International law firm CMS is upbeat about its new mobile app that will provide its staff with key information and messages for their specific practice areas, sectors and regions.
CMS has law and tax experts in more than 70 offices across Europe, the Middle East, South America and Asia.
Bluegrass Digital, a leading Web developer and mobile user experience (UX) company, designed and developed the new mobile app that is now available on the iOS, Android and Windows platforms.
Jenny Hallatt, CMS senior brand manager, says CMS wanted to build an app for some time but struggled to make it happen. "Bluegrass just 'got it' and delivered an app that fit our requirements perfectly."
The app user interface was designed using clean and simple user interface (UI) principles, placing the user in control and ensuring a comfortable user experience with the product. The UI design applied existing corporate identify and brand materials.
Bluegrass Digital managing director Nick Durrant says, for this mobile application, they used Microsoft's Xamarin technology, which is best used in situations when delivering cross-platform native Android, iOS and Windows apps. "Xamarin provides CMS with a native app using a single code base and delivering lower cost of ownership.
"In addition, we built a content management solution for the mobile app using Umbraco and integrated a Restful API for the app. This allows CMS to easily create and manage content on the app. To provide app usage metrics, we added a Firebase integration within the app," he explains.
Once our quality assurance process had been completed, the app was deployed to Microsoft Intune, CMS's chosen app management and distribution software. The app was distributed and deployed to all devices across the company.
"The Bluegrass Digital project management and development team were excellent throughout - great regular communication, honest advice and extremely personable," says Hallatt.
Durrant says with firm deadlines, the project ran efficiently and was delivered within eight weeks. "The use of mobile technology in the workplace is becoming very popular, especially considering remote, flexible and mobile working habits of employees in the modern world.
"Mobile products like the one we crafted for CMS are much more effective communication tools than traditional outdated intranet systems that nobody really uses anymore. Employees are using their phones all the time in performing their daily tasks, and it makes sense to have everything in one place rather than on disparate communication channels," he adds.
"The app has been a huge success for CMS, with consistently excellent feedback on the functionality, design and content," Hallatt concludes.
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