Business-focused apps help CIOs stay on top of their game.
For many of us, mobile apps have become a way of life. According to Nielsen, U.S. Android and iPhone users age 18 and older spend 65% more time each month using apps than they did just two years ago. Specifically, in fourth-quarter 2013, this population spent 30 hours, 15 minutes using apps, which is a half-day more than the 18 hours, 18 minutes they spent in fourth-quarter 2011.
What are they spending so much time doing?
According to comScore, they’re mostly using Facebook, Google Play, Google Search, YouTube, Pandora Radio, Gmail and Google Maps. But despite the inherently consumer and entertainment orientation of many apps today, their rampant use is also pushing businesses, and specifically CIOs, to incorporate mobile apps into the enterprise.
And one of the best ways to develop a successful mobile app strategy is to use them and really understand what separates a good app from a bad one. After all, according to Accenture, high abandonment rates of enterprise apps are part of the reason why the majority of mobile strategies stall. With that in mind, we spoke with three CIOs to find out what apps they rely on in their daily lives, whether for work or play.
Ken Piddington, former CIO, Global Partners
What is your ‘must-have’ mobile app?
The most important app from a day-to-day business perspective is Accellion Kiteworks, which provides enterprise-class, secure mobile file-sharing. It’s like a Dropbox for the enterprise, and it works for both the desktop and mobile device, providing very secure containers and productivity tools. We put it in place to help protect mobile users and their information when they’re out and about and also enable them to be as mobile as the whole workforce is becoming.
Another everyday app that I use is LinkedIn Connect. I use it to keep in touch with my network community on their job changes, birthdays and other updates. Instead of giving me the whole LinkedIn newsfeed, it’s very focused on career or life changes and events that are happening to people in my network.
Why is it important to you?
With Kiteworks, we wanted to get ahead of the game before people started using Dropbox to share files or access information off-site. Whenever I’m traveling, I always make sure I have important information, files and documents on a protected space on my Kite drive so that they’re readily available. It also provides full and secure integration with the MS Office productivity suite, which existed before Office came out for the iPad. You can take a file and open it in Word within a secure container on the iPad that’s separate from your personal activities and information.
I rely on LinkedIn Connect to help me stay in touch and in tune with my network. It synchs with my calendar, so I can easily see what’s going on with people I’m meeting with. It’s part of my morning ritual to check it and see what’s going on, and it’s helped me understand where people are, which I may not have seen as quickly as if I’d stumbled upon that information.
Can you provide an anecdote of a time that the app came in handy?
Kiteworks has really paid off. Recently, we were out of town to meet with a business partner for a new construction project the company was embarking on. We had our technology presentation all set to go, but as I started up my laptop to start the Powerpoint, it crashed. It was not good for it to go down at that moment, but because I had Kitedrive file-sharing, I popped open my iPad and was able to hook it up to the projector and share the presentation through Accellion. It was really important that it managed the file synch securely because it was a confidential growth initiative for the company, so we wouldn’t have been willing to throw it onto Dropbox, or log onto someone else’s machine and leave a trace on the partner’s site. It was really valuable, because we would have looked like fools talking about our great technology capabilities, and the CIO can’t get his laptop to work.
Edward Hanapole, CIO, Kaplan, Inc.
What is your ‘must-have’ mobile app?
Since I use an Android device, and we’re on Google across the enterprise, my must-have apps are all Google, like Drive, Docs and Hangouts. They provide exceptional functionality to mobile devices, where you can be anywhere and have a dialog or get a full-fidelity version of your documents.
Of course, there are gaps in what Google does well. For task management, I like Any.do, and as a productivity app, we use Smartsheets. Two others I make a lot of use of are Glympse, which has great integration with wearable devices, and Swing by Swing — I don’t know how I ever played golf without it.
Why is it important to you?
Smartsheets lets you create templates that are great from an enterprise project management and workflow point of view. It gives you one place for a community of people to not only store information about a project but also easily set up an organizational structure around it, like adding status and setting alerts. You can set it up so that anytime your name is added to an assignment or task, you’ll get an alert that allows you to either accept it or not. Rather than using email for updates, it’s a good productivity app for the enterprise.
With Glympse, I can keep up with others’ whereabouts through their GPS locations. You can ask someone to shoot you a Glympse or set up a recurring Glympse, which is especially great when we’re all trying to meet in one place but are all coming from different locations. If someone’s late, instead of wondering whether to start the meeting, you check your phone or wearable device and see an icon showing them at the light just around the corner and that they’ll be there in seven minutes.
I’ve integrated Swing by Swing on my Android wearable. It records data on my game, like how I’m shooting over time and my handicap, and it provides information on the course, like distance to the green, wind speed and anything you’d want a caddy to tell you. It also calculates how I’m playing in realtime and remembers what I did the last time – you can actually see the path you took on the course — which makes each round more enjoyable.
Can you provide an anecdote of a time that the app came in handy?
In meetings, it’s become an expectation that we can take notes and share them in real-time. And using Drive from a mobile device is amazingly productive. You get access to all your essential files and folders on any device, in the palm of your hand. You can pull up a presentation on your tablet in a meeting and throw it into a Hangout. If you’re somewhat savvy, you can do pretty incredible things.
Bill Martin, CIO, Royal Caribbean
What is your “must-have” mobile app?
I thought about all of the apps I use, and there’s a favorites for passing time (Candy Crush), a favorite for catching up on news (Flipboard), a favorite for eliminating work (Concur), favorite parental app (Google+ Locations, for seeing where the kids are!). But my must-have app is the most basic one: text messaging.
Why is it so important to you?
This is how my four kids, ranging in age from 25 to 12, communicate.
Can you provide an anecdote of a time that the app came in handy?
The most impactful is a simple “Attaboy” when I hear about something good one of my kids has done. My son was recently recognized as employee of the quarter in his first quarter of work at his new job. I dropped him a quick text while sitting in an all-day meeting. We had dinner that evening to celebrate his accomplishment with the whole family, but the immediate recognition was worth a lot, too.
Brandel is a freelance writer. She can be reached at marybrandel@verizon.net.
