BACKGROUND
Can you please provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?
Atlantic Mobile Apps is a certified Como partner in the United States. I'm the president and owner of the business.
OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE
What was the business challenge your company was facing that initiated the need for this platform?
I've launched multiple businesses and I figured the mobile app space was a very interesting space to get into from a business perspective. I had a client who was in need of a mobile app, and I went out to the market and all I could find were quotes for tens of thousands of dollars some even more than $100,000. In my opinion, I thought there must be a do-it-yourself platform that would facilitate what my client needed at a much lower cost. I went and found several, and Como really appealed to me because of their feature function set. To a certain degree, I'm a fairly technical person. I found Como quite easy to use, but I could see how nontechnical people might produce an app on the platform that isn't great.
SOLUTION
How does your company implement this platform or software?
I started Atlantic Mobile Apps to serve the do-it-yourselfer that needed a bit of help. The results have been great. We're able to produce high-quality apps very quickly at a low cost using the Como platform and once it's created, our clients are able to do all their edits themselves. They find it very easy. They just need that little bit of a lift. It's been a great relationship.
Was your company considering other platforms? Why this platform?
We evaluated multiple systems. Como was the one we felt had the best set of features, functions, and ease of use. Como as a business is very established and has quite a backbone in a world that has many startup companies that can't support their product. Como obviously can – that's what attracted me to Como.
RESULTS
Can you share any success, metrics, or overall results of your implementation of this platform?
We think the feature function set really covers the broad range of the clients we have. I think the overall usability of the app is very intuitive. We show people in about five minutes how to use it and they're done.
FEATURES
Were there any software features or tools that really impressed you?
In these platforms, you want something that comes as close to looking like a custom app as possible. Within Como, a feature that I like is the branches feature where if a client has multiple locations, the Como app picks up your location and tells you how far away you are, gives you a link into Yelp, and many integrated features. It's a way to have a customized interface if you have multiple locations. Como has some innovative features around customer loyalty and being able to allow people to benefit for being a loyal customer. I think their web tab, which allows you to integrate many features into your app, is better than ones I've seen elsewhere. Oh, push notifications – I like the fact that you can schedule a push notification within the Como platform. It's just very easy to use.
Looking back, are there any areas of the software upon which you feel could be added or improved?
We have a client who would like to use their mobile app as a membership ID, which implies that you need to be able to register in the app. The app needs to treat you like an individual. The good news is in a very short period of time that feature's going to be available.
Have you had to interact with the platform's support team or reference their support resources?
Our engagement has been very positive. Like many of these organizations Como has decided to build out a partner program so that partners like Atlantic Mobile Apps can be the customer-facing support organization. We find that they give us tremendous support. We feel like we are a priority and things get done. In turn, we provide our clients with direct support, which I think is effective. It's a good model. As a partner, we get tremendous support from Como.
OVERVIEW
We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the software for functionality of the features available?
Five.
What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of implementation into your business?
Five. It's very intuitive. That's what attracted us to it originally among many competitors.
For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?
Five.
For overall satisfaction with the platform?
Five.
How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?
Five. I would highly recommend Como to anybody. I recommend it to other partners. I think it's a good business and understanding where their funding and background. Como is a major player, and they could be the major player worldwide in a very short period of time because of things that are occurring behind the scenes.
