Jamaica: Adventist graduates develop Microsoft approved Windows phone App

September 10, 2013, Mandeville, Jamaica… Nigel Coke/IAD

Former students of Northern Caribbean University (NCU) and members of the Microsoft Award winning team Xormis have developed a business card software application, Grik.ly. The new application is Jamaica’s first official application globally approved for the Microsoft Windows Phone App store.

Xormis co-founder Dwayne Samuels (second left), shows the Hon. Julian Robinson (third left), Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining how Grik.ly works during the launch of the Application on Aug. 14, 2013 at the Microsoft Jamaica headquarters in Kingston. Also in the picture from left are: Shawn McLean, Xormis co-founder and Marcelle Smart, country manager for Microsoft Jamaica. Images courtesy of NCU

Grik.ly is a mobile application that makes it easier to manage how your contact information is distributed, remembering who you have met with precise detail, understanding a prospect, their behavior and overall how connected you are. Simply put, it replaces the need to have a business card.

In explaining the reason behind the development of Grik.ly, co-founder of Xormis and Grik.ly developer, Dwayne Samuels said “As former Imagine Cup Category winners we were always faced with the problem when we go to events and run out of business cards. Sometimes when someone gives you their business card, you don’t remember who gave it to you and where you met them, so we decided to do this app to help persons who faced similar problems.”

Grik.ly, which is design primarily for business people to facilitate networking and improve business relations and growth, was launched Aug. 14, at the Microsoft Jamaica head office in Kingston. The app is endorsed by the Government of Jamaica through its Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.

Samuels explained that significant progress has been made since the launch of the Grik.ly and that plans are progressing smoothly.
“So far the feedback has been tremendous in terms of the media and other interested persons who want to know more about what we can offer,” said Samuels. “We are also in dialogue with a large corporate Jamaican client and have a tentative agreement with them. We have contacts with most of our potential client, which will make it easier for us once we get 100% developed.”

The Grik.ly Application

Grik.ly allows users to share contact details easily and goes beyond standard online address books by integrating location and or event details of the contact meeting, with updates of the contact’s data such as job titles, numbers, and email addresses as they change over time. The app will be offered free for the first six months to test and get feedback and for a better version for upcoming releases to maximize its full potential.

Xormis, the makers of Grikly is a Jamaican technology start-up comprising members of the winning Microsoft Imagine Cup team of 2010 – Dwayne Samuels, Shawn McLean, Joel Dean and Derron Brown. Samuels and Brown are currently employed by NCU as Software Engineers, while corporate Jamaica are the beneficiaries of the talent of McLean and Dean. They are also recipients of a Microsoft BizSpark program, which allow Xormis access to software to make industry standard world class applications.

“We are .NET developers and so building Grik.ly on the Windows platform made it much quicker. The process all round was easier – easy to get to market, easy to test and also the technology is much more scalable because of Azure, Microsoft’s cloud technology.”