ABI Research says Worldwide Enterprise App Store Adoption Expected to Triple by 2018

 A recent report by ABI Research estimates that by 2018 the number of enterprise app stores will have tripled after year over year double digit growth rate. Worldwide growth is anticipated to be 30.4% annually, with Asia-Pac leading the charge at 59% annually. North America and Western Europe are expected to see annual adoption grow by about 21% each.  This further supports the suggestion that large enterprise companies are looking for ways to support their employees and their business through mobile app development and adoption. 

As employee demand for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) options increase, companies are looking for ways to effectively develop and manage mobile strategies that address this demand and allow the delivery of high quality, cross platform mobile apps as part of the initiative. These mobile apps, and the delivery system they reside on, need to be flexible, scalable, secure and easily managed. They need to readily support BYOD, the third party apps users are bringing to the table and the new business-related and company specific apps many enterprise organizations will need to build. 

James McNicol, Senior Analyst at ABI said in the report, 'Mobile Application Management is growing in popularity among enterprises looking to deploy flexible mobile solutions to support Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiatives. The problem is finding a scalable solution to deploy enterprise apps without placing additional burdens on IT departments. Enterprise app stores allow enterprises to expand their mobile application portfolio yet control distribution based on role and mobile policy.'

Leveraging employees for the highest levels of productivity and efficiency means delivering mobile options that put daily business tasks in their hands, anytime, from anywhere. Clearly the organizations looking to streamlining their business operations through work force mobilization will only further sharpen their competitive edge. Adopting BYOD and enterprise app store initiatives is one step. Enabling rapid development of cross platform, robust, scalable, high performance, native apps is the other. 

Alex 

Construction Apps Streamline Operations and Field Data Collection

The extremely competitive construction industry is facing a burgeoning set of challenges including labor and cost overrun management, jobsite injuries, lack of system interoperability, poor data flow and information access and management. Project opportunities continue to abound but field data collection and management remains cumbersome and inefficient. Disparate software systems and a heavy dependency on paper-based data collection creates a data access nightmare including emergency situations when the need for fast and precise information is key. Automating construction operations through mobile apps not only increases productivity, decreases expenses and streamlines operations but can enhance safety and emergency response as well.

It is estimated that 90% of all cost overruns on construction projects are caused by labor issues. Keeping a daily, microscopic focus on this cost is ideal, but difficult to execute with so many variables. There may be weather issues, site conditions and delivery and safety issues that affect production. Project/site managers need to easily and efficiently track a daily comparison of budget to actual expenditures, tallying man hours to specific tasks, assessing time spent vs. tasks completed, etc. They should also be able to tie those daily activities and costs back to the total project cost to identify overrun trends.

Much of the information in a construction job is form based, from time cards and daily equipment logs, to bids, parcel evaluations and change orders. Many initial forms spur additional forms and the strong dependency on traditional paper methods for data collection results in data repetition, redundant processes, and poor data quality. It’s also difficult to manage multiple blue prints, CAD drawings, bid documents and more while traversing any number of field site conditions. Not to mention the overwhelming amount of reference material involved in every project. Having all needed forms and documentation at the ready in one compact, easy to access location means avoiding massive amounts of paper, improving data accuracy and ensuring field resources have information at their fingertips wherever they are.

Even with the many software programs typically involved in construction projects the information flow between these groups is typically paper-based. Additionally, because each construction discipline houses information on their own database, there is no single, easily accessible repository of all project information. This has created a nightmare for everyone involved including emergency planners and responders who need immediate jobsite information including interior, surrounding buildings, access roads, and utilities. It also contributes to higher job site injury rates with no efficient means to collect and distribute real-time workplace safety data, or push out notifications of new regulations, safety details or emergency processes. Tackling these issues requires that all project data across disciplines and systems must be aggregated and available in an immediate and seamless view.

Some of the many benefits mobile apps can offer the Construction industry include:

 - Identify and avoid cost overruns by monitoring daily work operations including numeric/alphanumeric, date/time, GPS/location, visual map, photographs and signature capture.

- Aggregate data and allow data capture and display to and/from disparate back end systems, submitting captured data where needed - via Email (body, PDF, spreadsheet), web post, internal database and in-app.

- Collect real-time workplace safety data to help predict potential risks and dramatically reduce injury rates.

- Enhance Emergency Response –access resources, collect and submit data and collaborate in real-time with multiple teams.

- Streamline and manage bid operations with immediate data capture and report access, including photos, drawings and signatures

- Easily access blueprints and design specs for multiple projects, all in one compact location, from anywhere.

- Track and access various items like materials, work lists, punch lists, site status, weather conditions, supply deliveries and quality control - on the spot.

- Utilize multiple in-app calculators for materials (paint, concrete, lumber, roofing, drywall, carpet, steel…) and measurements (pitch, rise, run, arcs, circumference, right-angle, etc.).

- Access contact, bid and project information on everyone involved including architects, structural and civil engineers, subcontractors in every discipline, local government offices and more

- Work offline – store and access data locally and submit when internet connection is available.

- House a document library for procedures manuals, checklists for QA/QC, safety and commissioning, local ordinances, hazardous material sheets, etc.

- Deploy notifications, new information and updates/changes immediately across all devices.

Providing real-time, aggregated, seamless field data access from anywhere, anytime, across all construction disciplines and resources will provide a huge boon to the construction industry. Implementing robust, cross platform mobile apps to address this need allows everyone involved in construction projects of any scale to streamline communications, increase productivity, improve safety, decrease expenses and help ensure projects are completed on time and on budget.

Alex

Airline Cockpits Begin the Ascent toward Fully Mobilized Pilot Operations

In today’s vastly competitive air travel arena, airlines always seem to be “one-upping” the competition. Offering planes that are larger, faster, more luxurious, less expensive, and every other amenity, or lack thereof, they can imagine. Many, if not most, have also come on board with consumer-side mobile apps offering airline information, and personalized access to travel itineraries, booking information, flight delay details and more. But what still plagues the airlines, as is true for so many other industries, is the massive amount of internal paper-based operations. Everything from human resources and maintenance, to flight attendant activities and pilot operations is hampered by inordinate amounts of paper. Now American Airlines has announced it is the first in the industry to completely mobilize the cockpit with apps delivered on the iPad.

Replacing heavy, bulky pilot bags with the iPad did more than just open up space and eliminate copious amounts of paper, some 3,000 pages per pilot, according to American. It reduced American’s #1 pilot injury source (transporting the bags) while dramatically streamlining access to all manner of daily operational data and even emergency procedure details. Additionally utilizing apps in the air and on the ground potentially allows mobile data capture of every manner including photographic, GPS/location, visual mapping, alphanumeric and more.

But the non-stop mobile momentum doesn’t end with iPads in the cockpit. It’s just one component of American’s aggressive, cross platform, go forward mobile strategy. Flight attendants operations are being streamlined to enhance all manner of in-flight customer interactions from food service to gate details and connecting flight information. “All 16,000 of American’s crew members worldwide have been given Galaxy Notes. ‘We’re the first airline to give a tablet to every single crew member’,” said Patrick O’Keeffe, American’s VP of Airline Operations Technology.

Perhaps an even bigger step towards global mobilization in the air, American successfully lobbied the FAA for broader use of the iPad in flight. They are currently the only airline in the world able to use iPad at every phase of flight from takeoff to landing. But winning the blessing of the FAA leaves other airlines with the opportunity to be fully cleared for takeoff in the mobile space as well.

As if streamlined operations, increased employee productivity, reduced injury and huge cost savings isn’t enough, American’s mobile app deployment in the cockpit has dramatic impact on the environment, “removing the kitbag from all of our planes saves a minimum of 400,000 gallons and $1.2 million of fuel annually based on current fuel prices,” said Campbell…“Additionally, each of the more than 8,000 iPads we have deployed to date replaces more. Altogether, 24 million pages of paper documents have been eliminated.”

With American Airlines being the first to globally embrace mobile apps for internal, in-flight operations, they have clearly stepped to the top rung of the competitive ladder. This inevitably begs the question of whether the others can be far behind. Who will get their fastest and with equally robust mobile app data collection solutions remains to be seen. One thing is clear, mobile optimization is sure to make the friendly skies even friendlier.

Alex

Mobile Data Collection Apps Go Far Beyond Saving Paper

Though the advent of the internet has dramatically changed the way we do business, most companies are still bound to a tremendous amount of daily paper transactions. Data collection, re-entry, validation and approval drag down productivity and leave too many opportunities for error. If field employees are involved, time is wasted waiting for the documentation to arrive for entry. The same delays occur in getting information out to the field. Inevitably extra steps in data processing can lead to errors. Automating this process dramatically reduces time delays, and removes the middle man, allowing off-site workers to gather and share information to, and from, the field in real-time.

Mobile data collection offers a flexibility and scalability that paper simply can’t match. Mobile data collection apps allow employees to use their own devices to capture and submit virtually any data. Integration with back end CRM, ERP and other databases eliminates repeat data entry by allowing the information to process seamlessly behind the scenes. Options to have the data submitted by email, spreadsheet, PDF, web post, database connection or in-app further accelerates related processes (data analysis, validation, reporting, approval, invoicing, etc). Streamlining or completely eliminating the paper burden increases efficiency and data output in the field and in the office. The ability to immediately deploy changes remotely and provide push notifications of key information means employees will always have the latest rules, regulations and emergency process information at hand. This helps improve worker safety and peace of mind.

To be effective, mobile data collection apps need to be robust and offer many types of information capture. These native, cross platform apps must, at a minimum, collect numeric, alphanumeric, date/time, GPS, location address, email, photo and signature data. They must work in both Internet connected mode and when Internet connection is not available (offline). They must allow data to be stored locally on a device and sent once the connection is re-established to ensure that information can be gathered on the spot and delivered timely. They must also have the ability to integrate with back end corporate databases.

The uses for mobile data collection are endless. From remotely-manned oil wells to agriculture, scientific research, crime scene investigation, global health and much more, the ability to collect and immediately transmit data carries benefits even beyond a greener planet. Eliminating the paper processing nightmare, increasing productivity and revenue, decreasing expenses and improving worker safety will offer a competitive edge to any organization.

Alex