By 2014, iOS and Android occupy 95% of the market, according to statistics IDC. Moreover, Android owns 78.1% (226.1 million devices), and iOS 17.6% (51 million). In 2013, Android's share grew by 40%.
This application is installed on 120 million devices in 205 countries. Allows you to edit MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents on the go. Supports PDF. You can send documents to Google Drive. Edit offline. For all this pleasure you will have to pay more than 520 rubles in Russia.
If you don't mind spending money on OfficeSuite, here's an alternative editor for documents. Understands almost all formats, including Microsoft Office. Saves and prints PDF. Able to send documents via email as attachments. You can store documents in the cloud.
Almost everyone with Android has a Google account. Therefore, the question of where to store documents automatically disappears for most people. The application allows you to create, edit and manage documents. It’s convenient that files can be accessed from any device. The application is free.
A reliable and secure way to remotely access your PC desktop from your phone or tablet. Can be used to access desktop versions of MS Word and Excel.
One of the best ways to remotely access your PC and Mac desktop. It has its own protocol for transmitting high-definition video. The downside is that you cannot transfer files between platforms. It is more convenient to work from a tablet. Costs 164 rubles.
This is not just a convenient storage for notes. The application helps you organize your life and business. Notes can be dictated by voice or entered manually. Save photos, task lists and more. All recordings are synchronized between all devices. For those interested - a conversation between Executive.ru and the Vice President for International Development of Evernote Dmitry Stavisky. The application is free.
The application allows you to print documents and website pages directly from your smartphone. Eliminates the need to upload documents to your computer. For free
Accounting tool. Helps track and manage finances. For full functionality, you need the desktop version. The trial period is 30 days.
Allows you to connect the terminal to your smartphone via the headphone jack and read credit cards. Card details can also be entered manually. The app takes a small percentage of each payment. Alternative - GoPayment.
Personal finance management app with many tools for entrepreneurs. You can categorize, record and track your small business expenses. The interface is simple. There are visual graphics. For free.
This is already synonymous with video chat. Suitable for video conferencing with remote employees and clients. You can use devices with a front-facing video camera. Works on most devices. Saves money on overseas business calls. You can send large files without restrictions (unlike e-mail). For free.
There are many calendar apps out there, but this is still one of the best. Intuitive interface. Integration with all Google ecosystem. The application informs you about upcoming business meetings. There is a built-in to-do list. For free.
There are also many cloud storage services. And, again, few compare to Dropbox. The application integrates with the vast majority of applications and platforms. For free.
If for some incredible reason Dropbox isn't right for you, this is an alternative. You can share files and annotate them. Supports collaboration, making it convenient for contractors and remote workers. Encrypts data. 10 GB to get started. For free.
The application connects to your mail server and creates a single interface for mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. There is an HD version for tablets. 30 days trial period.
There are many file managers. ASTRO stands out from others thanks to the SMB plugin. It allows you to move files from a shared directory. Another important feature is powerful search. Now it will be difficult to lose the file.
Your device can choose settings depending on where you go. For example, automatically switch to “vibrate” mode when you arrive at work, change wallpaper depending on the location, turn wi-fi on or off, and much more. Lots of plugins to expand capabilities. You'll have to fork out 299 rubles.
Uses the camera to scan business cards and saves the data directly to contacts. There may be problems with the Russian language. Costs 377 rubles.
Another business card scanner. You can add notes and export to CRM. It will cost 131 rubles.
Allows you to sign documents on the go. Literally. Open the PDF document (from email or Dropbox), sign and save. The app records GPS coordinates for safety. You can purchase a magnetic stylus for easier signing. Not cheap, you have to pay 613 rubles.
Serves as a password and digital wallet manager. Security is enhanced with two-factor authentication. Tracks and protects passwords with AES-256 encryption. Protects personal information: e-mail, customer data, credit cards and much more.
If you don't have a physical keyboard, this will work just fine. High-quality suggestions for words to enter. For free.
Personal travel organizer. It's especially useful if you give it access to your email so it can scan tickets and itineraries. Then you literally don't have to do anything except go to the app to find out: flight time, hotel address, distance to the convention center and much more. Open the app at least once before your trip and all data will be available offline. For free.
Convenient antivirus.
Protects passwords. Helps manage autocomplete fields.
Saves any content from the Internet to review it later. Alternatively you can use Instapaper.
Continue the list in the comments!
Photo source: Freeimages.com
What apps do successful executives use? We looked into the smartphones and laptops of 20 businessmen and made a list of the most popular services that help them work and live.
It's hard to imagine everyday life without applications that help you work efficiently and achieve your goals. Planning flights, booking hotels, calling a taxi, as well as communicating in instant messengers and distributing important meetings in the calendar - all these and other useful mobile programs have become indispensable attributes of modern highly effective people.
Slack
The service positions itself as a “Skype and internal corporate email killer.” The service began operating in test mode in 2013, and then fully entered the market and gained its regular users.
Price: For free
“The first convenient messenger for intra-team communication. A breath of fresh air after the torment with Skype. There is integration with a sea of various services used daily by the team, for example, with Jira, with Bamboo,” - Mikhail Vaisman,Trinity Digital.
“Our corporate chat, which we use in the team, and it has a very convenient and not heavy mobile application, unlike its competitors, such as Skype,” - Sergey Suchkov, CEO of Radario.
Price: For free
“The best cloud notepad. All textual things are exclusively in it. Synchronized and available everywhere,” - Dmitry Zorkin, CEO Shower agency.
“I write down thoughts and ideas, work with them, keep notes. It’s convenient that the application synchronizes with the Apple Watch,” - Maxim Tentykh
Price: For free
“The tool is ideal for small teams, but I also use it for personal tasks. The essence of the service is the movement of tasks along the board, roughly speaking, from the “to be done” column to the “done” column. I use this service for different teams (different boards for marketing, project management, project teams). The number of people in the group is from two to eight. We assign responsible people for each task, from one to three people (after that it’s difficult to keep track). If the task is complex, then you can break it down into smaller ones using a checklist. At the same time, the simplicity of the service does not cause employee rejection (which is precisely the problem with most teamwork tools),” - Sergey Tokmakov, expert of the Kontur.Retail project of the SKB Kontur company.
Convenient to-do list in your pocket. Helps you remember your ideas, tasks and meetings. Lets you share lists, collaborate on a project, or plan a vacation.
Price: For free
“To plan and set tasks for my team, I use the Wunderlist task manager - it has a fairly simple but user-friendly interface. In it you can track tasks disbanded by department and comment on the progress of their implementation, receiving notifications by email,” - Sergey Suchkov, CEO of Radario.
“The discovery of the year for me was the Wunderlist application, which is available on all platforms, including MacOS, iOS, Android and even works as an extension for Chrome. This is a very simple task planner, which allows you to divide them into groups, the ability to connect other people to tasks, and also create repeating tasks, for example, for every day or week,” Denis Beklarov, founder of mobile magazines JORNL and Business Fun.
Asana
Price: For free
“At our company we use a whole set of tools for teamwork, Asana is one of them. Saves time and promotes productive work,” - Maxim Tentykh, creative director of the company developing mobile solutions for business Redmadrobot.
Skype
A popular messenger for corporate communication. It may slow down and freeze, but it gets the job done. Conference calls, quick discussion of ideas in a group, or regular chat with colleagues - all in one application.
Price: for free
“To communicate with product manufacturers and clients, I use the Skype application, which allows me to save on roaming and generally reduces communication costs,” - Mikhail Pesterev, General Director of CityNature.ru.
A convenient scheduler for posting on several social network profiles at once, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare. You can download it for free, but using it will require some investment.
Price: there is paid content
“The Hootsuites app helps me track feedback. With its help, in real time, I view reviews on Facebook, Twitter and Vkontata about working with our company. The only minor drawback of the application is that the plugin for the VKontakte social network is paid,” - Mikhail Pesterev, General Director of CityNature.ru.
Mediametrics
The main tasks facing the management of any company are ensuring business efficiency, increasing the level of transparency of business processes, increasing profitability and reducing costs in order to make a profit. Special software products - business applications, which are used to automate business processes, provide significant assistance in solving these problems.
Business applications are multifunctional software systems and complexes designed to automate key business functions and processes within a company. The presence of such applications increases the efficiency of key business processes of an enterprise, reduces the time required to search and process information, saves material and human resources, automates standard actions within the framework of processes, etc.
Depending on the scope of application, purpose, technical complexity, cost and functionality, business applications vary. From the point of view of the model of use by the end customer and the scheme for acquiring the right of use, they are divided into:
There are a huge variety of different business applications; below we highlight their main types.
Working with clients, subcontractors, and partners is one of the main responsibilities of most managers. The ability to attract and retain profitable customers is the basis for the success of any company. Huge volumes of information about clients are often stored only in the heads of the managers themselves, which does not allow them to quickly respond to requests, analyze business information, and creates difficulties in supporting clients. A CRM system allows you to solve these problems.
CRM systems - Customer Relationship Management, literally “customer relationship management,” helps automate the sales process and minimize errors due to the human factor. In a CRM system, when implemented correctly, all company data that relates to customers and sales are aggregated: leads, deals, contracts, letters, meetings, calls, tasks, calendars. Depending on the stage of any of the processes, automatic processes, reminders, document creation, sending letters and much more are configured.
The implementation of a CRM system will allow:
We eat the following products:
Any organization stores huge amounts of information - the history of relationships with clients, sales volumes, operational data on current activities. Finding and analyzing information is a daily task for many managers. A task that takes up precious time. The use of business analysis products makes it possible to simplify the work with analyzed information and provide more accurate and detailed forecasts.
Business analysis products can be used in the field of corporate reporting analysis, financial and economic planning, strategic management and business modeling.
The implementation of an information and analytical system ensures:
Modern business is the work of teams whose members work closely with each other. The larger the business and the more complex the tasks facing it, the larger the teams working on different projects become, the more information they must exchange. Storing the necessary information on users' computers or in paper form only complicates the problems of exchanging information, retrieving it and restoring it in case of loss.
The introduction and use of teamwork tools - portals, document management systems, instant communication tools - allows you to break the vicious circle. It should be noted that only the implementation of a software product will not solve all problems. The solution must be comprehensive. The introduction of teamwork tools should be accompanied by the introduction of new business procedures that take into account all the advantages of the software used. Therefore, the introduction of collective work tools must mean a set of measures, one of which is the implementation of software.
The introduction of teamwork tools allows you to:
Having an internal document management system (EDS) allows you to:
An electronic document management system is a complex of software and hardware that provides automation of work with documents, including processing and approval processes, and searching for the necessary information.
The implementation of a modern document management system ensures:
Popular in Russia are:
In most cases, companies use and implement various business applications in a comprehensive manner, combining with each other to achieve maximum results and efficiency.
There are many other types of systems in the market such as: ERP, BPN, ITSM, BI, HR and many others. The choice of specific solutions and their combination depends on the customer’s tasks and needs, his current processes, field of activity and many other factors.
Submit a description of the problem your business needs solved. We will offer possible solutions and estimate the cost of its implementation.
Technological developments nowadays make it possible to use powerful tools from mobile platforms. A smart calendar, a professional text editor, access to documents from anywhere in the world and many other features of mobile applications make life much easier for modern entrepreneurs. We have prepared for you the TOP 10, according to users, useful applications for doing business.
In the era of smart gadgets, the number of applications is growing every day. Among the countless number of programs, there are some that can significantly simplify running a business. In this article we will look at the TOP 10 applications that will be useful for both established store owners and those who are just planning to open their own business.
The criteria for compiling the selection were:
Google Calendar can easily be called one of the leaders in this area. Plan the time of product deliveries, interviews, meetings with suppliers and partners - with Google Calendar all this is more than simple. By default, the program is installed on many devices initially. Both Android and iOS are suitable for its correct operation. The application is available for download on Google Play and AppStore.
About the benefits:
Nice bonus:
– Synchronization with Google Fit makes it possible to schedule sports activities, as well as track progress
About the cons:
The program for automating the work of a Business.Ru store helps save time due to the fact that all data about goods: prices, descriptions, characteristics, warehouse balances are stored in the cloud. This way you can access information anytime, anywhere.
Cloud data storage is actually an archive that allows you to access company documents (invoices, contracts, acts, certificates) from anywhere in the world. The only condition is that you have access to the Internet. Products from Google and Yandex corporations are very popular in Russia.
Yandex's product is installed on more than 5 million devices. Google Drive is significantly ahead of its counterpart in the number of downloads; at the moment, its number of downloads is close to 1 billion.
About the benefits:
Bonuses:
Ability to scan documents using the device camera
Minuses:
Perhaps the main disadvantage is the lack of ability to sort files into folders. Each file on disk is stored separately
The favorite in this direction is the application created by Bitrix. The application is absolutely free and also cross-platform. Available for download on the company's official website.
About the benefits:
Bonuses:
– Availability of a live communication feed
Minuses:
– Used only in conjunction with Bitrix CRM.
Legal support will never be superfluous, especially for an entrepreneur. If you have a large company, there will be no problems with legal assistance; most likely you have a personal lawyer or even an entire legal department.
If you are the owner of an individual entrepreneur or just a small business, for example, one or two stores, instead of hiring a lawyer, you can get by by installing the “Consultant Plus” application. At the moment, the program has established itself as one of the most reliable. Current laws, regulations, examples of solving certain situations - with the assistant installed on your gadget, all this will be at hand at any time.
Today, perhaps, every self-respecting bank has a mobile application. The functionality of the applications is almost the same. All of them make it possible to control finances, make transactions on accounts, send payment receipts, receive notifications about changes in accounts, make tax payments, open new accounts, etc.
One of the most popular applications at the moment is Sberbank Online (according to statistics as of January 1, 2018, 60% of the Russian population are active clients of Sberbank).
Searching for premises, purchasing consumables, promoting your goods and services, recruiting staff - all this can be done on one site. These sites are called bulletin boards. One of the most popular resources in Russia is Avito.
About the benefits:
The leader in the field of Internet calls is undoubtedly Skype. Using it, you can communicate with subordinates, suppliers and partners for free, even while abroad.
About the benefits:
Additional functions:
– Making calls and sending SMS to mobile operators (for an additional fee).
Another assistant for an entrepreneur is Microsoft Office Mobile applications. With their help, you can work with documents from anywhere in the world and at any time. Working with tables in Excel, text files in Word, and even creating presentations in Power point - thanks to Office applications, all these functions will become available on your gadget.
About the benefits:
The program for Business.Ru stores will speed up the issuance of documents and eliminate possible errors when filling out. It will allow you to automate tax and accounting reporting, as well as control cash flows in the company.
A store owner deals with documents every day. Working with papers within the office walls is not a difficult task. But what if you are on the road, and documents urgently need to be scanned and sent to the recipient? A document scanner will help you cope with this task.
One of the simplest and most multifunctional programs for scanning documents is Genius Scan. Images are saved in JPEG/PDF format in maximum resolution, the saved file weighs about 1. If the document turns out to be too heavy, it can be lightened, but with a loss of quality.
About the benefits:
The basic version is available for free on both iTunes and Google Play. However, most of the options become available only after purchasing the full version of the application.
Of course, there are a lot of applications for entrepreneurs. However, you have to start somewhere. Try a few of the apps described above and you'll see how much easier it is to run your business, especially if you do part (or all) of it remotely. It is worth noting that each of the applications is absolutely free for the user.
Read articles about retail:
Let's figure out how to create a mobile application for your business from scratch, how much you will have to pay for it and why it is even needed.
The number of mobile traffic users in 2018 outstripped laptop users. Experts believe that this trend will continue in the future. Therefore, it will be more effective to use a mobile application.
Even though mobile traffic is increasing every year, this does not mean that any company should create its own mobile application. It is important to understand when and why it is needed. To assess the need to develop a mobile application, you should define your goals and understand how it can improve your business. Typically, a mobile application aims to improve the level of service and increase sales.
Below, consider the global goals that the company pursues when developing its mobile application.
Using a mobile application, your company can make a unique selling proposition to customers.
Example. Uber was the first taxi ordering service to abandon the traditional service system. A world-famous company developed and implemented a mobile application where people could order a taxi without long conversations with the operator. Other features have also been introduced into the functionality of the application. Thus, Uber distanced itself from its competitors, which largely ensured the company's success in the market.
In relation to any business, you can make a qualitative difference from competitors by developing a mobile application. You just need to do this very carefully, focusing on the needs of your target audience and the specifics of service in your field of activity. If you can make your application breakthrough, it will give you a huge advantage in the competition for customers.
Also, a mobile application can simplify the process of selecting and ordering products. This concept is very popular for stores with a large assortment. A person does not need to load the site and search for directories manually. It will be much more convenient to open the application and find everything you need in one place with minimal requirements for Internet traffic speed. You can also add an ordering function to this application. A similar service is also used for specialized message boards, for example, Yula, Drom.ru.
If you have a product that has a wide range, then it would make more sense to create a mobile application. This will make the work of your managers easier and will lead to process automation order, and will also make the customer’s interaction with your brand simple and convenient.
In this case, using a mobile application only as a business tool to increase customer loyalty it is inappropriate to use. You can do this using ready-made applications, just by connecting to them. But if you plan to scale your business and keep customer loyalty as much as possible under control, then it’s worth considering this goal.
For example, a mobile application was introduced for one of the Moscow restaurant chains. Using this service, you could monitor your savings accounts and participation in loyalty programs. You can also reserve tables and view the menu. The management considered the use of an application for such functionality to be excessive; it was decided to use the application to send push notifications about new promotions and invite people to events.
The mobile application can be used as a system for organizing the work of employees. This is especially true in large companies with a large number of employees, when the company has a partner network, franchisees in other regions, etc. In such an application you can manage organizational issues and other functionality suitable for your business.
An employee in the application has his own personal account, where he sees the necessary information, communicates with other participants in the application, and also leaves data on orders, acceptance or sales of goods. This is not only convenient, but also a good way to standardize intra-organizational processes employee interaction .
This kind of application is of great strategic importance. The mobile service is, as it were, additional and not directly stimulates sales growth, does not improve service. He can solve minor problems of clients or entertain them.
For example, a clothing store could make an app in which you generate trends or act as an online stylist. The application can analyze this data and then make personalized offers to you, and based on this you can increase or decrease the assortment. The service can provide great strategic advantages in the future.
iBuildApp is a mobile application builder. The project was launched in 2010 in the USA, and a Russian-language version appeared in 2013. With iBuildApp it's easy to create a template mobile application for a small business, be it a cafe or a small online store. The service will also be useful for individual entrepreneurs who present a portfolio or catalog to clients.
The editors of the electronic magazine “Commercial Director” tell you how to work with this service for creating mobile applications. Read the detailed instructions in the article and create the perfect application that will attract customers.
The business model of a mobile application differs from the business plan of regular projects. Next, we will consider in detail all the parts that should comprise a competent business plan for a mobile application for business.
This section contains an introduction and prerequisites for the project to find its implementation. Here it is necessary to provide calculations of the market volume, budget efficiency and the cost of the project.
Also in the summary you should predict the possible consequences of the implementation and implementation of the project, indicate the responsible persons and initiators of the project, and approve a rough work plan.
It also describes the market situation at the time of creating the business plan, prospects for further development and other data.
In this section it is necessary to write down everything related to the information and technological content used. The business plan should make it clear where the data is and will be stored and how its security is ensured.
Separately, it is necessary to formulate the competitive advantages of the project, as well as its features. Describe the qualitative and quantitative differences between your mobile application and those available on the market.
In the section on data, it would be useful to mention the uploading of information and ways of providing it to clients. It is necessary to describe in detail the situation at the time of drawing up the business plan.
Here you need to formulate in as much detail as possible everything that concerns the consumer and product promotion On the market. The profiles of the client, the ordinary user and the professional client must be indicated. Prices for the application must be formulated and justified.
Based on the characteristics of the future mobile application, it is necessary to narrow the target audience of users as much as possible and approve the dominant business model of the mobile application.
This section also contains an analysis of the cost of promotion using information from individuals and professional audiences. These could be popular bloggers or Internet resources on relevant topics. As in traditional marketing plan, in this case, a media promotion plan is drawn up on selected platforms.
The financial section includes investment in the project, operational requirements, and a detailed financial plan.
It should be clear from the plan how much investment is needed to launch the project at each stage. Everything must be justified, and appropriate calculations of investment needs must be made.
The operational part of the section should take into account the entire expenditure part, possible assumptions and deviations in the calculations. The revenue part of the project must also be designed.
The financial plan should include a general analysis of the attractiveness of the mobile application with calculations of the return on investment. Using the mathematical modeling method, cash flow forecasts and an analysis of the financial sensitivity of the project should be created.
The basis for determining the cost of a project is the number of hours that developers will spend creating the application. It is impossible to accurately name the number of times, but during the assessment process this value can be brought closer to the real one in the following directions:
The number of hours it will take to develop is fundamental when calculating the cost of completing a project. Developers multiply the employee’s rate by the time worked.
The final cost of developing a mobile application will be influenced by the structure and composition of the project, and the presence of a large number of art directors. Ideally, you need to minimize all organizational and management costs to a minimum. You should also take into account that in the future, developers can provide you with analytics, improvement and testing services for the application, which is also a necessity.
Let's take a closer look at what affects the final cost of the project.
When calculating the cost, not only the technical complexity of the work performed is taken into account, but also the required volume. The most expensive components in an application are the screens and actions in the application. Displaying data in a mobile application is more difficult, since the display is smaller than Web page. The designer creates a layout of what the application will look like, and the programmer designs and writes the program code. The peculiarity of the code is that you need to specify the requirements for the API.
Data means any information that will be visible to the user: text, graphics, numbers, photographs, animation, etc. The complexity of the data and the dynamics of its work depend on the labor costs for development.
Also, the cost of development is affected by backend solutions, that is, information hidden from the user and the complexity of program codes. This includes synchronization with the server system, working with client data in accordance with API requirements. An important element is the administrative panel, which is used to manage user personal accounts. Here you can design everything anew, according to your taste and style, or you can use standardized solutions.
The final cost of the project is affected by the number of user types. For example, in the Uber app there are 2 of them: a passenger and a driver. For each type of user, you need to program your own logical algorithm and layout the pages.
The use of various hardware equipment also has an impact: Bluetooth sensor, barometers and gyroscopes, heart rate sensors and accelerometers. Each type of hardware must be thoroughly tested and optimal ways of interaction must be found. In addition to internal equipment, when developing an application, synchronization with external devices can be configured.
Recently, applications with augmented reality and facial capture have become popular. Setting up and connecting these options can be expensive even if the application only has one home screen.
Any integrations, even the smallest and most insignificant ones, affect the number of development hours and the final cost of the project.
The final price of application development is influenced by its optimization for iOS and/or Android. If you are developing for the first OS, then this practically doubles the cost of production. Separately, fragmenting application components for iOS costs about a quarter more than for Android.
Your mobile application should be adapted not only to the newest version of Apple software, but also to common previous versions. In 2018, in order to capture the maximum number of iPhone users, it is necessary to optimize the application for versions starting from 8.0. To optimize for the Android operating system, you need to make the application from version 4.4 to 8.2.
Adaptation for tablets can also significantly add to the cost of project implementation. We advise you to determine a list of the most popular operating systems and adapt the application for them. This will be enough to capture the majority target clients .
Also, adaptation to devices and OS implies how design elements and layout will be adapted. After all, within operating systems there are certain guides according to which development can be carried out. To do something of your own, you need to discover it experimentally. In fact, this is a colossal amount of work. To make your application customized just for you, you need to spend a lot of money. Following the instructions from iOS and Android, your application will be limited, but you will save a lot of money.
For many types of businesses, a mobile application has become a common tool for communication and interaction with clients. Therefore, every manager at a certain stage of business development needs to raise the question of the feasibility of developing such an application.
To do this, you need to know exactly when and why the application will be developed. It is also worth studying all the costing issues and correctly allocating the budget so that in fact you get an effective and competitive application. All this should be preceded by a competent business plan for the project.
