5 Apps Your Employees Should Start Using Today

The following is a guest post.

Countless apps are now available on the market – at least 300,000 have been developed over the past three years alone according to Source Digital Buzz. In an increasingly mobile world, many modern workers use apps their smartphones or mobile devices for business purposes.

This makes it easy for them to keep in contact with coworkers and clients, as well as manage business processes from afar. In order to facilitate employee productivity on the go, encourage your employees to start using these apps:

Time and Attendance Portal

Many of the time and attendance software utilized by businesses now come not only with online employee portals, but mobile apps as well. These apps enable employees to update their personal information, review their paychecks, check their schedules, change their availability, or request vacation time. The changes occur instantly, are secured by the app software, and preclude the need for time-consuming and wasteful paper forms.

Mobile VoIP

If your business phone system utilizes cloud-based VoIP technology, your employees can access and utilize the system from anywhere. Many VoiP systems can route calls from your employee’s handset in their office to their mobile phone.

This is convenient for employees who frequently travel on company time and don’t want to miss an important call from a client. Having the VoIP software installed on their mobile device makes it easy to transfer service as necessary - without having to fill out expense forms to recoup the cost of the minutes. If you aren’t sure where to start, Business.com lists the 10 coolest VOIP apps.

Mobile POS

According to Winter Green Research, total sales of mobile POS systems will reach $3.1 billion by 2018. Your employees can utilize a mobile POS app in order to process off-site sales, such as those that occur at trade shows, festivals, or work locations (HVAC, plumbing, etc). Mobile POS apps can also work inside your storefront, helping your employees check out retail customers or restaurants more quickly and effectively than your traditional credit card terminal.

• Your POS platform should either integrate with your existing inventory and sales tracking software, or provide you with its own set of real-time analytics to help you track sales, inventory, and revenues.

Campaign Maintenance

Specialized business apps can help your online marketing staff automate and monitor your business’s online ad campaigns with the alacrity that is now necessary in an ever-changing online marketplace.

• Maintaining your marketing campaigns is an integral part of promoting and growing your business. Marketing automation apps let your employees keep reaching out to customers no matter where you are.
• Apps can even help to manage your business’s social media accounts and populate them with compelling content at regular intervals. Your employees can set these apps to post pre-specified content every day or every hour as needed.

CRM Apps

Does your business rely on sales leads? Do you know that the longer your sales employees wait to contact a potential new lead, the less likely they will be able to qualify a sale? Your mobile CRM software can alert your employees to every potential sales opportunity the moment that the lead comes in. When employees travel to meet with customers or new leads, they can use their mobile CRM app to update customer information instantly. This helps your business processes run more smoothly – and keeps everyone in the loop.

If your employees rely on their mobile devices for conducting business in the office or on the go, they should be using these apps in order to stay more connected with their clients, their coworkers, and their business systems.

Megan Webb-Morgan is a web content writer for B2B lead generation resource, ResourceNation.com. She writes about small business, focusing on topics such as business sales. Follow Resource Nation on Facebook and Google+ as well.