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Introducing the Waytag: Making location simple

Meet the waytag, a free permanent “œaddress“ that moves with users wherever they are and represents a new era of location-aware marketing and development. The waytag was introduced to fellow Progress software developers and business leaders at the recent AIGS Progress Africa Conference, which focused strongly on the theme of mobility and its impact on both business and technology
“œMobility may be the most important trend affecting businesses today,“ says Richard Firth CEO of !Waytag, established in 2012. “œBut very few companies are effectively operating in that space, globally or locally. We wanted to create a tool that would allow companies to speak to individuals on the move and optimise their customer service according to their location.“
Waytags move with users wherever they are. This allows a user to create a waytag (e.g. BobMobi) and then update their location to wherever they are. If Bob, for example, wants to meet someone at his favourite restaurant, they can simply look at his updated waytag and meet him there. “œThis makes the app extremely useful in terms of things like road safety,“ Firth says. “œSomeone that has broken down in an unknown area can simply update their waytag, and help can find them easily.“
Firth emphasises that the application has strong security measures in place. “œYou create it, you name it, you update it, you can delete it and you can choose who to share your waytag with,“ he says. “œYou are always 100% in control of the information associated with your waytag.“

The application creates several new business opportunities that have been previously unexplored. “œDelivery companies waste millions of Rands going to the wrong addresses. This eliminates that. Similarly, using a simple waytag instead of a complicated address saves time. A company, such as a pizza delivery company, can know exactly where the correct customer is and can cater to that…and vice versa. Customers can search their “œfavourites“ folder and find restaurants or businesses close to their current location, and then receive instant directions. Even if an office has moved, customers can find the company using their waytag.“

Rick Parry, of AIGS, believes that waytag represents a fundamental shift in the marketplace. “œPart of the reason software platforms such as ours are catering for mobility is because the geospatial market is the next big frontier, our next big mind shift. I believe it will impact us the same way the virtual revolution (i.e. websites and the Internet) once did,“ he says.
Firth believe that the potential of spatial information is still largely untapped. “œThere are companies who operate in the geospatial marketplace, but there is no sharing of data or collaboration. We‘re trying to solve that issue. Businesses need to know where their customers are because their location impacts their needs. You can tailor-make your marketing message to customers according to their exact, up-to-date location.“
!Waytag is also available to download from Google Play and the App Store.

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3 Comments

  2. Ian a waytag is a permanent location tag that can be shared with friends or customers so that they can find you even when you have moved. This makes it possible to add your waytag name to your website or to share it with friends so that you never have to share a link with them in the future. All you have to do is ensure that your waytag location is updated and those that have access to your waytag name and content will be able to find you.

    1. Hi Warren. Hope you get to read this comment.
      I like the concept of Waytag, and how you guys are moving in taking it international. I don’t know how big your dev team is, or even whether you are part of the dev team or whether you just focus on the executive side of things.
      I do have a few invaluable comments for you guys, as a consumer and as a developer:
      1. I own an Android, and have *had actually* the !Waytag app on my phone. Quite frankly, there’s a lot that can be done there, like making it look like an Android app instead of an iPhone port (that should really take any developer a few days’ effort). Stick to design guidelines to make the consumer feel at home. We are creatures of habit.
      2. Your site, being the main attraction point for any user, is bluntly a pain. I like the branding 🙂 but the core of it can be improved upon.
      a) the ‘cgi-bin’ thing on the url suggests a programming technique that’s outdated and sometimes insecure. (contact me at neville@nevi.me if you want to know what I mean).
      b) I’ve yet to find your website to be consistently responsive. Diagnosis on the servers might help. Customers bounce if a site takes long to load.
      c) Reimagine the search, make !WayTags more easily discoverable (at least the public ones)
      3. The developer portal (Pls note that this is just my normal ‘critic’ tone. I am not hating, else I woulsn’t have spent all this time typing this out)
      a) I tried out the API, most APIs out there aren’t well documented, but a lot of them are well designed. The best example being the way you authenticate your consumers. This makes developers and yourselves vulrenable to all sorts of attacks.
      b) Come up with and publicise use cases that’ll show what people can do with your API. The DevZone page tells me about ‘Developer Opportunities’ yet I have to go and think back on what I could actually do with your API. That makes it hard to sell.
      I have a few more comments, but I’ll keep it short cos I sadly sound negative 🙁 but think about the above, and contact me and pls let me know if I’m talking rubbish or not.
      I think !WayTag can really blow up if the practicalities are taken care of well 🙂
      Rgds

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