A New Jersey BusiNess speciAl FeAture

App-Vantageous
By George N. Saliba, Managing Editor

How applications (a.k.a. apps) for smart phones and tablets are helping businesses remain competitive.

We check our e-mail while waiting in line for 30 seconds at Starbucks, we respond to a text message upon awaking from a nap, and
we browse the Internet in the palm of our hands while riding mass transit. When we glance at shopping mall crowds, we see people doting over their ever-present smart phones and tablets - devices that now perform much more than the telephone-call-only function of yesteryears cell phones. For the businessperson, the quintessential questions are: How can smart phones/tablets improve the performance of individual employees or that of an entire organization? And how can I navigate the thousands of apps on the market? On these pages, New Jersey Business delves into the world of apps, and how to grasp their potential.

This PDF is being made available with permission from New Jersey Business Magazine.

New Jersey Business

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>>>App-VANtAgeous

New Jersey Business Offers iPad App >Magazine cites benefits for both its readers and advertisers.
Fairfield-based New Jersey Business magazine - a publication of The New Jersey Business & Industry Association - is now available for Apple iPad tablets. The iPad version is a virtual facsimile of the print edition, complete with high-resolution graphics and the in-depth journalism readers have come to expect since the magazines debut in 1954. The iPad app is another vehicle which will help New Jersey Business magazine readers make informed business decisions, and it will simultaneously keep the magazine on the front edge of technology, says Vincent Schweikert, vice president and publisher of New Jersey Business magazine. It should be noted that this digital version of the magazine is interactive, allowing our readers to connect directly to our advertisers through web links. The iPad app also gives advertisers additional exposure due to the associated increase in circulation. The iPad app is available as a free download through Apples online store.

than just a mobile website. A bank might offer services allowing customers to monitor their account balances or quickly pay bills, while an oil-service-change shop might have an app for letting car owners know when their vehicles should be maintained. The possibilities are endless, as evidenced by the thousands of these types of apps that have flooded the market and helped turn the wheels of commerce. Of course, there are aforementioned apps for employees use, too.

Getting Started
Overall, as the modern adage goes, theres an app for everything. When businesses are evaluating apps, Tim Kellers, information technology liaison at the NJIT Division of Continuing Professional Education (CPE), says one should read the apps reviews and be prepared to discount the first 10 or so, if they are glowing reviews. It is too often that developers seed their reviews with bogus reviews of their own material. Kellers also recommends looking at independent reviews on the Internet and contact[ing] the developer of an app you are interested in, directly. Most developers are happy to tell anyone and everyone about their app, and are highly available via e-mail, chat and forums. Kellers adds, If you are not comfortable using those media to contact developers, you probably shouldnt be evaluating mobile device software for a company. AT&Ts Khan notes that at his company, some of the most popular applications for customers employees are pre-packaged solutions, in which only a few points are customized, and in which AT&T assists with rolling the app out to businesses workers. Categories of pre-packaged solutions may include: mobile office, customer relationship management, employee tracking and form-filling.

Apps Are Here to Stay

[Application solutions] are not a passing fad, explains M. Mobeen Khan, executive director, advanced mobility solutions, for AT&T Business Solutions. Mobility is becoming an integral part of businesses. [Our business] customers are mobilizing their assets, mobilizing their processes, mobilizing their employees - and connecting with their customers in ways that they were not able to in the past. For example, one AT&T customer has its employees inspect pizza stores. The inspectors use their mobile tablets to complete onsite reports and then they submit the results to their managers in real time, tremendously improving productivity (e.g., inspectors do not have to return to their offices to fill out forms). Another example is an AT&T municipal government customer which issues hunting permits. Instead of hunters physically driving to the government office (which is only open at certain times), they may instead use their mobile phones to obtain permits.

Khan emphasizes, You dont need to go into a municipal office - or even to your computer - to go hunting. Saju Thomas is product manager of Picksie at the company Ishi Systems, Jersey City (Picksie is a mobile service that recommends places such as bars or restaurants based upon users locations). Speaking broadly about apps many benefits, Thomas says, Customer service becomes real-time with an app; when somebody encounters a customer service issue, they can report it, which usually doesnt happen as much [via] the Internet. Someone also could obviously telephone in, but fewer customers opt for that because of the whole loop of calling, waiting and not communicating. Apps are definitely a high-value customer attraction tool. AT&Ts Khan stresses, Whether you offer pizzas or financial services, you know that your customers have and are walking around with - tablets and smart phones. He suggests connecting with customers in a meaningful way, which includes having more

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Customized Solutions
Apps for customers and apps for employees can be highly customized. For example, [say] you want a specialized device that works in extreme temperatures inside of your company vehicles, Khan explains. There, we will figure out the right device and perhaps obtain it through working with our large OEM suppliers. Then, there are application and solutions that go with that device. Overall, for customized ventures, NJITs Kellers says, The people creating the apps and the people determining the needs are different people. Except in cases where porting existing software to the mobile environment (QuickOffice, for example, as a Microsoft Office mobile spin-off ), developers are not creating applications for businesses on speculation. Businesses, once having formulated a cogent plan, either approach mobile app design companies or take the app development in-house and hire (or empower) I.T. staff to move the app from idea to reality. (Of note, Kellers teaches online and hybrid classes at NJIT regarding developing apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android). Kellers explains that custom apps can be brought to market in as little as a week, but that 60 to 90 days from concept to deployment is not an unreasonable timeframe. Kellers asks rhetorically, Who can businesses turn to if they need customized apps? There are many development companies in existence. A quick Google search for the term business mobile apps is a good place to start. After that, see what the resultant companies have designed (you probably dont want a games/ simulation company designing your inventory control system) and contact someone personally at a company in which you may have further interest. If you cant contact an actual person about their company and products, choose a different company.

Is It Worth the Investment?

Smart phones and tablets are growing in popularity, but is it worth the effort and expense to get involved with apps? The easiest answer might be summed up in two words: competitive pressures. AT&Ts Khan says: Take one credit union versus another. One is very mobile savvy and has all kinds of applications, and the other does not. If they find that their demographic is starting to carry smart phones and tablets, then the credit union that is not taking the step into the mobile world will start to lose customers over time. Or, at least not get the growth that the other would. As for direct return on investment, Khan offers: The return on investment on business process applications is immediate. By immediate, I mean its really weeks and months, not years, because mobile employees typically already have either their own smart phone devices, or ones that they have been supplied with. Obviously, costs are there - I dont want to minimize them - but it has become fairly routine and simple to get these applications up and running.

The Future of Business Apps

If employees are working effortlessly from the field, and customers are communicating more readily with businesses, where might the entire app trend be headed in the future? Ernie Hoffmann, vice president of product management at Optimum Lightpath, prognosticates, Businesses that are mobile and have field staffs, etc., are going to begin aggregating apps and creating a singular app for their employees, so that employees can access all of the systems necessary to keep that business up to date with whats going on with the employees. My prediction is that while today you might look at somebodys tablet and see half a dozen things that they use for business, in the future, you might just see one or two apps. But, those one or two apps will kind of be aggregate apps with all the other capabilities underlying.

Conclusion
Whatever the future iteration of technology may be, it is clear on the immediate horizon that apps are here to stay - and businesses must keep pace with them in order to remain competitive. NJB

Tim Kellers, of NJIT, says, Most developers are happy to tell anyone and everyone about their app, and are highly available via e-mail, chat and forums. New Jersey Business

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