iRise Extends Its Mobile Prototyping Capabilities to Apple Platforms

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 30, 2011  /PRNewswire/ -- To give businesses the widest possible choice of platforms for quickly creating productive new software and mobile apps that work right the first time, iRise^® announced today that it has released a Mac-based beta version of its popular visualization and prototyping software.  Meeting the increasingly high expectations for business software created by the "consumerization of IT," the new software—iRise Studio for the Mac—helps businesspeople visualize and experience what it's like to use new applications before they're coded.

The new software release helps companies cope with the growing needs of business to meet expectations raised by the ease of use of mobile platforms such as the iPhone, the iPad, and laptops.  The increasing use of such platforms in business, often referred to as "the consumerization of IT", has put many organizations under intense pressure to create business applications for stakeholders who are now quickly irritated with even small flaws in their user experiences.

"Steve Jobs and Apple really raised the bar for many companies, and now these firms are looking for a way to accelerate their mobile app development while still satisfying their customers, partners and employees," says Maurice Martin, president, COO and founder of iRise.  "The beta release of iRise for the Mac helps these organizations show everyone involved in new app development exactly what users will experience, which speeds up development and increases the chances that users will be delighted with the final product," he explains.

The iRise platform flips the old software development paradigm on its head. Stakeholders get to see and test software by using the visualization to do the types of things they'll do when the application is fully coded such as scrolling, using slider bars, stretching and compressing displays and entering information into forms. With iRise Studio for the Mac, all of these experiences occur at the beginning of the development cycle, rather than at the end.

Similar to computer-aided design (CAD) tools for physical products, simulations built with iRise act as working models or "visual blueprints" for complex business applications. Users can actually use the simulation the way they will interact with the final version, eliminating the painful surprises and expensive rework that's often needed when users only get to use the near-final versions of software projects. Once everyone on a project has used a new prototype and agrees on how the application should work and what it will look like, iRise can be used to help produce the HTML code that creates the screens and apps that users interact with.

Included in the new release are these rapid app-building capabilities:

• Rapid app creation: Creates fully dynamic, interactive visualizations that work like the real thing, in hours, with no coding
• Support for most mobile platforms: Creates simulations for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, WebOS, Tablets, industrial devices and more
• App acceleration: Speeds development from the right idea, to the right app, the first time
• Support for most mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, WebOS, Tablets, industrial devices and more
• Real-time collaboration: Stakeholders can review and comment on new apps with a viewer that works on most common mobile platforms.
• Leverage for existing assets: Makes it easy to update current, non-mobile applications for mobile platforms

The effect of using iRise on organizations' software capabilities is often stunning. "Once participants experience this new, lightning-fast way of defining software they're sold, and never want to flip through reams of printed documents again," says iRise's Martin.

The beta version of iRise Studio for the Mac is available for immediate trial download at http://www.irise.com/resources/register_for_mac_beta.  Additional information is also available at http://community.irise.com/irise and at irise.com.

About iRise

iRise is the world's leading provider of enterprise visualization software for business applications. Visualization has become a critical competitive advantage for businesses to more effectively communicate their needs to technology teams and give everyone involved the ability to interact with and fully experience applications before they are built. Companies of all sizes like General Motors, UPS, FedEx, Haworth, Manpower, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and hundreds of others use iRise to "test drive" their applications before building, which accelerates time to market, improves customer experience, and drives cost down. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., iRise is backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, and Deutsche Bank, and has sales offices across North America and in London.

iRise is a registered trademark of iRise. All other companies and products mentioned are trademarks and property of their respective owners.

SOURCE iRise