The theory of evolution is a simple one: adapt to your environment, or die. Right back when the world was nothing more than a glorified ice-cube, man was able to adapt to his surroundings and survive. We now try to make it in a global business network, and to do this we need to be adaptable and innovative. Enter the new iPhone webpage for Toyota executives.

Toyota had a challenge: they needed all their data together in one place, so that executives could access it easily and quickly when needed. The solution was an online management reporting dashboard.  

Although similar to other online dashboards, the strengths behind this one lie in the ability to gauge what’s influencing market performance and what can be done about it. To top it off, the dashboard is updated regularly, so the data is reported in real-time, which is handy when you need it during a campaign, not after it. This solved the problem of having access to the right data, but another issue presented itself. Toyota’s senior managers are often in back-to-back meetings; which means that they don’t necessarily get the chance to access the dashboard.

The next logical step was to make the dashboard mobile.  

Initially, the idea of developing an iPhone app was put forward but this was short-lived, as apps have to be freely distributed through iTunes and there were commercial sensitivities preventing this. The solution was to design an iPhone compatible version of the webpage, as it could still be password-protected but also used on a smaller screen.  

Chris Michelle-Wells, a member of Synovate’s Research Innovations team on this project, was approached. He put together a mobile page using an open source HTML / JavaScript framework that emulates the iPhone user interface.  

The page is accessed via a username and password login gateway, which determines when you are viewing it with a smartphone web browser, and configures itself appropriately.  The data is pulled from an XML file securely hosted (firewalled) on Synovate’s servers. “The Toyota page actually very closely mimics the user interface of an iPhone – not only the look, but also the way it behaves when you interact with it.  And that’s quite a high standard for a web page to aspire to,” Michelle-Wells says.  

It was launched in mid-May, with a newer version having been launched two weeks ago making it functional on other smartphones. Mike Cassidy, Managing Director for Synovate Australia, is proud of how the team challenged the norm in tracking data, by listening to the client and using technology to deliver, wherever the client is, and whenever they want it. “It’s a great example of ‘Research Reinvented’, using all the tools we have available to work smarter, not harder,” he said.