Android App to Support Remote Zola's Off-Grid Solar Installations
Problem
Zola, formerly known as Off-Grid Electric, is a Tanzania-based clean tech startup doing exactly what the name implies: electrifying people's homes and businesses in areas without grid-based power. Based on next-generation lithium batteries, hyper-efficient appliances and clever electronics, Zola has reimagined what is possible for autonomous solar. By switching their customers from kerosene to solar, Zola is able to provide 50 times the amount of light for a fraction of the cost and eliminate pollution and health risks associated with burning kerosene indoors.
Solution
Working in remote areas presented numerous technical challenges for Zola’s field agents, so we teamed to create an Android application that enabled their field agents to upgrade systems and diagnose issues on-site.
“We partnered with Dojo4 at a critical juncture for our fast-growing company. They jumped in like total team players and wrote a low-level Android Near Field Communication (NFC) library and pilot diagnostic app that used it.
Dojo4’s fast development helped us launch a quickly needed app to help support research into the effects of solar power provided to schools. Their attention to detail helped us diagnose an unknown hardware issue letting us resolve it before the next release.
The job was successfully delivered, and Dojo4 did a great hand-off to our new developer staff so we could bring the ongoing work back in-house.
I would recommend them to anyone who needs reliable folks to solve complex technological problems in the real world.”