ASB Business Ventures has engaged Auckland digital product design agency Roam to create a mobile app and website aimed at small business owners.
Plus by ASB is a digital platform that enables SMEs to run their businesses more efficiently by saving them valuable hours in their day, says Roam co-founder Ben Morreau.
“It brings together online business tools like Xero, Vend and Shopify into one place to provide a single view of performance for business owners. This can be done in the same amount of time it takes to make your morning coffee.
“Business operators are able to complete business and administrative tasks straight from the app as it provides daily actionable insights into how their business is performing, 24-hours a day.
“This includes reviewing cash flow, sales or product info, and ticking off admin tasks like approving invoicing, all from the Plus app which can be accessed on your phone, laptop, tablet or desktop computer.”
ASB Business Ventures GM David Bell said, “Our vision was to create a business concierge mobile app that would save SMEs an hour every day, so they could get on with what they did best. We first devised a prototype with one of our graduates, however, we felt we needed to leverage external resource and expertise to make the app look slicker and perform even better.
“We went to Roam with our concept and were pretty blown away by what they came back with in a really short time frame.”
“We went to Roam with our concept and were pretty blown away by what they came back with in a really short time frame. We were also impressed with their ‘can do’ attitude, as they really understood the brief and what we were setting out to achieve from the outset.”
Roam’s Ben Morreau says the agency team pulled together the first prototype of version one within ten days. They’ve also had to be agile and evolve throughout the course of the project, given the scale and complexity of the platform, which has been built and maintained entirely in-house at Roam.
“This was a hugely exciting brief for us, we loved the fact that David and his team were keen to push the boundaries with a hard-core technology piece. It really was all hands on deck to get our first prototype together, which ended up being quite different to their original concept, but delivered more strongly on their overall vision.”
Open – and free – to all
Plus by ASB is a free, open platform meaning anyone can use it, regardless of who they bank with. The first release of Plus is aimed at retailers and small to medium-sized businesses and was pressure tested by New Zealand businesses Taylor Boutique and Chaos & Harmoney before it was released to the market in October.
Version Two of the app is currently at MVP stage, with more features and products.
About Roam
Established in 2014 by Kiwi software developers Ben Morreau and Chris Moore, Roam is a digital product design agency with expertise in mobile app design. As a mobile focused studio filled with talented strategists, developers, creatives and designers, Roam help their clients craft innovative mobile solutions across all major platforms.
Working with Fortune 500 companies right through to startups, Roam have done work across sectors as diverse as communications, mobile payments, connected devices, transport and health.
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