As much as the year 2016 was an eventful one, and a good one, for our industry, it all reflected in what we have achieved. These are the major highlights that SCOLVO is especially proud of:

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New market

Arguably the biggest event this year was expanding our business to a new market: Germany. As the single largest software market in Europe and one on the verge of the digital transformation of its business processes, Germany is a key market for SCOLVO.

In the autumn this year, we launched our activities there to explore “the potentials of productivity increase and simpler workflows,” as our CEO Csaba Csepeli put it. Exciting times to follow!

New partner

Along the lines of market expansion, we could announce our first partnership in Germany, with SAP-consultancy Quanto Solutions, that has seven branches in the country, including its Stuttgart headquarters.

Quanto praised our products, SCOLVO Process and SCOLVO Sales, as being easily configurable and therefore saving time and costs for their customers during the implementation.

We will support them in customer acquisition and project management, from the start to the actual implementation. In an effort to build a strong partner network, we offer the same support for all system integrators, consulting companies, software and mobility specialists that join us.

New website

At SCOLVO, we wanted to open a new chapter in our life and welcome our new partners and clients to this chapter. So we redesigned our website that better reflects what we stand for and what we aim to accomplish: to make it easy to connect with us. We have added some social channels, too!

We wanted it to promote the simplicity and easiness SCOLVO apps have to offer, in a beautiful way. It became a place not only to showcase our products but also to offer you, the reader, professional resources that help you succeed in mobilization. See for yourselfand tell us what you think!

Hungarian market expansion

Meanwhile, in Hungary, SCOLVO was busy with many new projects this year, for old and new clients alike. Our successful cooperation earlier with Sopron Waterworks led to another one of their projects entrusted to us – you can read about it in this case study here. We have also signed some new clients, such as Raiffeisen Bank or Rossmann, with exciting new projects, and we have partnered up with Innosmart as well.

Product development

On a less spectacular, but not a bit less important note, we have been working hard the whole year on further developing our products. While we still can not go into details, we make sure to add new, innovative features to the second release and to make our products compatible with new, yet-to-be-seen technologies. Expect to hear from us with some big announcements early next year!

Until then, the whole team of SCOLVO wishes you a peaceful holiday season with lots of friends and family love to charge you for the year ahead!

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The post This Was SCOLVO’s Year 2016 appeared first on Scolvo.

2016 was a year of controversion: a faster pace of growth for enterprise mobility solutions due to increasing demand from businesses and some old concerns that stayed with it.

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Since enterprise mobility is arguably a key element of the digital transformation puzzle, it’s good news that digital transformation was put high on the agenda of many business executives: SADA Systems’ recent survey shows 49% of the IT professional respondents said it was ‘extremely high priority’ and 13% thinks mobile apps are cornerstones of it.

This is supported by the fact that, despite any concerns from the part of the management, mobile workers are everywhere. According to an IDC estimate, there will be 105 millions of them by 2020, at a population growth rate of 2 million per year. Technologies to facilitate this new type of working were sure to follow.

Bring your own IoT

For hardware, the talk is not only about BYOD anymore, although it has seen the addition of a new component in the form of wearables – at least it has been reportedly outgrown pilot projects and scaled to real deployments. Meanwhile, the focus of the IT security experts had also shifted from securing the devices to securing the data.

Worrying about devices entering the game is more and more pointless, anyway, as the IoT world takes over. Connected devices are expected to more than triple in number in only five years – BI Intelligence puts it to 34 billion by 2020. Businesses are better get used to the idea that mobilizing the employees was just one of the challenges and managing the connected objects will surely be a different one.

Financial apps rule in ROI

The industries ahead of their games with excellent mobility apps are numerous, and mostly led by the influence of the IT and telecom industry, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research. The report also states, however, that returns on an investment in such applications are the biggest in the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors that will expand at a rate of 25.7% between 2015-2022.

Learn how Aegon Aegon Group, one of the world’s leading provider of life insurance, pension and asset management, with claim settlement experts of an average age 50+, managed to cut the paperwork and time it took to complete their tasks

Market shake-ups

We’ve seen a further concentrating Enterprise Mobility Management market this year. Last year’s acquisition of AirWatch has gotten the ‘largest vendor’ title for VMWare by IDC, and some analysts are already cheering a similar move from Cisco towards MobileIron.

The shaky conditions called for new CEO at Mobilelron, while Citrix, another one with a huge change in its leadership, also made the news by announcing its partnership with Microsoft in May – a move showing the growing importance of simple and familiar when it comes to implementing a new solution.

Are we user-friendly yet?

Despite the constant growth and the undeniable trust of the businesses in mobility as the way forward, some challenges are yet to be solved. Enterprise mobility projects are still struggling with the incorporation of legacy apps and prolonging battery lives, but even more importantly, reaching an optimal level of user experience.

As the eyes of executives are set to the big picture, they start to tackle business workflows and processes. And when they go this deep, dealing with user experience issues is inevitable. Apparently, getting a user interface right is able to get anyone ahead of their games, making it more attractive to the new generation entering the workforce and more easy to learn for the previous ones.

Will the Year of the Rooster be the year of your business being mobilized? Share your thoughts about the trends you’ve seen or you’re expecting to see in the comments below!

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The post Digital Transformation and Enterprise Mobility 2016 – A Year In Review appeared first on Scolvo.

One of the major challenges for water and wastewater utilities, in general, is that they work in an industry that is slow to adapt new technologies and holds onto outdated workflows. In their original form, these workflows are paper-based and, as such, incredibly cumbersome.

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Large networks, big savings

Follow-up is key

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The post How to Save 13% of Workers’ Time: Mobilizing Water Utilities with SCOLVO appeared first on Scolvo.

Security issues are the ones that seem to slow down the adoption of mobility in the enterprise: in a recent survey, 94% of the respondents (IT decision makers) were worried about a security breach and 92% choose restricting access to corporate resources as a solution.

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Assessing the risks

The solutions

Prevention

Protection

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The post Indispensable Security Solutions for Your Mobile App appeared first on Scolvo.

Being future-proof all comes down to the organizational structure, the way of collaboration, the technologies adapted, and continuous and innovative product development. As we mentioned before, a professional development team is always up-to-date in technology trends. Not only has it the benefit of selecting the right solution but also being able to upgrade it to the latest standards whenever necessary.

A service provider with a strong focus on product development will seize new opportunities regardless of the nature of technological innovations. Hints for such mindset can be easily figured out by taking a close look at the product roadmap: the alpha and omega of short-term goals and long-term methods.  

If you don’t pay attention to how exactly the product development process looks like, though, you might face serious issues whenever your business needs to change direction.

Here is our suggested method that guarantees to save you from such troubles:

1. Look for responsiveness

The first task you have to do is to check the above-mentioned product roadmap. This process already tells a lot about the approach: it is the right one if the provider takes customer suggestions seriously. After all, the roadmap should reflect the client’s business priorities and be aligned with the company strategy.

2. Look for flexibility

Long-term thinking is shown, among others, in the composition and the possible extension of the development team of the provider. They should be prepared for (even sudden) growth of demand that requires the inclusion of more programmers, by hiring or outsourcing. Changes in the business workflows are also quite common, and sometimes they require the intensive adjustment (upgrade) of the application – so you want to work with a team that is able to expand on a short notice.

3. Look for easy integration

Integration of applications with other elements of the IT-architecture is a sensitive part of any deployment, but while it is common sense to pay attention to it at the first implementation of an app, you would not imagine how many times it pops up again in the course of upgrades. A good integration platform can handle usage spikes, connectivity to different cloud systems and backend processes, and some more. Make sure you know how (by what method) and how often your product will be upgraded, according to the original contract, and if integration checkups are part of the process.

4. Look for innovation and other details

The product roadmap is the go-to point for other juicy details about the strength of focus on product development. The user experience is one of those often overlooked details, although it is known to reduce training times, crucial when upgrading the app. But even more importantly, you should look for innovation: it should be an explicit goal. In today’s business and technology environment, only keeping up with solutions is not enough anymore. You have to innovate both in your business and your application development in order to stay ahead of the game.

The post The Guaranteed Method for Making Your Mobile Solution Future-proof appeared first on Scolvo.

All solutions have their pros and cons, and it mainly depends on your needs and resources to choose one or the other. What is important is that you don’t let yourself talk into any of these options just because that’s the main profile of the developer. A good professional team will closely follow technology trends to be able to provide you with the solution that is most suitable to your needs.

Web Apps: Adapting Kings

They are more than websites optimized for mobile devices: with strong backend functions and interactive features, they are powerful companions to businesses. At the same time, they are browser-based, distributed on the web, and updated automatically – just like a website.

It’s a great choice mainly for consumer apps, where you have to provide a solution for many diverse platforms. In a better-regulated business environment, it can still be a viable alternative if you have a tight budget but still want to exploit mobile opportunities, or if you want your app to be more informational than transactional.  

Pros

• You only need to develop it once to run on all devices.
• Every update will automatically appear in the app and users will all have the same version.
• You don’t need approval from a third party for a release.
• Due to automatic updates, A/B testing features can be done effectively.
• Since your app can be opened in a browser without downloading anything, users are more likely to give it a try.

Cons

• Specific mobile functions, such as sensors or local databases, can only be partially integrated.
• Different mobile browsers might cause bugs that hinder performance.
• Network limitations: your users will need to be online to use the app.

Native Apps: Speed Champions

These are apps that use the native programming language of a certain device and can fully integrate its features. They are distributed through app markets where users download them and install them on their devices. In June 2016, business apps were the second most popular category in the Apple App Store. However, a separate app is needed for each platform (or at least the most popular ones).

It’s a great choice if you want to provide an extraordinary user experience, if your site is more transactional than informational, or if you are considering to monetize your app later on.

Pros

• An installed app runs faster than any other application, even it is loaded with extensive graphics.
• Full integration allows the user experience to be taken to the maximum.
• The app stores make apps easier to find, download, or update.
• These markets have strict rules to accept new apps and they also provide regular security checks.
• It is easier to include offline functionality to an app that is installed on the user’s device.

Cons

• Multi-platform development, maintenance, and updating have higher costs.  
• Because of the several programming languages, it is also more difficult to track and eliminate bugs.
• The distribution and availability of updates depend on third parties (app stores).

Hybrid Apps: A Better Version of Both Worlds

Hybrid applications combine the resource-saving characteristics of web apps and the adaptability of native apps. They are web apps at the core, wrapped in platform-dependent layers depending on which device they will be used. This way, they can look and feel like a native app, for a fraction of its costs.

It’s a great choice if you want to develop several apps for your business processes, but with better distribution and promotion opportunities, especially if you have a BYOD policy in place.

Pros

• Easy to adapt: it has platform-specific native qualities.
• Easy to develop: almost like a web app, you only add a mobile framework.
• Offers full integration with device features: just like a native app.

Cons

• Redesign needed: even if you have a web app ready, you need to make sure the designs match the different operating systems.
• Mobile framework expertise needed: your in-house programmers, as well as your support team, might find this job challenging.
• Limited graphics: just as with web apps, hybrid apps can’t carry graphic-heavy content.

The post Web Apps, Native Apps or Hybrids: Which One is Right For Your Business? appeared first on Scolvo.

How do you select who to trust with this project in the first place? The good news is, you have more than one option, and one should be simple enough to manage. Here’s a little guide to match your situation with a solution.

Mobile Platform Providers

When to choose it?

• If you want to translate a complex and specific process to mobile,

• If you want the user interface extremely customized,

• If you are ready to dedicate ample resources (time, workforce and money) to make all this happen.

Selecting a mobile platform provider might be the ideal solution if you need a very specific app, and you have the in-house expertise to build those specifics. A platform provider company will help you develop your own specific application by contributing modules or some other well-defined parts of the application development.

In some cases, you might also be able to select some basic functionalities to be built in. But more often, you will have to add the functions yourself, as well as tweaking the user interface precisely in the way you like it.

Software Vendors

When to choose it?

• If you are satisfied with the functionality of your ERP solution but would also like mobile access to it,

• If you have a piece of mainstream software with the mobility solution included.

If your business is already engaged with one of the major providers of ERP software, it might be a smart move to get the mobile solution from the same vendor. They tend to include this in their offering, so you will not have additional costs related to the mobile implementation, plus you get the same complex but familiar experience.

However, if the standard workflow in the ERP is not covering your processes, then the standard mobile workflow is not going to be satisfying either, ultimately hindering your productivity. It might also be too complex for the end user: even if you have the same software in your offices, field workers might not be familiar with its functionality, and will have problems using the mobile version.  

Application Developers

Individual Developers

When to choose?

• If you only need certain workflows to go mobile but based on industry best practices,  

• If you need an end-to-end solution,

• If you want a customized application,

• If ease of use is a priority.

With an individual mobile development, you have the luxury to have control over the outcome of the process, while you don’t really need to be involved in the process if you don’t want to. With a clear vision of the functionalities you need, all you have to do is to give a detailed brief to the developer.

Today, you can also find mobile development service providers like Scolvo that can offer you an off-the-shelf solution to your problem. Using the expertise gained from individual development projects, these companies create products that include the most common functionalities based on industry standards and best practices for a certain workflow.

This way, the risks of the development can be minimized for the decision-maker in your company, and also minimizing implementation times to as short as a week. These applications are typically made so simple to use anyway that they barely require any training times, they seamlessly integrate with your backend and can even be customized: by the user adjusting the settings or by the developer according to the client’s requests. To top things up, select a solution that has a great UI – you’ll be surprised how much it adds to the experience.

The post Three Ways to Develop Enterprise Mobility Apps appeared first on Scolvo.

Insurance

For the last few years, insurance companies all over the world have been struggling with ever increasing churn rates. As consumers have got used to adopt technologies to shop the best deals, they began to change insurance providers every chance they got, heating up the price competition.

Technology soon became an outstanding differentiator: just as the price, the easiness of managing their insurance mattered for the customer. But as a next step, businesses needed employee-facing apps for a real competitive advantage.

According to CapGemini’s World Insurance Report 2016, new entrants building their operations around digital services are considered the biggest threat by insurers. The rise of connected technologies and tech-savvy customers can make the demand for technological advancement necessary.

Sales processes, for example, have gone entirely digital in insurance, and the customer is usually given full control over the calculations of his or her rates. Participation throughout the whole process is a ubiquitous demand by the connected generation.

This requires a robust digital tool that supports the agent and the customer with real-time data and compelling visuals while capturing client data all along the way. The same tool opens the way to a set of innovative features, such as a custom presentation or a social map of prospects.

Utility/Energy

With decreasing prices and alternative service providers in renewable energy popping up from all corners, plus the outdated processes and organizational structures still in place, energy and utility companies also feel the pressure rising. They have more specific problems, too: to deal with high-value assets and various compliance issues. Improvements in technology have so far been out of consideration.

Mobility, on the other hand, has proven its value in several markets already. Equipping the field service team with enterprise apps on their mobile devices results in real-time, location-based data gathering that allows a more effective asset management,  collaboration, and reporting. For example, the administrators can immediately reassign tasks in case of any problems on the field. Workers can also access all data while out and about, like technical specifications or inventory for changing parts. Mobility is also able to boost the sales of services: with innovative mobile solutions, utility providers can easily include sub-contractor services while still keeping full control over the offerings.

Retail

Retailers are really at the forefront of the mobile movement, as their interest became obvious sooner than in any other industry, in implementing mobile solutions for the customers. The rapid expansion of e-commerce and the need to reposition offline channels made it more important than ever to give customers a seamless shopping experience.

In the convergence of the online and offline, mobile emerged also as a savior for more streamlined operations, although the challenge in developing employee-facing mobile apps compared to customer-facing ones soon became evident. Those that were developed for long-term use, with a workflow-based approach, and scalability in mind, became the most successful.

Today, the most advanced retail mobility apps provide customer data for a better understanding of demand, real-time supply or inventory information making operations among brands or branches more seamless. Furthermore, these smart tools enable store visitors to easily administer and report the performance of different locations, products, or sales personnel.

The post Three Industries That Get Enterprise Mobility Right appeared first on Scolvo.

Recognize Where You Are Now

The first step is to define where your business is now in the process of digital transformation, or in the journey towards a digital workplace. The Digital Workplace Group likes to describe it as an experience of work that is the sum of all the connected devices, software, and services the employees use. But you are free to explore other definitions, too.

At this point, you are invited to check on your workflows: are there any that is more pain than gain? It’s time to fix it then before the digital workplace takes over and mobile apps are introduced.

Once you have assessed what digital tools and services your business is using, don’t forget to weigh in the usage patterns of individuals and teams as well. Get everyone involved already at this point by asking for the opinions on what the digital workplace strategy should entail and what their attitude towards a digital approach is.

Then, look at the business environment. Try to figure out how much your competition has transformed to digital in the workplace. How do you evaluate your main competitor’s digital efforts? What solutions does the market embrace?

See Clearly Where You’re Heading

Now that you have the starting point, it’s time to elaborate the strategy. Remember that it will be used for long-term digital workplace planning purposes. Where do you want to get from here?

You can begin with the answers to some concrete questions, which would eventually form a clear vision: Is there an urgent need to provide the right devices to your employees? Maybe your communication channels need digital refreshment? Business applications to go mobile? A greater support for an ideal teamwork? Or assuring business continuity by digitally securing operations? Let your answers show what direction are you taking, what are the goals to achieve in your digital workplace strategy.

A mission statement will further elaborate on these concepts, with how do you plan to reach your goal and why a digital workplace will be valuable to everyone.

It is commonly advised to draft a roadmap on what steps are needed to execute the strategy, and to outline the priorities, aligned with three tracks: people, process, and technology. This part of your strategy will explain what steps are needed to achieve what you have envisioned and what are the objectives you will use to control the outcome.

When setting the strategy, you should not be driven by current budget constraints (we’ll talk about the do’s and don’t of budgeting later). A well-rounded strategy gives room for budget adjustments of either direction. Resource-wise, the focus should be on the expansion of funding options, by a deep consideration of the business benefits of a digital workplace solution.

Look back for performance control

While crafting your strategy, make sure you give hints on ways you will control performance. This could be an outline of regular revisions of objectives and action points, as well as a complete collection of KPI’s to follow. Communicating these control points early on will again improve transparency, which, in turn, help your employees engage with the digital workplace plan. Furthermore, the sooner a problem or a change in the direction of the overall business strategy is identified, the closer the strategy is to remain realistic – a key component in its success.

The post Creating a Digital Workplace Strategy Should Not Be Complicated appeared first on Scolvo.

When a Bad Workflow Becomes the Worst

Without proper analysis, any problem with a workflow can remain undiscovered and reallocated to the mobile solution you are implementing. If you give no thought to whether your employees are doing everything in a proper way, without major disruptions, expect to get some headaches instead when trying to calm the fights over mobilization.

Sales processes, for example, can be sensitive, because each flaw in the workflow management directly impacts the company’s bottom line. A process failing to focus on the consumer journey and submerging in the details is a typical mistake that will appear in the mobile solution magnified. You can be sure that’s the case when you see too many bells and whistles in the app and your staff desperately navigating the unnecessary functions.

Unfortunately, their hate will not direct towards the process but the mobilization. Without a fix, people will consider it an unusable solution that takes more time from them than it saves. Now you will have to win two fights: one for getting the workflow right and one to earn back the trust in mobility.

When a Good Workflow Becomes the Best

The first step is the analysis: what steps are taken in a work progress, who works on what tasks and how much time do they need? You will also have to analyze the communication methods throughout the process, to make sure they are efficient and transparent. Are there any ready-made solutions if a problem is emerging? What do people like about this process and what do they hate? Are there any ways to do it better? How?

If the analysis finds that everything is good as it is, you have a solid base for your mobile development efforts. The workers can be assured that the new application will follow the well-established steps of the roadmap while improving productivity by removing stationary restrictions.

Sticking to our sales example, your agents can go through the same assignments from a cold call to a personal visit. But having a mobile app at hand enables them to adjust their offer according to information from real-time business intelligence and have a compelling presentation ready at just the right step of the sales cycle. This results in more deals closed sooner.

If the analysis finds that the workflow is broken, then efforts can be made to fix it. The new workflow (and why it was necessary) should be widely communicated throughout the company so that everyone understands how it contributes to their works. If the employees are involved already in this phase of the planning process, it is more likely they will embrace the final app as well – perfected to their liking. After all, they will be the ones to use it.

The post Why You Should Fix Your Workflow Before You Mobilize appeared first on Scolvo.