Lee Little, owner and founder of Bar-Z displays a recent application for the city of Lakeway at his offices in West Lake Hills.[/caption]Lee Little, owner of Westlake-based mobile application developer Bar-Z, said he wants his company to be the Southwest Airlines or the H-E-B, or the Rudys Bar-B-Q, of mobile apps.
"I would take that as an honor," Little said. "All three companies, to me, do the same thing: They deliver a high-quality product at a reasonable price, and people enjoy working with them."
Bar-Z produces responsive-design websites and mobile apps for iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Now 10 years old, Bar-Z has produced 350 apps, Little said—and the company spawns five to 10 new ones each month.
Initially Bar-Z targeted the tourism industry by creating guides for cities and parks. Throughout the years, however, Bar-Z's client list has expanded to include colleges, amusement parks, wine associations, churches, athletics associations and religious organizations.
Bar-Z's client list even includes the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Using GPS-interactive devices, wannabe spies receive a series of clues and codesand experience a slice of D.C. while completing their top-secret mission.
For each of its clients Bar-Z delivers a customized content management system, or CMS. Bar-Z handles all of the technical aspects of the equation, and the client creates and updates the content.
"Think of us as an electronic printing press," Little said.
Clients can pick and choose from an array of possible features, such as monthly event calendars, interactive maps that help users uncover nearby shops and restaurants, customer reward programs and scavenger hunts, best of voting, and local news and weather feeds.
Bar-Z's mobile apps are direction-sensitive. In the case of a historic walking tour or a driving tour of wineries, for example, the app can direct a user from site to site.
Bar-Z also provides training in how to successfully market and monetize its products. Many clients are able to turn its apps and websites into revenue producers by partnering with businesses for advertising, Little said.
The Bar-Z development team is constantly looking for ways to increase functionality of their apps. Very often new ideas come directly from the customer, Little said.
But the ultimate success, or stickability, of an app or website turns on the clients ability to keep the content fresh and relevant, Little said. A client can expect to put in two to four hours per week on updates, he said.
"These things have to be a working tool," Little said. "They either need to be producing money or solving a problem."
Little believes that every city across the country should have its own app. He cited a variety of uses for a city-wide app: online bill pay, staff contact numbers, push notifications for school closures and weather advisories, a personal reporting system for pothole alerts and local sports scores.
Little stressed the effectiveness of bringing all of the stakeholders—city staff, a chamber of commerce, special event organizers and more—under one umbrella so that one mobile app becomes the city's single go-to presence.
"The app should be a mobile portal for the community," Little said.
