Bus ticket booking platform

The client

GrandBus is an international bus services operator. Their commitment to passenger safety, reliability, and customer satisfaction ensures that every journey on their premium buses is comfortable and enjoyable.

Why the client chose us

The Team

For this bus ticket booking software development project, we assembled a team of 9 specialists. It included a business analyst, project manager, UX designer, DevOps engineer, back-end developer, front-end developer, mobile developer, QA engineer, and quality control engineer. This combined expertise provided all the skills required to meet the client’s needs from A to Z.

The Process

The project began with the discovery phase in October 2022. This phase involved researching the client’s main competitors to establish benchmarks, visiting the client’s office regularly to better understand their needs, and interviewing the people involved in the processes we wanted to improve. Basically, we stayed in contact with the customer throughout the process to find approaches that would work best in this particular case.
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Despite the client's feasible business idea, they lacked a clear understanding of the technical implementation. However, our approach is to take the lead in handling the technical aspects for our clients. With GrandBus, we stepped in to fill the knowledge gaps, advising them on the right payment system, guiding them on generating performance reports, helping them make informed decisions on system configuration and more.
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After the discovery phase, we prepared a proposal and signed a fixed-price contract for web development. In January 2023, the project delivery began, with the first MVP being released in March. That was followed by two intermittent releases and then the final release in June 2023.
As soon as the client approved the MVP, we took charge of the website support and maintenance and signed a fixed-price contract for the next part of the project — the passenger app.

Our Approach, Methodologies, and Tools

The project began with the discovery phase in October 2022. This phase involved researching the client’s main competitors to establish benchmarks, visiting the client’s office regularly to better understand their needs, and interviewing the people involved in the processes we wanted to improve. We identified that drivers were using paper notebooks for tracking routes and passengers, while dispatchers relied on Excel spreadsheets and phone calls for coordination. Basically, we stayed in contact with the customer throughout the process to find approaches that would work best in this particular case.
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Despite the client's feasible business idea, they lacked a clear understanding of the technical implementation. However, our approach is to take the lead in handling the technical aspects for our clients. With GrandBus, we stepped in to fill the knowledge gaps, advising them on the right payment system, guiding them on generating performance reports, helping them make informed decisions on system configuration, and more.
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After the discovery phase, we prepared a proposal and signed a fixed-price contract for web development. In January 2023, the project delivery began, with the first MVP being released in March. That was followed by two intermittent releases and then the final release in June 2023.

As soon as the client approved the MVP, we took charge of the website support and maintenance and signed a fixed-price contract for the next part of the project — the passenger app. Then, in 2024, we developed and launched the premium service feature, offering passengers enhanced booking experience and exclusive benefits.

Project challenges

Numerous tasks needed to be completed within a tight timeframe, while user feedback generated additional requests. We had to elaborate on these ideas on the fly. This way, balancing the project scope and managing client expectations was crucial to ensure a successful outcome. What’s more, certain features required immediate attention based on test reports.
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During the first phase of the project, we also had to handle additional tasks such as creating content for the landing page and implementing basic SEO practices to ensure a seamless browsing experience and maximize customer attraction and retention. We provided assistance in legal and financial matters as well.
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This bus ticket booking software development project involved collaboration with multiple stakeholders.

Results

To date, the website, including the admin panel, has been deployed successfully, and the driver app and passenger app are now live and actively used. The premium service feature was launched in 2024, offering passengers enhanced booking options and exclusive benefits.

The client now has a unique online bus booking software solution that meets their business goals and fits seamlessly into their processes. By selling tickets directly through their own platform instead of third-party services like InfoBus, GrandBus eliminated commission fees of 5-8%, saving more than €30,000 annually. The digital system also achieves approximately 99% accuracy in route management and reporting, virtually removing errors from their previous manual processes.

GrandBus reports that the website has already proven to be a highly efficient ticket sales channel. They have received positive comments from passengers who appreciate the easy and convenient online booking process.