We LOVE apps. We build them efficiently, collaboratively, on time and on budget. Currently, we’re working on:
- ★ A Social Media App for the 2012 US Presidential Election
- ★ An Augmented Reality App for a Major High Street Retailer
- ★ A Baby Sitting App for a nice lady called Jane via Our Don’t Pay Scheme
There’s more on Our Facebook Page, which we update regularly.
CASE STUDY: Radisson’s App
Our Brief: To build an iPad app for Radisson Edwardian’s field sales force. Here's an interview with Marketing Week and Alex Moss, their Head of Group Marketing:
What were the objectives of the App?
“To give users a seamless and impressive virtual experience of the brand and our products, and to unify our approach to communicating the brand. Put simply, we have a vast collection of assets and a geographically diverse sales team – we wanted a solution that brings everything together in one place, accessible anywhere, any time.”
What role does the App play in educating and training staff?
“We have over 130 different spaces in fourteen different locations for private hire, with multiple configuration possibilities. The app will be hugely beneficial in educating both our sales team and their clients of the potential of each space in meeting and exceeding their needs, particularly with the upcoming interactive floor plans and 3D space rendering. Although we’re a collection of hotels, there’s no uniform look and feel – each has its own personality. The app really helps to bring the distinctions between properties to the fore in a way that wasn’t previously possible.”
How does the App help to increase internal brand awareness?
“Every time our teams use the app, the brand proposition is there on the first page, so it acts as a constant reminder of what the brand is all about. With multiple teams working in different market sectors, it can be a challenge keeping everyone ‘on message’ – the app’s presentations content is pre-set with core brand visuals, so as well as making it easier to use our myriad of rich media, it enables us to achieve a level of clarity and consistency of message that isn’t possible without a single, seamless platform.”
How important is the App in marketing the Radisson brand?
“Investing in the best and most advanced technology to help us achieve ease of business is critical. Our sales team are very mobile, working across multiple locations both in the UK and internationally, so the tools and resources we give them to understand the brand and communicate it effectively should be as mobile as possible too. As a hospitality brand, it’s essential that we understand our customer promise before we deliver it. Investing in internal communications is of equal importance to consumer marketing as it builds the brand from the inside out. With everyone behind the same message, wherever they are, we can be sure our brand promise is being delivered consistently.”
What opportunities do you see to leverage mobile/apps going forward?
“Roqsta have done a great job in pulling all of our assets together for an internal audience, so the next step could be to work with them to evolve the app for our customers, showcasing our products and services at the tap of a screen. Whether it’s restaurant menus, wine lists or concierge services, we want to make it easier for our customers to interact with us, and mobile technology will make accessing information and making bookings ever faster and easier.”
Here are some sample screens from Radisson’s App solution, which is a private, unpublished Business App.
Radisson’s Business App
CASE STUDY: Habitat’s App
Our Brief: To build an iPhone and iPad app for Habitat’s kitchen customers, and a back-end suite of Business Apps to improve customer service.
The front-end solution enables users to discover the latest fitted kitchen trends and styles in a mobile environment. Customers can view an interactive brochure and locate their nearest Habitat store. For those who have previously had a consultation with Habitat, they can log in to view their personalised kitchen designs, in-app.
At the back end, the iPhone and iPad app generate valuable customer data, which is fed into a powerful, app-based CRM system. This data is mined continually. From initial app download and contact, through to sales and beyond, Habitat can analyse and improve every part of their sales and customer service operation.
Here are some screenshots from Habitat’s app solution:
Habitat’s Consumer App
Habitat’s Business App
Learn more about Business Apps.
Read More +Mobile Sites vs. Mobile Apps
In the world of mobile app developers, “age old” questions are those we’ve been asking for the last couple of years, like whether to build a mobile app, or a mobile website. Now, there’s no question that HTML5 is changing the mobile landscape. Functionality that used to be accessible only through mobile apps is increasingly coming to browsers. Some think this will eliminate the need and the rationale for mobile apps; others argue that apps still retain key advantages, such as the richest possible user experience, discovery through app stores, total control over branding and look-and-feel.
So, how do you sort through the pros and cons, and how has HTML5 thrown in a new wrench? Start with a hard look at not only the kind of app and experience you want to provide your customer base, but at what kind of budgets and resources you have to throw behind your app development efforts.
Product development and iteration
If money is a top concern and it’s possible to accomplish what you want in a modern mobile browser, a mobile site is probably the way to go. Native apps will generally be more expensive both to build and to maintain. To begin with, there’s the need to port for multiple operating systems and devices, often by different teams or agencies, since few handle all platforms equally well. Without actually enhancing the app itself, these efforts will drain resources that could otherwise go toward polishing the user experience provided through a browser, or offering more complete features and more interesting products. Updates are also more costly and time-consuming, requiring development and testing across multiple platforms, as well as approval through multiple app stores.
Enter the hybrid approach
With a fully native app, each new release must be ported across multiple devices and operating systems, approved through the app store and downloaded by customers, introducing friction every step of the way.
With advancements in mobile app technology, there are now some great tools for developing mobile sites and applications at the same time, literally. This means your product is accessible to mobile web users and app store shoppers. If you create your site in HTML5, there are a variety of tools that will wrap that site with all of the code necessary to run natively and be submitted to application stores such as iTunes and the Android marketplace. There are also HTML5 authoring tools that allow you to create sites using drag-and-drop interfaces. As with all authoring tools, however, there are going to be some limitations over custom development, but things are progressing quickly.
Further, with an HTML5-based app, many product updates no longer require app store approval or customer downloads. These updates become as portable as an update to an HTML5 site. This is especially useful for companies and developers who need to be able to make frequent changes to their apps without bugging customers with endless product updates. Netflix, for example, performs constant A/B testing, adding and refining recommendations on an ongoing basis.
The shape of things to come
HTML5 is already having a huge impact, providing an alternative to the platform limitations of Flash and the functional limitations of HTML. YouTube already guides smart phone web visitors to install a home screen shortcut to its mobile site rather than use the pre-installed YouTube application, because it can provide a better user experience through the browser. RoqSTA Leeds works with household brands that are seeing 80-90% of all mobile web traffic to their sites coming from devices that support most of the key HTML5 features you would need to create a compelling user experience.
Whichever you decide, it’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, much of your success will always come down to execution. Large companies with extensive resources can still produce mediocre products and small independent development teams continue to create amazing products that are very successful. Cost control can be equally platform-independent: a poorly managed mobile site initiative can burn through astonishing development resources, while even an elegant and compelling mobile app can be developed efficiently.
The moral of the story? Take nothing for granted, make the right decisions, let RoqSTA develop your app... and the rest will follow.
RoqSTA is a specialist studio of dedicated app developers in Leeds, West Yorkshire. We understand mobile app technology, inside out. All we do is app development. We build mobile phone applications for all platforms, including: Apple, Rim, Google, Windows, web (HTML5) and hybrid apps.