Business apps for the smartphone are evolving into the mobile office that you’ve heard about for years. Your staff can be almost as productive on the road as they can be at the office. In fact, with real-time access to company data and collaboration tools, they can be even more productive. With their Blackberry Q10, iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy they can make last minute changes to contracts and presentations while in the customer’s waiting area. No more delays because someone forgot a document at the office. Here is a list of cool apps for businesses that can help you while at work.
Top Business Apps for your Smartphone
Business Card Reader XT
Around the world, business cards are still the favorite way for business people to exchange personal information. This results in stacks of cards in the bottom drawer of everyone’s desks. The Business Card Reader XT app uses OCR technology to scan the card and store it in a database. Take a picture of the card with your smartphone camera and the reader will attempt to match the text on the card to your predefined database fields. Not only do you get rid of the stacks of cards, but you create a contact database that is a lot easier to refer to than flipping through the physical cards.
SayIt
This app is like having your own personal assistant on your smartphone, writes James Richardson for Crackberry. This app gives you voice control over many functions on your phone as well as some new tools.
Some of the features include text to voice, location-based weather reports, Internet searches by voice and dictionary and encyclopedia access by voice. This app is a toolbox of functionality, all of which is voice activated. This is great when walking or driving and you have a quick thought you’d like to check out.
Abukai Expenses
This app helps you and your staff keep your expenses organized. It’s useful for road warriors who have to manage those little receipts they throw into their briefcase. Abukai Expenses lets you take photos of your receipts and submit them to this cloud-based service. What you get back is a completed expense report. You can accept one of their expense report formats or integrate it into your office financial system.
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Toodledo
Toodledo is an easy to learn to-do list manager that syncs up with apps and the cloud. Access it through a web browser on your office computer then check off items and make updates on your smartphone. There are many sorting and display options and custom fields so you can track information important to you. You may never need to print the list, but that option is available with custom formats, including a small pocket-sized booklet.
Vault Password Manager
Donny Halliwell with Inside Blackberry offers up Vault as a way to manage all of the passwords you collect. This app acts as an encrypted notepad on which you can store all of the passwords you need in your business or personal life. You can group the passwords to make them easy to find. Better than a yellow sticky note on your desktop, this app makes your passwords available wherever you are.
Google Calendar and Contacts Sync
While not a new app or particularly jazzy, this app from Google helps you and your staff keep your calendars and contacts in sync. Available for many devices, you can make changes on your laptop at home, add new business contacts in the office and have them all stay in sync.
You can create project calendars for your various teams as well as a business calendar to track timelines and deadlines. This app makes sure you have access to what you need when you need it. Which is the kind of impact that your smartphones should have on your business.
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