Our custom software team built a proprietary SaaS product that created and deployed mobile applications at scale. There were three prongs to the product. We provided retail mobile applications (both iOS and Android), a franchise model that had a control mechanism for franchisors to control franchisee content and feature sets, and a white-labeled agency solution that allowed agencies the ability to sell the mobile applications to their customers. Scanther had an Angular front end and leveraged Node as a backend and firebase as a NoSQL database. Our system allowed realtime updates without having to refresh a page and was able to handle thousands of requests at a time.
In 2016 Scanther sold to Advice Interactive Group. See: https://www.crunchbase.com/acquisition/advice-interactive-group-acquires-scanther–723c0b24#section-overview
Here is an example of the mobile editing feature of the application.
Mobile editing was one of the features that set our product apart from other competitors. Our theory was that a business owner did not have the time or inclination to constantly log in to their accounts on the computer to make updates. So in response to that theory, our custom software team built the platform to be fully functional from a client’s mobile device. This included adding text, photos, sending push notifications, and updating the design of the application.
Below are a few shots of some of the product marketing images we built that had high success rates on various social media platforms. The purpose of these images was to convey an aesthetically pleasing experience and at the same time showing functionality and simplicity of use.
Built using an Agile Development Methodolgy
Our Austin custom development team was able to deploy this project through various iterations based on customer feedback, analytics data, and consumer research.
The project was officially launched at SXSW in Austin, Texas. One of the notable features of this project was its ability to service the franchise industry. Specifically, the project allowed a franchise to have a single master template that controlled certain design and data aspects of the child/franchisee applications.
Scanther also featured automatic deployment of mobile applications to the iOS app store as well as the Google Play Store. Thousands of sites and applications were built using Scanther.
Custom Graphic Design Assets
Our Austin custom graphic design team was also tasked to build multiple graphic design assets for the product. This included brochures for trade shows, t-shirts, stickers, and various other assets that conveyed the value proposition in a short and concise format.
Dynamic Custom Email Generation
This email design was used with direct marketing to leads generated through our platform.
This email design includes dynamic text and image assets. Both of the phone screens would be dynamically populated with an example mobile application using the customer’s business information. This information included photos, phone numbers, business names, and other assets. Our system would dynamically build each application, save a screenshot of the application, and then inject it into this email template.
When a potential customer would open the email they would immediately see an example of a mobile application that had been prebuilt for their business. Upon clicking any one of the various calls to action, the customer would then be taken to a page where they could directly edit, preview, and then purchase the mobile application as well as various other services.
Our open rates were around 30% and click-through rates were about 50%. I know these numbers sound high, and they were. The high level of personalized assets in this campaign was the main driver.
Our lead generation process was also a huge driver in the success of the product. Our home page features a google like search bar that only required a business name. Once a customer entered any business name, our system would search the web for descriptions, reviews, photos, links, and contact information. Once the information was retrieved, we would then display a fully functional mobile application that could be edited on the fly.
Custom Email Template Design
Our team has also built many custom email template designs that work with all email services like MailChimp. The design highlighted here to the right is an example of a custom design the was built for 2 primary goals.
- To set up sales appointments with potential franchise customer; and
- To let potential customers know the location of our booth.
This template was partially dynamic and pulled in various merge fields to customize the recipient’s contact information. All email templates are mobile responsive and were tested on all major web browsers.
Custom Explainer Videos
As part of our process, we created custom explainer videos like the one to the left to explain certain parts of the system, the overall concept, and even how to install embed codes. The videos were key pieces of material that helped lower the amount of support requests and increase sales.
