Erik van Ommeren, director of vision, inspiration, navigation and trends (VINT) at Sogeti USA, came to Des Moines from Washington, D.C., in early June to give a presentation on the mobile applications industry. Sogeti’s VINT team recently released a book titled “The App Effect.”

Van Ommeren talked about the intimacy that people have with their smartphones; often, checking the phone is the first thing a person does in the morning and the last thing he or she does in the evening. He also referred to the addicting nature of devices, especially through things like the game “Angry Birds.”

Businesses, he said, need to be thinking about the next steps with mobile apps, which could include things that aren’t on phones, such as sensors that monitor a person’s heart rate or digitized pill bottles.

The Business Record caught up with van Ommeren to get more of his thoughts on mobile apps.

How can businesses take advantage of the addicting aspects of apps?

For businesses, it’s an opportunity at this moment to come up with experiences that are engaging. So If I can check my bank statement, that’s a pretty boring task. It’s a lot of numbers on a screen. But if I can make it look and feel more like a game strategy type thing, where you say “some level has been reached,” that changes the experience, which makes it more fun for me to look at. Over time, people, I expect, will become more conscious about how they spend their time on devices, so then for a company, you have to be really focused on providing a true value. If I think about what future apps could be, it will very much be about “how can I improve your life, save time, save money, add value to your life very directly?” The core thing is you have to really think about the value you provide.

Does every company need a mobile app?

I believe that every company will have a mobile presence, whether it’s an app, or a mobile website, or a hybrid solution. You will have a majority of people that use that device most of the time. I may do official things on my laptop, but at home I may use a tablet or a smartphone to get information.

What are businesses doing well when it comes to apps?

I think they are doing well with finding the low-hanging fruit. So that is to say they are doing the obvious. They realize, “Wow, we have an opportunity to do location-based things, or use cameras, or have interactions that make a lot of sense.” That’s what they jump to. We’re starting to see (businesses are saying), “Well, wait a minute. I’m really reinventing our relationship with customers. I can do it radically differently.” If I’m in financial advising, why not create a solution that has live video streaming with the adviser, and stock portfolios in the same view, and displays of how things are going and directions they could go? That really ups the level of discussion I can have with my clients.