Mobile Business Users: Choose Your Apps Wisely

June 17th, 2009 by Michael Brancato | located in mobility | trackback

Broadsoft, Phone Fusion, Jott, CopyTalk, CallWave, Skype, SpinVox. With such a dazzling array of choices in the mobile apps arena, how do you decide which ones to adopt?

Through my own personal trial and error, and through what customers have communicated to me, I’ve whittled the decision process down to a few simple guidelines:

1. Does it save time?
I put this at the top of the list because we are all so busy juggling work, family, and our private lives that anything that puts a few moments back in our day is an important investment in ourselves. Before you commit to using a particular app, do the math. Guesstimate how much time you spend listening to messages, communicating those messages to other people, taking notes, and dictating those notes into your CRM.

2. Does it save money?
This one is obvious, but it can be tricky to measure. Savings is more about time than an app’s price tag. Figure out what your time is worth, and then put a dollar amount on your time savings.

3. Does it help you share info?
While some mobile apps might be personally useful, they may or may not help you easily share information with others. For example, does the app let you forward voice messages to other people on your team, or attach messages to a CRM file for later review? The ability to do so can be a powerful business tool.

4. Does it help you respond faster to your customers?
Responding quickly to customers makes them feel important and cared for—and more willing to do business. See if you can pinpoint at least a few ways in which a mobile app helps you respond to customers more quickly than you do today.

5. Does it integrate with your other apps and existing systems?
Being able to link mobile apps to your existing systems (CRM, email, and mobile phone) not only allows you to work when and where you need to work, it also saves you from having to enter notes and critical information twice. If an app doesn’t link to your CRM, for example, it may not be worth your investment in time.

What are your thoughts on how best to choose mobile apps?

No related posts.

One Response to “Mobile Business Users: Choose Your Apps Wisely”

1. Brian Aston Says:
   June 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm

   Very sensible advice. Our company uses an App called TOMMIE for running personal and office admin type stuff. We use it to share diaries and book meeting rooms, but we also do expenses, timesheets, holidays etc. In that regard it certainly saves time and money and of course we share info. It doesn't directly help us respond to customers (though it's got all shared contacts etc. and you can invite them to meetings etc.) Though we use it on our desktop PCs and Macs, there's a mobile web version too, though not everyone uses that - those with iPhones and BlackBerrys tend to though. It also exports data to Outlook and accounts packages - limited, but some people use that functionality. So, I agree with your checklist!