The result? Your sales cycle grinds to a halt as a result of these delays. For a business owner, paper forms make it time consuming to know which employees are productive and which ones aren’t. Mobile work orders create a system that's reliable, accurate, and accessible in real time. Companies are able to use time and date stamps to show an accurate timing of when the job occurred, while built-in GPS capabilities can confirm a worker was at a job site or customer location when he or she is supposed to be there. Businesses also have the flexibility to customize the work order form fields to their specific requirements, pre-populate pricing for parts and have all of the information captured in the mobile work order form transmitted immediately via the cloud to the office, as well as to customers if required.
3. Mobile GPS capabilities streamline vehicle routing
A cloud-based mobile app solution can also improve routing efficiency as you dispatch workers to job sites and customer locations. With GPS location capture, business owners can visualize routes on a map, consolidate two routes into one, or even calculate date and time. A light dispatch service also allows companies to send delivery information to remote or field workers, and a careful review of routes can save hundreds of gallons of gas, as well as wear and tear on vehicles.
4. Mobile inspections improve quality control
For businesses charged with conducting quality control, safety and compliance inspections at work sites, paper forms introduce several vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. Workers could report inspecting a site they never visited, and workers must rewrite the same information over and over, use expensive carbon copies that are hard to read and easily lost, and are limited to text-only data.
Mobile inspection apps allow your business to build in time and date stamps – as well as GPS location – to ensure inspections are being done correctly and in accordance with company and industry regulations. Mobile inspection apps also allow for multimedia (photos, etc.) to more easily report complicated issues and provide visual proof of issues.
Time and date stamps as well as GPS location assure you accurate and effective inspections.
5. Mobile apps transform data collection and storage
Integrating mobility into core applications that your business uses every day – such as Dropbox, Salesforce, Quickbooks and Evernote – places a premium on effective data collection that can be easily stored and shared across the organization. With mobile data collection capabilities, your employees can fill out information anywhere and have that data stored securely in the Cloud – a huge cost savings driver as each four-drawer filing cabinet costs a firm $1,500 (about £893) annually. By using Application Program Interfaces (APIs), your business can easily integrate data collected via mobile apps with your own systems. Finally, with mobile data collection capabilities, your business can collect an expanded set of information beyond text through image capture, barcode scanning, e-signatures and GPS.
Cloud mobile business app solutions are now simple and powerful to use, and lead to significant and immediate productivity gains and cost savings for businesses with mobile workers that are reliant on paper forms.
- Jason Peck is director of marketing at Canvas
