Your average software developer has it easy, in some respects. When most of your work takes place in virtual space, your software doesn’t have to deal with the physical world very much.
But a department store is a different story. Every day, it needs software to coordinate an intricate dance of products, customers, employees, transportation, promotions, shipping, and more. Making matters even more complicated, a retail chain has to accomplish all of this while being geographically distributed, often across a great distance.
The same challenges face most businesses dealing in a widespread physical marketplace: from manufacturers and shippers to farmers and mid-sized retailers. Often, they have to manage physical logistics while facing a rise in pressure from online competitors.
Mobile Solutions for Distributed Challenges
These companies require software to support their business processes, coordinating the distribution of physical objects in the physical world. In the past, an organization might have maintained a centralized database from a handful of terminals. Individuals would have to bring relevant information to the database and enter it manually in order to record or manipulate data. Many businesses still operate this way.
But today, there’s a better solution. The rise of inexpensive and readily available mobile devices is making a custom field solutions app a viable solution for mid-sized and even smaller companies. And these apps are leading a wave of innovation in business processes.
A custom field solutions app allows companies to directly input and process data in the field, driving real-time decisions and instantaneous responses. This means field representatives on-site in a store might capture data about the way a product is shelved and add it immediately to a central database, allowing a manager to access the data and respond right away — and right from the app.
The Benefits of Building a Solution
Generic field service solutions provide some of this functionality, but a custom field solutions app can deliver the greatest efficiency and the greatest competitive edge. Key benefits include:
● Efficiency: Custom apps help you capture, process, and respond to key data as seamlessly as possible.
● Specificity: A custom app is built to purpose. In your app, every feature is there for a reason, suited precisely to your company-specific processes.
● Connectivity: With a custom app, your workforce can stay connected for easy communication and swift decision-making.
● Adaptability: Custom applications evolve with your business, so you can feel confident that your app will be responsive to your future needs.
Taken together, these benefits make for a software solution that changes with your business — and can even help you drive disruptive innovation in your marketplace.
