Myriad Mobile

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Midco is a cable TV, internet, home phone, and home automation provider in the Midwest. We cover North Dakota, South Dakota, parts of Minnesota, and a little bit of Wisconsin, too. We started out as a movie theater company and have grown over the years into radio, TV, and now we focus on those four key aspects for our residential customers. We also have a business arm as well as a sports network, Midco Sports Network. For this app, we were really focusing on our residential customers and helping them manage their account.

I am our Web Applications Manager, and I’m responsible for all of our front-facing customer websites and user experiences, as well as our apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

We do have a way that our customers can currently manage their account on Midco.com; it’s called My Account. It is by far our most popular section of the website. In fact, probably close to 35% of our overall website users go to My Account to manage their account, to pay their bill, add email addresses, and watch TV streaming online or through their devices. In our company, our culture is that we want to be as trailblazing and innovative as possible, and we are trying to find new ways for our customers to access that information more easily. We internally analyzed the possibility of providing that in an app form and felt that that would be a great user experience for our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We partnered with Myriad for discovery, design, and the development phases of the app, so they were a part of it from the very beginning. They developed for us in iOS and Android.

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

We had a request for proposal [RFP] process and sent it out to a number of different companies, local and some that were further away. We heard about Myriad probably about in April of 2015. They were putting on a mobile summit in Fargo, and we have offices in Fargo. It’s a new addition to our customer base. We just put in cable lines and fiber lines. In fact, it’s going to be our first community that’s going to go gigabit internet this year. They are part of the tech community up there, so we had some connections. Then we sent them the RFP, went through that process, and felt most comfortable with them as a partner moving forward. That’s why we chose them.

How much have you invested with Myriad Mobile?

We have spent between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The app has been released, and we’ve already done an update for some minor fixes to the app. We’re working with them ongoing for future releases. We plan to have one hopefully this year and one or two a year moving forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It’s really taken off. We had approval in the stores in mid-June, and we have already had over 8,000 current installations on the app. We are getting great feedback from our customers, even lots of internal feedback and feedback from our customers on what they want to see in the app moving forward, which is great. That’s what we want to know from our customers, in order to provide them what they want in an app. It has been a success.

What did you find most impressive about Myriad Mobile?

They ask the right questions. Their discovery process is very thorough. They had a great understanding of what we wanted by the time we entered wireframes and design, and I felt like that really helped us move forward and be on the same page. There weren’t a lot of instances where we were going back and forth unhappy with things. It just felt as if we were pretty much on the same page the whole time through the process. Their design and development teams, as well as their strategic employees, are all top-notch, and we felt like we really got the best of the best.

Are there any areas Myriad Mobile could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything I’d say.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an educational software company.

What is your position?

I'm a cofounder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

My business partner and I are both educators and researchers. We had a conceptual framework of an application that we wanted to design and build. We lacked the technical skill to do that. After a lot of research, we decided to partner with Myriad Mobile in Fargo, North Dakota, because of the quality of service that they provide.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We wanted to create an objective behavior monitoring tool to be used in conjunction with a multitiered system of support and response to intervention. Those are two programs that are predominantly in kindergarten through 12th grade education. We had our application built initially with the iPod Touch so that it would be mobile in the classroom. Myriad has now created an iPad version and a laptop version for us to address the market needs. Our product continues to evolve.

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

We found Myriad Mobile through multiple references of local community members. We looked in the Minneapolis area as well. We're a local company, and we believe strongly in doing our best to keep it in North Dakota.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was a large project for us landing in range of $180,000 to $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Myriad Mobile took something that's largely theoretical and turned it into something that we are now able to put into practice. We took decades of research and distilled it down into what we believe is effective behavior monitoring. Having 15 years of classroom experience myself and knowing what works, but then being able to make it tangible for the end user is a struggle in K-12 education. Their team sat down with us and listened to our idea and how we framed it conceptually and made it a reality for us. Everything turned out beyond expectation. Myriad Mobile has outperformed and exceeded any expectation we could have ever set.

What distinguishes Myriad Mobile from other providers?

The diversity in their staff as far as skill sets go is amazing. Their team can provide web development to infrastructure to the actual platform development on iOS while also creating the cloud database that we needed to support the application. Since this is a K-12 product, our intention as a company is to take it nationally. They made everything scalable in anticipation of success. As the need grows and develops, they are already forward thinking enough to have it ready for us.

Is there anything Myriad Mobile could have improved or done differently?

Not a thing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a mobile app that assists people with disabilities in selecting the right hotel room when they travel.

What is your position?

I am the cofounder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

We needed to have both an app and a website developed, and Myriad Mobile came highly recommended. We were dealing with the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and that was by far their first choice as far as who we should have develop the app. It's a complex app, so we wanted to make sure we trusted the partner.

SOLUTION

Upon which platforms is the application available?

The app is available across the board.

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

We actually looked at two other agencies. The two others that we had first contacted were small businesses. They were either single or two people business that were entrepreneurs or worked on apps as a side business. The one thing that pushed us toward Myriad, honestly, was they have a team of 20 or so people there, and they all participate in their own little way in making the app work. They all have their little niche, and they have their little inputs on "yes, we can do that", "no, we can't do that," or "this is how we can do this." What really drove us to Myriad Mobile was that once we start visiting them, it was incredible the variety and depth of knowledge and experience you could get in one place.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our app is in the $50,000 to $200,000 range.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

At this point, all we have done is a prototype, and I think it's awesome. It's everything we had looked for and probably more. Myriad brought much insight into their research. As far as a prototype goes, it's not working yet. It won't be up and running until probably the fall of this year [2016], but the prototype and what they've done so far has just been everything we had hoped for.

What distinguishes Myriad Mobile from other providers?

They're very easy to work with, very down to Earth. They have some big clients, and we're definitely the largest price-wise, but we're a husband and wife team, maybe on the older side of entrepreneurs, and definitely felt like, "Boy, they sure made us feel at home." Myriad Mobile is super easy to get along with and easy to talk to. You give them a call, and they get right back to you. As far as the overall team, referring back to the comment before, they all have their own little niche for knowledge. If one doesn't necessarily know the answer, somebody else in the company will.

Is there anything Myriad Mobile could have improved or done differently?

I can't honestly say that I do. We've been just extremely satisfied with their product and how they are to work with. I have no complaints at all.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a sugar producer. We’re located in Wahpeton, North Dakota. The company name is Minn-Dak Farmers’ Cooperative, and we are exactly that. We are a farmer-owned cooperative made up of about 500 individual family farms that produce roughly about 8 million pounds of sugar every year, just granulated white table sugar. We do that from about 120,000 acres of sugar beets that are grown annually.

What is your position?

I am the director of research. I handle all of the research and development on the factory, primarily on the agricultural side, and oversee all the new up-and-coming methodologies and technologies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

One of the things that’s paramount for us, especially in the agriculture sector, is the transfer of information from company to farmer. We have a very good robust agricultural staff that works very closely with the farmers in every aspect of sugar beet production, but we’re trying to utilize a way that we can get information out to them and collect information from them in a little more efficient manner. For us, an app was absolutely the way to go. We hooked up with Myriad to get that goal accomplished.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

We came across Myriad Mobile through a personal connection with Ryan Raguse, a cofounder of Myriad. Ryan was an insider and understood the whole process, because he grew up on a farm and also raised sugar beets; he was easily able to convey our idea to his team. We started branching out a little bit just to make sure Myriad was the right company to go with, and we looked at several other app development companies in other cities. Without a doubt, Myriad was the one we chose and are still continuing with them today.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We spent $50,000 to $200,000 initially. That was version one. Now, we’ve added to it and really made the app blossom into things we never dreamed it could do. The total bill to date is well over $200,000, but it initially started at $50,000 to $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our experience has just been unbelievable. We have a very diverse user base for this app. What I mean by that, is that you’ve got the young 23-year-old kid that just graduated from college that’s back on the farm, incredibly tech-savvy, so you want to make the app for him somewhat intuitive. A lot of the features like Facebook and Twitter, and some of the flow and user interface details need to be intuitive. At the same time, we’ve got a guy that’s 67 years old that probably isn’t the most tech-savvy guy. It needs to be functional, and he needs to be able to navigate through it. It was a little bit of challenge to get the best of both worlds. The interface that Myriad came up with provided the data that we’re looking to get out to them and the information we’re looking to acquire from them, and the navigation through everything is really simple. We had better than 90% usage rates after the first year of the app. It’s become a staple.

What distinguishes Myriad Mobile from other providers?

Myriad Mobile is very easy to work with. Ryan Raguse [Myriad Mobile, Cofounder] tends to take the lead in a lot of our projects, or is at least involved. Again, he understands and is able to bridge that gap of what a sugar beet co-op is asking a computer developer, two completely unrelated fields. He is able to bridge and marry that gap, so we like to keep him involved. So far, the teams that he has assigned to work on the different versions of the app have been very good to work with. The Myriad Mobile team is very inquisitive. They make sure they know exactly what we want. We have set up deadlines for them, and they have never once failed to meet a deadline.

Is there anything Myriad Mobile could have improved or done differently?

The only thing would be, that it would really be nice to work with the same group of people every time we do a new version of the app. We have a whole other different team from Myriad assigned to it. Don’t get me wrong, each team has done a great job, but at that initial few meetings and the beginning stage, we’re right back explaining who Minn-Dak is, what we do, and what we’re looking for. It just would be nice to have the same team that worked on the apps as we progress.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a Michigan-based property and casualty insurance company.

What is your position?

I’m the chief information officer. I’m responsible for all IT functions within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

One of our goals is to be more customer centric, and for this we needed to get a mobile app built. While talking with a lot of other companies, I noticed that they reallocated internal team members over to do native mobile applications, and it became an end for people that built it in-house. I felt that the companies that outsourced it to someone who specialized in mobile apps actually had more success. We decided to outsource the app development.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

I didn’t do an RFP on this project. We had done a mobile project before and shut it down. This time I wanted to hand select the company. We talked to some local companies and others. Myriad’s name came up and I felt they were a good fit with our company. They had built a mobile app for a mutual insurance company in the past. That was important to me. It was great that I didn’t have to teach them the context of a mutual insurance company and specific insurance language and concepts.

Myriad is a young, vibrant company and I liked that. Geography didn’t matter to me. They’re in North Dakota and we’re in Michigan. If I’m going to outsource the work, I’m going to outsource it. It doesn’t matter how far away they are. I didn’t want to go with a big company. I wanted to go with somebody who specialized in apps.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our project with Myriad Mobile has cost over $200,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app has not deployed yet and we’re still in the testing phase right now. I’ve been impressed with Myriad’s ability and their responsiveness during this phase.

What distinguishes Myriad Mobile from other providers?

Myriad Mobile is very easy to work with. They have a defined approach. They came in, they talked about it, and they have followed that methodology. They have a repeatable process to getting a project done and that’s exactly what I needed.

Is there anything Myriad Mobile could have improved or done differently?

This is our first mobile project. I’ve been happy with the project the whole way through, from inception to design and development, and now the testing. Myriad Mobile are good coaches and great for companies who are new to mobile. Everybody can be better, but they’ve met or exceeded my expectations every step of the way.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Conservis has been in operation for about six years now. We make ERP [enterprise resource planning] platforms for large farmers who need systems to roll up all of their finances and move their operational data to other locations, like their banks and other third parties. We have a strong need for mobile and office components for our Conservis platform in order for it to be truly effective.

What is your position?

I am the Vice President of Engineering.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Myriad Mobile?

We engaged Myriad Mobile to help us with our mobile application strategy and implementation of our next generation mobile apps. We have six scrum teams running here and one of them is in Minsk, Belarus. The others are spread out in Minnesota.

Are they available across platforms?

It's interesting, we were using PhoneGap, which would have made our app available on most mobile platforms before we brought this to Myriad. We had specific hardware requirements, and because of the need to control the Bluetooth stack at a very detailed level, we decided to move from PhoneGap to the native applications, which Myriad Mobile was instrumental in helping us do. We're available on iOS and Android now in both native versions.

SOLUTION

How did you come to work with Myriad Mobile?

We did look at three or four other mobile infrastructure companies. We ended up choosing Myriad through a process that was pretty rigorous in looking at their capabilities. We went to Fargo and met their team. We vetted all the possible vendors very well. In addition to the their technical expertise, they also had a farm management system that was very light, called Virtual Farm Manager that we were also interested in acquiring, which we have done since we signed the contract with Myriad.

Overall, there was more than one reason for us to be involved with Myriad. One, was their technical expertise on the mobile side, where they beat out other mobile companies. The other, was a cultural and strategic fit for our company's growth strategy.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have a $200,000-plus partnership in place between Conservis and Myriad Mobile today. We're continuing to grow our business with them. They are our key partner in our development strategy. We can't build every piece of software ourselves; we have to lean on the good folks at Myriad that have the skills to pull this all together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Well, that's a great question, and we get feedback. Our customers are very picky, and they're even pickier than the general public in their use of their mobile applications. They have big hands, and they're in dirty environments. They don't treat their electronics very well. It's just an interesting dynamic to have the customers that we're lucky to have.

The feedback we have between the 1.0 and the 1.5 versions of the applications, is just amazing. We’ve received really great feedback from our customers.

What distinguishes Myriad Mobile from other providers?

Well they are overall good partners, but I think their founders are truly the crux of Myriad Mobile. Their get-it-done attitude just flows to the rest of the company. It starts at the top. I know both of them very well through our negotiations and the trips I've made to Fargo to meet with them. What stands out is the work ethic associated with Myriad Mobile, in addition to the team being technically astute.

You can have the best management that you can get and still have a team that misses the mark. Their technical team has come in with what we needed. They stepped it up in times of need, for us to meet a deadline and deliver stuff to the marketplace. It's not like most consumer apps where you have all year to launch something. If you miss the planting season, then you're going to have to wait until planting next year, and the same if you need to get something in their hands before harvest.

Is there anything Myriad Mobile could have improved or done differently?

I think that what we've gone through for constructive criticism is pretty normal stuff. You have some turnover of employees which is normal in this big world where there's lots of competition for people out there. Of course they've had a couple of good people, as have all of us, move onto other positions outside the company and it takes a little bit to get the new person retrained in. Luckily, Myriad has been very responsive through those transitions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are in the insurance industry.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I manage our portfolio of IT [information technology] work.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Myriad Mobile?

We had been working with a prior mobile vendor for our Phase 1 deployment. In time, that relationship had deteriorated, and we wanted to switch vendors to one that would help us become more independent. We wanted to be brought up to speed on the technology and have a local team to provide better, more consistent service.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Myriad provided native development work for the Android and iOS platforms. They also provided some UX [user experience] services during the envisioning phase of our project. This app is for our customer base. We work across the U.S. with about 3,000 to 5,000 agents, and about 1,500 agents have installed it and used the software.

What was your process for selecting Myriad Mobile with which to work?

We encountered them at a business after-hours meeting or through some local trade publications. We brought them in, interviewed them, and became familiar with them. A few months later when we were ready to engage them, we reached out again and explained the specifics of the project. We explored how they could fill that need, and we gave them a try on a smaller project first. As time has gone on, we’ve ramped up our work with them and used them more.

The work is ongoing. We’ve been using them since the beginning of 2013 or 18 months ago. We're very satisfied with the work they’ve done for us, and we want to keep that relationship going.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

Last year, we spent about $500,000 with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We don’t have traditional metrics. Informally, when we’ve been up against deadlines, their team has worked long hours side by side with our team to hit the deadline. We probably had eight releases so far. Every time we’ve had a deadline, they’ve come through for us to help us hit those eight releases that we needed. They’ve come in on budget with their estimates.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

The team at Myriad Mobile is passionate about the technology. A lot of people say it, but they really are. They work with us in our business and try to understand how they can leverage their technology passion to our business needs. A lot of people are just in it to make a dollar, and they don’t want a long-term working relationship with the customer.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. They’ve filled all of our needs and they’ve hit all of our deadlines. They’ve come in on budget when we needed them to do that. Anytime there’s been any feedback for them, they’ve been responsive to it. We have a happy mutual relationship.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your organization and your role there?

It’s Valley News Live. It’s the NBC and the CBS affiliate, NBC is KVLY, CBS is KXJB, two television stations. We have a news app and a weather app in the market, plus we have valleynewslive.com. We’re both a TV and digital news operation in the marketplace. It’s referred to as “Valley News Live” because we’re in Fargo, and Fargo is in the heart of the Red River Valley. We got 90 employees. We do seven hours of news a day.

What is your role at the company?

President and general manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were trying to address?

At the time, we first went with an app, because being in a relatively small television group, our company only has eight stations. We didn’t have a lot of IT [information technology] support or people who were savvy on the digital side. We were working with a company, but it was barter company. We got the news app, but they got some of the inventory. That company was Verve. They did an OK job and the app was OK, but it wasn’t as robust as we wanted. It was a little slow and didn’t have video. We wanted to be able to do push notifications, things of that nature.

We decided that we wanted to update our app. We wanted to go in a different direction. Within my budgeting process, I got some money put aside in 2013 for a new app. One of the things that attracted us to Myriad is they’re local. The office is in Fargo. We felt like if we had the people right here, it would be great public relations for us, that we are having somebody locally owned do our app who can provide service onsite.

The primary thing that we wanted to do was to make the switch. We had 45,000 people that had already subscribed through the Verve app. There are [slightly less than] 500,000 people in our market, 250,000 homes, so 40,000 was quite few for the share of the marketplace. We want to make sure that we have absolute dependability. We did not want to have anything really go wrong or major problems with our viewer base and be embarrassed with a product that had glitches.

The number one thing we wanted was for the app to be tough, simple, foolproof and operate smoothly without any problems. We wanted it robust and all the things that came with it. At the same time, in the television industry, some of the other suppliers of apps really pushed a lot of real video-oriented apps and was slow to load because of that. We got into a divide between television station apps that want to push video or an app that somebody wanted to use that was clean and efficient. 

SOLUTION

Can you describe the scope of their work?

They designed and developed the new version of the app. They also gave good advice about the layout and usability.

How did you select Myriad Mobile as your solution partner?

I knew them before the project. We interacted on a news story that my station covered years ago. We called them and they came in and gave us a presentation. Our decision came down to using a local firm or a larger firm in another city with more television industry experience. They sold the product on the strengths that I talked about. That’s what made us choose them.

When was the app launched?

June of 2013. It was iOS and Android.

Do you feel iOS and Android were the best platforms for the app?

Yes. For our budget and many other reasons it was the right decision. On the television station side, the digital dialer is new for us. It’s growing pretty quick. It’s becoming a substantial part of our overall revenue, percentage-wise. But, it’s still in its early stages. We haven’t reached the peak by any means. As it ramps up, we also have to keep our expenses in line with the revenue projections that we had. It was expensive just to do Android and iOS. In this market, one of the key things too is this is a huge Verizon market. I think Verizon has 70 or 80 percent market share [here]. Consequently, I think we have a much higher percentage of Google Android users in our market compared to other areas.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I would say it was between $40,000 and $60,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

When working with Myriad Mobile, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about their approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve used?

The other firms I dealt with was over conference calls and emails and video presentations. There was more warmth with Myriad because almost all of the designers and executives are all North Dakota State University graduates, right here in Fargo. We’re a big NDSU station, which was fun since I was dealing with people who were just in school a couple of years ago, and these are the future whiz kids of the millennial generation. It was fun for me to be able to work with them. They’re whip-smart, they were patient and were fun to work with.

One of the other things I liked about Myriad was that they gave great advice against using videos in the app. The new version is clean, easy to use, looks good, and is fast. The last app loaded slow because of the numerous videos but was stylish. From a usability standpoint, it wasn’t that good.

For us, it was a battle between my owners who liked the television-style app, because they’re both older TV guys, and the Myriad crew who implored me to go with their version. They were right. There were so many different news organizations and other organizations that were going to clean design. In the end, I took their advice and took the clean design and they showed us multiple times how robust it was and it worked really well. When we launched it and started advertising it on the air, people started going to the Google store and the iOS store and started loading. It was flawless. Literally, we had no complaints. We didn’t even have one complaint on social media or directly to the station. I thought that was just huge.

Currently, we pay Myriad Mobile a monthly fee and they update us all the time with the software that comes in, all the changes and so forth. They’re highly knowledgeable and they’re very responsive when we call. My news director and IT guy meet and they call me back immediately. We have phone numbers of people for nights and weekends and the service has been very, very good.

I’m more impressed with this fact that our app was the first news app that they developed. They hadn’t done one yet for a newspaper, television, or radio station. They’ve done some pretty good apps that we’ve seen locally for some big corporations, banks and so forth. But ours is unique in a way that it’s got to be bulletproof and it’s got to be quick to load content. It is challenging because it must be easy for viewers to navigate with one thumb. The layout and everything has been wonderful.

In retrospect, are there areas that you think they could improve on or that you would do differently?

No. They were right on. Their design was right on. They were right about the style of the app. We’re well past 60,000 downloads. When you can market something to the public and basically get zero complaints about the performance of it, it says a lot.