2020 in Review – an interview with BlueFinity
It was a pleasure to catch up with Malcolm Carroll of BlueFinity to hear how 2020 went for them and their clients.
ELKIE: 2020 has been a challenging year for many both personally and professionally. I hear that through this period, BlueFinity have been out there being “enablers”.
MALCOLM: Yes, we felt that our low-code app development platform Evoke was well-placed and an ideal platform for what is required by business now, so we had to step up to the mark to help our existing customers and new ones adapt their businesses fast.
The prolonged nature of this pandemic has meant that businesses are no longer practically able to wait for things to get back to normal. Not only is there the time factor, but ‘normal’ is changing quickly as well. Until more recent times, apps have been deployed selectively, and primarily by larger businesses, but with low code, coupled with unlimited onward development possibilities, apps can now be developed quickly by existing staff and deployed by companies of all sizes.
ELKIE: So which sorts of industries did you manage to help?
MALCOLM: There have been a whole number of diverse business sectors that we have assisted with Evoke, and who have now deployed their apps or are currently developing apps for use by their employees, management, partners and customers.
We have worked in areas including financial services, healthcare, retail and government. Retail has had a greater focus more recently as it has been so impacted by the various lockdown restrictions, and many retailers have had to introduce apps and adapt their business models. We have been able to assist in not only protecting their revenues but also supporting their growth.
ELKIE: What sort of projects did you help with and how?
MALCOLM: Again, a diverse range of app-based solutions have been implemented using the Evoke development platform. We have seen customers in the healthcare sector develop apps to assist healthcare professionals when dealing with patients, in the energy sector devolving the management of wholesale energy supply to regional power companies, and in the retail sector providing direct marketing channels to their customers, as well as providing support to the logistics area of their business.
ELKIE: If you had to name the most successful and favourite project – which would it be?
MALCOLM: One of our very successful projects, and certainly the most topical as it is in the retail sector, is with Classic Groundcovers, a wholesale garden nursery based in the USA, who have produced apps not only for themselves but for their suppliers.
They wanted to replace their manual order system with an app, as they struggled to manage orders particularly at times of high volumes. Managing orders sometimes involved up to 12 hours a day of administration and the situation was unsustainable.
They created an app that integrates with their order management system and data, automating order processing. Orders are sent into the system directly and verified with the customer. A shipping date is then assigned, saving a huge amount of administration time, and eliminating any errors from the process. Streamlining these processes has halved their administration time and has been such a success that even one of their own supplier wholesalers has now adopted the app for their own operations.
For more information about Evoke, visit www.bluefinity.com.