Listen to this articleFormotus offers a platform for rapid mobile application development, enabling customers to deploy custom mobile solutions without writing a single line of code. Formotus is a company founded in 2005 and led by Microsoft InfoPath co-inventor Adriana Neagu. Below is our recent interview with Adriana:
Q: Tell us something more about Formotus history?
A: Formotus saves companies time and money by providing a solution for businesses that have a growing mobile workforce. Before we get into what Formotus does, it’s important to know the problem we’re trying to solve. Businesses often struggle with the decision to either build an app in-house or to outsource it. A November 2014 Kinvey report based on a survey of CIOs and Mobile Leaders found that mobile application development is “costly, slow and frustrating.” According to the survey, 56 percent of mobile leaders surveyed say it takes from seven months to more than one year to build one app and 18 percent say they spend between $500,000 to over $1,000,000 per app, with an average of $270,000 per app.
Formotus, a 10-year-old company based in Seattle, enables businesses to build rich mobile forms using Microsoft Office InfoPath, a product I was a co-inventor of during my time at Microsoft. The Formotus service converts the InfoPath forms into mobile apps that run on any iOS, Android or Windows 8 device.
The Formotus technology is cloud-based and allows users to create apps for any device using any back end technology, i.e. Box, Dropbox, Oracle, etc.
Formotus customers include global companies including Royal Dutch Shell, P&G, Costco, Bayer, Roche and many SMBs all over the world.
Another interesting factoid about Formotus is the company has an engineering team that is 70 percent female. We pride ourselves in putting employees first at Formotus; we have a strong people centric culture. Even though this interview is all about our product, I want to acknowledge that none of it is possible without the people who make up Formotus.
Related: Fintech Sandbox – Helps FinTech Startups Build Great Products And Apps
Q: What are Formotus Cloud Mobile Business Form Apps?
A: This is Formotus’ product for enabling the mobile work force, which can be done quickly and easily and requires no coding, no app store and no server-side install.
Our product ensures the work force can do their jobs, many times in situations where they’re offline, and has rich data collection feature set. Users can capture all kinds of rich data using the camera, touch screen, and other sensors on their mobile device. The product has enterprise level security and allows companies to create complex business apps for specific needs.
Related: Twin Prime Makes Mobile Apps Fast, Anywhere In The World
Q: Formotus has recently announced new on-demand forms. What are the biggest benefits for the users?
A: Formotus’ new on-demand forms service works with our Formotus Now mobile app to make best-of-breed data forms available everywhere. These forms can be filled anywhere by anyone you give the link to – Formotus Now requires no registration or sign-in by the person filling the form.
Formotus Now forms can push and pull data in SharePoint lists and libraries – or anywhere else using Web services –and they are not constrained by the limitations of a browser because they run in native mobile apps for iOS, Windows, and (coming soon) Android.
The biggest benefit for the customer is that having your form running on-demand in Formotus Now is like having your own custom mobile app, but it requires no developers and no coding.
Formotus Now on-demand forms are currently in limited beta preview.
Related: ironSource – Connects People With The Apps They Want And Need
Q: How private and secure are your users’ information?
A: Security is a very important issue when it comes to the mobile workforce. For this very reason, Formotus puts the business in full control and adds a layer of authentication and monitoring to a business’ secure systems. Here are some security measures in place:
- Formotus does not store any of a business’ data, only the ‘blank forms’
- The business controls exactly who has access to what forms in real time
- Users must authenticate at the app level and per data connection
- We monitor/audit usage; remotely disable users or remove forms
- Many Formotus customers use Formotus apps with 3rd party MDM for even tighter mobile security
Q: What can we expect from Formotus in the future?
A: Formotus continues to enhance the way companies can build, create and share forms using mobile apps. Our next big milestone will be rolling out a new way to create forms without using InfoPath. InfoPath may be the greatest form-design software ever created and we’ll continue to support it for as long as our customers find it useful, but it’s also showing its age. We’re creating a new alternative that’s cloud-based and mobile-first to better meet the needs of an even broader user base.
Activate Social Media:
