Before Bezlio was even a sparkle in our eyes, the focus of our company was to bring the latest in tech to our customers. We worked primarily with small and mid-sized manufacturing companies and would show them how technology used in the right way could help them redefine their business processes and, in some cases, their entire business by doing things in a new way. One of the biggest frustrations I had during that time was seeing how fast technology was advancing for consumers but was stagnating in our customer segment.
A prime example of this is push notifications. Push notifications meant we could push a message directly to the user without them needing to remember to open up an app. Unfortunately, for many of our customers, sending an email notification was the height of sophistication. 😐 Sure, it’s better than nothing, but it still requires the user to be actively checking their inbox. Oftentimes emails are missed, ignored, or gobbled up by SPAM filters.
So, we wanted to add a simple way for users to send push notifications either to each other or from the server when certain conditions are meant. For most of our customers, that would be things like low inventory conditions, quality issues, or other problems that could cause production delays or customer service problem.
Our problem was a bit more critical…😉
During breaks in the Bezlio office, a bunch of our team likes to play Nintendo® Super Smash Bros ™, but we were struggling to get the word out efficiently to everyone. We had a Slack® channel, but like email, many people may or may not get alerted and by the time they logged into Slack® they may have missed their chance! We knew there was a better way.
First, we started with the bezl design itself. Our users wanted to let everyone know that either they were scheduling a time (like “hey, 11a we are going to play”) or that we’re going to be playing in a couple minutes.
With the Push Notifications plugin, sending a push notification is just another type of data subscription.
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The Push Notification plugin is pretty smart. You can only send push notifications to people in your organization and security is controlled by the administrator. All that was needed was to tell the plugin who the recipients are, what the title of the push notification is, and what we wanted the body to be. All of the rest is automatically handled.
We not only solved our need for Nintendo® notices, but now Bezlio customers can get urgent information to their workers efficiently. Push notifications ensure employees see a message, without having to open and refresh an app or their email inbox.
Do you have crucial information you want to get to your team? Let us know how we can help!
brian ELLIS, CO-FOUNDER & CtO
Brian Ellis is the Chief Technology Officer of Bezlio and one of four co-founders. Brian has extensive ERP and mobile software knowledge through his consulting and development experience. He has a passion for how technology can positively impact the world and making it accessible to everyone. Connect with Brian on LinkedIn to learn more about his involvement in mobile software development.