The journey of a mobile app from concept to execution can be an interesting ride, says Mauricio Vicente, CIO, Language Services Associates. Vicente should know. During his twelve-years at Language Services Associates (LSA), Vicente has implemented a number of cutting-edge technology solutions, including an on demand telephonic interpretation app for business and leisure travelers on-the-go. The name of the app is INTERPRETRAVEL® and it delivers live interpretation support in real-time via your iPhone or Android device.
In this conversation with Frost & Sullivan, Vicente discussed his background as a professional translator and how that passion fuels his drive as a CIO to connect people — no matter what language they speak — together through technology.
Frost & Sullivan: Your presentation at the upcoming ConNEXTions 2013: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange will focus on best practices and challenges in mobile application development. Why do you think so many of today’s businesses are keen on making such significant advancements in the mobile space?
Mauricio Vicente: As a business it's a challenge because things are moving really, really fast, and I believe everyone needs to have a good strategy to be in the right place and create the right tools for your customers, for your employees, and everyone that interacts with your company. It's a new paradigm. It’s amazing how smart devices are becoming a part of everyone’s life. Soon we're all going to be making purchases with our smart devices. We're seeing applications already for user identification. You can use your mobile to provide dual-token authentication to make sure your Google account is safer. Your smart device is becoming your personal assistant. Siri is a great example of that and there are other applications like it. Everything comes together on your smart phone. Increasingly if you are a business that doesn't realize that's what's happening — you're in trouble.
Frost & Sullivan: LSA recently developed a mobile application that gives global travelers the opportunity to access a live Interpreter on demand via an iPhone or Android device. Can you talk a little bit about your experience developing this application? What were some of the challenges you encountered and best practices learned?
Mauricio Vicente: When developing the first version of our telephonic interpretation app, we just wanted to have an app, everyone was doing it. We never planned on a big marketing campaign. We really didn't have a sales strategy. We posted our app. We reached out to some media contacts. We left the app there in the wild. Several people used it, but we never really saw the bandwidth or the amount of traffic that we had hoped to see.
For the second phase of our app — knowing there was a unique business opportunity for an on demand telephonic interpretation mobile app for global travelers — we spent significant time building a business case with a lot of data points from statistical information about international business and leisure travel. We validated and cross-checked all of this information. We went through the process of creating a solution and then finding the right partner to market the solution, and rebranding and reshaping the app to better suit the market that we were targeting.
We decided to outsource the effort, and we didn't really have a good experience. When the project started derailing we picked it up and took it out of the outsourcing company. We brought it in-house to our developers to finish it up. It was their first go-around building an IOS and an Android application.
We also went back-and-forth with Apple many times, getting the app approved with their rules. It was a big challenge me as the CIO to make sure that we were complying with the rules (and that the app was going to be approved) and also keeping the developers happy. We were under a great deal of pressure to meet deadlines, and everything had to be communicated with the Marketing team and Sales group to make sure the partner was on top of what was happening. It was an interesting ride.
Frost & Sullivan: How essential is it to be able to connect to your customers via mobile apps? Is it driven by their needs or by the desire to create new avenues of engagement?
Mauricio Vicente: We've noticed that if you release your app and it's out there and users start picking it up that it goes in directions you didn't foresee. We do a lot of brainstorming here at LSA; we do a lot of thinking: How are people going to use our application? We've been providing telephonic interpretation services on a B2B level for over 20 years now, so we know what our customers are going to use it for. Once you go to a consumer-level, you see some unexpected things and that's where you get into update cycles and getting the developers to bring in new features. You hear the feedback. You adjust your application to better fit the needs that your users have.
Frost & Sullivan: Can you take us through the creative process of mobile application development? Does it start at the executive level? From customer surveys? From tech R&D?
Mauricio Vicente: INTERPRETRAVEL® definitely started at the executive level. We identified the business opportunity and did a lot of work to validate it. We knew there was a really solid business opportunity that we could actually fulfill. We learned that if you don't do something with your app to market it, it just gets lost in the jungle of apps that's out there.
The next part for us was to find a partner that could help us market the app to the right groups — we needed to get in front of the right groups and we need to get a partner who could help us do that. That also happened at the C-level. Our COO did a great job at identifying this partner and pitching the opportunity to them. We went through several brainstorming sessions — internally and with our partner. We ended up with a workable plan.
Then you need to execute. That goes 100 percent into my group. The very first thing that we were confronted with was do we do this internally or do we outsource it. That’s something that all CIOs, that all executives, are facing every day. Do you do this with your internal resources? Or, do you farm this out? We all have limited resources. We all have to tend to our infrastructure to make sure everything is working. For the second phase of the app, we had many high-priority projects at the time so we decided to outsource it — and we had issues.
The project started really well. Then the company we were working with had some changes in the team that was working on our app and things started derailing. We realized we weren't going to meet certain deadlines so we decided to pull the plug and bring the project into our internal resources. The beauty of working with your team is you know your strengths and weaknesses and you know your team. We brought it in and the team did a fantastic job getting it done. It was very stressful for everyone, but it was great. When you have full control over what's happening you can communicate with everybody. Communication is a really big piece of making sure your cycle is going to be successful.
Frost & Sullivan: How does being bilingual in Spanish and English help to inform some the technological decisions you need to make at LSA?
Mauricio Vicente: I am a professional translator as well. That is my other passion. That's my other education. I'm a linguist. That's where I derive of this passion to connect people – no matter what language they speak – together through technology. I consume a lot of information. For anyone that is an IT executive, you have to read a lot. You need to keep up with the trends in technology. You have to keep up with what's happening out there. You're constantly learning about security.
As I consume all of this information, I can see two different perspectives from an American perspective and from a Spanish-speaking perspective. Developed countries see technology in a certain way and developing countries see technology in a different way. Innovation is also different. The needs are different. I can see innovation happening in Latin America sometimes a month or more before it becomes news in English information sources, so that helps me.
Language is a reflection of culture. Everybody that speaks another language will tell you that you see the world through the eyes of your culture and your language is a reflection of that. Growing up in a developing country gives you a life experience that modifies your vantage point. I have a different perspective. I'm not saying it's better or worse, just likely different, and I see that when I'm consuming information. It's great for networking, too. It expands the number of professionals and executives you can communicate with.
Mauricio Vicente, Chief Information Officer, Language Services Associates will be presenting the session The Devices of Our Times: How Smart Phones and Tablets are Transforming the Way We Engage the Enterprise and Our Customers at
ConNEXTions 2013: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange, January 27– 29, 2013 in San Francisco, CA.
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