During the recent Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas, we had the opportunity to see numerous hardware innovations as well as a plethora of new versions of established software solutions. One that caught our attention was CodigoDelSur, an application developer based in Uruguay. Their solutions are currently working behind the scenes for current market leaders in the UAV industry such as DroneDeploy and others, but that's just part of what caught our attention about them.

We met with Elena Arretche, Business Development Executive for CodigoDelSur, at their booth to discuss their technology and recently developments. She told us about her company and the methodology that has allowed CodigoDelSur to become the largest exporter of custom-developed software in Uruguay.

“At CodigoDelSur, we work with an agile approach, called Scrum Methodology," Elena explained. "With that, we split the development work in sprints of about 2 weeks. This means developing the product incrementally, allowing the customer to add any changes that may be needed and adapting the app on the go, while getting potentially shippable products after each increment. This systemized approach has worked well for us.”

With over 80 employees in a beautiful, restored mansion in the city of Montevideo, CodigoDelSur can offer really affordable development costs and with a time difference of just one hour with the United States’ east coast.

“Our clients provide the product backlog (a prioritized features list)," Elena told Commercial UAV News. "With this approach, it’s not necessary to start the project with a lengthy upfront effort to document all requirements. On the contrary, we begin by writing down the first tasks (prioritized functionality), select a handful that can be developed in 2 weeks and just start working. The product backlog is an adaptable list of tasks that can be modified as needed once more is learned about the product and its customers.”

With more than 200 customers all over the world, but mainly in the USA, CodigoDelSur has developed apps for well known companies such as Avon, Subway, Skout (220 million users) and Shutterfly, just to mention a few. The Scrum methodology and process has allowed CodigoDelSur to focus on quality and service, while giving their customers the opportunity to change and pivot when needed, and also be more involved during the entire project. Their success has helped to shape the identity of the entire region.

“We’ve been called the Silicon Valley of South America!" Elena said with a smile. “We work very well with startups in the high tech arena, especially drones and drone applications. One of our apps for a startup, Toymail, received seeding funding from Shark Tank! All of that is the result of our methodology that gives our clients real ownership of the project and the product. Our loyalty to the customer and the finished product has made us one of the best mobile app design and development companies in the world.”

If new players are entering the UAV industry with new ideas on the hardware side, CodigoDelSur is a great alternative to an in-house software developing team at affordable prices.