Technology
The 2015 Tech Impact Awards: Mobile
By Gianni Truzzi September 11, 2015
This article originally appeared in the October 2015 issue of Seattle magazine.
WINNER
ROOTMETRICS
Location: Bellevue | Employees: 170
Which cellular network is the fastest? Which most reliable? These are the questions RootMetrics answers in the fierce competition among carriers.
Mobile operators in the United States and United Kingdom soberly await the twice-yearly independent performance measures by the Bellevue-headquartered leader in wireless network analytics, especially as the broad results by city are available to consumers and press.
RootMetrics big innovation is providing iPhone and Android users a free app that tests how well the signal at the current location is performing and, similar to traffic crowdsourcing programs like Waze, where a faster one is available nearby. Those results contribute to RootMetrics data, so its analyses can more directly reflect what consumers really encounter.
These true-to-experience results are what carriers find valuable enough to pay for RootMetrics more detailed performance reports, to help them better identify trouble spots in their infrastructure and resolve them, pushing the cellular network providers to higher standards.
The industrys increasing reliance on RootMetrics reviews prompted Colorado-based telecom and analytics firm IHS to acquire the company in April.
SILVER AWARD
POINT INSIDE
Location: Bellevue | Employees: 105
Point Inside helps answer a shoppers two chief questions, Do you have it? and Where can I find it? Top retailers like Target and Lowes Home Improvement integrate the companys StoreMode platform into their mobile apps for interactive in-store maps, search and offers, while helping stores optimize sales and inventory forecasting. Last year, its platform received three billion shopper interactions from more than 100 million devices, and revenues has grown more than 150 percent each of the past five years.