Just when I begin to think a software or hardware category is mature with no room for new products or services something I see at a Demo show proves me dead wrong. Three products at Demo Fall 2010 brought this home; a new portable scanner from
Rocky Mountain Ventures, a bi-directional contact synchronizing application called Cyncz, and an innovative web-based health management service called HealthinReach.com.
HealthinReach.com does something no other online health management destination site does. It lets consumers find medical practitioners and provides information on pricing for office visits, the practitioners’ qualifications and other attributes. And of course it also lets consumers make appointments and view lab and other medical test results.
What’s different about HealthinReach.com is its intended market, the millions of Americans who have elected to save money by carrying medical insurance that covers only catastrophic illness or emergencies. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful to anyone who moves to a new neighborhood and who needs to find an affordable doctor that will work with a medical insurer. It’s this capability that captured and held my interest in HealthinReach.com.
As millions of baby boomers creep into retirement, any health destination site that lets this aging group of Americans find medical practitioners who will accept their insurance-- including whether or not a doctor will work with Medicare-- increases its present and future value.
HealthinReach is being beta tested in the Los Angeles area initially. I plan on keeping my keen, but -ever aging-- eyes on this Demo Fall 2010 company to see how they plan to scale up and service the largest market for medical services this country has ever produced-- baby boomers-- enter retirement.
I Liked Demo Fall 2010 launcher Cyncz.com a because its clean interface simplifies complex but strategically important tasks. Maintaining contact lists across disparate platforms isn’t as simple a task as it should be and Cyncz.com my be one of the easiest approaches I’ve ever seen aimed at this task.
Cyncz’s graphical interface goes a long way to simplifying contact list maintenance, and although hre haave been other applications and platforms aimed at this task, I’ve never seen one that blends Cyncz’s power and simplicity.
One of the worst computing accidents I’ve ever had was with synchronizing software. While traveling, my synch app wiped out my address book. Cyncz.com eliminates this problem altogether while layering on automatic synchronization, self updating and other features.
Cyncz is the type of application that first appears at Demo, but which later shows up as a strategic feature in other applications. I suspect Cyncz’s capabilities could kick off of a feature battle among web-based CRM vendors.
Rocky Mountain Venture’s Capture ID Mobile Scanner-- which is based on this company’s older Flip Pal Mobile scanner is the second scanner launched at Demo that could redefine an existing category.
Like a product shown at Demo nearly 20 years ago-- the Visioneer roller optical scanner--Rocky Mountain’s products layers on capabilities that makes it possible to do new things --or find new uses for scanned images. The secret sauce in this hardware is its software.
Some of the new features in the underlying capabilities include the ability to scan text from open books without showing binding creases, and the ability to effortlessly create landscape images using an ultra portable scanner.
Another feature I like is that this device can be configured to wirelessly upload scanned images to cloud database applications.
I first became aware of this company while living in Colorado last year, where the company’s first technology is used by arts and crafts hobbyists and professionals who swore by the technology because of software that eliminated yellow tints in old scanned photos.
I liked this Loveland, CO, demonstrator for several reasons: First, it redefines a seemingly staid category -- scanners; Secondly, its management includes a technological leader whose work in optical scanning for Hewlett Packard set an industry baseline.
I believe one of the things Demo does best is to introduce and help launch companies that redefine existing categories. HealthinReach, Cyncz and Rocky Mountain Ventures are all examples of this concept.--Jim Forbes on 09/25/2010.
(Mandatory disclosure: I was the founding producer of Demo Mobile-- Demo Fall’s predecessor and helped produce Demo until I retired. I have no fiduciary or other relationships with Demo or any of the third party organizations who organize and produce the event--jmf)
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