Very soon, the number of mobile phone users worldwide will reach 5 billion. Our smartphones allow us to keep up with friends and colleagues, find useful information, navigate unknown cities, shop at the lowest prices, and much more. It’s not just individual smartphone owners who benefit from always carrying what’s essentially a small computer—businesses who embrace mobile technologies report an increase in overall productivity, according to a survey by AppsFreedom.
To thrive in the modern business environment, companies and organizations try to avoid stagnation at all cost. One recent trend that is expected to reach $181 billion this year is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). “ 74% of organizations are either utilizing this trend or plan to in the future,” reports Teena Maddox.
Mobile Apps Boost Workforce
When businesses allow employees to use their own smartphones and develop their own workforce management solutions, productivity almost doubles, says Bob Monk, project manager at Drive Assist. Mobile apps in the workplace can efficiently solve multiple issues faced by office staff and field workers and by managers and HR departments.
Team Collaboration (Peer to Peer Messaging, Project Collaboration etc...)
Perhaps the most straightforward way how a business can improve its productivity is to promote employee collaboration. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, “productivity improves by 20–25 percent in organizations with connected employees.” Business mobile apps engage employees by providing convenient peer-to-peer messaging, file sharing, and, for example, project management capabilities.
Integration to Cloud Storage Solutions
With the right workforce mobile app, a group of employees can enjoy access to the critical information they need to complete an assigned project thanks to a seamless cloud integration. They can schedule meetings, set deadlines and reminders, as well as check the progress of other team members without having to walk right up to them, collectively wasting hours every day.
Location Based Services
A workforce mobile app can take advantage of LBS-enabled (Location-Based Service) mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android, to gather geo-data from a mobile device to support effective decision-making and increase workforce efficiency.
Access to Real-time Information (Effective Decision Making)
When businesses track fleet workers using a specialized mobile workforce management app, customers can see in real-time how long it’s going to take until they receive their deliveries, leading to increased customer satisfaction. Air Canada Cargo has set itself apart from the competition by moving from paper to a workforce management system that enables customers to receive live updates on their goods.
Improving Productivity (Reminders, Scheduling, and Calendaring)
Air Canada Cargo and other businesses can take their mobile workforce management to the next level by having their employees input data quickly directly into their mobile devices rather than first writing them down on the paper and later manually entering them into the system. Thanks to the removal of the extra, redundant step, it’s possible to avoid unnecessary mistakes and decrease processing times, which leads to an overall improvement of productivity.
Conclusion
The high interest in mobile apps for business stems from the incredible value they can offer. Because employees are already using smartphones and mobile apps outside of work, it feels natural to them to embrace mobile workforce management by using software applications developed to increase their productivity, efficiency, and collaboration. Businesses that want to stay relevant should learn how to effectively embrace mobile technologies in the workplace.
Author
Ever since her college days, Jenifer White has been wildly enthusiastic about writing technology based content. This passion marked her entry into the writing world. Being a bachelor degree holder in Computer Science and Engineering, Jenifer didn’t stick to the things compatible only with her degree.
