1. Startups, Start Me Up: St. Louis supports tech startups with Mick Jagger-style swagger. By partnering with the Kauffman Foundation’s global Startup Weekend, St. Louis joined the ranks of other innovation-centric cities when it hosted the St. Louis Startup Weekend, an intense 54 hour event in January that drew in teams of developers, designers and de-mystifiers – all with the goal of launching their own startups.
2. Money, Honey: Cash is king, and St. Louis is handing out the crowns. The city’s gained national press coverage for the new Arch Grants, an annual national competition offering invaluable cash and counsel for startups who will base themselves in downtown St. Louis. The focus of Arch Grants is on fostering ingenuity and innovation, so naturally, ten of the 15 winners are tech-centric.
3. We’ve Got The Power: Ameren UE’s underground power grid with multiple feeds and AT&T’s massive fiber optic network make downtown St. Louis ideal for power-needy, data-heavy tech companies.
4. T-Rex, Getting It On: TEC @ Railroad Exchange Building, a.k.a. T-Rex, is “a low-cost, flexible-lease space with plastic plants and Internet, oriented to the nascent IT startup entrepreneur.” The space is sponsored by three local non-profits. Feel the love.

Integrity’s St. Louis tech start-up clients have been making waves of their own. Aisle411.com was named a “standout startup” by Kiplinger. St. Louis Business Journal highlighted Bonfyre as one of the top five most promising startups in St. Louis. What else will 2012 bring for St. Louis tech startups? More awesomeness from Integrity, proudly based in St. Louis!

In the beginning, there was Google Docs, and it was good. It was a great way to organize all your documents right in your browser without having to search through emails for attachments. Geeks all over have been waiting since April 2012 when Google accidently leaked news about their new Drive app at a presentation in Brazil. Will this replace Google Docs? Will I still be able to access my docs the same way? The answer is a resounding “yes.”

OK, that was easy. Thanks for stopping by, and stay classy, San Diego. Wait, there’s more?

The biggest change from Google Docs to Google Drive appears to borrow from the familiar Dropbox method. Google Drive comes with a local folder that automatically syncs to your Google account on both Mac and PC. Simply move a file over to this Drive folder and you will enjoy access to it from any location. And the generous 5 GB of free storage space is an ample cloud solution for those docs, photos or songs you would miss most if your computer crashed. You no longer need to email yourself or use a flash drive to get a file from your laptop to your desktop, or to bring a file home from work.

Most would be satisfied with this feature alone, but Google wouldn’t be taking over the world with an attitude of “good enough.” Open files directly from other apps like MindMeister, GOFPAL, DocuSign, SlideRocket, Ludic Charts, HeloFax, Script, GIFPAL and Basalmiq Mockups by using Google Drive apps. Find those apps here.

Always on the go? Install the Google Drive app on your Android phone and you can now sync files directly from your computer to mobile device. Sorry iPhone users, but Android users have to win some occasionally.

After replacing “collections” with the standard “folder” convention, and simplifying the left navigation, the user experience gets streamlined. Add multiple file view types like grid and lists right in your browser and things just got even easier.

Still not impressed? Well, check out the variety of apps built around Google Drive like my favorite, “Gmail Attachments to Drive”. Catchy name, right? You can skip the steps of downloading and moving into your Google Drive folder by adding this link directly to your browser.

At first, this app appeared as a shift in Google’s strategy, which has historically driven your entire digital experience into a web browser. Drive is a desktop app, after all. But what it really accomplishes is cutting out the effort in integrating your file management and your browser. Google Drive might not be a big game changer, but it is another tool in the arsenal of apps that make the Internet easy for everyday people.

This Cleveland native earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Western Governors and spent eight years as a due diligence project manager. Rose also started her own niche fashion label, which has been featured in many international magazines. Her years as a fashionista gave her the eCommerce, web design, CMS, SEM/SEO, brand development, content strategy, PR, supply chain management, sourcing and cat herding (just checking to see if you’re still paying attention) skills that we love at Integrity.

Plus, we knew Rose would be a perfect fit here when she summed up her skillset by saying: “Glitter-rocking awesomnety.  That’s right; I just made up a word.  Take that, spell check.”

When she’s not doing her little turn on the catwalk, Rose can be found feeding her music obsession. After all, she’s pretty much immersed in it. Rose has interviewed tons of cool artists while writing for music magazines, DJ’d ‘80s classics at clubs and played keys for her husband – a professional recording artist and producer from South Africa – on his various tours.

Rock on, Rose!

We had already reworked the desktop version of Patient Pay Online—streamlined user flows, unified the design, added some functionality— so we were intimately familiar with the nuts and bolts of the application when building the healthcare mobile site.

The key to making an application successful in a mobile interface is to keep it simple and easy to navigate—you can’t make the user scroll around to find the login button, for example. Keeping that in mind, we assessed what tasks users would most likely perform from their phones (pay their bills!), and optimized those pages for a small touchscreen. Then we applied the design elements already implemented in the desktop version, to create brand consistency across all platforms. Finally, we worked HTML magic to ensure that all the necessary functionality was accessible on iPhones or Androids.

Now we just need to build a mobile site that reduces everyone’s co-pay by 90%, and we’d be golden.

Kelsey (a.k.a. KBiggs, Biggsy, Kels) flew into Integrity from just across the Mississippi in Edwardsville, Illinois. She will graduate from Lindenwood University in December with a Corporate Communications degree and a minor in Business Administration. Kelsey balanced being a collegiate volleyball player for four years and has the brains to boot.

Those superhuman balancing skills will come in handy again as Kelsey gives us a much-appreciated hand with HR, billing and payroll. She may be small in stature, but this dynamo has the skills and ability that will help keep everything moving along smoothly.

When she’s not saving our world, you can find Kelsey hanging out with her friends, her puppy or watching ESPN. This superhero’s fuel of choice is a hot cup of coffee in the morning, afternoon and maybe even at night.

We raise our mugs to you, Kels!

In her spare time, Amy cheers on the Mizzou Tigers and Cleveland sports teams. She’s hooked on “Mad Men” and often jokes that people should live by the “WWDDD” creed: What Would Don Draper Do?

Welcome to Integrity, DiFran!

We’d like to introduce our latest, and largest, social network product launch to date: JockTalk – a niche social network created by professional athletes for fans. Integrity partnered with the southern California-based start-up to build a platform that we believe will change the way the sports world uses the web.

The new site, which debuted in beta this week at DEMO in San Francisco and has been highlighted on Mashable and CrunchBase, bridges the gap between athletes and their followers, adding not only ways for fans to follow their favorite athletes, but for athletes to engage their fans even further with fan “rankings,” Q+A posts and exclusive videos and content.

Athletes also have the opportunity to raise awareness about charities they support through personal posts and fundraising. And die-hard sports fans rejoice…JockTalk is not one-sport centric but includes all major leagues, from the NFL to MLB to NBA, with a solid roster of athletes already signed on…er, ready to play?

We couldn’t be more excited for the launch of this winning new product.

Here’s hoping David Freese or T.J. Oshie take notice too.

Things are getting complicated fast. You better have a plan.

Enter responsive web design. A highly innovative way to build smarter websites that adapt layout and content to a user’s browser window size in “real time,” providing intuitive user experiences across a broad spectrum of screen resolutions. Simply stated, responsive design is the answer to the issue of infinite device screen variation.

Responsive web design allows companies to intelligently control this fragmented, ever-changing web world.

The future isn’t coming – it’s right here. Are you ready for it?

Facebook reported that previously, if someone checked in to your location multiple times, each one counted toward your Page’s total check-in number. Now, only one check-in per person in a 12-hour period will be counted as unique. So while I might check in to Integrity once in the morning and again after returning from lunch, it will only count as one unique check-in.

Facebook also will count photo tags more holistically. If someone uploads several photos to an album tagged at your business, that will count as one check-in. Conversely, if someone checks in to your business, uploads a photo and tags several friends, each person will count as a unique check-in at your business.

Make sense? Awesome.

PS: Are your Page Insights looking a little worse for wear? You may be in need of a comprehensive social media strategy. Feel free to give us a holler!

And we couldn’t agree more.

Since joining the team, Aslam has dived head first into large scale projects, helping clients create a framework for success. This master developer has also built POS systems and social network platforms. When he’s not doing awesome things at the office, this Congo DRC native spends his time DJ’ing (DJ name is DJ AZ) and playing basketball, among other things.

Integrity is excited to welcome Aslam and all the awesome technology blueprints to come!