After an 18-year stint in retail marketing and sales for Sony Music Entertainment, Tony Crimaldi spent a few years in the start-up world, first helping launch an app development company, and then helping launch Export Now, a platform that assists overseas brands and retailers in selling online in China.
When Crimaldi started at Cleveland Clinic in 2011 as mobile marketing manager, apart from two or three wellness-based apps, mobile barely existed at the organization, he says. No formal mobile department. No guidelines. No branding standards. A fresh palette for him. “I knew going in that it was fresh territory and an opportunity to build something really important for the future of our organization and our consumers,” Crimaldi says.
The editors of Mobile Strategies 360 picked Crimaldi’s brain on his company’s mobile achievements, the mobile initiatives he is currently working on and the mobile trends on his radar. We also asked for tips on how to get the biggest return on mobile investments.
Q: What are you working on right now with mobile?
A: This is going to be a very exciting year for us. We are really focused on the long-term benefits of getting our organization to a state-of-the-art level of enterprise mobility. To get there, we’re building out a robust Mobile Back-end as a System (MBaaS). We’re focused on developing a suite of APIs and web services to deliver our data and content from one source to multiple distribution channels including web, apps and third parties. We’re also developing a highly configurable, extremely fast, natural language search platform, which we’ll be able to plug into our websites and apps.
All of those items really set the stage for some key tangible products we will be releasing this year. Those include a new version of our flagship Cleveland Clinic app which will provide more emphasis on access to our physicians, locations and appointments. The other major product we’ll be launching this year includes a completely new responsive design version of our website, which is no small feat at more than 13,000 pages. (Responsive design is a form of web design in which a single website adjusts to the size of the screen the visitor is viewing.)
Q: What is the one piece of advice you would offer to another mobile executive looking for help growing his mobile strategy and ROI?
A: Always be looking to the future. Technology changes so quickly, you need to keep an eye on emerging technology while always keeping in mind your end-user. Also, take the blinders off and look outside of your industry for solutions you may not have thought of within your own.
Q: What mobile trend or trends are you keeping your eye on for 2016 and why?
A: I’m actively exploring indoor wayfinding and proximity-based messaging solutions. We have a very large main campus and many other locations throughout the world. We’re looking into how to provide a better mobile experience by delivering personalized messaging while helping you navigate your visits.
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