Nimbus Brings Process Improvement to iPhone
by Jeff Garbers on 04/03/10 at 5:30 am
Jeff Garbers, CTO of Rover Apps, is a software architect and user interface designer with over 30 years in the technology industry, and an Editor for iPhoneCTO.
For most enterprises, business process improvement is an essential strategy for increasing efficiency and staying competitive. But as processes change, how do you communicate those changes to employees and help them adapt to new ways of doing things? It’ll be of no surprise to iPhoneCTO readers to learn that there’s an app for that, too. Nimbus, a software company offering tools to help manage process improvement,
recently announced their Nimbus Control Player for iPhone to bring “storyboards” describing new business processes to mobile users.
We asked Nimbus CEO and founder Ian Gotts to bring us up to speed on what Nimbus brings to the table for enterprises and iPhone users in particular.
For those of us unfamiliar with Nimbus, would you give us a quick overview?
Ian: Nimbus is devoted to business process improvement. We are a software company with offices in ten countries serving global customers. We offer a single software application called Nimbus Control which allows clients to capture, manage and deploy their business processes and supporting information to all of their people.
For example, Carphone Warehouse is Europe’s leading independent retailer of mobile phones. In the UK, CPW have used Nimbus Control to document all of their retail store standard operating procedures. CPW identified a lot of waste in the way they were documenting and communicating process and procedures to their staff. By implementing Nimbus Control, they’ve not only streamlined their approach to documenting process, they’ve made it far easier for store managers and staff to find the operating procedures relevant to their role. CPW says it’s made a measurable difference, which they estimate at $85M in increased sales across those stores.
Why was it important to add support for mobile devices to your deployment capability?
To my mind, successful business process improvement is all about adoption. How do you make it as easy as possible for people to find, read and understand the process and procedure information you require them to follow? The Nimbus Control Player for iPhone fits entirely into this objective. The content we deploy to the iPhone can be described as step-by-step process tutorials —’ we call them ‘Storyboards’. The iPhone just gives us a different way of deploying this content.
Obviously those who are mobile and spend significant time disconnected from the corporate network — such as field sales, service engineers and logistics staff. Then there’s retail staff who aren’t desk based. Lastly, when you consider more senior executives, they’re often on the move, with flights and commute time. Now they can use some of this time to brush up on their process knowledge and see what’s new.
At iPhoneCTO, of course we’re delighted to see you’ve chosen to support iPhone as part of your mobile solution. What led you to choose iPhone over BlackBerry, which has high penetration in your customer base?
The iPhone is a high profile brand with one UI, one screen size, an operating system with 
a wide range of gestures built in — plus the option of not only the iPhone but also the iPod Touch. However, it is only the starting point; a proof point. We are extremely strong in Financial Services, especially investment banking, and therefore looking at the new range of BlackBerry devices is the natural next step. But Android and the new Windows Mobile 7 are in the roadmap.
Are your customers already embracing iPhones for business in a serious way, or do you expect that Nimbus Control Player will be something that drives iPhone adoption?
We see this driving iPhone adoption. Most of the iPhones sold to businesses seem to be “business people buying as consumers” and taking them to work. Whilst that shows the power of the iPhone proposition, it is very different from the IT department embracing the iPhone for its ability to deliver rich content. Don’t forget the iPod Touch, which could also prove popular as an inexpensive handheld access device. Apps like Nimbus Control for iPhone start to build a business case for the IT department, who until now have often been rabidly anti-Apple.
How do you see the upcoming iPad fitting in to Nimbus’ overall solution?
The larger screen and ability to open a wider variety of attached documents and applications makes this a natural extension of what we’re offering with the iPhone app. On the small screen of the iPhone we’ve adapted the delivery of step-by-step process instructions to focus on just one step at a time. Then you can stretch, swipe and pinch to see more of the process flow whenever you need. The larger screen of the iPad will make it easier to navigate the same content without zooming in to focus on individual steps.
What was the most unexpected challenge in building an iPhone-based solution?
The difficulty of deploying the app to end users. Firstly the queue of apps going through the iTunes AppStore validation process is growing rapidly. An enterprise app developer has the same priority as an individual with a little test app built for a laugh. I’m surprised Apple haven’t spotted the opportunity to provide a ‘Premium’ test service – the FastTrack – at a higher cost. Secondly, every end user needs to install the app personally on their device via the App store. There is no bulk distribution mechanism.
