With Gartner announcing that mobile technology will again be the main focus for companies in 2013, how will your company leverage this technology to make/save money?”
Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Sr. Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing.
A few months ago Gartner, a leading research firm, unveiled that once again mobile technology will lead the way for companies, from an IT perspective, as their focus in 2013. With so much emphasis on this area and the fact that new smart phones continue to be released with processing power that is catching up with corporate America’s laptops, we will focus today on how your company can begin to leverage this technology for returns that will hit your bottom-line.
Expense Tracking – One of the biggest expenses a company can have is travel expenses because they hit at several different levels. There is the obvious level of the expense itself but there is also the expense that comes when there are not good controls in place and the process gets abused and there is also the expense required to manage the collection, submission and reporting of those expenses by your staff. That is why many companies have to turned to apps like Expensify which allow employees to track everything they do through electronic versions of receipts and statements or with the phone camera to take a .PDF before the employee ever gets back to the office. Companies like Runzheimer are also developing mobile apps for their customers that automatically track mileage using the GPS component of smart phones saving the employee time and improving the accuracy of what needs to be paid.
Virtual Office – There are so many times when meetings must be delayed due to a critical person not being in a place where they can use their laptop to join a webinar. These delays cost money and can lead to bigger issues down the road when milestones get missed. Cisco and other companies like them have created applications for smartphones that now allow companies to get the content of the webinar straight to their smartphone allowing them to participate wherever they are. Along the same lines, companies are using tools like Dropbox and Teamviewer to provide their employees remote access to their desktops and files from their phone allowing them to be more efficient and responsive.
Data Analysis – The first major thing most business smartphone users wanted once they had access to the rest of the internet was access to the data that is useful to them. Many companies are moving to provide their users with access to data that has been captured through their applications. Companies like Roambi are providing business intelligence overlay to data that produces reports, graphs and extra analysis for data their customers already own in a format that is easy to use from a smartphone. Having access to this data outside of the office can allow executives and other employees to make decisions quicker and react to data as it happens in real-time.
Custom Fit – The fourth area that companies will be looking at, is developing their own custom applications for their organization to be used internally and potentially by their own customers and vendors. Real-time order viewing, shipping status, and other updates are just some of the many ways companies will be looking to leverage the smartphone app explosion in 2013.
For assistance on helping you with your mobile app strategy or too learn more about the 2013 SafeSourcing mobile applications, please contact a SafeSourcing Customer Service Representative.
We look forward to your comments.
