Mobile Productivity

By Author: Susan Smith
Total Articles: 132
Comment this article

Apps, apps everywhere, but not the app I need. This seems to be the mantra for most mobile device owners. Most of them have their travel companions crammed with hundreds of apps, but use only a few. Less than 20% of the apps on any mobile device are frequently used by the users. There are a few categories of apps that are the essential for the productivity of the device.

Email, Calendar and Contacts

The smart devices are for, well, communication and collaboration. To that goal, email and contacts are the most important. Most native email clients fall short of the users’ expectations and are replaced by ones that fit their lifestyles.

Contacts need to be synced with the corporate address book and provide organization details along with the usual contact details.

Calendar can be tricky. People generally have more than one calendar they want synced with their phone / tablet. The Calendar interface should be intuitive enough to let the user know of not only the time of the event, but also its venue, and its importance.

There are many apps and widgets that ...
... are available to satisfy the needs of the more fastidious users.

Communication – Voice, video, text

Once again, making and managing calls (both voice and video variety), and texting are critical features of mobile devices. Most smartphones today have integrated cameras, keyboards (soft or physical), and speakerphones. Making use of the same is fairly easy for the apps.

Some apps provide additional features like call management, call recording, video chat effects etc. Even texting has seen its share of innovations like the emoji, and display improvements.

Integrating UC with mobility is also a great idea for productivity. However, it suffers from interoperability issues right now.

Creation – notes

Creating notes, lists, tasks and other snippets is another very important function of smart devices. Jotting down ideas as they come, or creating and checking off a to-do list can enhance a user’s productivity manifold. Syncing across platforms is another great feature that provides access anywhere.

There are many notes apps out there, but the leader of the pack is Evernote. It allows you to create, share and sync notes across multiple platforms. You can also tag notes for reference.

Office Suite

Of course, you need to access and edit (well, sometimes) your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations on your mobile device. Though Microsoft has dominated the PC-world in this domain, mobile devices are a different ball game, since Microsoft has not been very keen for mobile office outside of windows phone. There are some platforms like documents togo, and quickoffice for the users.

Filesharing

Productivity seldom happens in isolation. You need teams to be able to engage in collaboration irrespective of their location. Beyond simple file sharing, task management and download for offline storage are other key features.

Dropbox and Box are two leading platforms for file sharing and collaboration.

CRM

One team that is the most in need of the access from the field is the sales team. Integrating your CRM platforms with mobility helps their cause. However, CRM has grown beyond just the sales. CRM solutions today are integrated to the internal business processes and social platforms. This allows for the end-to-end visibility into the customer and user profiles and relationships, which can be critical for business growth and reputation.

Though there are many other apps and app categories that exist to help the users in one way or the other, the list above is core to a productive workforce.

The author is associated with, Copper Mobile, one of top enterprise mobile application development companies, iPhone application development companies in Noida and iPad developer