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Business Apps
At the end of 2012 there were a
staggering 1.2 billion app users, and the
number is growing by a further 29.8%
each year, according to Portio Research.
From entertainment and retail to
transport and weather, more and more of
us are using apps to help us shop, travel,
get around and plan our social lives.We’re
also turning to them to help us work on
the move, with Gartner predicting that by
2016 business collaboration applications
will be available across desktops, mobile
phones, tablets and browsers.
Yet, while we’re becoming more
comfortable using them, the idea of
actually creating one’s own business
app sounds scary, complicated – and
expensive. But should it?
Today, it’s easier than ever to create
custom-built apps that can be adapted
to the way you do business. Firms
don’t need technical expertise to do
this: they can simply download existing
apps and customise them to suit their
business needs. Using enterprise social
networks, apps are as easy to create as a
spreadsheet.
Citrix Podio, for example, can be
downloaded from the social network
store, in much the same way as it would
be from Apple’s App Store or BlackBerry
World. To personalise it, app ‘building
blocks’, including text and category fields,
progress bars, date setters and images, can
be chosen and titled according to project
requirements. Choosing from a ‘team list,’
it’s possible to assign a responsible person
to projects and provide a forum where any
team member can view discussions and
ask questions.
Whereas in the past, purpose-built
software was a luxury few enterprises
could afford, today’s customisable
work apps enable even the smallest
of businesses to create personalised
workflows. As well as improving
collaboration and project management,
they help individuals be more productive
by eliminating indiscriminate email
communication between team members.
Bespoke apps
London-based marketing and
communications agency Emperor Design
has created a number of bespoke apps
using Podio app builder, after it was
introduced to the platform by a delivery
partner which managed its own internal
workflows using the tool.
“Our team used to manage projects
in a relatively ad hoc fashion based
on the knowledge and style of each
individual,” said Emperor Design senior
digital project manager Rinella da Silva.
“A lot of time was spent trying to find
time in people’s diaries to discuss, agree
and get work done, and some work fell
through the cracks as a result of not
having a repository to store it and have
a conversation around it with the team
and clients. The flexibility Podio offers has
not only enabled us to build workspaces
and apps that work within our current
systems, it has allowed us to continue to
adapt and improve them. Additionally, an
information hub has been created that
allows teams to share new information.”
Da Silva says that as well as connecting
with team members and sharing
documents more effectively, the apps and
workspaces Emperor Design has created
have made managing work between
individuals far more effective than before
– even when it comes to collaborating
with external partners who are not on the
Podio platform.
“We are able to export work to non-
Podio users and import their solutions
back in with very little effort,” she said.
Build an app
– it’s easier than you think
There’s a new tech trend in town – and it’s generating some fantastic results.
Drawing on the experience of Emperor Design, Andrew Millard looks at how
creating customised business apps can help save time and improve teamwork
“We can also duplicate issues between
internal and client workspaces, while
referencing information from the external
facing workspace. This has made workflow
management a lot more efficient while
maintaining data and communication
integrity between us and our clients.”
In all, Emperor Design has seven
internal and client-facing apps, which it
uses instead of time-consuming Excel
spreadsheets and email communication.
For da Silva, another big benefit of the
apps is efficient work allocation. “When
I think of work that I have that needs to
be done – but don’t yet have someone
scheduled in to do it – I can keep the
work ready, assign it to someone with a
deadline and when the day comes, it’s
all ready and waiting for them. All I have
to do is give them a single, efficient brief
rather than a whole bunch of information
in hundreds of documents, which would
previously have had to be collated and
sent through emails,” she said.
Summing up its benefits, da Silva says
that Podio is, above all, a great time-saver:
“On average, Podio has helped us save at
least an hour per average working day,”
she said. “Over the course of a year, that’s
a pretty significant cost saving.”
Andrew Millard is senior director
marketing, EMEA for Citrix SaaS division.
www.citrix.com
www.podio.com
... it’s easier
than ever
to create
custom-built
apps that can
be adapted to
the way you
do business
Andrew Millard