About 5 months ago I started with the company and, coming from a fine arts and graphic design background, I fell easily into place in the creative and marketing departments. Not knowing anything about computer development and coding, I decided to play around with the platform. I had been hearing that it was like Photoshop for building mobile applications and I wanted to give it a whirl. Mind you, I am a pretty cynical person when it comes to solutions that seem to be a quick fix or are too good to be true, but I was impressed! I began creating applications in just a day’s turn around time that I liked enough to show to other people. The image to the right shows one of my app creations using the platform.

The best thing about it is that you can create a totally unique User Interface for each app that you build. This is perfect since I can integrate this with the other design tools that I use on a daily basis. I open this software almost as much now as I open any of the other CS5 programs. I create my unique User Interface in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or both, and then bring it into the platform.

Brainstorming is the key for me. Before I start any graphical work I pull out one of my larger sketchbooks and put down as many ideas for layouts that I can think of. One of my favorite professors in college told me, “The first two ideas that you come up with will almost always be a cliche or the obvious choice. Once you get past that, you can create something really engaging.” Pulling off this engaging experience is the most time consuming part of creating an application with the SmartOn Mobile Platform. The rest is elementary, as they say, because the hard work has been done for me. All of the native code is running in the background, like the Matrix, and this is certainly no illusion.

Targeting specific groups of people or a specific niche with a mobile application usually helps keep the users of the app more engaged. While brands are quickly realizing this, they are scaling up from one app to a portfolio of apps before they know it. Updating your content, sending push messages or even changing the layout of your application is now possible without having to use a mobile developer. Just about anyone can manage apps through a single platform so there is no need to use outsourced mobile developers or hire a team internally to take on your mobile projects. Not only can you manage apps through these platforms but you can also build custom mobile apps and then deploy them to multiple platforms with the click of a button.

The SmartOn™ Mobile platform quickly solves the problem many companies were starting to have when looking for an easy solution to manage apps they currently had, as well as any that were on the roadmap. The user has complete control over their applications without the stale template look. Users can drag and drop components and rearrange the app design on the AppCanvas™ to fit their liking. Once the components of the app are setup, you can then modify colors and icons, and then deploy it to test devices or to each platform’s app marketplace.

Brands now have a way to build and manage apps internally without the need for a developer. This is allowing them to have complete control over the applications within their organization and not have to rely on a third party company for simple changes, content updates and push messages to their users.

The Fiscal Times (TFT) a fast-growing digital news, opinion and media publication has recently partnered with Smart Online to develop mobile apps for their consumers

“We’re very excited to offer our readers a new mobile platform that will increase consumer engagement. Our audience is ‘on the go’ and technologically savvy, and we want to give them an easy to navigate user experience,” said Jacqueline Leo, Editor in Chief of The Fiscal Times.  “After an extensive vetting process, we believe that Smart Online’s SmartOn Mobile platform provides the flexibility, analytics, and management to continue to build a successful mobile strategy.”

The SmartOn Mobile platform gives brands and organizations something which many didn’t think would be possible. Someone with little or no programming experience can build and manage mobile apps with the platform very quickly so that you can save time, money, and stay ahead of your competitors.

If your brand is looking into building your mobile app strategy or maybe you already have a mobile app and struggle with some of the shortcomings of that application and/or the management of that app, we would love to speak with you to get your mobile app strategy on the right track.

From May 8-10 Smart Online will be at CTIA in unique New Orleans. Come see us at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center at booth #6025-E in the Mobile Apps Pavilion. We’ll be demoing our patent pending SmartOn Mobile platform. Come build an app with us in just a few minutes. Look for Robert, Drew or me (Anusha). Find us on Twitter @besmartonmobile – use hashtag #CTIAW12

We’ll also be at the Digital East Summit in Atlanta – May 9, 10 at the Cobb Galleria, booth #29. Look out for Steve or Kristen. And don’t forget to tweet to us @besmartonmobile – hashtag #DSUM12

We’re really excited and we’re dying to show you our patent pending platform that will allow you to create custom native iOS and Android apps. And the best part – you don’t need to be a programmer! No, really, anyone can now build apps. Come watch us build some awesome apps at these shows!

His second “find” was a number of vendors that offer an “easy” development product, that allows anyone, without development knowledge, to build their own mobile apps.  He indicated that he tried at least a half dozen of these. What he found, however, was even more disappointing.  Several of these solutions didn’t in fact offer a native phone experience, but were simply “build your own website” redux that created weak html5 experiences that failed to provide him with the engaging experience that he had in mind when envisioning his mobile future.  Several others offered him a template that he could plug in his information, even some connections to his internal applications.  While these options were certainly easier to use than what the MEAP vendors offered, none of them gave him a “unique” experience.  The fact was that the best of those he saw was the exact solution that was obviously used by his closest competitor to build their apps (what sent him into this process in the first place).  How could he possibly use this solution and be seen as “chasing” his competitor.  The more he invested the more he realized that these options were simply a new play on the “template” solutions of old….not good enough for most, and surely not good enough for him.

In the end he left this effort defeated.  What he wanted was the ability to make the quality application offered by the MEAP vendors with the ease of use provided by those that offer template solutions.  The great news to this story, one that surprised him, was that he had already seen such a solution in action.  I asked him to look at our app that was built for our church using our mobile platform.  I popped open my computer and showed him how I could quickly build an experience for him that was truly unique, allowing him to take complete advantage of his creativity and at the same time avoid both a template feel and the need to invest in technical resources to help develop the app.  “You built this?”, he asked.  “Yes I did”, I responded.

People use smartphones at work for communicating, at school for organizing notes, in the car to get directions and at the bus stop to play games. In fact, people use their smartphones everywhere except, of course, in the doctor’s office. As soon as you walk in, you’ll inevitably see a big sign telling you to turn off your phone. The idea makes sense: you want your doctor to be able to concentrate on you instead of your phone, and you certainly don’t want your nurse to jump while poking you with a needle. However, developments in apps for the healthcare industry may make smartphones more welcome in the medical setting. Well-designed apps can help lower costs and keep patients healthier, and medical professionals and patients alike can benefit from apps.

Digitization of the Healthcare System

Health care is moving away from the paper-based system of filling out patient charts on clipboards, storing medical records in file cabinets and recording data by hand. In the digital age, medical records are electronic so that all members of the healthcare team can instantly access a patient’s vital information. Mobile apps can increase productivity in general care facilities, in the emergency room and maternity wards.

Since doctors and nurses are constantly moving from patient to patient, mobile devices make record-keeping and health care more efficient. With note-taking apps, medical staff can record measurements and jot down reminders about information they should check later. Some apps allow users to look up normal values for lab results so that they can instantly know if their patients may need specialists, such as an endocrinologist for high blood sugar readings. They can connect to online resources to look up symptoms for help in diagnosis.

Increase in Patient Involvement

With advances in technology, patients are becoming more involved in their own care. This can lead to better health through more attention and self-awareness, and more communication with physicians. Many healthcare systems host online accounts, so patients can manage conditions, email doctors and refill prescriptions. Smartphone apps are another step. Mobile apps help monitoring become fun and accessible rather than dreary and remote. Nobody likes being on hold for hours trying to get through to their doctors, and apps let patients instantly send their health progress or results to doctors.

Smartphone Apps to Promote Health

These are just three of the many apps in existence today that patients can use to stay healthy:

• I Can Quit: This smoking cessation app lets you send text messages about your efforts to stop smoking. The app is based on the idea that sending text messages keeps you focused and on track. Smoking contributes to 400,000 deaths per year in the U.S., more than any other single cause of death
• OnTrack: This app helps you manage diabetes. You can track your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels and your glycosylated hemoglobin, or A1C, which is an indicator of how well you controlled your blood sugar for the past few months. Glucose Buddy is an app that lets you talk to other individuals with diabetes in forums
• Lose It: This app lets you record your diet and exercise to help you control your weight. It has a database with popular foods and many restaurant foods

Smartphone apps seem to be able to do everything from ordering pizza to bargain shopping to helping you study for exams. Now, they can help you take control of your health, and help doctors and nurses take care of you. Smartphone apps are leading the trend toward mobilization in healthcare and patient involvement in their care.

I am asking all of them to move to mobile – interact with me there. I carry my iPhone everywhere, and I’m finding myself hooked on companies that have implemented new and innovative methods of connecting with me.  Everyone talks about information overload.  Mobile with its always-on connectivity, location sensing technology, 2 way real time interactivity, and the ability to deliver new and unique experiences, knows where I am, what I am doing, and who I am, to deliver messages, breaking news, promotions and great deals at a time and in a way that is relevant and convenient for me to consume.  For example, I am now exclusively tied to CNN and my local TV news station WRAL for my news, not just because they have good mobile apps but because of their effective use of the push notification feature in Smartphones.  I now get alerted in a convenient and non- disrupted way whenever breaking news happens.   A great example was the mega millions lottery winners a few weeks ago.  Of course I joined the office pool.  We were so optimistic about winning that we had a time that we were all going to meet at the office on Saturday morning with our lawyer to go claim the prize.  We ended up with so many tickets I wasn’t going to stay up for the 11pm EDT drawing and try to match up the numbers with the results.  But when I woke up in the morning I tapped on my iPhone screen as I was making the coffee and saw a push notification that said a winning ticket was purchased in Baltimore.  I figured if I saw that a winning ticket was purchased in my hometown, Durham NC, I would have been motivated then to check all of my tickets.  20 minutes later another home screen notification arrived from CNN broadcasting that another ticket was purchased Illinois, and then an hour later another message about a third winner in Kansas.  This was a very effective way for me to follow the story without being overloaded with information not relevant to me. Other ways I could have followed the story online were much less convenient, like email…  even email via my iPhone I have to tap on screen, unlock phone, tap in security code, tap on email app client, wait for all of my emails to download and then search the inbox.  Or I could have been at my home PC continually refreshing the website or lottery homepage to see where the winners were coming in from.

The Smartphone provides many new ways to interact and communicate your brand messages, products and services to your customers. It’s amazing to me how many have still not moved with me over to mobile yet.  Well, back to my Hotmail account now to continue unsubscribing from a few more newsletters.

When planning your mobile strategy, be sure to:

• Have a thorough understanding of your audience
• Focus on making the app valuable and useful for the consumer
• Create something functional

Think about ways you can enhance your product or service through a mobile app – ask yourself “what are the challenges I face today that mobile can solve?” Take a look at our “6 Best Practices for Developing Your Mobile Strategy”

If you are struggling with a mobile app strategy or have a unique product or service and are finding it difficult to come up with ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Smart Online has taken the need for mobile developers out of the equation with our new technology – the SmartOn Mobile platform, which now allows any subject matter expert (SME) to create a native mobile application in a fraction of the time it would take to normally create one. Even better than that, you can now manage your app, update your app and re-deploy it to the app stores all from our platform.

There are many tools for mobile development that do an array of different things, but many are producing template applications that you don’t really have much control over if you ever want to expand and add new features to your app. You also don’t have much flexibility with the look and feel of your app when you are using these tools so your app will end up looking very similar to those of your competitors who are using the same solution.. Lastly, that application wasn’t built for your business specifically and is probably a more general app which will cover some of the needs of all customers in your industry. What we see with a lot of these template solutions is that most applications built using these platforms are missing that ‘hook’ that really captures users and keeps them engaged.

When developing your mobile application you want to really think through the entire concept and make sure you are doing it for the right reasons.  Many companies go mobile just for the sake of having a mobile app, or maybe they found a company that will build it cheap so they just jump at the opportunity and 8 weeks later they have an application that lists their locations, has a ‘contact us’ button and their twitter feed… Really?

Take a look at some ideas of what other brands are building into their mobile apps to get you thinking about what could reinvent your brand or attract new customers.

Developing your organization’s mobile strategy is not an easy feat and we want to make sure you get it right the first time. From all the different options out there – web apps, Smartphone apps, mobile sites, tablet apps –what to choose, how to develop it and what to do with it. Today’s blog outlines some of those steps and how you can best employ it to your specific organization.

For a more detailed overview, you can attend one of our upcoming webinars on this, or watch a previously recorded one here.

1. Establishing Your Mobile Goals

What is your overarching goal for mobile? This is the most important question you can answer. It’s important to understand what you want from mobile for your organization. Do you want to increase awareness, drive revenue, or increase loyalty? What are YOU specifically looking for? Your goals might even fall into multiple categories. Think about that and make sure to address each one differently

2. Identifying Target Audience(s) and Needs

You need to consider your specific audience or audiences, and make sure you’re providing them with what they want. Different groups might have different needs and therefore want different things from a mobile solution. The best thing you can do – ask them what they want.

3. Leveraging Assets

What do you already have in existence and how can you best use this? Is it a mobile site maybe or some statistics on what people do on your existing mobile site/app? is it your social media following? How can you best leverage all of your existing assets without trying to reinvent the wheel in many cases?

4. Defining ROI/ROE

Of course you want to have this information for all the naysayers in your organization. How can you show them that this is indeed a revenue generating asset whether direct or indirect. Think about cost saving opportunities – maybe some tangible reductions in resource cost? Also think about the return on engagement – do you have metrics that show how this is increasing traffic to your website for instance?

5. Ideation – developing use cases & wireframes

Think about using scenarios when brainstorming with your team on different ideas for mobile solutions. What user needs are you serving? Once you have these ideas laid out visually mapping them helps to better understand the flow, structure and possible problems that could arise. Wireframing is great tool!

6. Getting internal buy-in

Who holds the strings? Who needs to be involved in this process so you can get approval within your organization? It’s important to try and figure this out at the beginning so you can accordingly address specific issues. For instance how will your IT folks look at this? Once you have information from the previous 5 steps, you’re better equipped to handle most of these potential arguments against your proposed mobile solution.

If you’d like to learn more about this, attend our webinar on the 6 Best Practices or watch one of our previous recordings. If you have any experiences you’d like to share with us about your particular mobile strategy or you have advice on what to do or not to do, sound off in the comments below.

A Million Strong to Cure This Rare Disease – Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC)

Published: March 22, 2012

DURHAM, N.C., March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — AHC is a debilitating disease. Those who suffer from it have bouts of temporary paralysis affecting one or more parts of the body and lasting from minutes to days at a time. They also have severe learning, behavioral, and movement disabilities. AHC is currently incurable and permanent -most adults have significant struggles.

The AHC Foundation’s mission is to find the cause(s) of AHC, develop treatments and/or a cure, and to support children with AHC and their families. The goal of the ‘One in a Million’ campaign is to reach 1 million people in 2012, and have them donate just $1 (and more if willing) to AHCF. Donors can easily share the AHC story with their networks, to touch as many people as possible. AHCF is in need of the funds to continue its mission.

Smart Online worked with AHCF to develop an integrated marketing strategy which included apps for both iPhone and Android. These were developed using the SmartOn™ Mobile platform, a patent-pending technology that allows anyone, even without software programming knowledge, to quickly and easily create custom native Smartphone apps, and effortlessly manage apps.

As of March 15, 2012 the AHCF has raised $20,000. The AHCF thanks its supporters and vows to continue working harder to raise additional funds.

About AHCF

AHCF’s mission is to find the cause(s) of AHC, develop effective treatments and ultimately find a cure, while providing support to the families and children with AHC by funding research to accomplish these goals. www.ahc2012.org

About Smart Online

Smart Online® (OTC-BB: SOLN) is the leading provider of cutting edge mobile software solutions, creating easy-to-use, highly-effective mobile application development solutions for all types of organizations. Our first of its kind technology enables clients to rapidly create, deploy, and manage custom, native Smartphone apps using the patents pending SmartOn™ Mobile platform. Our clients can develop multiple applications that are deliverable across iPhone and Android platforms, with no prior knowledge of software programming or related technical skills. www.smartonline.com

Contact:

Anusha Sethuraman

SmartOnline

Anusha.sethuraman@smartonline.com

919-237-4174

SOURCE Smart Online