Monthly Archives:August 2015

For what purposes can retail delivery companies leverage mobile apps?

Retail delivery: 3 use cases for mobile workflow apps

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The retail industry is currently going through many changes, as stores realize that customers matter more than ever, and delivery and logistics firms recognize that they play a large role in client satisfaction. Add in mobility, and retail sectors are set for a revival – one in which these businesses revolutionize the way they merchandise products, conduct administrative tasks and collect consumer feedback.

However, it all starts with the way that brands use mobile devices. Standard app store tools just won’t deliver the results that these businesses need to truly reinvent processes and structures. So, many retail delivery firms turn to mobile workflow apps that they can personalize and modify based on use case, user and corporate demand.

But for what purposes can these brands leverage mobile apps? Let’s take a look at three specific use cases of mobile workflow solutions in retailing and delivery.

Shop visit

Shop visit apps are for businesses delivering their products and goods to retailers. Specifically, this category of use case breaks down into two solutions: merchandising apps and ordering apps. Employees can quickly and easily switch between both if requirements call for it, but the events of these apps are universal.

“Mobile workflow apps cut administrative and delivery errors.”

Merchandising apps allow managers and supervisors to read product surveys, configure displays and determine placements for products based on guidelines provided by headquarters. Ordering apps are more simple, giving retail delivery staff the ability to order more items directly from the shop floor, sending data back to SAP systems. With these two mobile workflow solutions, brands can reduce order cycle times, sell more items, and cut administrative and delivery errors.

Time sheet and cost administration

Mobile applications for time sheets and administration are critical for businesses with a majority of their employees on the road all day. With a mobile solution for these needs, staff members can clock in and out, as well as detail how far they have driven, how much fuel has been used and how many sales people they interacted with. In addition, Mobilengine’s time sheet and cost administration apps record locations and times, ensuring accuracy.

These mobile workflow solutions cut costs in administration and reduce the amount of work for employees and headquarters. – less manual entry and more automatic accountability.

Score card

With sales representatives on the road, how can a business record its performance? With a mobile score card app. These mobile workflow solutions are perfect for collecting feedback and motivating employees to make more sales. They can record sales statistics and send them back to headquarters, ensuring that everyone is aware of sales representatives’ strengths, weaknesses and developments.

Simply put, score card apps will help managers improve the performance of their salespeople, allowing them to track successes and failures without requiring employees to check back into headquarters.

The three use cases list above are really only a few of the many ways that retail delivery companies can improve their business from the bottom up with mobile workflow apps from Mobilengine. These firms should discover what they need mobile apps for and work with Mobilengine to create the ultimate solution from the ground up.

RFID and construction: Mobility for productivity, safety and compliance [Video]

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Mobile devices have revolutionized the way construction firms work, but it is technologies such as RFID that reinvent productivity, safety and compliance.

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In a recent article from RFID Journal, Michael Kelly, head of IT and communication at McGee Group, explained his relationship with Mobilengine, detailing how the two organizations worked together to deploy near-field communication solutions via mobile workflow apps.

Using Nexus 7 tablets and NFC RFID stickers, McGee armed its employees with mobile solutions for a variety of tasks.

For example, McGee managers can scan RFID chips in a worker’s CSCS card, ensuring that they have the right training. Meanwhile, operators use equipment inspection apps and vehicle inspection apps to guarantee that all machinery is functioning properly and data is recorded.

Additionally, McGee leverages site induction apps and permit request apps to ensure compliance with U.K. regulatory bodies’ requirements.

Mobilengine’s mobile workflow solutions and RFID capabilities reinvented the way McGee works, inspiring better compliance, safer environments and a more productive workforce.

The state of tablet sales: Q2 2015 numbers released [Video]

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Every industry, from health care to construction, loves tablets, but their employees aren’t a fan of every device and the market is split.

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IDC released a report on tablet sales for Q2 2015, and while 44.7 million units were shipped around the world, not all tablets are flying off the shelves.

In fact, despite being No. 1 overall for tablet vendors, Apple saw shipments decline for its line of iPads, sending out 10.9 million units. Meanwhile, Samsung shipped 7.6 million tablets, a metric that puts the company second in market share.

Tablets have quickly become the best choice for enterprise mobility, as their larger screens make data entry easier in fields like health care, construction and logistics. However, a mobile device is worthless without a mobile workflow solution, making Mobilengine a critical part of any tablet strategy.

That’s all the news we have for this week. Stay with Mobilengine for more mobility news and tips!

Webforms Reference Guide announcement

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The Mobilengine Developer Documentation is growing and maturing. We are working towards the goal of having Mobilengine SDK developers dip into the online documentation and come away with a comfortable feeling of insight.

On the one hand, our tutorials that take SDK developers from zero to Mobilengine hero in manageable steps have been through numerous reviews, and bugs have been squashed. The shinier new tutorial chapters feature lots of working sample code throughout, and are designed to be completed over a few days’ worth of lunch breaks.

keep-calm-and-read-the-documentation

To complement the hands-on walkthrough, a brand new ‘Webforms Reference Guide’ has been added. The guide is a comprehensive documentation of the Mobilengine Webforms Markup Language that browser-based Mobilengine workflow forms are developed in. Webforms is a recent addition to the Mobilengine SDK, but it’s already becoming essential: apart from web-based forms, forms running on the soon-launching Mobilengine iOS client also speak an updated version of the language. In the new reference guide, details of available form controls and data operations are laid out clearly and consistently, and tons of conveniently highlighted sample code illustrate the syntax.

Many more chapters are in the pipeline, and the existing material is constantly kept up-to-date, so regular visits to https://mobilengine.com/documentation/ are highly recommended.

With capacity concerns reaching the tipping point, logistics firms need to find a cutting-edge method for managing inventory on the road and back at headquarters.

State of Logistics report highlights areas where mobility can help

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Between Amazon’s promises of same-day delivery, the hype surrounding delivery drones and the amount of trucks we see on the roads every day, you think it would be hard to argue that the logistics industry is about to experience a rapid increase in costs. After all, the past decade was one of the most successful periods for this sector.

However, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ annual State of Logistics report paints a different picture. The Wall Street Journal reported that the steady increase in demand for products and goods as well as the growth of industrial manufacturing have caused shipping volumes to skyrocket, and as a result, the logistics industry will face capacity problems.

Further compounding problems in logistics, a driver shortage is currently underway, and the source noted that when the Federal Reserve raises the benchmark rate, logistics businesses will struggle to hold onto inventory as it becomes more costly to store and procure necessary equipment. So while in the past, devoting a budget to storage wouldn’t be much of an issue, now, there aren’t enough employees to deliver products and capacity problems will have a larger impact on monthly and yearly revenues. Therefore, logistics firms must come up with a solution or risk riding the trending curve downward with their competitors in 2015.

“The logistics industry will face capacity problems in 2015.

Amazon’s last hope
And so, with impending budget deficits and capacity problems on the horizon for logistics companies, it should come as no surprise that some organizations take bold steps. Amazon, for example, recently introduced a new delivery service – similar to Uber, but for packages, not people – Forbes reported. This is the business’s contingency plan for driver and truck shortages, and it relies on a mobile app. Time will tell if Amazon’s solution pays off for the company, but Forbes’ point was clear: With capacity concerns reaching the tipping point, logistics firms need to find a cutting-edge method for managing inventory on the road and back at headquarters.

Mobility’s role
Logistics mobile apps are exactly the solution that the industry needs. For one, with a tour planning app or a task management app, drivers can become more efficient, covering more ground with less gas utilization and making up for a shortage of employees. Logistics companies can cut spending while improving their delivery efficiency, and all it takes is a mobile app or two. However, over time, and as capacity costs really start to hurt organizations, they will obviously need new mobile solutions – and that’s where Mobilengine’s rapid development platform comes in.

After experiencing success with turn-by-turn navigation apps, task management apps and the like, logistics companies can deploy more mobile solutions that allow drivers to collect invoices and send them back to headquarters in real-time. These proof of delivery and freight task management apps will be critical to managing capacity in the coming months and years.

Managing a warehouse is just as important as overseeing deliveries.Managing a warehouse is just as important as overseeing deliveries.

Back at headquarters
Of course, mobile apps will also help shore up any inefficiencies back at headquarters as well, especially since driver shortages aren’t the only problem.

“Warehouse utilization rates are north of 95 percent right,” Walter Kemmsies, chief economist at Moffat & Nichol Inc., told The Wall Street Journal.

With a history of saving clients as much as 30 percent on their logistics and the ability to reduce back office administration by up to 60 percent, Mobilengine’s freight management apps and other customized mobile apps can help administrators and managers gain a better, more complete outlook on current stock and capacity limits. It will be critical in the coming months to ensure full visibility on all inventory, as well as guarantee that trucks are taking the right products and goods from the warehouse.

Mobility has the capability to reinvent logistics and Mobilengine can help, providing both truck drivers and back-office administrators with enough mobile apps to reduce capacity costs and improve delivery efficiency.

Download our Logistics Case Study

Mobile app-based fleet tracking systems cuts construction costs [Video]

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Thanks to the ubiquitous nature of GPS-enabled mobile devices and modern networking capabilities, tracking fleets in the construction industry has never been more cost-effective.

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Fleet tracking solutions continue to evolve, and now with mobile devices in every employee’s hands, construction firms are integrating mobile apps with these systems and seeing savings appear everywhere.

From safety and vehicle inspection apps to site stock management and resource allocation apps, construction workers and managers can prevent transportation breakdowns, provide project status updates and supervise equipment. And once construction teams hit the road, navigation apps and site induction apps ensure that employees get to sites on time and already informed.

This directly results in cost cutting. Businesses that use fleet tracking systems can reduce labor and fuel costs by up to 20 percent, according to Construction Executive. This means that the ROI on mobile app projects is achievable in just under a month.

With Mobilengine’s solutions, construction firms can start on the road to mobility and begin reducing fleet tracking costs.

Thanks for joining Mobilengine, and come back next week for more mobility news and tips!

Download our Construction Case Study

Businesses can get started with a mobile app development platform easily by signing up for Mobilengine, but what are the tangible benefits of adopting an enterprise mobility strategy in the security and guarding services industry?

Why is the security services industry going mobile?

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With a worldwide focus on improving cybersecurity strategies and solutions, it should come as no surprise that the manned security services industry is similarly expanding rapidly. A report from Daedal Research found that on a global scale, business is booming, while an industry forecast about this sector in the U.K, – conducted by Apex Insight – discovered similar data indicating an increasing reliance on private protection. New technologies make security and guarding easier than before, but rapid expansion isn’t necessarily a good thing for some security firms.

The immense increase in security services spending is leading to competition. Apex Insights’ report noted that market consolidation of smaller security firms caused larger enterprises in this sector to steal a big portion of customers. Security service providers need to set themselves apart from the competition. This calls for more productive employees, error elimination, enhanced security measures and cost reduction.

In fact, many businesses in the security services industry are turning to mobility in order to improve their company at the foundation, as indicated in a Group 4 Securicor case study. After all, employees are the organizations, and if they have the ability to perform their jobs and tasks more efficiently with less errors and at a lower cost, customers will be more satisfied and better protected.

“Enterprise mobility has the potential to reinvent the way guards work.”

Enterprise mobility in the security services sector has the potential to reinvent the way employees work, and it all starts with creating mobile workflow applications based on existing daily tasks and jobs. Businesses can get started with a mobile app development platform easily by signing up for Mobilengine, but what are the tangible benefits of adopting an enterprise mobility strategy in the security and guarding services industry? And furthermore, why would a security firm need mobile apps?

Improving productivity in real time
In the security services and cash management industry, employees are often out and about and away from computers and other technologies. So, when they return back to the office or headquarters, they need to manually enter information and tasks into their respective applications and systems. Administrative duties, therefore, make up a large portion of the work completed every day.

Obviously, with a mobile device and workflow app, those staff members can enter data from their current location. With a platform like Mobilengine, security and guarding service providers can empower their employees to even work offline. These capabilities alone will reduce field administration by up to 60 percent while mitigating the need to perform as much as 40 percent of back-office jobs.

The key is the real-time communication capabilities of mobile workflow apps hosted by Mobilengine such as security tour planning apps and cash management apps. As soon as employees in the field submit data, that information makes its way back to headquarters, mission-critical databases and applications. This saves employees from having to manually enter data and allows administrators to work in real time and stay in-sync with guards and security personnel who are on the job.

Security teams can use <a  data-cke-saved-href=Security teams can use mobile apps for any conceivable task.

Eliminating errors
Without mobile devices, security professionals and guards rely on manual, handwritten data collection; long, task-filled checklists and obtuse sets of rules. Those aspects of working without mobility can lead to errors in information, employees could complete jobs incorrectly, and some staff members can forget certain steps when securing locations and equipment.

The Mobilengine platform eliminates the chance of making an error on-site. For example, a security tour planning app provides employees with their tasks for the day as well as areas to input specific data, ensuring that the appropriate information is collected at every ATM stop. In fact, with Mobilengine, security and guarding professionals reduced errors by up to 70 percent.

Enhancing security
In the security and cash management services, employees must protect assets at all costs. It is quite clear that paper documents provide a minimal amount of security compared to digital solutions, as all it takes is simply misplacing a piece of paper and a company can become compromised.

Cash in transit monitoring apps grant an extra layer of security to already secure practices, as administrators can track activities in real time. ATM visit apps are equally secure.Take G4S​, for instance. If a guard must assess ATMs, Mobilengine allows businesses to implement unique PINs for each unit or worker. With this solution, organizations can ensure collected data matches internal records in real time, as well as keep unwanted eyes from accessing certain workflows or forms.

“Data transmits over secure channels to the Mobilengine cloud.”

Furthermore, Computing, U.K.’s leading business technology publication, explained that mobile backend-as-a-service models – such as the one provided with Mobilengine – employees can securely connect to backend systems without any additional coding or infrastructure. Data transmits over secure channels to the Mobilengine cloud, then travels to business applications. The source noted that this singular entry point is the key to being secure.

Cutting costs
Cost is perhaps the most important aspect of mobility in the eyes of business leaders. After all, going mobile shouldn’t put a drain on IT budgets, but rather improve productivity, reduce overall spending and therefore boost revenue.

With mobile workflow apps that allow these companies to track assets and employees, security and guarding service providers were able to lower the cost of their insurance plans by as much as 40 percent. Furthermore, with employees working harder, getting more done and saving time in the process, earnings will improve, and security worksheet apps ensure that no one works overtime.

However, businesses also need to reduce costs related to mobile app development in order to see a good return. Mobilengine can enable security firms to lower their total spending by between 10 percent and 30 percent.

Security professionals need mobile devices to improve the way they work. With Mobilengine, these organizations can take mobility to the next level with a complete platform-as-a-service solution that covers everything from development, backend infrastructure and management.

Download our Security Case Study

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