Apps for smartphones and tablets are playing an ever-increasing role in the day-to-day running of small businesses, with employees now able to write notes or articles on the go, collaborate with colleagues across the world, manage social media accounts and even pay suppliers.
The popularity of apps in everyday life means that SME workers are ready to embrace business apps such as Sage One Accounts and Payroll in their working lives too. And with 4G Internet speeds now available to many small businesses across the UK, using apps is likely to become quicker and easier.
“The growing proliferation of a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ culture is making its mark on the digital enterprise,” says Will Saville, co-founder of BrightStarr, the company behind the intranet services app Unily. He argues that productivity gains are behind the rising popularity of business apps: “By delivering work-related content through the most up to date means of technology and providing anytime access, tasks can be done quicker and more efficiently.”
Jamie Marshall, chief technology officer of ICT solutions provider Calyx, points to a US survey showing that 37% of employees who use apps for work would even pay for them out of their own pocket. But Marshall says that business owners are perhaps slower to embrace the value of apps than their workers.
However with employees now using expense trackers, calendars, invoicing apps and social media managers on their smartphone or tablet, these costs can mount up. While many apps are free, most require a small outlay so it’s important to stick to a budget rather than haphazardly buying apps on impulse, experts say. This is especially true of sole traders, who may own personal and business apps on the same devices – and often buy apps on an impulse without thinking of this spending as part of their wider budget.
Danielle Newman runs We Make Play, a digital creative studio in Dorset which specialises in advising small businesses on their app outlay. She says: “With a little outlay upfront, there are some incredible pieces of software that go beyond the basics, and can help your team work much better, and faster.” Her personal favourites include: notewriting app Evernote, project management tool Basecamp, design app Marvel, payment tool Stripe, time manager RescueTime, as well as payment system Invoice2go.
Newman is optimistic about the future of apps on wearable devices such as smartwatches. “Whilst still in their infancy, I can see a future where staff use their smartwatches to ensure they get to work on time, stay fit, track important news and trends, and attend important issues in a timely manner, all whilst during their working day,” she says.
File management app Dropbox is used by a range of businesses to transfer and store files between staff in multiple locations.
David Bird, director of Online Mortgage Advisor, says his employees frequently use Dropbox so that they can share information between other mortgage brokers to get the best mortgage product for their customers. Bird says that the app is useful throughout the lifecycle of a mortgage application: lenders can update the company with new information themselves, and “advisers will constantly refine and improve upon this as they explore more unique cases”. The ability to automatically sync files across different advisers’ computers is “fantastic and really helps us streamline the process and improve our efficiency”, he says.
Apps can sometimes be used to improve internal processes. For example, former Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor co-founded a productivity app called Quip, which allows employees to work more flexibly in real-time and receive collaborative updates. Taylor says the app allows teams to collaborate across iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, and the desktop web. An employee can share documents and even entire folders so multiple people can edit and discuss together in a single, shared workspace. Quip is now used by more than 5,000 companies globally, like Disney or Facebook, not just small business owners.
With the number of mobile apps currently on the market there are plenty of opportunities for small businesses to use some of them to improve their productivity, engage with customers and suppliers, and save money on IT costs.
Apps can also help small business owners achieve economies of scale that were once only available to big corporations. Marc Overton, head of retail payment solutions at First Data, believes the retail industry is a good example of this, as independent stores battle to survive on the high street. App developers are also likely to increase their focus on creating new tools for SMEs. Brightstarr’s Will Saville says: “The business appetite for apps is growing and as mobile technology continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace, we are likely to see some impressive developments in the app market too.” Regardless of whether small business owners are using apps on smartphones, smartwatches or even PCs, apps look set for a bright future as a business tool.
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