No code needed: OP software startup’s app-building platform targets businesses big and small

Building an app from scratch is a costly and time-consuming project, said Shawn Black, the co-founder of Abbacore — an Overland Park computer software company that specializes in helping consumers collect and share data through its own app, Ai Connect.

“Customers that need a specific solution — instead of spending months on the development table and then producing an app in its first year — they can come to us,” said Black. “We can make the app look like their own. We can add forms, documents and presentations, any surveys or polls. We can create those in [Ai Connect] and have [the customer’s application] up and running in a couple of weeks.”

How’s that timetable possible? 

Abbacore already has about 90 percent of any given app built, and then is able to tailor the remaining 10 percent to the customer’s needs, said Black.

“One of our previous hospital clients wanted to provide pregnant women with a way to record their daily food intake,” explained Aaron Butler, Abbacore’s other half and co-founder. “We created a solution where the hospital clinician could manage her clients. Then, her clinical trial folks collected that data on the app, and it was stored in a secure cloud that we can link into.”

Click here to learn more about Abbacore.

 To put it simply: Ai Connect allows businesses and organizations to create their own app — without any coding. 

Possibilities within the custom app include sharing documents, taking polls, collecting data, creating presentations and tracking assets. 

Aaron Butler, Ai Connect, Abbacore

Shawn Black, Ai Connect, Abbacore

A free demo version allows prospective customers to look around the app and see what materials have already been created, Black explained. Creating with and downloading Ai Connect  (formerly known as InBound) requires the purchase of a license — based in a monthly subscription model, he added.

“Once you get in the app, you actually see that we pre-built a bunch of sample industry forms and data collection tools,” Butler explained. “Once you’re subscribed, you can use [those forms and tools] as a starting point, and modify it from there.” 

“We’re looking forward to seeing what people do with the product,” Black noted. “And remember, this is a platform. So if you took the products and you created a super great form, we feed that back into the product for everybody else to use. It is really a community product.”

Before Ai Connect launched in early October 2020, the duo worked primarily with enterprise businesses through Abbacore — founded in 2009 — to create applications for them, Butler noted. 

“We’ve worked with businesses that have had unique problems and solved them with unique solutions,” Butler said. “Now our goal is to take those solutions to the commercial space and have it be something that any company can have access to. It doesn’t matter how small the company is. 

“This is a HIPAA secure platform and product,” he continued, “which means PII information is secure; encryption; secure transfer — all that kind of stuff is available for how we store data in the cloud.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic creating a stronger dependence on technology, Ai Connect could be a great benefit to small businesses that need its services immediately and for a limited amount of time, Black said.

Ai Connect also includes a COVID-19 tracking form to help business with contract tracing, Butler added. 

“You could have a bar with an iPhone at the door,” Black said, giving an example of how the platform could be used as a response to the pandemic. “With [Ai Connect], employees can scan the customer’s license and know exactly who is in their bar. Bar managers can also use the app to track the cleaning of the bar and which employees work when.

“It really has the core of what we started 11 years ago — and that is to collect data and to present that data through analytics.”

AI connect is available on the App Store.