Shay Goldberg, of Israel-based iApps Technologies, spoke in Minneapolis about the importance of every company to have an app
By ERIN ELLIOTT BRYAN / Community News Editor
Our world is becoming increasingly more mobile. And according to Shay Goldberg, co-founder of Israel-based iApps Technologies, most companies aren’t tapping into the “magic” of smartphones and tablets to reach their customers and grow their businesses.
“I really believe our innovative technology is capable of helping out companies break down the barriers to the mobile world,” Goldberg told the AJW.
Goldberg spoke recently at an event hosted by the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota at the Sabes JCC, where he talked with local business leaders about how they can implement his company’s technology into customized mobile apps (short for applications). He was joined by iApps’ U.S. executive, Gari Brizinov, who is based in the Twin Cities.
“The nice thing about it was that they don’t come from the digital industry or the mobile world,” Goldberg said of the Minnesota leaders. “It’s a great opportunity for us to bring our innovative technology to less techy places… You could actually see the minds of the people opening and they were coming up with ideas how to implement this in their field of business. That was really awesome.”
Goldberg is a native of Herzliya and is an industrial design graduate of HIT — Holon Institute of Technology. He co-founded iApps with Ori Segal in 2004 and based the company in his hometown — in the heart of “Silicon Wadi,” an area around Tel Aviv with a high concentration of tech companies (wadi is the Arabic word for “valley”).
Goldberg described iApps as an “industry leader for mobile apps.”
iApps Technologies offers an entire mobile application experience — including strategy, design, development, and app launch and public relations. The company specializes in cross platform-application development for both iOS and Android platforms, and has applications in a wide range of industries, including military, homeland security, medical, social media, gaming and real estate, among others.
iApps boasts 150 clients around the world, including El Al, AstraZeneca and Globes. Goldberg said the company is currently working with Google Glass in the field of wearable technology.
The company employs 20 people, all of whom have served in the tech corps of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Though the company’s research and development remains in Israel, Goldberg and his family recently relocated to Cupertino, Calif., to start developing business in the United States.
“We have been [working with] this technology for the past 10 years, ever since the first iPhone came out, so back home we are application gurus,” Goldberg said. “Let’s say a company wants to have their client or their salesperson use an app… They contact us and we provide them the service of creating the app. But the app is more than just the thing you see on your phone. An app has a back office, it has a server side. It needs a certain well-experienced team to build, so we go through all of the stages of the development of the app.”
Goldberg said his team takes a lot of time in the design.
“Your user experience, the user interface, is a very important thing because eventually your users are going to use it on their phone, which is four or five inches, or on their tablet, which might be seven or 10 inches,” Goldberg said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of app we’re talking about, the user has to enjoy using it.”
Among the services iApps provides is 3-D Vision, which can create a three-dimensional digital image of a product or equipment. This allows a sales person to carry an entire catalog of items on a tablet, or an IDF soldier to receive training on a particular weapon or piece of gear — users can see all sides of the product, as well as its moving parts.
The technology is also useful in real estate for 3-D tours of homes and can even allow the user to “test drive” a vehicle. Additionally, iApps can collect usage data, enabling companies to track the location and type of device its customers are using, and how much time they’re spending in the app.
“We help entrepreneurs and people with little technological background to come up with their app,” Goldberg said. “The way we see it, it’s very important for each and every company to have an app because it’s a must-have channel of communication with your clients.”
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For information about iApps Technologies, visit: www.iappstechnologies.com; or contact Shay Goldberg at 415-429-0173 or: shay1@me.com, or Gari Brizinov at 612-323-2700 or: gari@iappstechnologies.com.
(American Jewish World, 5.23.14)
