This week, we are celebrating our ten year anniversary! It’s been an adventure. We’ve joined forces with A4 Solutions, built new offices, acquired some excellent companies, built our own products, and expanded our service offerings. Here’s a look at how we began and what we have achieved.
History
Metova was bootstrapped in 2006 in Franklin, TN. We began as just a couple of developers working out of our founder’s basement. A strategic partnership with Research in Motion (now BlackBerry), brought us multiple clients and helped us become one of the top mobile app developers in the world.
In August 2012, John Adams acquired Metova to expand its mobile offerings into the government sector. John Adams was CEO of A4 Solutions, a small business in Arkansas that specialized in information technology services for the government. The union was a benefit to both of us. A4 Solutions gained the ability to bid on a wider variety of government contracts and we got a foot in the door of the government’s use of mobile. A4 Solutions took on Metova’s name, becoming Metova Federal. Metova’s commercial arm remains Metova, Inc.
Size and Locations
When we began in 2006, Metova had just one office in Franklin, TN. Over the past ten years, we have opened multiple new offices and hired several remote mobile app developers across the United States and Canada. We now have physical offices in five states- TN, FL, WA, AR, and GA, and remote workers in 11 additional states/ provinces. For the past couple of years, we’ve almost doubled in size year over year. Now we have over 150 employees.
Acquisitions
We are always looking for new ways to expand our services and grow our company. Metova strives to offer expert services and strategy around all aspects of mobile app development. In order to do so, we have partnered with and acquired some amazing businesses.
Marketing
In order to bring our customers expert marketing services, we acquired and merged Conversion Craft and Clocktower Media into Metova. Conversion Craft is a marketing company with expertise in Pay Per Click advertising. Clocktower specializes in websites and search engine optimization and is one of the largest web solution providers in the Seattle area. Metova is able to offer an end-to-end solution from strategy, user personas, and market fit, to design and development, to deployment and support.
Security
Keeping your information secure is a high priority for Metova. Over the years, we’ve become experts on protecting your health information via HIPPA compliance and credit card information via PCI compliance. We run all of our projects through static security analysis on the code as part of our continuous integration to keep our customers and their data safe.
Camber Corporation’s Cyber Operations Enhanced Network and Training Simulator (CENTS®) and SLAM-R® Cyber Range technology has recently become part of the Metova family of products. These technologies provide an environment for detecting, defending, and responding to cyber attacks.
Our Knowledge Base
We have been designing and developing Android apps since the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was released in 2008. In 2009, developers started training in Objective-C to support the demand for iOS apps. Having worked on the BlackBerry, Android, and iOS platforms since their release, Metova is considered a veteran in the mobile development world. When applications began to get more complicated and customers started asking about databases, content management systems, and web portals, Metova stepped up to the challenge and began building web applications built in Ruby on Rails. Our recent contracts and ability to offer web-based solutions has challenged us to become experts in C++ and PHP as well.
Metovians are always looking to give back to the community and create reusable code. This began at our start, when we created a proprietary SDK for BlackBerry mobile app development. Now we publish and share several of our home-made creations and are continuously assisting others on platforms such as GitHub.
Products
Beyond Metova has invested in several projects, helping bring them to fruition and grow them to the companies they are today.
RFID: Metova RFID provides solutions and services for asset tracking, inventory management, and resource management. It can run independently or easily integrate into existing systems.
Credit Union Mobile Apps (CUMA): Metova has built a web platform in which Credit Unions can create their own customized applications. Users can view location details and remotely deposit their checks through the application. They also can receive notifications from their credit union that are pertinent to them.
Conference Rocket: Similar to CUMA, Conference Rocket is a web-based product that allows companies to build mobile apps customized for their event. This includes maps, information on speakers, notifications, and sharing on social media. It was used by the Army National Guard for their 2015 annual conference.
Vendtrack: A web-based management system for vending machines. Vendors can easily track their business expenses, locations, and services.
Avatalker: Avatalker is a mobile application for the iPad created to assist non-verbal or autistic children in communication. They can easily build phrases or sentences using easy-to-understand images.
StoryClip: Built for the funeral home industry, StoryClip runs on an Android tablet placed in the parlor. Friends and family of the deceased can easily record their thoughts and memories for the family. Establishments then use a web portal to edit and consolidate these into a video for the bereaved.
The Future
Metova is continuously striving to be a great place to work, delight our customers, and be on the leading edge of technology. We plan to continue growing and staffing our new offices and hiring people with diverse backgrounds. As technology changes, we will be right alongside – if not ahead of – it. We will keep a close eye on advances in cybersecurity, virtual reality, and the internet of things. When our customers have a need, we aim to fill it in such a way that there will never be a question as to who they will turn to the next time it arises. We will always be examining ourselves and iterating over our ideas and processes in order to be the best we can, at any point.
We want to thank all of our hardworking employees and amazing customers- past and present. Without you all, we would not have made it ten years and be looking forward to the next ten!
