There was a time when everyone solely wanted to have a website and work on their web presence for effective networking and profitable growth in business. However, things are changing now as the market and business trends are shifting to mobile applications for usability experience and simplicity. Websites are full of content and slightly less interactive than mobile application in terms of user engagement because once you are interacting with your peers using a mobile phone, it is usually a both way push-scenario where users can push content back to you once you have engaged them. This is the area where Basit Ali, CEO Eccentrica Technologies is simply innovates.
Basit started his career as a software engineer and worked with different organizations. He has spent quite a long time in the software industry working on several mobile solutions based on SMS, voice and IVR. Currently, he is working on several applications with Eccentrica Technologies, which started off with basically for Blackberry platform. With changing trends, now Eccentrica Technologies is working on cross-platform applications, game development and utilities that run on multiple platforms like iPhone, Android as well as Blackberry.
The company also develops event based applications like Eid, Hajj, Christmas, Easters and Halloween. What highlights Eccentrica Technology is a number of mobile presence applications it developed for different companies. In the beginning, Eccentrica Technologies designed tools and applications which helped companies acquire a number of users. Later, it introduced user engagement via mobile presence applications. Basit explains, “People came to us and asked about the possibility of a product that could gauge the speed of a user with the help of a mobile phone; and we designed Speedometer for this purpose. So, basically it’s the use of feedback from where the requirements come, and then we build on top of that, just like we did in case of Speedometer.”
Speedometer is a very simple dial on mobile phone and it works on cross platforms, allowing users to view their current speed when they are driving in a bus, train or a car. This application has received tremendous feedback from the users. People are now using it as their vehicle speedometer and to verify existing speedometers in cars and trucks.
Besides Speedometer, Eccentrica Technologies has also designed a user engagement application for Shaukat Khanum Hospital, which is one of the biggest trust foundations in Pakistan that is using donations on a very large scale. Basit says, “One of the initial targets for Shaukat Khanum Hospital was to have donors connected to it. Once you are looking for donations, obviously you are looking for user engagement and an image building process. The application we built provides access to health facilities and engagement with the health support they are providing, but it is also a generic tool for enterprise user engagement. We are looking forward to generalizing the product and reaching out to other health sector, institutions, hospitals, trusts and other health related companies to utilize this kind of platform.”
Shaukat Khanum Hospital’s staff has full control over their mobile application and they can feed any content in the application which then notifies all the users about the update. It is user engagement on multiple levels, which can also be perceived as peer-engagement, because it’s not only the user or the client that has been engaged, but all the peers that you are interacting with as a company.
The mobile software development industry has already been developing such solutions for people out there in the rest of the world where there is connectivity. Local mobile software industry is capable of producing quality work, but the mobility is limited in terms of Wi-Fi. 3G is soon to be launched now, but even in its absence, there are several mobile TV applications launched in Pakistan by different telecoms, which kind of worked somehow. However, such ventures need to be facilitated with a properly functioning and updated infrastructure.
Looking at 3G availability in the future and local market catching up on a lot of smartphone adaptability, Eccentrica Technologies is focusing on developing local applications in local languages. Basit and his team are already working on these applications for entertainment and educational purposes. Talking about future and objectives, Basit says, “What I can see now is the gap between the quality of content, especially in games, being developed outside Pakistan and the way they are being developed locally. Initially, everyone focuses on developing more content than producing more quality. However, the industry is now moving to mobile phones, transitioning from the quantity to quality. If you go out and conduct a survey, I’m absolutely sure that more than 90% of software development forums will be developing content including applications and games for mobiles. That’s how the demand is these days.”
