Sullivan Alexander is a contributor on the Price of Business on Business Talk 1110 AM KTEK (on Bloomberg’s home in Houston), whom you can learn more about at, www.contureadvisors.com
Sullivan recently interviewed David Foos, CEO of Room5.
About the interviewee:
David Foos is the CEO of Room5. David is a technology executive with 15+ years of consumer electronics experience in product management and marketing of both software and hardware solutions. He is a proven leader with the ability to establish strategic vision, innovate in new technical areas, and successfully grow multinational organizations. David has a passion for connecting technical solutions and business opportunities throughout the high-tech and mobile industry.
Tell me about Room 5 (services offered, number of employees, location, type of customers you work with, etc.).
Room 5 is a leading software consulting firm that was first originated on Thomas Edison’s approach to innovation. Learning from mistakes of his past, Edison developed an approach for innovation unlike any other; building a facility only for his work called Room5.
Today we take inspiration from the life of Edison in the way we pursue our passion for technology and science. We respect his contributions to history and acknowledge the character of discipline that defined the man. At Room 5 you will find many of the same traits that made Edison great.
1) Innovation
2) Discretion
3) Personal discipline
4) Dedication to our work
We have learned that achieving sustainable growth is an iterative process- sometimes bringing in a fresh pair of eyes helps move work forward differently or quicker.
Room5 has 3 offices, each with 20 employees, in San Diego, Silicon Valley and Portland. We work with companies like Micro, Walmart, Qualcomm, Intel, Amazon.
Tell us about the key challenges the mobile industry faces.
There is no doubt that mobile is changing our lives. Many businesses are now looking at the Mobile First philosophy when developing everything from website to marketing messages. Yet, mobile technology moves so quickly that many times companies get one shot at success. If something – like product development or product marketing – is off, the whole project can/will fail. Sometimes businesses need to go back to their strategy to relook at how to go forward again. This is where Room5 comes in.
Building mobile applications is not difficult, but the challenge comes when you think of mobile applications for the enterprise. Enterprises have realized that it is about time to catch the mobile application development wagon, but when they start to build their mobile development practices they face some key challenges:
1) Lack of experienced resources that can code on all the various devices that exist
2) Lack of an integrated development platform that allows for development on all available devices
3) The huge challenge of testing applications on so many devices, with on-the-device testing being critical to the success or immediate failure of any of these mobile applications
4) Back-end integration to enterprise services, where the key value of a mobile enterprise application is realized
5) Security of the mobile applications on the device, and specifically the corporate data stored locally on the device and being accessed in real time
What makes your organization different from the competition?
We are in the business of making our clients’ life easier and more profitable. We are different because we focus on 2 different services:
1) Design Services- we help our clients’ customers visualize your innovation clearly because we are experts in the latest and newest technologies;
2) Software Consulting- we provide expert guidance and support to launch clients’new products. We believe in confidentiality and have built our facilities with both physical and digital security measures, just like Edison.
We add value to our clients by helping pioneer the way for their ideas to get to market faster. Being located in the major mobile hubs – Silicon Valley, San Diego and Portland, we draw in the very best staff to help our clients.
Contact information:
http://room5.com
