A new video provides help with ViziApps functionality you may want to include when you build your mobile app.

Charles Carroll Financial Partners, which manages over $30 million in assets, selected the ViziApps online tool over other mobile development solutions because of its simple, straightforward design process. The iPad app Charles Carroll created with ViziApps eliminates the need to carry a large set of documents to client meetings. In this way, it has streamlined business processes to the point where employees no longer rely on a paper-based approach to opening and closing discretionary management accounts.

“The iPad app that we created with ViziApps has added value and depth to the services we provide to our client base,” said Bill Hayes, Charles Carroll CEO. “Not only does this app give us a more professional appearance, it also helps us do business faster and affords us control over who has access to the accounts and documentation necessary in our line of work.”

Watch a video where Bill Hayes explains why he selected ViziApps.

“At one point, we actually tried to hire a development team to work on this project,” said Hayes. “Given the high costs and long time-to-market of their approach, we sought another option to help us implement our mobility strategy. With ViziApps, the ability for us to create our custom app, without having sophisticated development skills, was huge. We were able to accomplish exactly what we wanted in a constructive way during the build-out because we, and not an outside development team, controlled that process.”

• Using ViziApps, Charles Carroll was able to quickly create and publish their iPad app without the need for coding.
• The company was able to test and can upgrade their app for free; they only pay a modest publishing fee once published.
• With ViziApps, the app accesses data from Google Docs, and the necessary security and redundancy measures are provided to meet data protection compliance requirements

“More and more businesses are realizing how easy it is to create, publish, and update powerful mobile apps using ViziApps, where they have direct control over the entire process,” said George Adams, Co-Founder and CEO, ViziApps. “Using ViziApps, financial services firms and other organizations can now create their own branded iPad apps to access business forms, brochures, client lists, videos and other data resources to make highly visual presentations, wherever their meetings take place.”

Thousands of users are now utilizing the ViziApps platform, with its drag-and-drop approach to creating mobile apps that include enterprise-class data management capabilities not available with any other solution. ViziApps 2.0 features powerful data management capabilities for accessing and managing information stored in Google Docs spreadsheets for use in both native mobile and web apps. ViziApps also supports accessing and managing information stored in SQL databases and other backend resources via web services for native mobile apps.

Maribel Lopez of Lopez Research just posted a great article in Tech Target outlining four ways a mobility project can transform your business. Here’s a quick summary of her key points:

To truly embrace mobility, rethink the way organizations do business. A well-planned mobility project can help companies increase revenue and make employees more productive. Virtually all business leaders recognize that change is important and necessary. That's why a successful mobile project transforms business processes.

Thanks to mobile apps and other technologies that ease access to massive amounts of information, small businesses can reap the highly touted benefits of big data.

A new report commissioned by Intuit predicts that small business owners and consumers will take advantage of emerging trends to leverage large, complex sets of data, dubbed “big data.” No longer the exclusive purview of big business, big data is becoming available to smaller organizations, the study researchers maintain, providing the intelligence they need to make informed business decisions.

The Intuit report focuses on three trends that will affect both small businesses and consumers over the next ten years, as big data continues to proliferate:

• The New Data Democracy – Data will become a vital raw material, taking on a role comparable to capital and labor. Small businesses will enjoy increased access to huge volumes of information, as well as the tools needed to analyze and employ it the way large enterprises do.
• Data Empowers Consumers – Consumers will also take advantage of big data. As people are increasingly connected, through the global grid and mobile devices, “data will shape decisions both large and small, inform purchasing decisions and create communities and relationships,” according to the Intuit report.
• Data Provides Main Street – Access to the types of data once available only to major corporations will empower small businesses. Like their larger counterparts, they will find ways to use big data to run their business more efficiently, attract new customers, and ultimately, drive growth.

Today, using ViziApps, businesses of all sizes can create mobile business apps that access valuable data, whether it’s stored in Google spreadsheets, SQL databases or on websites. The DIY mobile app development tool enables people with intermediate computing skills to create apps that incorporate the data their users need to work productively, whether they are in offices or on the road. The recently announced ViziApps support for Intuit QuickBase allows QuickBase users to build mobile business apps that access data to support business processes on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. And like QuickBase, ViziApps requires no coding.

You can use ViziApps to create mobile apps that can push the right messages to your employees, partners, and customers at the right time, in the right context, based on the stage of work flow they are in and/or the category they are in.

Our new Push Notifications, using QuickBlox, enables multiple kinds of notifications. These include notifying a sub-group of users based on their category defined by your app. QuickBlox pushes over 2.5 Billion messages per month.

Here’s all you need to do to include Push Notifications in your mobile app:

1. Create your QuickBlox account and create a messaging app there. You can get a free account with up to 1 Million Push messages per month.
2. Then, login to your ViziApps account, select the app feature for push notification and configure a few QuickBlox keys and set the JavaScript function you want to handle the messages when they come in.

Now you’re ready to start sending messages to your test ViziApps app on your mobile device and include sending Push messages in your app.

Check out the latest ViziApps video for step-by-step instructions on how to set up, access, and manage Google spreadsheet data as an easy to use a database when you design and build a mobile business app. Using ViziApps, you have the advantage of being able to connect your app to a full-fledged database across the Internet while avoiding many of the hassles of managing a dedicated database system. You can follow the instructions the video provides when building iPhone, iPad, and Android apps.

In the 4-minute video, you will see how to use the ViziApps drag and drop tool to create a database for your mobile business app, then build and test a query that enables your app to interact with that database. The video demonstrates a step-by-step approach for integrating Google spreadsheet data using Google Docs. Alternatively, you could follow the same approach using Google Apps for Business to integrate Google spreadsheet data in your app.

For guidance on using other ViziApps’ capabilities to create data-rich mobile business apps, see the full portfolio of ViziApps tutorial videos here. They cover topics such as creating your mobile business app layout; designing tables; using the camera, picker, and GPS field; and adding JavaScript to further enhance your app.

In his April 13th article, Martin Heller wrote, “While the great debate rages on between the various mobile development camps -- businesses still have to create and maintain mobile applications for their employees, business partners, and customers.”

Around the world, people of all ages are learning to build mobile apps. Some are self-taught and others take classes, at universities, technical schools, high schools or after-school programs.

To comprehend the extent of the world’s fascination with mobile apps, consider some recent data on the mobile app market.

At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June, CEO Tim Cook revealed some impressive facts about the company’s App Store, which can now claim: 400M accounts, 650,000 apps (including 225,000 specifically created for the iPad) and 30B downloads to date.

Cook also told the WWDC gathering that the Apple has paid mobile app developers more than $5B for apps sold in the App Store – so far.

And just last week, at the Google I/O Developer Conference, it was revealed that Google Play can now boast 20B downloads and that is has surpassed the 600,000 mark for mobile apps and games.

So, now the two largest markets combined offer 1.25M mobile apps. And if that number isn’t sufficiently stunning, mobile app revenue forecasts may be.

ABI Research predicts that “total mobile app revenues from pay-per-download, in-app purchase, subscriptions, and in-app advertising will soar over the next five years, growing from $8.5 billion in 2011 to $46 billion in 2016.”

That may explain why interest in building mobile apps is burgeoning, and even middle schoolers are getting into the act.

“This year, Apple opened up its developers event for the first time to 13- to 17-year-olds,” wrote Jessica E. Vascellaro in an article published on the All Things Digital site. “The Cupertino, Calif., company supplied 150 teens with scholarships to cover the event’s $1,599 entrance fee, arranged a student lounge with beanbag chairs and Skittles, and invited their parents to chaperone. The teens, or their parents, still had to sign Apple’s customary nondisclosure agreements.”

Budding app developers have a lot of options available to them and one of the most fundamental is deciding how they will create their app. They can learn programming and code their mobile apps, becoming proficient in iOS or Android or whichever platform they choose. Alternatively, they can employ a do-it-yourself mobile app development tool like ViziApps.

With the right DIY tool, anyone with basic desktop computing capabilities can build a mobile business app for use on iOS or Android devices in just hours or days. But not all DIY tools are the same. App creators planning to build a business app should look for a tool like ViziApps that provides the ability to produce apps that access business data; build hybrid, as well as native and web mobile apps; and allow customization that supports their business brand – all with no coding.

Taking part in conferences and trade shows can be overwhelming. Participants find themselves in an unfamiliar, often hectic environment, and typically put in long hours on their feet.

A well-designed mobile conference app can improve that experience significantly. Serving as a useful event guide, it can provide an easy way to consult session and special event schedules, find a good restaurant, and navigate the conference venue. By placing all the information participants need right in their hands, a mobile app eliminates confusion, simplifies scheduling and allows both attendees and exhibitors to focus on business.

ViziApps lets conference and convention center management, as well as show sponsors, build custom mobile apps for use on the iPhone, iPad or Android smartphones or tablets. Using a drag-and-drop approach and without coding, they use ViziApps to design and make a mobile app like the sample shown here.

Or, if they prefer, a ViziApps mobile app design professional will build one, tailored to their business requirements.

And now, with newly integrated in-app payment processing capability from ROAM Data, a conference app built with ViziApps can be used for on-the-go payments on a conference show floor.

By offering access to rich data sources, like Google Docs spreadsheets, SQL databases, and web content, a mobile conference app can also provide an easy, convenient way to keep internal users, like convention center staff, informed and productive.

To understand your options for building a hybrid, native, or web conference app, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Or check out a sampling of the types of app you can build with ViziApps here.

ViziApps enables creation of enterprise mobile apps without coding. However, it also lets app builders enrich their mobile apps and user experience using JavaScript.

Now, a new video provides users a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the ViziApps drag and drop designer and JavaScript to create visually appealing, data-rich, robust mobile apps.

The video demonstrates how to build a mobile app for business use in the ViziApps Studio and incorporate custom scripts, libraries, and plug-ins to provide functionality beyond what can be done without coding. Some examples of enhanced functionality that use of JavaScript can provide include:

• Using the accelerometer
• Enhanced media capture (media files)
• Managing connections (checking network state and cellular network information)
• Enhancing camera operations
• Using the compass
• Accessing on-device contacts (work with the contact database)
• Managing file transfers
• Integrating geo-location mapping
• Playing media (record and play back audio files)
• Sending notifications
• Accessing storage (hook into native storage options)

For help with other ViziApps capabilities, consult a complete listing of tutorial videos for app builders here.

According to just-published survey results from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) “56 percent of Americans believe that technology has made it easier to spend money and only three out of 100 say it has made it easier to save.”

Perhaps that 3 percent was thinking about mobile apps designed to help you save money when you spend.

Like GasBuddy. This app, free for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone devices and the mobile web, depends on a community of users in the U.S. and Canada to report gas prices and keep its data up to date. GasBuddy lets you search for gas prices by city, state, province and postal code. (Today it helped me find gas for $0.02 less than the average price in the state where I live.)

GasBuddy is just one of countless apps designed to help consumers find good deals when they shop. And for people who want to manage their money wisely, there are mobile apps for handling personal budgets, banking, and investing – and many of those apps are free.

Other mobile apps help save money by saving time. Like GPS apps that help drivers reach their destinations by taking the shortest route or using only highways.

Commenting on the AICPA’s survey results, Jordan Amin, chairman of the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission, said, “Our gadgets and connections can bring benefits like mobility and efficiency. But they can also bring financial challenges, like taking money that could go to savings, for instance, or contributing to credit card debt. We have to mind these expenses and budget for them to ensure the benefits outweigh the costs.”

True. And there are plenty of mobile apps to help us try to do just that.

AODocs provides enterprise document management based on Google for Work. AODocs is now on Google for Work Domains serving more than 1,100,000 users across 75 countries. The unique combination of ViziApps with AODocs' Google Docs support and document management capabilities empowers users to create mobile business apps that are quick to build and easy to use.

Now, you can easily integrate AODocs Document Management into ViziApps custom cross-platform mobile business process apps with no coding. Use your existing office software skills to build your custom mobile app with enterprise document management quickly and inexpensively. And you can update your apps at any time, immediately pushing the new versions to your users.

You can get started today using AODocs with ViziApps two ways;

Use the new ViziApps AODocs Workflow App available in the iTunes App Store or Google Play

Or, Create your own custom workflow app with your ViziApps account

Use the ViziApps AODocs Workflow App

Download the app and immediately review and transition documents in your AODocs account. The app is built with ViziApps and also available as a template you can expand upon with your ViziApps account.

Geoff Bock just posted interesting insights on Mobile First Strategy at TechTarget.

Here’s an summary

• Websites that perform well across multiple devices are the hallmark of a strong mobile-first strategy, but custom-built mobile apps can improve productivity by expediting specific activities.
• If your Web Content Management System supports Responsive Web Design and dynamic templates, you can create the content once and adapt the presentations to the form factors and navigation links of different device types.
• But there is more to Mobile First than consistent content presentation. Beyond keeping tabs on the latest weather reports or sharing immediate thoughts on Twitter, consider how mobile apps can engage users and simplify work-related tasks. With smart devices in our pockets and handbags, content in the palms of our hands can expedite user engagement.
• A mobile-first strategy can spawn a new generation of apps designed to support the micro-moments, when getting access to just the right information at the right time assists decision making. These are task-oriented apps that connect to multiple information sources and diverse content collections running in the cloud, and that provides the tools to mobilize moments of engagement.

In short, content presentation is only the initial step in the mobile journey. A mobile-first strategy can evolve to support task-oriented mobile apps that transform business processes, remove communication barriers and increase productivity.

Have you considered creating a mobile business app that incorporates location-based services (LBS) as a way of gaining new customers? Results of a recent study provide some interesting insight into consumer views on LBS. They reveal that consumers worldwide are becoming increasingly amenable to sharing their location in return for a good, convenient deal.

In its Mobile Life study, global consultancy TNS found that more than 60 percent of respondents who do not yet use location-based services want to begin taking advantage of them.

A summary of the study results makes a strong case for targeting consumers with an LBS mobile app:

“Almost one fifth (19 per cent) of the world’s six billion mobile users are already using LBS, with more than three times this number (62 per cent) aspiring to do so in the future… Savvy LBS users have realized that there is something to be gained from sharing their locations with brands and retailers – with one in eight (12.5 per cent) sharing their location in exchange for a deal or special offer…Beyond current users of LBS, a third of people globally (33 per cent) who already or would like to use mobile voucher coupons, highly rate receiving deals when they are nearby a store that they like. One in five mobile users (21 per cent) stated that they find mobile advertising interesting if it is offering them a deal near their current location.”

James Fergusson, Global Head, Digital & Technology Practice at TNS, believes that mobile users are beginning to appreciate the rewards of disclosing their location. “We are really starting to see location based services ‘come of age’. People are realizing that sharing their location often offers some kind of reward in terms of a discount or deal. It is the combination of time and context – directing people towards a deal when they can easily redeem it – that unlocks a powerful tool for marketers to develop precise targeting approaches.”

Building a mobile app that uses LBS does not have to be a complex project. The ViziApps drag-and-drop visual approach allows business managers, IT professional and anyone with basic computer skills to create a custom locator mobile app for iOS and Android devices. It’s just one category of mobile apps ViziApps users are building with the online based do-it-yourself mobile app development tool.

Despite all the conveniences smartphones provide, users still have concerns about the security of the messages and files they exchange with their mobile devices.

Now Carnegie Mellon University CyLab researchers have come up with a smartphone app designed to help mobile phone users retrieve information from trusted sources safely and privately.

The problem they are tackling is one mobile device users face every day: how to safely “sling information” over the Internet. The researchers say that their app, dubbed SafeSlinger, establishes a secure channel that enables both secure messaging and file exchange.

If SafeSlinger users keep their passphrases private, only they and the parties meant to receive their messages will be able to read them.

“SafeSlinger provides you with the confidence that the person you are communicating with is actually the person they have represented themselves to be,” Michael W. Farb, a CyLab research programmer, said. “Perhaps the most impressive feature is that SafeSlinger provides secure communications and file transfer even if the servers involved are tainted with malware.”

SafeSlinger is free for Android 2.1 and iOS 5.0 devices. The developers hope SafeSlinger will be widely adopted and that the app will someday “provide usable and secure communication for the masses.”

ViziApps is the first mobile app creation without coding service to introduce a revolutionary new capability for mobile apps: Offline Data Access & Remote Sync.

Mobile users worldwide have become dependent on their smartphones and apps to provide them with capabilities and data wherever and whenever they want. And now companies using ViziApps are enabling more and more corporate data to be available from our mobile devices.

But the reality is that mobile data connections are often unreliable, very low bandwidth, too expensive to use, or completely unavailable in needed work sites. Yet these issues can hit at exactly the time and place we need to get our jobs done. A mobile device without a data connection suddenly becomes frustrating and useless.

Offline Data Access & Remote Sync

ViziApp’s approach to Offline Data Access & Remote Sync, like the rest of our no-coding platform for mobile app creation, couldn’t be simpler for the user and even for the app creator. In fact it’s practically transparent.

Data Access While Offline

For a user, the synchronization between a remote database and their mobile device happens automatically as a background process. There is no action the user needs to take. When a user makes a data query, their app will use a local copy of the synchronized data which not only gives them access to their data while offline, but also allows the app to perform much faster than normal online operation.

Data Updates While Offline

Mobile users without a network connection can now continue working and updating their data sets, such as filing reports and even submitting photos. The next time that the user runs their app with a network connection, the new data will be automatically synchronized back to the remote database in both directions.

Simple To Enable

For the app creator, in ViziApps Studio just go to the App Properties selection for “Setup Offline Operations”, then select “Use offline operation.” That’s it – the rest is automatically handled for you. There is no difficult middleware to install or configure or worry about for scalability.

Offline Data Access & Remote Sync is now available for Intuit QuickBase and Android devices. ViziApps will soon be releasing Offline Data Access & Remote Sync for iPhone and iPad users, and then expanding to other remote data sources.

ViziApps provides app creators with a major advantage – the ability to quickly produce data-rich mobile business apps without coding.

And now, with an online guide available in the ViziApps Studio, app makers have a handy reference to help them build apps using Google Docs spreadsheets for access to a wide range of data, including text, images, and maps. The searchable documentation speeds development of robust data-rich apps for the iPhone and iPad and Android smartphones and tablets.

Designing and building a mobile business app with ViziApps is free. If you haven’t already, sign up for a ViziApps account here.

To check out the data management documentation, simply look for this button in the manage data catalog and click it:

ViziApps users tell us that delivering their business data into the hands of mobile users is driving new revenue and attracting new customers for their business. Providing mobile access to business data is what sets their apps apart from their competitors.

To make the most of your business data in your next mobile app, take a look at the new data management documentation in the ViziApps Studio. There you will learn how to present and manage data in a way that gives your app users the information they need – wherever they are.

Topics covered by the data management guide include:

• Introduction to database commands
• Updating and deleting data
• Incorporating images and maps
• Using Google Docs spreadsheets
• Data Management best practices

This is just a sampling of the topics provided to help app creators select, create, and efficiently manage data for use in their mobile business apps. Check it out by clicking the “Spreadsheet User Guide” on the Manage Data page in your free ViziApps Studio account.

• Options for Making A Mobile App for Your Business

  If you’ve been thinking about creating a mobile app for your business but haven’t made much progress, consider two approaches that could help you reach your goal.

  #1 Make a do-it-yourself mobile app.

  New, disruptive technologies are making it possible for business people with basic office software skills to develop effective, visually appealing mobile apps. And with a robust DIY mobile app platform like ViziApps, enterprise business units, as well as small and medium sized businesses, can create mobile applications without skilled engineering resources. This approach does not require a sizable mobile app development budget or the technical expertise of an internal IT group or an outside programmer.

  Mobile application development platforms that provide a drag-and-drop process for designing and creating mobile apps offer a way to meet the mobile app gap many businesses are experiencing. In significantly less time that it can take to design and develop an enterprise-quality application, a business can design and build a custom mobile app and publish it in the Apple App Store or in Google Play.

  At a time when businesses are looking at ways to provide better customer service, the DIY approach offers significant cost and time savings, putting affordable mobile business apps within reach of organizations of all sizes.

  #2 Enlist Expert Services to Build A DIY Mobile App

  Producing a sophisticated mobile business app that incorporates business data from a Google Docs spreadsheet or SQL server can be accomplished in days on a platform like ViziApps. But for some people, even a day or two is more than they can spare to build a mobile app.

  Those businesses can still take advantage of the cost and time savings the ViziApps “no coding” mobile app platform offers. ViziApps app development professionals work with business owners and enterprise managers to design and create mobile apps for a tenth the cost (or even less) than the cost of a traditional enterprise application. Now, those businesses can get a branded web, native, or hybrid app to meet their functional and aesthetic specifications built for them at very low cost.

  Depending on their preferences, we can utilize the features of an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet and provide access to whatever data our customers require. For example, we work on apps designed to expand revenue-generating channels, incorporating features such as geo-location marketing, mobile payments and mobile social media integration, as well as apps for internal use.

  Whichever approach a business takes to creating a mobile app, the DIY path or the route leveraging ViziApps professional app design services, the result is an attractive, low-cost mobile app tailored to meet current business needs and be updated easily whenever those needs change.

• Part 1 in a Series – Mobilizing Your Business, From Hardship to Rapid Impact

  During April, we will have a series of blog posts focusing the increasing importance of Mobile apps in Rapid Application Development - what does it mean to have mobile apps power the way your organization works. This will include Showcasing different companies leveraging Mobile Rapid App Development, aka MRAD, to improve their business results.

  What we have seen are some incredible productivity enhancing stories that provide competitive differentiation. In some cases, companies have prioritized their operations focus on the back of mobile app platform. We are in very interesting times where mobile is changing the way we do business.

  But you might be wondering, why are employees still tethered to their desk and not out in the field selling or servicing customers, at the customer’s office or at a Starbucks.

  The reasons are many fold.

  • First, it is important to understand what are the deficiencies of SaaS applications being provided in the marketplace. There is no doubt that you as a customer leveraging a RAD platform has seen the increase in number of productivity apps. DIY users are quickly able to make some pretty nifty apps. But the SaaS providers have not optimized their RAD platform for creating mobile apps. Yes, you can get a mobile app but it lacks the functionality that is required in a mobile oriented workplace. A report or task workflow on a mobile device needs to be different than a report in a desktop browser. RAD platforms are still playing catch up to the mobile space and will probably never catch up as mobile devices keep rapidly evolving.
  • Second, creating a mobile app is not the same as creating a browser app. You might want to take advantage of some native capability of a mobile device in your app and you want that information stored on desktop app. Two sets of requirements which further leads to – can your org have the capacity to take on two unique approaches to solve the problem.
  • Third, mobile apps need to have simple task navigation, as the screen real estate on the device is limited. Trying to jam too much information only leaves a bad taste in the app’s user experience, resulting in low-adoption.

  Companies need to be innovative in their thinking to adopt mobile apps as they choose a RAD platform. Companies that have embarked on DIY mobile apps with the right MRAD platform are seeing the business results impact in a just a matter of days, As they mobilize workflow by bringing mobile business processes to the palm of their mobile workers hands, wherever they are, and whenever needed.

  Next, we’ll some unique use cases where different companies have solved key business needs with rapidly developed mobile apps.