#vworkapp

[vworkapp-blog]

How important is technology to your company's success?

The answer: very important. According to one survey [1], a company's use of the latest technology improved customer experience and satisfaction. Motorola Solutions, Inc. recently published a portion of their annual Holiday Shopping Survey and found that retail experience was better for both employees and customers when the employees used the latest technology.

Below is a small infographic with some of the facts from this survey:

Technology, customer satisfaction and the SaaS industry

The information above applies to retail stores, but there were similar findings with vWorkApp, a SaaS and job dispatch software.

Square Meals, a vWorkApp customer, found that her company had increased customer satisfaction when her company implemented vWorkApp's job dispatch technology [2].

Square Meals, a meal delivery service in San Francisco, implemented vWorkApp's dispatching technology to help her company deliver meals to San Francisco residents.

One of the benefits of using vWorkApp was the 99% improved efficiency in responding to Square Meals' customers' questions. For example, a customer would call Square Meals to ask for a location of an item, and Square Meals could report an exact location and approximate time of arrival. Square Meals customers were impressed by this and as a result viewed Square Meals as a highly professional business.

Click on the image above to read more about how vWorkApp's technology helped Square Meals.

Make customer satisfaction one of your competitive advantages

One way to establish a competitive advantage is through customer satisfaction. For example, one reason that Apple is doing so well is because their customers are very satisfied with Apple products. Read an example of this here. Below is an image from the aforementioned article that displays peoples' satisfaction with different personal computers. Apple ranks number one.

And customer satisfaction could lead to a lifetime of his or her business. The following information can be found in a Starbucks case study showing the value of a lifelong customer:

In conclusion

High customer satisfaction could lead to a lifetime of a customer's business, as seen by the Starbucks case study. High customer satisfaction can help to make your business one of the best in the industry, such as Apple in the PC industry.

One way to increase customer satisfaction is through the adoption of the latest technology. Thus, technology is very important to your company's success.

Sources:

[1] MarketWatch.com. "75 percent of Retail Associates Report Latest Mobile Technology Leads to Better Customer Experience, According to Motorola Solutions Survey." marketwatch.com. MarketWatch. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. 21 Dec. 2011.

[2] vWorkApp. "vWorkApp and Square Meals case study." vworkapp.com. vWorkApp. Web. 21 Dec. 2011.

[vworkapp-blog]

Productivity and vWorkApp

[vworkapp-blog]

5 benefits with web based dispatch software and the cloud

I once wrote this beautiful paper for an Economics class. I wrote it using Microsoft Word and I saved the document frequently, because Dad always warned me about crashing programs and dying computers. Then my computer died. Of course.

Luckily I had a partner for this project, and I had recently emailed him a version of our paper! This email stored our paper in "The Cloud." The cloud saved me from spending many hours rewriting this paper.

Cloud computing is as beneficial to businesses as it is to students with flakey old computers.* This includes businesses involved with job dispatching. Below are notes that emphasize the benefits of the cloud and web based dispatch software like vWorkApp.

1. Access files from any web-enabled device

A dispatcher might sit at a desk, in front of a computer, and dispatch jobs. This dispatcher might job sheets, sticky notes and a phone to dispatch jobs. He might print out job sheets or write schedules every morning, then he might spend hours sorting paperwork at night.

While this method of job dispatch does work, it's not the most efficient way to dispatch. It's a bit like printing new versions of my Economics paper, then retyping each new version instead of just saving my paper in an email (or the computer, if it's reliable...)

Web based dispatching software allows a dispatcher to quickly update schedules from any web-enabled computer. He isn't shackled to his desk, rewriting and printing new schedules for his mobile workers.

2. Automatically back up your data

Information within vWorkApp is stored in the cloud. This could include customer data, such as business locations and billing addresses. It could also include employee data, such as who the employee's customers are and when your employee last visited this customer.**

This is invaluable data when it comes to analyzing and streamlining business operations over any period of time. And keeping this data in the cloud means you won't lose it. So when you need to do your taxes, you have months or years of data in one safe location.

In addition, the data back up is automatic. You don't need to create folders—virtual or physical—to hold this information.

3. No extra installations or software updates

One holdup for companies that are considering using software instead of pen-and-paper or cell phones is the expensive hardware that's often involved. With a dispatching software that uses the cloud (such as vWorkApp), there is no hardware (except smartphones). And this web based software is updated and reviewed frequently by a team of engineers and programmers.

4. Data is easy to analyze and share

Since data is kept in the cloud, it's easy to consolidate. If you need to run reports to analyze business operations, simply export data to Excel. Perhaps you need to put a bunch of data into an external accounting system like QuickBooks? This is easy with vWorkApp, and it means dispatchers don't need to spend hours manually typing data into accounting software.

5. Dispatching operations are scalable

The more dispatched employees you have, the harder it is to dispatch without software. Printing schedules for two dispatched workers is a lot easier than printing schedules for twenty workers.

A web based dispatching software like vWorkApp has information stored in virtual servers in the cloud. This makes it easy to add extra workers or update information anywhere in your job dispatch operations.

For example, a company could use some proprietary software on their own servers (versus virtual servers) for job dispatching. This proprietary software and the servers might not easily accept changes or additional software or information. Virtual servers (in the cloud) are highly adaptable.

The Cloud explained

I really like this video. It explains cloud computing really well. Clicking on the image below will take you to YouTube, where you can watch the video.

Below is a portion of a cool infographic that I found on mashable.com. Click the image below to see the article and the rest of the infographic.

*NOTE: We got an A on our project :)

**NOTE: All data is EXTREMELY safe and secure. Read about vWorkApp's information security here.

[vworkapp-blog]

Updates in vWorkApp

Filters in job receipts

Job receipts

You can now apply filters to job receipts. You can filter job receipts by steps, job details and/or proof of delivery (POD). You can also choose to display—or not to display— custom fields.

API

If you use the API to view your customers, the results are now paged every 200 records by default. This is customizable. You can now also use the API to search jobs by customer name.

[vworkapp-blog]

vWorkApp: a press release and 10 facts

vWorkApp was featured in an August 2011 ABC (Australasian Bus and Coach) magazine article. Here are 10 facts and features (the abc's of the article, if you will...) that stand out:

Fact 1. A quote:

"The inventor of New Zealand’s version of eBay looks like [he's] striking gold again with a vehicle work app [vWorkApp] just released in Australia.”

Fact 2:

vWorkApp was started in New Zealand by Sam Morgan. Sam Morgan created Trade Me, which is basically eBay for New Zealand.

Fact 3:

vWorkApp is being used in New Zealand in the bus and coach industry, specifically airport shuttles.

Fact 4:

Andrew Holden is the Director of Solutions To Go, an Australian distributor. He's noticed vWorkApp being used throughout the Tasman region.

Fact 5. A quote:

Andrew Holden stated that vWorkApp is "incredibly easy to use."

Fact 6:

No specialized hardware is necessary to use vWorkApp! It's all online. All you need is access to the internet (and a smartphone such as the iPhone or Android phones. Check out how the Android is currently faring against the iPhone in Australia!)

Fact 7:

Solutions To Go (IT firm in Brisbane, Queensland) is providing free trials of vWorkApp at www.s2go.com.au/transport.

Fact 8:

vWorkApp is for small or medium-sized businesses with a mobile workforce.

Fact 9. A quote:

vWorkApp makes it "easier for managers to track, schedule and balance jobs across field workers all in real-time."

Fact 10:

vWorkApp is taking off in Australia. It's only 18 months old.

REFERENCES:

Australasian Bus and Coach (ABC magazine). "New mobile application sets vehicles to work." ABC August 2011: 51. Print.