INDIANAPOLIS — Synovia Solutions today announced a collaboration with Butler University’s Andre B. Lacy School of Business, in which students will help Synovia chart the future of its award-winning mobile app, Here Comes the Bus.
Students from the business school are conducting product and customer research aimed at providing multiple options for how Synovia could expand the features and profitability of Here Comes the Bus. Launched in 2015, the free mobile app has grown from a handful of school district customers, to hundreds of schools nationwide and more than a million users.
“This project marks an important milestone for Synovia as we move beyond our initial development and deployment phase to creating a more dynamic mobile application that can provide more value to parents, students and educators,” said Jon King, CEO, Synovia Solutions.
“Our Indianapolis team, as well as our installers and support personnel working alongside our customers nationwide, have built the leading school bus tracking app and we’re excited to continue to innovate,” he said.
“We’re enthusiastic to see how these Butler students can infuse their fresh ideas, digital fluency and Butler education to bear in helping us design the next iteration of Here Comes the Bus,” King explained.
Five Butler students will spend several months conducting interviews with current Here Comes the Bus users and identifying the macro trends impacting the wider mobile app industry. Their goal is to provide a series of recommendations that Synovia can integrate into its technology roadmap.
“We’re excited and appreciative to work with Synovia on this opportunity,” says Daniel McQuiston, associate professor of marketing, who teaches the class. “As senior marketing majors in their capstone class, they will hone their marketing and business education from classes and internships in a real-life consulting situation. It really helps them understand how a company can use marketing tools to create a competitive advantage.”
Here Comes the Bus serves some of largest and most dynamic school districts in the United States, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Indianapolis, Prince William County, Virginia and San Antonio schools.
The app has a 4.6-star rating on the Apple app store with more than 39,000 reviews. It captured an IHS Markit Innovation Award at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show. The parent-facing app is just one part of a larger GPS-powered fleet tracking solution that is designed to help fleet directors save money, enhance service and improve safety.
“We’re thankful the Lacy School of Business has provided Synovia the opportunity to leverage the ingenuity and creativity of its students on a project we know is essential to the continued growth of our company,” King said. “We take the responsibility seriously to help these students hone their critical thinking skills and business savvy while they help our team better understand how we can evolve Here Comes the Bus.”
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About Synovia Solutions, LLC.
Based in Indianapolis, Synovia Solutions, LLC. provides GPS-driven smart fleet technology applications to increase savings, enhance safety and improve service. The powerful web-based solution is provided on a software as a service (SaaS) platform. With a nationwide customer base in K-12 transportation and municipal fleet management services, Synovia provides digital services that deliver essential, real-time data for smarter fleet management.
