(The King of Code contest is sponsored by Windows Phone and is open to developers on any mobile platform.)
In today’s connected world, small business owners can’t be restricted to their homes or offices. They need to be able to make decisions and react to news on the fly. That’s the conviction behind Cube, a suite of mobile applications spearheaded by developer Sérgio Silva.
His motto: “Your business anytime, anywhere.”
Designed for doctors, lawyers, contractors, consultants, photographers, freelancers and other small business leaders, Cube provides a full portfolio of management products and services. Not only does it offer simple, intuitive access to your relevant business data wherever you are, it keeps it in-sync between devices, including a browser-based portal.
“Cube’s approach is that it’s your data that’s important, so everything is synced between devices transparently and automatically,” Silva says. “You can easily start a timer on a task on the web app in the office, grab your phone and stop the timer when you arrive at your client’s office, then use your tablet to generate and email a timesheet and expense report just in time for your meeting.”
Cube mobile apps are native on their respective platforms — iOS and Android — and are all part of the broader, CubeAnywhere solution created by Silva’s team. The suite already has a global presence, localized in 10 languages, with clients in 86 countries.
A key benefit of Cube is that it scales automatically whether you’re a single freelance consultant, leading a project team, or managing a whole company. If you’re an individual user, Cube tailors the experience to focus on your data. As your team expands, so does Cube, adding time card and expense approvals, vacation and holiday calendars, company reports and user management tools.
Cube integrates with Google Apps and works seamlessly with hosting services GitHub and BitBucket and social apps like Twitter. The ability to use just one username and password means zero setup time. Data already stored in the cloud, like contacts, calendars and documents, can also be easily accessed.
While Cube chose iPhone and Android for its initial rollout — based solely on numbers of users — the goal is to also offer solutions for RIM and Windows Phone. The company has big plans for new features and services as well.
“Cube processes data from time entries, expenses, mileage, project income and costs so you have a complete picture of the financial health of your projects,” Silva says. “With this set of data already in, we can now build an invoicing module, an HR module to pay salaries and reimburse expenses, a project planning module, a CRM and salesforce management module, and more. All of these will be easily adopted because the data that underlies all these is already there.”
Before jumping into Cube, Silva served as a project and portfolio management consultant for several large international enterprises
across sectors, from telecom to finance to utilities. He says this experience deepened is understanding of how different professionals need different resources based on diverse challenges — even within the same organizations.
“I also realized that the kinds of tools these companies use are out of reach for small companies and individuals, even though they also have requirements that can be answered with the right tool,” Silva says. “Our goal is to bring quality, enterprise-level tools to everyone.”
Cube is self-funded but is on the lookout for both partners and funding that could accelerate the development and delivery of its platform.
Every week, with the sponsorship of Windows Phone, VentureBeat is crowning the very best mobile developers as “King of Code.” We’re looking for innovative developers who are really pushing the envelope in the mobile space, regardless of the platforms they’re developing on. Enter here for a chance to win a profile on VentureBeat.com, a $1,000 AMEX Gift Card, an Xbox & Kinect Package, and/or a Windows Phone 7 device.
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