In the next installment of our Startup Features, we talk to Alex Chan from Babbobox, one of our BizSpark startups. Babbobox is a Singapore startup that deals with Cloud DMS (Document Management System) allowing people to collaborate and manage their document life-cycle better.
Is this your main occupation?
Yes. Even though I have vested interest in some other businesses, but I started Babbobox, therefore, no effort will be spared for Babbobox.
Describe yourself in three words.
Determined. Thinker. Empathize.
What is Babbobox?
Babbobox is more than secured Cloud Storage, it is a Cloud DMS (Document Management System) that allows users and businesses to manage their document life-cycle while collaborating internally and externally (with business partners).
In short, you can think of Babbobox as a Cloud Storage with intelligence! However, the similarities ends there because Babbobox is so much MORE from any other typical Cloud Storage.
Our Mission is to become Asia’s leading Cloud DMS.
What motivated you to start building Babbobox?
Credit must be given where it’s due. The idea for a Cloud Storage was started by a good friend of mine, Wai Min. In fact, he came up with the idea and started development work way back in 2011. However, as life takes its twists and turns, he was offered a position in United Nations, so he leave Singapore and followed his heart’s calling. That was when I saw the market opportunity that Document Box (what Wai Min called) was creating. Therefore, I managed to convince Wai Min to let me carry on doing what he first set out doing.
But having said that, the Babbobox today is a quite different from Document Box where it first started. Document Box started as a Cloud Storage, but Babbobox has evolved to become a Cloud Document Management System (DMS).
How did you come up with the idea?
Babbobox in Chinese means 
, or literally means eight treasure chest. There is no dispute that data is the new gold or treasure and Asia is the new driving force. Thus, the name or Babbobox.
If we understand the following:
- All business is done by making decisions
- Decisions are based on knowledge
- Knowledge comes from processed information
- Information travels and sits on documents
So clearly, for businesses, having a Cloud Storage is not good enough, that’s because the current typical Cloud Storage is still not very intelligent! What’s the point of putting up a million documents into the Cloud and can’t search them afterwards!?
If we look at the Cloud Storage for the Asian market today, there is a definite need for an “intelligent” Cloud Storage solution, so developing a Cloud DMS for the Asian business is the perfect answer to addressing this need.
How did you stay inspired throughout the development process?
Thomas Edison once said “Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.” So besides inspiration, the other more important factor is staying focused, determined and be prepared to sweat!
Of course, we also have to listen to what customers say and have a good understanding what the market really needs. This is done through constant interactions with various parties, so to listen and understand what we are inspired about is something that customers really want.
Gotten any interesting feedback from users of the app?
One of the most interesting feedback that we got was the way our colour scheme was presented. We were quite surprised but obviously this customer saw something that we didn’t, so we went back to the drawing board and tweaked some things, asked what he thinks and all he replied was “Ok.”. So we took it that the new scheme worked for him.
If customers bother to take the time to make a certain feedback, I think it’s very important to react to it. As much we like positive comments, I would prefer to listen to the negative ones because that’s where we’ll find ways to improve. We found out that sometimes silence speaks volume. Maybe it’s an Asian thing, but some users are simply too polite to say anything bad. So sometimes it’s difficult to gauge what’s the real issues.
What’s your process for designing the user journey?
This started way back even before I started Babbobox. After completing a very expensive project that I was pretty proud of, I sat down with a user and asked if he is enjoying the system. However, he said he’s not using the system at all! I was pretty shocked, but become very disappointed because I felt like all my efforts had gotten down the drain. So that lesson made me learn that no matter how good or expensive the system is, if the users don’t like it, they’ll never use it.
So I brought this lesson to Babbobox, we put the user first. For example, you can only use left-click (for mouse) on our site. Why? Because we believe that a fair number of users are going to use it on tablets, and tablets are just not right-click friendly. But I must admit, we are still not perfect… but I hope that users know that we are constantly making adjustments to make their lives better.
How long did you take to finish development?
It’s been about 18 months of development and it’s still ongoing. I really don’t think we’ll “finish development” per se because we are constant looking to add features or simply make things better. Constant innovation is important to keep ourselves on our toes and in the game.
What are your preferred platforms/tools of choice?
Currently, we are fully on Azure. We are mainly using Azure as an IaaS, including Azure SQL and Blob Storage. This choice was made after a long process of comparison and trying out different platforms.
What tips/tricks would you share with other aspiring developers?
#1. Find the “right” platform.
Don’t slightly use the cheapest, or the fastest (for development), but make sure that you find the “right” platform for your start-up, because that will go a long way. It took us a bit of time to evaluate different platforms, went through some pains, but eventually, I believe we made the right decision in going with Azure.
#2. Believe in what you are doing, but be prepared to pivot anytime.
As much as you must believe in what you are doing, it’s very difficult to go against the market. So if you hard a roadblock that’s too hard to overcome, sometimes it’s better to do the sensible thing to change course than be stubborn to try to move the entire market (and kill yourself in the process).
Tell us something people might be surprised to learn about you.
Other than doing tech startups, I’m also a bestselling author. I’ve co-authored several books on self-development and personal transformation in a series is called “Project You” (www.projectyoulife.com). Our books have quite been well-received and had been Amazon’s Bestsellers’ list. We are looking to launch more books in future so watch out for that as well!
What’s next for you?
The first product that we launched is a called JustShareIt DMS (www.JustShareIt.biz).
It is available as a bundle together with Kodak scanner and Lenovo tablet. As it is currently now available only in Singapore, we are looking towards launching this package around the region. Beyond that, we are going to re-launch Babbobox with some exciting features that the industry has not seen. So watch out for that!
Where can people go if they want to learn more about you or Babbobox?
To find out more about our first product, please go to www.JustShareIt.biz. This offering is a collaboration between Kodak Alaris, Lenovo and Babbobox. As for Babbobox, please go to www.Babbobox.com.
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