Kony introduces us to AppPlatform V8

Businesses big and small are feeling the mounting pressure of increasing demand by their clients, employees and partners for mobile apps. Many of them struggle to meet this demand. Especially with limited budgets and lack of in-house developer skills, which seem to be the biggest hurdles.

To help solve this mobile app dilemma, Kony recently launched its Kony AppPlatform V8, which aims to equip both professional and citizen developers alike with advanced tools they can use to design user-friendly enterprise-grade apps. We sat down with Kony’s executive vice president of Products Burley Kawasaki to discuss how the company’s latest offering is empowering businesses to deliver exceptional app experiences.

ADM: What improvements and features can we expect to see in the new version of the Kony AppPlatform?

Kawasaki: The new version of the Kony AppPlatform V8 is all about making it easier for developers to design, develop and deliver omni-channel apps fast by simplifying the app design, development and deployment process. Key new features of Kony AppPlatform V8 include an updated version of the Kony marketplace. It also offers several key benefits that we know users will love. For example:

- Faster development and deployment speed
- Richer interaction design and native UX
- Quicker backend integration
- Fuller omni-channel support for phone, tablet, responsive web and desktop with security and analytics enabled across the entire application
- A patented cross-platform API
- Guaranteed Service Level Agreement

ADM: What are the end user benefits of an omni-channel app strategy?

Kawasaki: The idea of one computer or one phone per person is an outdated concept. End users usually have several devices and expect applications to work on any device, instantly, with a consistent user experience. By implementing an omni-channel app strategy organizations can ensure that each user receives an optimized, outstanding experience everytime.

ADM: How does the Kony AppPlatform V8 benefit citizen developers?

Kawasaki: As you know, many companies struggle with having enough professional developers in-house to meet demand for apps. That’s why it’s critical that they enlist the support of citizen developers by giving them the tools they need to develop and deliver omni-channel apps fast. This means significantly simplifying the app development and deployment process. The aim of our Kony AppPlatform V8 platform is to make it super easy for developers to have access to more than 100 pre-built components. Having access to these pre-built components makes the process so much faster and easier by just dragging and dropping what they need to the app template. They can also import app designs directly from Photoshop and leverage pre-built integrations, data connectors and packaged apps to develop apps that deliver outstanding user experiences.

ADM: What are some of the challenges to IT organizations bringing app development in-house?

Kawasaki: In a recent survey Kony conducted with Wakefield Research, we discovered that many executives do not trust in-house development teams to develop their apps. Some of the major concerns business leaders expressed were lack of skilled staff, limited IT budgets and security vulnerabilities. With lack of skills and limited budgets, current IT departments cannot manage new and emerging technologies. Businesses must rethink their mobile app strategies and seek more efficient and cost-effective approaches to addressing the ever increasing demands of their businesses. That’s essentially what we aimed to accomplish with our new Kony AppVantage - providing extendable, pre-built apps and components along with custom-designed apps, backed by company experts.

ADM: How does the Kony AppPlatform V8 leverage open-source technologies?

Kawasaki: The Kony AppPlatform V8 leverages open-source technologies by giving designers and developers the abilty to integrate 100 percent of the native OS or any available open-source and third-party framework for a stunning user experience without sacrificing speed.

ADM: What are the new trends in enterprise mobile application development and how is Kony incorporating these in the Kony AppPlatform V8?

Kawasaki: There is an increased focused in enterprise mobile app development to design apps that are easy to use and offer great user experiences on any device, at any time. Kony AppPlatform V8 offers an array of tools, templates and APIs to enable enhanced omni-channel app experiences that integrate new and emerging technologies like AI, VR, AR, chatbos and wearable technologies quickly and easily into any app.

ADM: How can companies deliver apps quickly without making sacrifices on UX and functionality?

Kawasaki: The Kony AppPlatform V8 provides developers with rich interaction design and native UX, plus support for phone, tablet, wearables, responsive web and desktop. Designers and developers can also choose a pre-built template for enhanced user experience. These capabilities and resources allow developers to deliver apps that are functional and offer an enhanced user experience.

ADM: What integration factors do companies need to consider with Kony AppPlatform V8?

Kawasaki: Kony AppPlatform V8 was designed to make integration easy for companies. Developers can leverage pre-wired assets and pre-built data integrations to visually map apps to backend APIs, databases and legacy middleware, making backend integration quick and easy.

About Burley Kawasaki

Mr. Kawasaki has over 20 years of leadership experience in product management, product marketing, software development, sales enablement and consulting within the technology industry and a specific focus on cloud and enterprise solutions. He has a direct pulse on the mobile app development space, leading Kony’s senior team of product managers and product marketers through the full lifecycle from early ideation and planning through product launch and global go-to-market strategy.

Previously Burley has served product management leadership roles at Microsoft, Accenture and various startups. While at Microsoft, Burley was responsible for the management of Microsoft’s Windows Azure PaaS services as well as middleware and app development products.