felt it was the best Holi Poster thus far!

Date and Time: March 23, 2013, 10:00 – 12:00
Venues: Across the city, find an apartment/home open house close to you.

DETAIL

Bangalore is fast running out of water. There is no source today that can address the 1.3 billion litres of water that we need every day. Not the Cauvery river that provides for less than 50% of the population. Not the private tankers that are scourging for water inside 4 lakhs borewells that are running dry. Not the much exploited groundwater once recharged by lakes and tanks.

The upcoming monsoon is our one chance to make sure the future isn’t dry. We have to save water NOW.

This World Water Day, 22nd and 23rd of March, we invite you to engage with water and how to save it – in your home, office, apartment and across the city.

We present Savings On The House – a showcase of pioneering water conservation initiatives across apartments and homes in Bangalore.
Watch innovative ideas in action. Look at systems and processes that have reduced the digging of borewells, driven the water bills down, brought communities together and fetched more than just a cost saving.  Discover sewage as a bountiful resource.Visit an Open House at an apartment or home near you, learn from the experience of water champions and solve your water woes.

Date: March 23, 2013, 10:00 – 12:00
Venues: Across the city, find an apartment/home open house close to you.

Bengaluru comes together this World Water Day in an array of exciting events – panel discussions with water experts, guided tours in water parks, lake photo walks and activities, photo exhibitions and more. Log on to www.thealternative.in/worldwaterday for everything that’s happening on 22nd and 23rd of March.

Harvest, Reuse, Recycle, Refresh water this summer. Come Catch Every Drop.

Catch Every Drop is a campaign on water conservation in Bengaluru, run by The Alternative, a media platform for sustainable living. The campaign is sponsored by Arghyam, with partners India Water Portal and Biome Environmental Solutions. More at www.thealternative.in/catcheverydrop

Happy to announce the launch of the mobile version of ApartmentADDA. Currently this is available for all Android Phones and Tablets. iOS Users please hold on for a little while.

In this first release you will be able to lodge and view HelpDesk Tickets. You can browse through the ADDA Classifieds. Update your profile and most importantly take a Profile photo from your camera phone. Just in case you never got around to upload your Profile photo in the web version!

Here is the link for downloading the App.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.threefiveeight.adda

ADDA on Android

Here are some of the screenshots of the ADDA Mobile App.

ADDAscape as a Globe

Icons Menu

HelpDesk

View & Change Profile

Best Kept Secret of ADDA Users!

Development Credit: Vinay Sawant of Team ADDA. He built this App from scratch in a month.

Graphics Credit: AlienLeaf Studios for the Icon, Splash Screen and Icons Screen.

Photo Credit of Profile Screenshot – Yugandhar, from Lanco Hills.

Enjoy your A !

Purva FountainSquare with an ornate Fountain just like in Trevi Square, Rome.

Purva FountainSquare

Mr. Somesh Agarwal, Mr. Manish Sanghi, Mr. Bahubali Shete were part of the MC team that subscribed to ADDA and deployed the Communication and Management applications.

The subsequent MC team (in the picture below), took it one step forward and deployed the Automated Billing and Collection.

Here is what the current MC Team has to say:

ADDA is a one stop shop for all our record keeping, communication and account related activities.

We are very pleased with ADDA for its rich functionalities, product stability and regular support. The product has been developed keeping in mind exact need of Indian housing societies. We found to the point solution to many of our issues. We have recently started using income tracker and online payment facilities. It has made our life very easy and overall accounting process is streamlined and improved dramatically. Residents are very happy with online receipts, payment facilities.

Purva Fountain Square owners association is overall very happy. We plan to explore various other facilities ADDA provides.

-Asst. Treasurer  Prosanta Ghosh,  Asst. Secretary  Asha Shete, President  GK Bhagchandani, Secretary  Arun Gangotri, Treasurer Shamik Ganguly, Vice President  Sweety Kanda

And here is a Group Photo from the current MC!

MC Team, 2013, Purva FountainSquare

Gratias Tibi Ago!

(that’s ‘Thank You’ in Roman )

The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act of 1960 has been amended with effect from 16-February-2013. The Act is applicable to 2.47 lakh co-operative bodies all over Maharashtra with an annual turnover of Rs6 lakh crore and a total member strength of 5.50 lakh.
Below are the Amendments.

1. Every Member of the Society must attend at least one General Body Meeting (GBM) within a consecutive period of Five years. The Member must utilise minimum level of services at least once in a period of five consecutive years as specified in the Bye-laws of the Society.
Failing this such member shall be classified asa non-active member and shall not be entitled to vote.

If a non-active member who does not attend at least one meeting of the General Body and does to utilise minimum level of services as specified in the Bye-Laws, in the next five years from the date of classification as non-active member, shall be liable for expulsion.

However, the non-active member can be re-classified as an active member on fulfilment of the eligibility criteria.

Co-operative bodies would be required to prepare lists of active and non-active members annually.

2. The term of Office of the elected members of the Management Committee and its Office Bearers shall be Five years from the date of election.

3. Maximum number of Members in the Management Committee shall be 21. Five seats shall be reserved. 2 seats shall be reserved for women, 1 for SC/ST, 1 for Backward Class, 1 for Vimukta Jati and notified tribes.

4. The State Government shall constitute the ‘State Co-operative Election Authority’ as an authority for the superintendence, election and control of the preparation of the electoral rolls for all elections to a society.

5. General Body meeting of a Society must be held within a period of Six months after the close of the financial year.

For the first time we saw a Defaulters’ List, that you simply can’t miss.

A full fledged 6 Ft standee, right at the entrance of one of the most posh towers of Kolkata – South City.

Defaulters List

We were overjoyed at the sight of this due to two reasons: 1) Here is a Society that leaves no stone unturned to manage the complex well. 2) The thought of the Defaulters’ SMS going right to their mobile phones, when they will not need this standee any more..