DIGITAL UPDATE Our digital app-etite is seemingly insatiable
The rise of the app has been irresistible. For most of us, their use has become an integral part of our daily routine and Apple’s catchphrase, ‘there’s an app for that’, certainly appears to be true. From allowing us to engage with social media to using your phone to blow out candles (seriously), apps touch all areas of our lives and the business arena is no exception. There is a plethora to choose from; here we look at three highly rated and popular apps that aim to simplify your working life. Slack (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, web) is a powerful team communication platform. Create your team in Slack and get its members to log in and have group or private discussions, all in real time. Conversations can be segmented in ‘channels’ to which you can assign your users to as many or few as necessary. File sharing is supported and all communications are instantly searchable and available, on most devices. Slack integrates with dozens of services including Dropbox, Asana, Google+ Hangouts, Twitter and Zendesk, with more added regularly. Slack has seen a rapid uptake in businesses in the last few months and boasts some illustrious clients including NASA and Sony.
Companies that use it are relying on email less and less as Slack is becoming a one-stop communication hub, taking the place of email, text messaging, Skype etc. Slack is free to use but paid versions with added bells and whistles are available. Trello (iOS, Android, web) aims to simplify project management and bills itself as ‘the free, flexible, and visual way to organise anything with anyone’. Traditionally, project management software has been clunky and difficult to use; Trello changes that with a visually appealing, simple to use interface to manage any sort of activity. You create a project (called boards within the app), add lists to it and then add list items (called cards) to those lists. So far so good. The app really starts to shine when you use its collaboration functionality. To do this, you simply invite people to join your board. Once they have, they are able to edit items and lists, and you can drag members to specific items within your project making it easier to keep track of who is working on what. Clicking on any individual card allows you to add comments, add a checklist for tracking progress on that task, attach files and more. Trello is free to use on your phone, tablet and desktop, though paid tiers, with more functionality, are available.
Although we live in a digital age, the business card is still surprisingly popular. If you meet a lot of people in the course of your work, chances are you’ll amass a fair number and managing them can be time-consuming. Enter CamCard (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, web), a business card scanner and reader. At its simplest, when given a business card you fire up the app which uses your phone’s camera to take a picture of it. CamCard recognises the text on the card, categorises it and files it along with an image of the card, which is accessible from anywhere. CamCard does a whole host of other stuff too; it recognises 17 languages; synchronises with other address books; allows you to add notes and reminders to contacts, and exchange e-cards, to name a few. There is a free version of the app, but the full version currently costs 79p. There’s no doubt that apps have revolutionised the way we go about our personal lives, and there’s no reason why this can’t apply to our business lives as well. The right set of tools can make us much more productive, streamlining our working day, often at a fraction of the cost of the offerings of the incumbents.
Slack has seen a rapid uptake in businesses in the last few months and boasts some illustrious clients including NASA and Sony. Companies that use it are relying on email less and less as Slack is becoming a one-stop communication hub, taking the place of email, text messaging, Skype etc. Slack is free to use but paid versions with added bells and whistles are available Digital update continued >
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