The market for apps is growing exponentially, and the segment of mobile business apps creates huge interest from companies worldwide to innovate obsolete processes and to increase the productivity of their companies.
According to the online website TransMedia.cl, by 2017 one out of 3 CEOs of the 3,000 biggest companies in Latin America will emphasize the digital transformation as the base of their corporate strategy. That was confirmed by International Data Corporation (IDC) in the context of the first Digital Transformation 2016 meeting which took place in Santiago de Chile.
IDC also states that 26% of the CIOs of big companies are starting to walk the ‘digital road’ in 2016 as a new business model and it’s estimated that by the end of the year $4.5 thousand million will support the digital transformation initiatives in Latin America.
The use of mobile business apps also presents new challenges to companies when choosing and keeping young employees. A study created by Dell and Intel together the firm PSB shows that 42 percent of millennial employees say that they would quit their job if they thought the technology in the company where they work was not smart enough, and around 82 percent of the respondents assured that the technology used at their workplace could influence the decision of taking of refusing a job, because the technology will provide them advanced flexibility, mobility and safety in their workplace.
The list of mobile business apps gets longer with each passing day, and searching the web to find the most appropriate one can be a waste of time. That’s why we prepared a list with the best 10 mobile business apps for companies, thanks to Expansión.com y NerdWallet.com.
Management
Slack
What does it do: It allows users to establish group chats or private chats and direct messages, and to share files, videos and images. The users can also easily search for files, chats and documents according to person, date or category. The data of Slack app can be synchronized with the computers of the users, and the software is integrated with a variety of other tools that many companies already use, including all the apps in Google Apps, Box, MailChimp, Twitter, Dropbox and many others.
Cost: Free for limited use; up to 15 dollars per month with additional features, such as integration with an external account, access to guests and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
DataScope
What does it do: With DataScope you can transform physical forms to digital forms, which allows various industries (surveys, agricultural traceability, mining, retail, etc) to streamline, organize and evaluate the work of their field staffs in any area which still use paper forms. It also provides multiple indicators and access to much richer contents (Geo-reference, Time Stamp, Name of the Device Used, and Signature) than a traditional form ever could.
DataScope is an app which allows creating reports in an agile, simple and objective way by supplying different tools to analyze the collected information, therefore you can evaluate the work and get more adequate metrics.
All the generated information -the evaluation and all data sent- is stored by the DataScope portal, which provides valuable indicators in real time. It’s available for the web, iOS and Android.
Cost: There is a version for free and a paid version.
Sales and customer services
Pipeliner CRM
What does it do: It follows every step of the sales process, using icons and colors to indicate in which phase of the development a process is and what measures need to be taken. The goal is to ease the incorporation of new staff and to make a quick read of how the marketing activities are contributing to sales.
The app created by Pipelinersales includes lists and shared tasks chalkboards, and it allows the users to access the software through their computers and mobile devices.
Cost: 35 dollars a month per user, charged annually.
Clover
What does it do: It allows small companies to establish loyalty programs and to keep track of sales of the clients automatically, as a digital version of a traditional card that buyers present when they pay. How does it work: the cash register of a store uses Bluetooth to communicate with the clients’ smartphones, it identifies them and registers their purchases.
Cost: The app, developed by First Data, is free for users; for companies, Clover is included with the purchase of a point-of-sale terminal, which has a starting cost of 300 dollars.
Human resources and accounting
Invoice2go
What does it do: It allows users to prepare electronic bills from anywhere, send them by e-mail to clients and save a copy instantly in the company’s account bank. The app, also allows users to register expenses and receipts –via pictures or manual receipts- and save them in the company’s books.
Cost: from 49 to 149 dollars per year, depending of the amount of bills, clients and additional features.
Gusto
What does it do: It allows managing a payroll without needing paper forms, by monitoring the salary and calculating the taxes for employers, and it allows the employees to see their paycheck stubs whenever they want, as well as documents such as tax returns. The app belongs to ZenPayroll Inc.
Cost: 29 dollars per month, and 6 dollars per month per employee.
Time management
Evernote
What does it do: It is a software application whose objective is the management of personal information. There is a business version. It boost the shared use of booknotes and corporative documents. It makes it accesible to all employees according to their profile. The business app includes private folders for certain information or notes. Available for Android, iOS, Windows and Blackberry.
Cost: There is a version for free and a paid version.
Storage
Dropbox
What does it do: Dropbox is a service which allows users to store all their files in the cloud and to access them any time anywhere. A quick load and a simple interface, it is not the only service (Google Drive and similar other services), but highly recommended.
Cost: The cost of Dropbox for businesses with more than 5 employees is 75 dollars per month, and it can increase according to the amount of employees.
Payment
PayPal
What does it do: This convenient platform lets you link your credit, debit and other bank accounts to your PayPal account, making paying people and getting paid quick and painless. The company reacted to the emergence of Square — more on that app below — by creating an app that lets businesses attach PayPal’s card reader to a tablet or other device and use it as a portable register.
Cost: PayPal’s standard merchant service plan is free and allows you to accept credit cards and PayPal on your site and in store. The Pro plan costs $30 per month and comes with added features, including the ability to host and customize online checkout.
Expensify
What does it do: Expensify makes keeping track of your expenses while on a business trip a lot less painful. You can link your credit or debit card to your Expensify account so that the app will place charges directly on an expense report. If you’d rather not do this, you can take pictures of your receipts with your phone, and Expensify will automatically extract the relevant information. You can then make an expense report yourself, which only takes a few minutes.
Cost: Expensify costs $5 per month per active account for team users and $9 per month per active active for corporate users.
Download the DataScope app and start now!
DataScope is the ideal tool to eliminate paper use, save time, and efficiently collect data from the field. It allows companies to streamline, organize and evaluate field work thanks to its online forms, which provide indicators in real time, 100% adaptable to any area.
With DataScope, your team can answer custom mobile forms from their phones or tablets, online or offline, through the app.
