NDL has launched a free App Showcase, designed to allow customers to quickly implement mobile working projects and to improve end user adoption of the final apps.
The App Showcase has launched with 23 apps, with more being added all the time. Each app can be branded as required by the customer and will work across iOS, Windows, Android and BlackBerry devices. The apps are free to all of NDL’s 200 customers and have been built using NDL’s newly-launched MX 6.1 software.
Declan Grogan, managing director, NDL, said, “The App Showcase is about three things: first, inspiring thought and conversations about what can be achieved with mobile applications. Secondly, it’s about accelerating delivery and ROI for those early projects as these apps can be downloaded and tweaked to fit rather than having to start from a blank canvas.
“Thirdly, and most importantly, we believe this provides an opportunity for our customers in IT and business development teams to engage with their end-users by involving them in the process of designing apps that fit the way they really work. Using a real, on-device application with a user rather than a white board is a far more realistic and effective way of getting the final application right.”
The App Showcase’s development has been supported by a number of NDL’s customers, including Bolton Council which originally used NDL’s software to create mobile working systems for waste collections, highway inspections and flood risk assessments. The council then passed its apps to the NDL apps team to ‘white label’ for the App Showcase.
Chris Lloyd, strategy and development manager, Bolton Council, said, “By adopting this technology relatively early, we’ve already saved significant amounts of time and resources. NDL’s App Showcase is a great example of how co-operation between authorities can be mutually beneficial; we’ll certainly be looking at the showcase to see if there are any templates we can use.
“By using these templates, housing providers and local authorities can cut the time to roll out by downloading and implementing an app, while also retaining the flexibility to adapt the template to suit their needs, whether that’s altering the process, changing the app’s look and feel or running it on a different device.”
