Tag Archives: apps

Testing times for mobile app development

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By Chris Livesey, VP of Borland Applications Management and Quality at Micro Focus

 

As mobile technology demands continue to accelerate, application developers and testers will struggle to keep pace without a shift in thinking when it comes to mobile quality, performance and development.

Creating effective apps for an increasingly competitive market depends on rigorous testing to minimise errors and failures. However, this is not as straightforward as it sounds as apps today may need to run smoothly across as many as 1,800 different device platforms. Developing apps for Android OS, for example, demands the consideration of over 130 different devices, running seven different platforms on two firmware sets.

The challenges for developers and testers in the new world of the mobile device app are daunting. Their products need to work smoothly across many existing device platforms while trying to predict the requirements of handsets currently in development – a sizable challenge for any organisation. Continue reading →

Mobile web for business: how are B2B apps changing the business landscape?

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By Marc Gossage, Account Director at Media Safari

According to Gartner Research, mobile web use in 2013 will overtake desktop browsing, with the number of browser-equipped smartphones exceeding 1.82b units. It also predicts that by 2016 more than 50% of apps will be hybrid, accessible via multiple platforms. This increase in internet-enabled mobile devices is changing the way people browse the web with many choosing to use mobile apps as opposed to more traditional platforms. Continue reading →

Business-to-employee apps: revolutionising the way that organisations operate

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By Tim Clapham, director at Planon

The borders between business and personal lives are continuing to blur, with employees increasingly searching for a seamless integration between their personal life and their work life. As a result, it is estimated that 65% of employees now use their own smartphone devices in the workplace.

To benefit from this ‘bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) phenomenon, businesses are now looking to provide their employees with smartphone-enabled tools that can help to improve the efficiency of their day-to-day work routine, whilst also making sure that the organisation is utilising its own resources effectively. Continue reading →

Has performance support come of age?

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By Simon Meager is managing director of Footprint Media

 

The big question on everyone’s lips is: what can we expect workplace learning technologies to look like in 2013? The answer is a performance support solution. While this might not be a new answer (but rather an old answer marrying together a new technology with a new approach to business) the argument for performance support is stronger than ever.

As the line between work and learning is quickly disappearing, which for many is a good thing, organisations are now looking for an improved performance to be a function of better work processes, tools, and resources. Couple this desire for ongoing performance improvement with the focus on mobility, and the need for workers to have the support they need anytime and anywhere, and the answer undoubtedly lies with performance support. Continue reading →

Could the ‘App Gap’ be harming your business?

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By Gary Calcott, Technical Marketing Manager at Progress Software

 

Ten years ago if somebody asked you to picture a typical business meeting between a business leader, their employees, and perhaps some of the organisation’s customers, what would you have imagined? The chances are that you probably would have visualised a crowded, airless meeting room, with executives fighting tooth and nail to make their point heard.

Fast forward to today and ask the same question, and it’s unlikely you’ll see anything remotely similar in your mind’s eye. Indeed, the proliferation in the number of mobile devices, tablets and laptops means that employees and partners are far more likely to connect to a meeting from a variety of locations. Interestingly, they are also likely to connect through a range of different applications, incorporating everything from the humble telephone, to video conferencing and even VOIP services. Continue reading →

New marketing app promises to drive customer engagement

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By Abigail Phillips

 

Cloud provider, cloud.IQ has launched smartSMS- a digital marketing app that enables any organisation to engage with its customers through text and voice.

The new application seamlessly integrates SMS has been created to help businesses meet a broad range of needs including; driving customer engagement levels, increasing donations amongst charity givers and delivering appointment reminders to reduce missed consultations.  Continue reading →

A Location-Based Future?

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By Tsipi Joseph, Director of Marketing at Telmap

The location-based services (LBS) industry has changed over the course of 2012, and the industry is expected to continue to evolve throughout 2013.

One of the major developments in 2012 has been the shift of providing users with “more than navigation” via the supplementation of a host of value-added location-based services which serve to enrich the user’s experience. And with the app market becoming ever more saturated the demand for “more than navigation” is greater than ever.  Continue reading →

Is BlackBerry still THE business smartphone?

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By Abigail Phillips

 

Yesterday, Research In Motion (RIM) released the new BlackBerry 10. The launch marked the unification of RIM and BlackBerry as they unveiled BlackBerry Q10 and Z10. After surviving much criticism regarding its position as the number one business smartphone, BlackBerry succeeded to impress its users by delivering a re-designed, re-engineered and re-innovated device for businesses. Continue reading →

New App Calculates Your Tax And How It Is Spent

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The Government is launching a new tax calculator enabling people to work out how much tax they pay and how the Government spends it. The tax calculator can be downloaded as a free mobile phone app and is also available on the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website.

The launch comes as new research reveals that over half of taxpayers (57%) do not know how much income tax and National Insurance they pay in a year, suggesting that many people find the personal tax system remote and confusing.

The new calculator uses online technology, makes it easy for taxpayers to see how much they can expect to pay and is an important step towards achieving the Government’s vision of making the system more transparent, open, and easier to understand.

The research published was carried out as part of the Government’s consultation on ways in which people could more easily access information on their personal taxes. It found that although 70% of those who receive bank statements said that they always check their transactions, just 26% of taxpayers are as thorough in checking how much tax they have paid, and only 10% would be able to put an exact figure on it, if asked.

“We think it is right that people know how much tax they pay and what the Government spends it on,” David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said.

“At the moment, over half of taxpayers do not know how much income tax and National Insurance they pay in a year. Our new tax calculator will allow them to find out, which is a big step towards a more transparent, 21st century system.”

The calculator can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/calcs-tools/index.shtml

By Marcus Leach, Head of Editorial at Fresh Business Thinking

1001 Free Cloud Apps For Small Businesses

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There are thousands of Cloud applications out there that can help a business or a team work more effectively, and many of them have free, starter options that might be perfectly adequate for a small business. That’s the “Freemium” business model, where the company offers a free service for a small number of users, or a limited set of options in the hope that your business will grow or you will roll the solution out to a larger group, and so upgrade to a paid for premium or enterprise edition. There are some apps that every business should be using, but at the very least you should consider trying some of these to test how the cloud can help your business. Here are a few ideas along with a pointer to some directories where you can search for several thousand more:

Collaboration

Google Docs - Allows a group of people to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings up in Google’s cloud for free. All you need is a Google account and you can invite people in to share the document you are working on by email. All of the changes are tracked by user. You can upload existing office documents and spreadsheets and straight away you are avoiding the syndrome we are all used to – if you emailed the spreadsheet to 4 people, the second it left your inbox you were out of control with 5 copies of that same document, so who’s got the latest version? With Google Docs you avoid all that. After a while you will consider upgrading to Google Apps for Business.

Writeboard – You create a sharable, web based text document that lets you save every edit, roll back to a previous version, and compare changes. It’s like a whiteboard in the cloud that everyone you’ve invited in can see and use. It’s completely free. It’s from 37Signals who hope that using it will trigger you to consider their other collaboration products.

Wikispaces – If you want to create a free wiki for a project, or a team or maybe product documentation, then try this. It has a all of the features you would expect from a good wiki, allowing a group of people to create and organise the content to create a “Wikipedia” style web space on the topic of your choice. The basic version is free supported by adverts, but you can upgrade to remove the ads and make your wiki private for as little as $5 a month.

Doodle – This is a free service that helps you schedule a meeting by email. You create a date/time poll of when you are free, mail it to a group and they all fill in when they can meet (in one place). It can dramatically cut down the back and forth that can turn in to a scheduling nightmare. The free version is ad supported, but you can upgrade for more features and to make it ad-free.

Skype – I hope you are using Skype already. If you aren’t you (or your company) should be ashamed of yourselves. It gives you free skype user to skype user chat, calls, videoconferencing and screen sharing. It’s great for customer support and collaboration. It doesn’t have all of the features of commercial web meeting software like Webex or GoToMeeting, but it’s free! You can buy additional services, like low cost International calls to landlines and mobiles.

Business Apps – CRM, ERP, Invoicing

Really Simple Systems - RSS is Europe’s largest provider of cloud based Customer Relationship Management software. If you are used to things like ACT! or Goldmine, then this does more than those for less. It’s free for 2 users and up to 100 accounts (customers, suppliers, partners) and additional users start at £10/month.

Zoho CRM – Like RSS, this provides comprehensive sales force automation, marketing and customer support too. It’s free for up to 3 users, and the paid for version gives you more users and added features like inventory, workflow and additional security. It’s also part of a family of products that cover collaboration including wikis, documents, chat, calendar management and more.

Freshbooks - This is an invoicing solution that can help you track time, organize expenses and create professional invoices for print or for online billing and payment collection. It’s free for unlimited invoicing of up to 3 clients, and then you can upgrade to 25 clients for $19.95 a month.

myERP - This is an integrated CRM, invoicing, inventory, expenses and accounting solution (although the accounting hasn’t yet been fully Anglicised). It covers a fairly comprehensive set of functions for the average commercial business, and it’s free for 2 users. It integrates with Google apps and has quite a novel, search based user interface. The premium version gives you additional users for $29/month.

Cloud directories

If you want to find more than 1001 cloud based options, then here are two places to look:

AppStorm - Reviews and explanations of the web tools that are available, and covers mobile devices, Macs and PCs too.

GetApp.com - A business software marketplace with 4,557 applications and tools across just about every application area you can think of in the directory at time of writing.

And so in conclusion, there are plenty of excellent cloud based productivity, collaboration and business tools with a free option to get you started. For some small businesses that could provide a lot of support and help with no cost other than the time and effort to set them up. At the very least you should be using some of these to help you do your job better. You should also use this as a route to start exploring what commercial cloud apps can do for your business.

By David Terrar, CEO of D2C Limited, Co-founder of Cloud Advocates