{"id":4385,"date":"2022-08-17T11:14:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T11:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/djangostars.com\/blog\/?p=4385"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:15:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:15:32","slug":"boa-lingua-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/djangostars.com\/blog\/boa-lingua-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Software Modernization for a Product Success: Boa Lingua\u2019s Approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even an established company with a good market reputation can’t build its success on previous achievements alone. Technology evolves, user expectations grow, and new realities force businesses to improve in response. Because if you aren’t ready to change, your competitors get a chance to get ahead.<\/p>\n

The view of things outlined above is familiar to one of our clients, the Boa Lingua<\/a> company, which has been successfully providing educational travel booking services in the Swiss market since 1989. In our interview, Annett Raue<\/b>, CDO of Boa Lingua, discusses the company\u2019s booking platform modernization \u2014 the reasons behind it, its key areas, and how it affected the business.<\/p>\n

What is Boa Lingua?<\/h2>\n

\u201cBoa Lingua,\u201d<\/span> says Annett, \u201cis the largest platform for language travel in Switzerland. We help students to find language schools and courses, as well as host families or residences, and even leisure activities in more than 200 destinations around the globe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince 1989, Boa Lingua has been inviting others to explore the world. When you travel with us, you not only learn a language. You gain access to cultures and places and are enriched by the knowledge of the locals you meet along your way. Today, boalingua.ch<\/a>\u00a0is the largest, most trusted, and vibrant online marketplace for language travel in Switzerland. Our customers gain knowledge and understanding before they go abroad, whether they want to learn for their professional career, for education, or for their everyday lives.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This approach differs from regular language classes in that it allows learners to immerse themselves in a new environment and get to know the everyday life of another country.<\/p>\n

A language trip abroad allows special access to spots and people. You go behind the scenes to get a close-up view of how people live, on their values and traditions, and how they collaborate and communicate. You learn everything you need for a job abroad or an international study program, no matter where in the world.<\/p>\n

Annett Raue, CDO of Boa Lingua<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At the same time, Boa Lingua doesn\u2019t just help language learners choose a school. The platform also helps them find accommodation, transfers, individual lessons, and additional activities. All these must be consistent with each other on dates and costs.<\/p>\n

To help users plan their offline travels, Boa Lingua aims to offer convenient online tools that contribute greatly to the overall experience of a language trip.<\/p>\n

Why Bother with Product Modernization in the First Place?<\/h2>\n

As we mentioned above, the market is constantly forcing businesses to change whether they want to or not. There are several reasons for this.<\/p>\n

First, the popularity of online services is on the rise. They offer users more and more benefits and force changes in traditional approaches to business. In particular, users no longer need to visit the company’s office to select and book a tour when they can carry out everything on their computer or smartphone. And as more companies compete online,<\/b> users\u2019 expectations grow<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The global situation is also adding pressure: after the pandemic hit, the market shrank, especially in industries related to travel. Just check out that rollercoaster ride of a graph below. (Take a deep breath!)<\/p>\n

\"International<\/p>\n

That industry\u2019s precipitous tumble in 2019-2020 was harsher than the one it endured during the Global Financial Crisis (2009). This means that cost optimization issues and customer orientation came to the fore again.<\/b> And pervasive digitization has accelerated even more.<\/p>\n

Points of Growth<\/h2>\n

In the case of Boa Lingua, a customized business application took the user experience and process efficiency to the next level. This includes the ‘external’ part \u2013 that is, the customer experience on the website \u2013 and the ‘internal’ one, which makes life easier for the company’s employees and contributes to operational optimization.<\/p>\n

Making the Product\u2019s UI\/UX More Attractive to Customers<\/h3>\n

As for Boa Lingua\u2019s service, Annett highlights the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur website provides an advanced filtering system and real-time prices for thousands of dynamic packaged services. You find over 2000 customer ratings and the best snapshots from our customers \u2013 everything you need to make the right choice before venturing out into the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To win over users, such products have to provide a smooth and convenient choosing process. That means developers must ensure that the website has high usability<\/b>, clearly displays all the necessary information, and works responsively.<\/p>\n

There’s always room for improvement on that front. To delve into the topic, one might check out some of the tips in our article 10 Things to Remember When Designing your App\u2019s UX.<\/p>\n

Developing a \u0421ustomized Business Application<\/h3>\n

During its long history, Boa Lingua accumulated disparate solutions created by different people at different times. The lack of flexibility and high maintenance costs were the bottlenecks to be removed from the new business application.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for a development partner to build a bespoke solution from scratch. The goal was to replace an existing, outdated software landscape.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new customized system needed to replicate the functionality of several older systems while leveraging newer technologies and a tailor-made setup to improve the user experience and increase the efficiency of all processes along the customer journey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a first step, a customized e-commerce system was developed to provide service descriptions, prices, and availability for various output media or sales channels. This will be followed by a customized CRM and APIs to various 3rd party systems, such as the accounting system. Annett\u2019s words confirm it:<\/p>\n

\u201dThe new customer experience was only the first milestone. In a second step, we will rethink and set up back-office processes to work more efficiently and better serve customer expectations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Was Involved and Why?<\/h2>\n

First of all, it\u2019s important to ensure that the business and engineers can speak the same language. The fact that Boa Lingua treated this point with great attention brought all the participants closer to obtaining the expected results.<\/p>\n

\u201cA key role is played by our internal “Digital Business Development” team, which Boa Lingua has established over the last 3 years,\u201d<\/span> Annett says. She draws an analogy with the interface providing interaction of business departments and external software development partners. Then she continues: “Our project managers bridge operational expertise with technical know-how. They are responsible “end-to-end” for our custom system, from requirements management to software specification and successful handover.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

About external software developers, of course, the team to be involved must possess technical expertise for the implementation of various features at the proper level. But it\u2019s much more important to find those who have a partner mindset and can assess the very need for one or another feature. After all, a strong project is about estimation, requirement gathering, and prioritization. And to provide these activities, the team needs to have the expertise, as well as the readiness to dive deeply into the specifics of the client’s business.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAs CDO, I know the challenges and what makes development projects successful. The goal is to ensure quality, but also to be close to the business,\u201d<\/span> Ms. Raue continues noting that project managers brought in by Boa Lingua empower software developers to think in terms of products, not projects. \u201cThis allows developers to advise on the use of the best technologies and smart solutions. By working together as a team, we achieve exceptional results.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Thus, a balanced combination of technical and domain expertise is the basis for choosing the product development direction. That\u2019s at least because it promotes better mutual understanding and collaboration of all project participants.<\/p>\n

What Has Been Done?<\/h2>\n

At the start of the product transformation, we held the pre-development phase<\/a>. It helped identify business needs, discover what brings people to Boa Lingua and how to optimize its operation.<\/p>\n

In the following stages, we\u2019ve completely redesigned the product architecture. If you\u2019re interested in more technical details, subscribe to us not to miss the article on how we did it.
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