Boyd Machtolff knows a thing or two about obstacles. As the Chief Technology Officer at eAgency, Inc., Machtolff spends much of his professional life implementing his company's first consumer product – an application called RADAR that addresses child-safety concerns with respect to mobile communications – across numerous devices.

It's a task that involves a lot of customization, to say the least.

"Since we develop applications which create new use cases for mobile devices, we often find it challenging to ensure that we have all of the appropriate system resources available on a given device," said Machtolff. "We have to write some creative code to deal with the differences between various system implementations. All of this speaks to the bigger problem of fragmentation with respect to on-device client environments. We often have to create and test many slightly different builds to deploy across a range of devices."

Writing creative code is one thing, but writing creative code that's effective – and writing it quickly so you can get your product out the door and into the hands of customers – is quite another. This requires access to information that's both informative and current. Fortunately for Machtolff, he knew where he could turn.

"There is a wealth of information available on the MOTODEV site which makes timely development much more achievable," said Machtolff. "We simply could not have accomplished our design goals for RADAR without the documentation, technical support and tools available on MOTODEV. From the initial architecture through coding, testing and certification, Motorola has been the key resource, enabling my development team to create new and innovative functionality on the Motorola platforms."

Like all registered MOTODEV members, the engineers working on RADAR for eAgency were able to get their hands on the most comprehensive technical resources available for Motorola products quickly and easily. Machtolff believes this made the product development process much more efficient – and a lot less painful.

"Since we code a variety of different clients for the various Motorola platforms, we use most all of the available developer tools from MOTODEV," said Machtolff. "We like to standardize on Eclipse and Visual Studio when possible, so those plug-ins are invaluable to us. Also, the Motorola documentation is key to any successful development project on Motorola devices. There is simply no more authoritative source of data than these documents. The IDEs and documentation are key when developing unique applications which leverage the capabilities of the device."

While Machtolff believes MOTODEV offered his company several benefits during the development process, he said one specific tool stands out.

"We used MOTODEV Studio when we were working on our prototype Java client for RADAR," said Machtolff. "We really liked the familiar Eclipse environment, the built-in emulators and debugging tools, and the powerful refactoring tools. It's a great environment."

Building and testing your application on numerous devices extending across multiple platforms can not only be daunting, but it can also feel like a full frontal assault on a company's bank account. According to Machtolff, MOTODEV helped eAgency solve this problem as well.

"The various device emulators make mobile development much easier and less expensive," said Machtolff. "Purchasing dozens of test and reference devices is very costly. The emulators help us to limit those expenses."

Machtolff points out the benefits available to registered MOTODEV members are valuable not just during the development process but throughout the entire product lifecycle.

"When developing the specifications for the product, we refer to the device and OS documentation available at MOTODEV," said Machtolff. "Once we have certified the architecture and design, we code the application within Motorola IDEs, often referring to the appropriate documentation. Then, once the application has been written and tested, Motorola's developer support organization springs into action and helps us navigate the labyrinth of potential customers. Motorola has been instrumental in opening doors for us and helping us to establish symbiotic business relationships."

Machtolff feels that eAgency's membership in MOTODEV has taken the company to places that were difficult to reach before.

"When Motorola is standing beside you, your arguments definitely hold more weight," said Machtolff. "The staff at Motorola has been very helpful, making introductions to the relevant personnel in other organizations. Many of the organizations out there have huge internal hierarchies. Trying to get in front of the correct person can be expensive and time-consuming. Motorola has helped us to navigate those waters."

And, as far as Machtolff is concerned, this sort of edge can make a serious impact on whether or not a product – and, in many cases, a company – succeeds or fails.

"Our relationship with Motorola makes the creation of new and compelling applications cost-effective and opens up new markets for us," said Machtolff.

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