theCOMMSapp
Mobile App Streamlining Internal Communications

Jeff Corbin’s career as a public and investor relations consultant made him understand the challenges that exist in sharing information with investors, media, and employees. He recognized the fact that the way people were beginning to seek out and consume information was changing.

Seeking a way to be ahead of the mobile revolution that was about to impact the way companies communicate, Corbin founded theCOMMSapp to create a cost effective solution that allows enterprises to simultaneously and instantaneously provide information to their employees and core constituents on their mobile devices. “The manner in which employers communicate with their employees has a direct impact on employee engagement and job satisfaction. A recent Gallup Organization study found that poor employee engagement cost businesses nearly $550 billion per year in the U.S. alone,” says Corbin, Founder and CEO, theCOMMSapp.

theCOMMSapp is a native app technology Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for public relations, investor relations, and the communications industries. The platform makes it easy for any organization to have a native app on iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices in a cost-effective way. Within a few weeks, any company that subscribes can have their own branded COMMS app available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

The company currently has two main products tied to the same platform. The first key product is theEMPLOYEEapp, which is used for internal communication between the employers and employees irrespective of their location. In comparison to most corporate intranets and other social collaboration platforms, theEMPLOYEEapp is independent of an organization’s network and requires no systems integration. With a robust user interface and easy-to-use Content Management System, theEMPLOYEEapp integrates with the company’s active employee directory or other Human Resources Information System and provides direct access to its employees through their mobile devices. Organizations can also define groups within the app and restrict access to specific pieces of content based on these groups. theEMPLOYEEapp platform facilitates BYOD programs and allows companies to send critical information via smartphones and tablets in a secure environment.

The second product, theIRapp, is a turnkey investor relations app for communication between publicly traded companies and their investors. By providing their ticker symbol and logo, any publicly traded company can have their own IR app on the Apple App Store or Google Play to provide investor relations information including stock related data and company communications such as presentations, videos, audio cast conference calls, fact sheets, and marketing collateral. The company’s clientele include major players such as Teva Pharmaceuticals, Campbell Soup, Colgate-Palmolive, and Marathon Oil. Realizing that the platform can help to facilitate direct communications in a variety of sectors, theCOMMSapp is expanding, including offering its platform to governments—domestic, local, regional, and international. “We are also targeting higher education, where the challenge is in communicating with students, alumni, educators and donors,” says Corbin.

In an implementation highlight, a major food distribution company based in the U.S. with over 50,000 employees was having challenges in communicating simultaneously with its employees on the road and those working remotely. “The vast majority of them have a mobile device, and as part of our EMPLOYEEapp solution, we integrated with the company’s employee database so that only the company’s workforce has the ability to access information on their devices,” says Corbin.

On the company’s product roadmap, Corbin affirms that the feedback from hundreds of subscribers, customers, and companies, are utilized to enhance the next versions of the platform. By adding new functionality every quarter, the upgraded app platform incorporates the latest in mobile technology and provides customers with the most intuitive and easy to use content management system.

The customized app can be live on Apple’s App Store and Google Play in a few weeks