Mobile Marketer highlights the mobile versions of Front Office 2011, a fantasy baseball draft kit that uses Bloomberg’s proprietary scientific algorithms, for users of Apple’s iPad and iPhone.

Powered by developer Roundarch, the application targets fantasy baseball players and fans, helping them to prepare for the start of the fantasy baseball season. The mobile draft prep app gives fantasy players up-to-the-minute projections and rankings, and is designed to help players get ready as the draft approaches and use as a resource during the draft.

Read the full article here.

MLB Advanced Media and Bloomberg Sports recently released a fan application called Front Office 2011 for fantasy baseball league players that utilizes much of the same information as the professional software. The tool, to be used in conjunction with existing fantasy leagues, directly syncs up with the major fantasy providers, including ESPN, CBS and Yahoo! Sports. It provides fantasy team owners with recommendations for trades and free agent pickups, which players to put in the lineup each day, and other tips based on league stats.

“When fantasy players look at sites for draft or research suggestions, everything is canned,” said Rob Bischoff, engagement director at Roundarch, which designed the Web and mobile application for Front Office 2011. “This tool instead specifically caters to what your team needs and gives deep insight and analysis.”

In addition, it provides real-time stats, local market news, and player analysis and comparisons from around the major leagues.

Squadron said Front Office 2011 is available for download at BloombergSports.com for $19.95 for the season and will be accessible via the Apple App Store for the iPhone ($1.99) and iPad ($4.99) starting in the next few days.

Read the full article here.

Juan Bonfante is a senior developer at Roundarch and a guest author for Tech Cocktail.

Technology Agnostic: Developing In An Adapting World

By: Juan Bonfante

As a web developer I’ve noticed that over the past five to eight years, a trend to develop applications that can run ubiquitous of their environment. With the rising popularity of cloud computing and the emerging mobile markets, enterprise clients have started to move away from the model of building web applications that would only run on one or two particular browsers, in order to create dynamic applications that can run virtually on any device, without degrading their brand or the user experience. And while this idea now permeates all aspects of our daily lives, as a developer this can almost seem like an insurmountable challenge. As a developer how do you keep up with all of the new languages, frameworks, and API’s out there? How do you become technology agnostic?

Read the full post here.

Sarah Forst, a developer at Roundarch, is featured in the RIA Rockstars blog.

I am delighted to present the first in a series of “Developer Profile” conversations with women developers. As a way to support, encourage, and promote women in our community, I am inviting pioneers in the field to share their experiences, observations, and advice.

To start, I chatted with my lovely and talented former coworker Sarah Forst, with whom I coded at Schematic in NYC. Sarah blogs about “making things pretty” at styleanderror.net, and tweets as @quoo.

What’s your name? Where are you, geographically, and where do you work?

Sarah Forst, although I got married in 2009 and changed my name from Sarah Plowright, which I think really confused a lot of people. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and work in Manhattan at Roundarch.

What work do you do currently? What types of problems do you solve, and what skills/technologies do you use on a daily basis?

I work as a UI Developer. I work primarily in HTML & Flex (and javascript / css, all that good stuff). I think my skill set really lies in implementing pixel perfect designs and always pushing the boundaries of what you can do visually with a technology.

Read the entire post here.

Roundarch has been working with the New York Jets to design and develop a touchscreen Command Center for the team owner, Woody Johnson.  An article today in the Wall Street Journal explains how our work with the New York Jets allows them to focus on and constantly improve the fan experience at the New Meadowlands Stadium.  It showcases how Roundarch goes above and beyond everyday to solve complex client problems.

So [Woody Johnson] asked Roundarch, which has offices in New York and Chicago, to create a system that was painless to operate and produced information that was easy to understand. By his own admission, Mr. Johnson is no tech geek. But also appears to be progressive.”If you look at older stadiums and venues, these things were not run as well as traditional businesses,” said Geoff Cubitt, president and CTO of Roundarch. “But Woody is clearly a business guy, and he’s looking at it differently. He’s looking at it as the CEO of an organization.”

…Roundarch has implemented an automated system that tracks inventory and sends alerts if any booths need to be restocked. Mr. Johnson also has access to live feeds of hundreds of security cameras, and the stadium is heat-mapped to monitor crowd flow. The whole idea is to take the guesswork out of game-day operations and reduce it to a futuristic science. “You can reduce lines and areas of congestion by re-routing people,” said David Vanslette, vice president of Roundarch. “And honestly, this is just the beginning. We’ll be able to tailor the experience for fans in ways that weren’t possible before.”

Read the full article here.

Microsoft’s decision to forgo backward compatibility with Windows Mobile was somewhat controversial, but going with Silverlight for application development in Windows Phone 7 was the right call. In doing so, Microsoft is empowering developers with .NET experience to hit the ground running and start building apps for Windows Phone 7.

“Microsoft might be onto something with their use of Microsoft Silverlight as the standard way to develop applications for Windows Phone 7 devices,” said Dave Meeker, director of emerging technology at Roundarch, a user experience and technology design firm that works primarily with the Fortune 500 and large government organizations.

Read the full article at CRN.com.

About Dave Meeker
Dave Meeker has been professionally involved in the strategy, design and development of next generation creative technology since 1993 and currently serves as the Director of Emerging Technology for Roundarch as well as Co-Director of Roundarch Labs.

Prior to his role at Roundarch, Dave was Managing Partner at EffectiveUI, Director of Custom Applications at Whittmanhart, and Director of Information Architecture at Chicago’s dotCom darling, Web Design Group. Dave got his start in 1994, offering dial-up Internet access and Web design services as part of an early Internet start-up ISP and consulting firm that eventually evolved into, NewReach Communications, a national provider of Internet access, consulting and design services through several acquisitions, including a company in S. Florida company called Maverick Digital, where Dave served as the director of interactive production.

Read More | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks |              

Eric Fisher, staff writer for Sports Business Journal, features Roundarch as a company that is developing products and services poised to become more prominent within the sports industry.

Roundarch

This 10-year-old, Chicago-based digital agency has carved out a growing business aiding a range of media firms and consumer brands such as Avis, HBO, the London Underground and Hershey’s. But two recent, high-profile deals are enlarging the company’s profile in sports. Roundarch has partnered with the New York Jets to create an online dashboard for team executives that monitors in real time key stadium functions such as parking, ticketing, and concession and merchandise sales. The immediate, easy-to-scan, touchscreen dashboard allows team officials to make swift operational changes on game day. The Jets are the first NFL team to test the product. “A lot of our clients in finance and investments are looking into this,” said Dave Vanslette, Roundarch vice president. “Sports is not only a growth area for us unto itself, but back into other areas, too.” Roundarch, meanwhile, has partnered with Bloomberg Sports to help create Bloomberg’s new Decision Maker iPad application for fantasy football.

Read the whole article here.

StrataLogica has been selected as a finalist for a Chicago Innovation Award and we would love your support for the People’s Choice award.  StrataLogica is a digital education product built upon Google Earth that Roundarch designed and built for our client Nystrom/Herff Jones.

Vote here.

On September 1, 2010 Roundarch attended the 2010 Montgomery AFCEA Chapter Annual Awards Banquet.  During the event at the President’s Reception, Roundarch donated $2,500  to the Montgomery AFCEA Chapter Education Foundation which supports  IT initiatives at local schools and universities.  This year $40,000 was raised during AFITC which brings the total to $180,000 so far this year.

Since its inception, the Montgomery AFCEA Chapter Educational Foundation has invested over $3 million dollars in scholarships and other benefits for Montgomery area students, helping to transform Montgomery into one of the fastest growing centers of technical excellence in the Southern United States.

Lt Gen Bill Lord, SAF Chief Information Officer, Warfighting Integration; Colt Whittall, Vice President of Roundarch; Tony Tran, Vice President of Roundarch; Charisse Diane Stokes, Director, Montgomery AFCEA Chapter Education Foundation; Brig Gen Craig Olson, Program Executive Officer Enterprise Information Systems; Col Mary Griswold, Montgomery AFCEA Chapter President

Visit Montgomery AFCEA Chapter Educational Foundation for more information.

David Vanslette, vice president of client services at Roundarch, explains how Roundarch’s real-time analytics technology is helping businesses and venues improve.

Taking a page from the business world’s playbook, at least one NFL franchise has jumped into the game of gathering real-time information on customers, becoming an early-adopter of technology that could develop into a mainstay in stadiums around the country.

Thanks to a newly-installed command center that debuted last week, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson now has the ability to know precisely how many cars are entering the team’s parking lots, how many Darrelle Revis jerseys are being sold, which areas of his stadium have not yet sold out and whether or not any concession stands have run out of beer.

While it’s not new to many businesses, this technology’s debut in the sports world has the potential to boost the bottom lines of franchises and enhance the fans’ experience for the pricey games they attend.

Read the full article on Fox Business.

Pictured is David Vanslette, vice president of client services for Roundarch, at the September 13 Jets/Ravens season opener, discussing the touchscreen application.

At the Jets’ home opener last week, Roundarch, a leader in digital design and implementation, debuted its touchscreen application that provides real-time stadium and game data to team owner Woody Johnson.