Sat, 19 May 2012 22:12:32 -0800WeeblyThu, 23 Jun 2011 06:26:53 -0800http://esyngen.com/1/post/2011/06/mhealth-its-time-has-come.htmlMobile healthcare or mHealth was inspired by a genuine need complicated by a shortage of doctors and nurses. With much of the developing world combating diseases like malaria, HIV and Aids and the basic yet hard to solve problem of access to clean drinking water, developing and middle class nations face the classic catalyst for coming up with solutions, "the crisis".

The crisis is now widespread. Factors like aging populations,  collapsing economies, war, and climate change are compounding healthcare problems that until a couple of decades ago were largely seen as Third World issues. Well no longer. Poverty is rampant in Western cities. Chronic diseases like diabetes are effecting not just our grandparents but ourselves and more frighteningly our children. Heart disease, cancer, mental illness continue to plague aging populations around the world. The numbers of elderly people are now stressing the healthcare infrastructure that used to effectively meet the needs of our seniors.

The silver lining? The timing and exponential rise of the knowledge economy which allows us to be more effective and efficient. Two overused buzz words but nevertheless critical factors when forced to do more with less. We need to enable doctors and nurses to diagnose patients faster without compromising the quality of the diagnosis. We need to educate people on preventative healthcare and quickly share public health information when emergencies arise. 

The best all-in-one tool is the mobile phone, the most functional and ubiquitous communication tool we have ever had since the invention pen and paper. 

At Esyngen Interactive our primary vertical industry is healthcare because that is where the greatest societal need is, developing and developed world alike.  It is also where mobile technology can have the biggest impact.

Through better knowledge sharing, faster and more accurate diagnostic tools, and by integrating with social media we can address many critical healthcare challenges head on.

Esyngen is focused on building apps that leverage the capabilities of smartphones and the power of web services, cloud based computing and social media. Using cameras, GPS, wireless, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, email, web and mobile database access we custom design solutions that address very specific healthcare challenges. The smartphone has been compared to the Swiss Army knife. It is not one tool but a set of tools. No one tool will solve the myriad healthcare challenges we see before us but mHealth is the Swiss Army knife we have in our pocket. Time to use it.

To find out how Esyngen can help design and develop a custom mHealth solution for your healthcare organization, drop us a note through our contact page and one of our solution specialists will quickly be in touch. 

Or drop me a line at my coordinates below.

Graham Newbigging
graham@esyngen.com
(905) 582-6414
twitter.com/esyngen
]]>Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:09:41 -0800http://esyngen.com/1/post/2011/06/zen-and-the-art-of-app-development.htmlThe notion that programming is an exact science, that in the near future robots will write flawless software autonomously is a commonly held misconception. I'm not saying that an artificial intelligence won't be able to best humans at the game of software development, someday. I believe they will, someday. I just wish to state that programming is not an exact science. It is an art form. And the robot that progresses beyond humans in this field will need to have a heart like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz in order to muster the requisite creative energy. 

As with more traditional art, interpretation is subjective. Good art, or as I define it here, art that transcends the ages, conforms to basic principles or rules that govern composition, colour palette, use of line and texture etc. And so it is with most good things in life, principles govern. Good posture is necessary for zen meditation, laws that when followed create the right environment are necessary for civilized society to flourish. There are core fundamentals necessary to create something that will transcend the ages. But these laws should be inherent, foundational elements like the concrete below a house or the roots below a tree. You don't see them but you know that without them the house would fall and the tree would wither and die.

So it is with programming. Yes, there are 10+ ways to write an app but the only good versions will follow a set of common rules. What are these rules? you ask. It isn't secret or even complicated. Like most principles they are widely held norms that are basic in nature. 

1) Keep it clean and simple. The most successful apps are basic, whether it's the mindless fun derived from hurling cartoon birds across a screen and nothing more or the simplicity of an app that just tells you the name of the song playing on the radio. 

2) Solve a problem or meet a need. No one will use an app that doesn't do one of these two things. But be careful not to try and meet more than one need or solve more than one problem at a time. An app must be focussed. Do not try to make it something for everyone. Apps are singular in purpose.

3) Listen to users and change or fix what needs to be changed or fixed. The worst thing an app developer can do is invest time and resources in building something and then abandon the users once it's out there and the buzz has died down. The best apps have evolved over time. Their developers fixed and changed things based on user feedback. As the saying goes change is constant. An app will quickly stagnate and be forgotten and users will grow frustrated when old problems return or their needs go unmet. Keep at it and listen carefully to what users are saying. This calls for a thick skin sometimes as honesty can be brutal. So slip out of the ego. Great apps evolve when honest criticism is listened to.

That's it. Simple huh? App development is art and Zen some. (Groan did I really write that?)

Graham Newbigging
graham@esyngen.com
(905) 582-6414
twitter.com/esyngen
]]>Fri, 13 May 2011 05:31:00 -0800http://esyngen.com/1/post/2011/05/our-methodology-kiss-and-share.htmlAgile, hmmm. Most team members think 3M post it notes, whiteboard diagrams constantly redrawn, heated 10 minute morning sessions, wacky excuses. Essentially open short bursts of chaos. And that is healthy, as long as there is an outcome that moves the project forward and solves problems. My experience though has been that Agile SCRUM sessions devolve into drawn out technical discussions or even functional redesigns. Why is that? Well it has to do mostly with running the SCRUM improperly. 

Here is how we do it at Esyngen. The SCRUM Master is always the Project Manager to avoid authority battles. At other places it's sometimes the Sr. Developer. We meet first thing with coffee in hand and start on time. There are no chairs in our SCRUM room. You are not supposed to get comfortable so don't. We're here for a short time, not a good time. There is a white board, it gets used to take notes. There are only three questions. Only the SCRUM Master gets to ask them. Everyone has to answer one at a time without interruption.

   1.) What have you done since yesterday?
   2.) What will you have done by end of today?
   3.) What challenges are you facing?

ONLY after everyone has answered do people pair off to help solve each others problems. The SCRUM Master reminds everyone we are on a team and we have a duty to help each other or risk failure. Dismissed!

At that point the whiteboard is photographed, uploaded to the project document repository and printed. The SRUM Master brings this to the next meeting. If responses the next day don't show measurable results, the PM takes action, assigns additional resources, asks the senior programmer to get involved. Whatever is needed. Bottlenecks are kept to a minimum, projects stay on track.

Timelines are always short. If they were longer we'd still say they were short. Projects only get delivered On Time, On Budget and In Scope because the PM is on point. We are disciplined, interdependent and focussed.  We keep it simple and share. No, we are not true Agile, nor are we Waterfall, we are what works. Cross functional teams that evolve organically and allow the creative process to flourish as we iterate through each phase solving challenges along the way. We all get a daily reality check, progress is mapped onto deliverable schedules by the PM and form the basis for client status reports. Responsibility and liability are shared.  The process is transparent. 

We work like this all the way through design, development, testing and deployment. 3 questions, a whiteboard, camera and document repository. Shared responsibility, shared knowledge, shared success. You have to have a thick skin but this is business and when we celebrate the wins, we all smile. 


]]>Thu, 12 May 2011 06:22:45 -0800http://esyngen.com/1/post/2011/05/anywhereanytime.htmlWell the paint on the new site isn't even dry and we're away to the races. Mobile is on the elbow of the exponential curve. If you're a fan of the Law of Accelerating Returns (thanks Ray Kurzweil) then these are indeed very exciting times and busy ones for mobile developers. 

First some numbers... There are 4 billion mobile phones in the world at last estimate. 3 billion are SMS enabled and fully 1 billion are smart devices, capable of doing what the average desktop was capable of a few short years ago. The average North American spends more than 2 1/2 hours using their mobile device every day. That's more time than they spend doing just about anything else other than sleeping. Half of all web searches are done on a mobile device and in two short years mobile web access will surpass the desktop.  What are we doing on our phones? Communicating and consuming data. 90% of people use their smartphones to access social media. Each day there are more than 200 million YouTube views on mobile devices. These are huge numbers that prove mobile is exploding now.

So what does this future look like. A shout out to the folks at Corning who have done an excellent job envisioning a day in the life for us. Check out the video "A Day Made of Glass" (after you finish reading my post, please). From the moment you wake up you are moving and your data move with you. (Come on, admit it. The first thing most of us do before we even get out of bed is check our phones. Weather, email, Facebook, quick game of Angry Birds to pump the adrenaline. Okay maybe I'm alone there but I don't think so.) 


In the Corning video we see our idilic future. It looks fantastic, you say. Great! So ask yourself. Where I work, what is our mobile strategy? Is our data available anywhere, anytime? Are we reaching our customers and talking with our vendors anywhere, anytime? Are we doing business anywhere, anytime like in the video? If the answer is, we're not, we open at 9 and close at 5, then you're not maximizing your business potential. I'm not talking about working 60 hour weeks. I'm talking about working on your terms. When and where you want. If you decide to work 60 hours that's your choice. But at least work when and where you want. Your family and friends will thank you.

More and more employees are seeking greater flexibility. They don't want to be chained to their desks and when they do have that stroke of genius they want to be able to act on it without having to sit down at the PC or worse still truck into the office because that crucial file is on that damned office server. They want to grab their phone or tablet and sieze the moment and move on with their day.

Start now! Be the catalyst for changing the way your company does business. The Law of Accelerating Returns will thank you and so will your boss.

If you are in sales or marketing look at your social mobile strategy. Is it integrated? Does it leverage location services, QR codes, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SMS??? If not or only a tiny bit then you have an opportunity to improve things. To reach more people, to engage folks directly and frequently. To build more and stronger trusted relationships.

If you are in production, look at your methodology. Are you as effective as you could be? Do your vendors know what you need when you need it? Are you able to access information real time so you can make informed decisions that are the difference between a quality product or service and a mistake? If not then look to enable mobile access to mission critical information and your mistakes will be fewer. Customers love quality. 

If you are in administration look at your processes. Are they efficient? Are there bottlenecks because someone isn't attending to an inbox or isn't logging in to review and approve something. Again, opportunity to improve. Everyone will thank you when the process runs more smoothly. Life will be better.

At Esyngen Interactive we do mobile. We make mobile apps, and enable mobile web access. The kind of mobile that pays for itself through reduced costs, increased sales and greater satisfaction. Contact us, we go anywhere, anytime.

Graham Newbigging
graham@esyngen.com
(905) 582-6414
twitter.com/esyngen]]>