Preparing for Next Decade of Digital Transformation

Last year we celebrated our 10th anniversary in business. In that time, we’ve grown from two people working from a café table at a coffee shop into a hard-working, talented group of fifty-five developers and designers working across three cities in three states and two countries. Miles often separate us, but we’re a cohesive team in every other way. When I think of what we’ve accomplished together, I’m humbled and proud beyond words.

WHY WE’RE HERE.

Solvative started because we wanted to be a part of building the mobile future. Our dream was to create new, thoughtful experiences and applications for the latest mobile devices, like the BlackBerry and the Palm Treo, both still dominant in the enterprise space at the time. Hard to believe, but the leading enterprise application at the time was e-mail, followed by messaging. We could see the tidal shift that was coming with the introduction of the first wave of iPhones and Androids. We also knew that, even though consumers were eager to adopt, the enterprise user experience was still limited to thumb-typing on clunky handheld devices and awkward desktop applications. In other words, we saw an opportunity to shine.

Our mission was to prepare the Enterprise for the coming transformation. And our focus today is much the same. The technologies we used a decade ago are fundamentally unchanged compared to what’s in our toolbox now, but, wow, have they become infinitely more capable. Amazingly, Digital Transformation continues to lag in the Enterprise. While it has forced the sector to progress, the gap between adopters and late bloomers has widened even further over the last ten years.

THE NEXT WAVE.

The next wave of Digital Transformation is not limited to the user experience, as we have come to see. The Enterprise has had to become more open—by design, demand, and forced by a pandemic. Tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams have flattened the organizational structure. The limited mobility of the laptop/desktop has challenged the traditional Enterprise. Employees want and need to be much more mobile.

Project management and team communications tools have become defining choices for the workforce and are now woven into the company culture. Some startups even choose to connect the employer with the employee based on the tools used. For many job seekers, company values and missions factor heavily in where they choose to work. The dominance of the iPhone and Android phones in the consumer market has changed the Enterprise forever. It has forced the adoption of these devices into the workplace.

Similarly, COVID-19 is forcing a transformation of the workplace due to work from home requirements. Enterprises have had to adapt their networks, VPNs, and tools to serve the connected consumer to their connected employee. Consumers and their smartphones are deeply connected, and the best experience to communicate with them is via that medium. Companies need to provide a compelling reason to earn a coveted spot on a consumer’s home screen.

This transformation has been slowly accelerating, and the events of 2020 have added exponential velocity. We’ve seen that the enterprise can, and will, upgrade its digital plumbing when it is met with an immovable force. When the demand calls for change, it must happen quickly. And the need for digital transformation expertise must be available and at the ready as well.

INNOVATION MADE HUMAN.

On the one hand, we’re exactly as we’ve always been—responsive listeners and innovative solvers. On the other hand, our toolbox—and therefore our ability to transform the way our clients do business—now feels almost limitless. That said, one thing hasn’t changed—we don’t merely invent for the sake of new; we innovate for the benefit of people.

Products developed in a silo don’t account for the real world. The world around us helps create the form and function of the products we are working on. That’s what challenges us to do better.

Since 2010, we’ve elevated, enhanced, and empowered employees and others across a wide variety of industries, from the way caregivers attend to their patients, to helping technicians more capably track and maintain their industrial equipment, to giving real estate agents a new on-the-go option for managing and booking showings.

Our innovations have improved the implementation of real estate licensing exams, helped first responders provide optimal emergency care, and heightened employer/employee relations with Peer-to-Peer Rewards.

We’ve provided educators with new, more secure test containers on tablets to aid in administering Common Core exams and developed a solution that helps janitorial services streamline their service management and cleansing requests.

Solvative has created mobile applications that provide consumers with easier and more secure access to their banks and helped janitorial companies streamline their service management and cleansing requests. We’ve even enabled the US Forest Service to better map out forest fires.

Recycling companies, farmers, freight brokers, building managers, and photographers are all able to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently thanks to Solvative’s innovations. Because of our solutions, plant and warehouse workers and the people living in the neighborhoods nearby are safer than ever before.

And true to our desire to impact people at every level, we’ve been instrumental in saving lives through our work with medical research companies and in caring for those whose lives are nearing the end, thanks to a unique app that allows terminally ill patients to manage better their end of life experience - a truly humbling project.

There’s no telling what will come next for us, but we do know one thing for sure—we’ll be focused on helping humans use technology for a healthier society and a better world.

MISSION

We firmly believe that software is an expression of human thought. There’s a human side to technology that sometimes gets lost behind data captures, bandwidths, and gigabytes. That’s why we have actively worked to put the human element at the forefront of all our solutions.

Each decade of our lives has provided a purpose for the next. This last decade was no different.

Solvative will be a forever team on a mission to solve the hardest problems. After a decade of solving forward, here’s what we have learned:

We believe relationships are built on open communications and transparency. Honesty is the glue between great partnerships and the foundation for confidence and mutual respect.

We believe in challenging conventional thinking. Creativity can be messy. But we’ve come to realize nothing innovative comes from staying inside the lines.

We believe technology can’t be a quick fix. It must be purpose-driven. Just because it’s the “next big thing” doesn’t mean it really improves our users’ lives.

We believe in working in concert with our clients’ creativity, processes & intellectual resources. We all have a lot to learn from everyone around us.

We believe in doing everything with integrity. It’s the watchword that guides everything we do.

Humanity and all of its trappings are an important part of what makes Solvative … Solvative.

Let’s Solve Forward together!

If you have questions about digital transformation that you’d like for us to cover, please email contact@solveforward.com or @solveforward on Twitter. We’d love to hear from you!