It is even more so for field sales where mobility and quick reactions, as well as interaction with prospects and clients, are crucial. There come enterprise mobile apps, the natural-born sales enhancers – see our compilation of the very best!

Linkedin Sales Navigator

For young sales representatives, Linkedin is already an essential tool to get in touch with prospects – it makes making connections easier and even cold mailings less annoying. The Sales Navigator is a unique application developed for sales reps to enhance credibility further and improve planning by getting to know the prospects more. No wonder reps like to take them on the road: Sales Navigator’s mobile app is especially useful in its selection of the most important features, like real-time update and recommendation of leads. LinkedIn’s dedication to cater more for this segment’s needs is shown by the latest announcements in March concerning the launch of a new enterprise product, and integrations offering new presentation and CRM-features.

Best feature: Real-time updates on saved accounts and leads

Mobile CRM (Salesforce and Co.)

Having a mobile version of the company CRM on their phones is a no-brainer for young professionals. Why wouldn’t someone use the advantages of having all client and prospects data at hand at all times? Salesforce and the likes have become popular because of the deep understanding of the sales professionals’ needs and providing them with a tool that covers all aspects of their work assignments. Think team synchronization, mapping routes, or e-signature.

Best feature: AppExchange in Salesforce, where you can find instantly connectable apps for even more productivity.

CamCard

An excellent addition to a CRM, CamCard assists the sales reps in archiving all the business cards they collect along the way. Many professionals have already discovered the method of making photos of cards and collect them in a separate folder, but CamCard takes this approach one step further by extracting data from the pictures and archive them. You can even exchange cards with colleagues or clients through the app. As simple as it sounds, the app helps to avoid making a small but annoying mistake that is possibly harmful to the business: losing valuable contacts.

Best feature: The app can process information in 17 languages.

Scolvo Sales

When the competition is heating up in financial services, utilities, or retail, salespeople need tools to tackle the challenges and beat the rest of the field in speed and personalization. You can assemble the Scolvo Sales application from pre-developed modules that are based on industry best-practices, can be customized in seconds, and giving you the advantage of a rapid implementation (within a few days). It helps sales agents track their tasks, performance, and access relevant documents for completing deals, as well as to add records themselves, such as notes or contracts.

Best feature: The user interface – it is so beautiful it makes you forget you’re using a business app and not a consumer one.

Sales Tracking Calendar

Sales pros are performance-driven and motivated by the numbers, so an app that assists them with tracking is likely to succeed. Sales Tracking Calendar by Pipeline Pro, as its name suggests, uses the calendar format to track data and calculate monthly achievements and remaining tasks based on the registered activities and set objectives. It also tracks the clients through the sales pipeline until the deal is closed.

Best feature: It creates a weekly plan based on the objectives, so you can focus on the clients and still hit your targets.  

Datanyze

Benchmarking and competition tracking is part of the background duties of B2B sales agents – these activities help find the best times to approach your prospects with an offer that you tailor to their actual needs. What Datanyze does is it analyzes data to determine which software your prospects use, which one they have just started or stopped using. It gives real-time insight into the technology choices and buying signals of business, also called technographics. It recently partnered with IVC and Interarrows to expand to the European and Asian markets.

Best feature: A scoring system that ranks your existing accounts and compares the best-performing ones to any new accounts.

Time Tracking

Although many of the apps mentioned above include time-tracking functions, when you don’t have access to any of these, it’s good to be at least in the know about your times spent on the job. There are several of such tools on the market, from the ones that are for self-control to those that are expressly designed to keep track of a whole sales team. The Timely app, for example, automatically tracks all the activities that you set in it, whether it be meeting a client, creating a presentation, or taking a lunch break – you can select which one of these might go in a final report. Another tracking app, VisitEye, does not only keeps a record of the activities performed, but also of locations, mileage, expenses, photos, and client-related info – everything related to a field sales rep’s working hours.

Best feature: scheduling and re-scheduling client visits based on real-time location data

The post Indispensable Business Mobile Apps Used by Young Sales Professionals appeared first on Scolvo.

The rise of the Millennial workforce and their addiction and affection for technology bring a lot of changes to corporate workflows. These young people, born between 1980-2000, are the largest generation ever to enter the workforce with 80 million (soon to be followed by Gen Z at the end of this decade with 23 million).

The right selection of workplace apps can engage or disengage young workers and attract or warn off talent. A recent study by Levo showed that this generation is especially concerned with the idea of productivity: however, while 93% of the respondents claimed it was an important factor, only 62% thought of themselves as being productive enough. They mentioned distractions (33%) and poor time-management (22%) as the top reasons for that.

There is also a “user experience gap” between consumer and corporate applications: no matter how many apps and software Millennials get to use at the workplace if they all look cumbersome and annoying. These young workers are used to the UX of Uber, Tinder, and Airbnb and hardly tolerate the business app selection lagging so much behind.

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Today’s mobile applications need to be as much appealing as functional. They need to facilitate real-time collaboration, to simplify complex workflows, and to help focus.

Following are 5+1 apps worth to consider if you want your new employees to be at their peak productivity levels.

1. Slack

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Type: Instant messaging

Why is it popular with Millennials? This generation has a need always to be connected, share, and get immediate feedback on their actions. It is simple enough in onboarding as well as everyday use, but the unique set of emojis give it an extra flavor and can smuggle in some prank to work. Slack currently has about 5 million daily active users, mostly at tech startups and companies with a tech-intensive culture.

Why is it a good work tool? Slack supports integrations with the majority of the other popular cloud services of the connected generation (see Trello as an example in our compilation). Instant messaging as the preferred form of team communication positively affects the responsiveness of the whole business. Unlike Whatsapp, its authentication is email-based, instead of a public phone number, so it provides a safer use in corporate settings.

The takeaway message for app development:

An ever quicker pace of communications forces companies to surrender to work chat despite their concerns (mainly about security). If you decide to add a chat feature to your enterprise app or integrate a third-party service, make sure it is equally appealing to young and older employees. One of the setbacks of Slack is that while it wins any tech-savvy, young worker at the office, it might be exclusive to other generations and those who belong to the late majority and not the early adopters of technology.

2. Dropbox

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Type: cloud data storage and file sharing

Why is it popular? For Millennials, cloud services are the default, and Dropbox has made its way to their hearts with its simple interface and seamless synchronizing features. It made an ideal tool for collaboration that this generation is so fond of. Dropbox started out as a consumer service but slowly caught up in business due to high demand. That is, its users wanted their personal favorite to become a work tool, too. The service had 500 million registered users last year. It has a 31% share among office workers aged 18-24 and 24% in the 25-31 age group, compared to a 16% average.

Why is it a good work tool? With the addition of Dropbox Business, the provider has taken steps to increase its level of security and also the admin options. The traditional strengths of Dropbox, easy sharing and collaboration are required in today’s workplace, regardless of the workforce’s tech maturity. Dropbox also integrates with MS Office, making the transition from traditional to novel workflows smoother.

The takeaway message for app development: Cloud-based file-sharing is a must for a business app. However, to use its full potential, it has to allow for easy collaboration and sync well with back-office databases.

3. Evernote

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Type: note-taking and productivity

Why is it popular? For note-taking, you used to need two things: paper and handwriting. Well, neither are on the list of favorite activities of Millennials. Contrarily, Evernote is a future workplace in itself: it accommodates written notes as well as any other type of document you can think of. Plus, it is always accessible in the same form on any device, even out of the office. This feature is convenient, and Millennials love convenience. In five years, its user base has grown from 34 to 200 million users in 2016.

Why is it a good work tool?  Sketching any idea they may have regarding work anywhere and anytime is a productivity booster. It is perfect for keeping meeting notes as well as to store receipts and invoices for reimbursement claims. Editing features include one-click checkboxes that quickly make any text a to-do list.

The takeaway message for app development: While you need to ensure all the apps support note-taking, you also need to make sure during the development that it doesn’t get too complicated. After all, note-taking is a simple activity, and it should stay that way.

4. Trello

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Type: project management

Why is it popular? The Millennial generation realized that, ultimately, all of their major life events could be considered projects: weddings, job applications, selecting a house, or organizing a party, etc. What is common is that these projects are often complex and hard to keep track of with traditional tools. A simple but still visually appealing interface makes the tasks less daunting and more manageable. Trello has 19 million registered users.

Why is it a good work tool? Millennials love multifunctional apps that can double as a personal AND work tool. Trello has a lot of possible uses to replace to-do lists and helps to manage projects across all departments. What’s more, it’s able to add structure to even the most frequently changing workflows. Its shareable nature makes it a great supporter of transparency, another value highly admired by the new worker generation.

The takeaway message for app development: in today’s multitasking environment, there is more and more talk about the need to focus and the appropriate methods to do so. Apparently, multitasking does not lead to such a productivity increase as focusing does. With a clear and concise user interface and a defined (or re-defined, if needed) workflow, employees can quickly overview and complete their tasks.

5. Toggl

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Type: time-tracking

Why is it popular? Time-tracking is sometimes a necessary activity that can also be painful, but Toggl managed to make it look attractive and easy. It’s integration with a lot of services, such as spreadsheets, project management applications or calendars make it popular among the fans of interconnected services.

Why is it good for work? It does wonders with all the data it collects: the reporting features of Toggl show this app’s potential to be a workplace favorite. While there is a certain charm of tracking your time for personal activities, the real deal is the business use because it directly connects to profitability. Especially in smaller teams, where no HR-department is watching over the people’s heads, but they still want to know if their time is used just right.

The takeaway message for app development: Apps that work across multiple platforms and devices are always the crowd-pleasers, and smart reporting wins the hearts of executives.

+1 Workable

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Image source

Type: HR/Recruitment

Why is it popular? This application has a lot of features Millennials value: it has a nice clear interface, stores all candidate information in one place, and makes it easy for recruiters to post job ads and keep track of postings. Young workers expect technology to be on top even in the HR-department. Young human resources professionals, just like the prospective candidates, like to access all the information on an application anywhere. It posts a job advert to several sites with minor effort. Workable also has a social aspect, connecting the hiring team to discuss work matters.

Why is it good for work? Companies need to be where they users are. Similarly, HR pros have to be where their candidates are, and it is mobile. A piece of well-crafted HR technology sends both parties the message of a modern workplace that cares for their time already in the application process.

The takeaway message for app development: Even if the application is primarily used by employees of business, it also has to keep in mind the client’s expectations. Think about your future app from the perspective of a customer: at what point are they involved in the workflow covered by the app? Will they directly engage with it, i.e. by completing a survey, checking data, or viewing a presentation? Or will they only get the impression of good or bad operations through your employee’s interactions with the app? Either way, think about how you can make it better for both.

Enjoy simplicity and ease of use and make your employees more productive in a days

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The post 5+1 Apps from Millennials that Double as Popular Workplace Tools appeared first on Scolvo.

The Millennial generation is often undervalued and/or faced with high expectations: they’re considered lazy, disrespectful, and tech-dependant, while their integration to the workplace is critical for the businesses that want to create a natural succession to their baby-boomer and Gen X workforce.

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Luckily, mobility could be a way to satisfy the needs of both parties and create a meaningful connection between the interests of the business and the people.

Millennials in the Workplace

The Millennials are the people who were born between the early 1980’s to 2000, and they belong to the first digitally native generation. It means there was basically no time in their life without technology so they can’t even imagine work without it.

By the time they grew up and entered the world of work, technology had enabled them to work from anywhere, anytime, and they developed their habits accordingly. As a consequence, flexibility has become their most important workplace value and mobility its natural extension.

However, this mobility also has to be limitless, to be able to work regardless of corporate wifi networks or data plans. Since this generation has grown into using technology, not only habits have formed but also preferences for certain devices and applications. Milllenials would like to use their own devices at work and the same applications they have been using.

Technology at the workplace can be a perk that doubles as a work tool, especially if it allows for wide collaboration (another core value for this generation) and offers a seamless user experience. Millennials don’t want to spend their time on training but they will figure out how to use any new tool to get the most out of the working moments.

Millennials are not as numerous of a generation in Europe as they are in the United States. While there they accounted for 27% of the adult population in 2014, European Millennials only account for 24%, according to data from Pew Research.

Besides, the aging of the population is a serious problem in the developed world: due to low birth rates and increasing life expectancy in Europe, for example, the ratio of the 65+ generation has grown from 16.6% to 18.9% in the last ten years. But while the number of workers can be increased by keeping people out of pension for longer, there is also a need for refreshment and attract the younger generations.

Financial institutions: in desperate need of young talent.

The financial services industry, especially insurance, is a sector stricken by the lack of young employees. In a PwC report, 25% of CEO’s surveyed in the financial services sector said they had to cancel strategic initiatives because of the unavailability of the right people.

It could be due to the eroding reputation of the sector: the above report mentions that 21% of the Millennial respondents don’t want to work in financial services and 12% mentioned insurance specifically as an unattractive industry.

Besides a certain attractiveness of the traditionally flexible work of an agent, workplace technology can be a way to fight this trend. In fact, 66% of Millennials would look at the technology an employer uses when considering a job.

Most of all, it means mobile, as this generation thinks mobile-first and mobile-diverse, equally and appropriately choosing between laptops, tablets, and smartphones depending on the situation.

Because of the talent shortage, insurers and other financial services providers have to change mindsets and actively addressing these demands despite the regulatory challenges of data management. An important step is to approach recruiting from a different perspective.

The goal should be to actively engage the right candidates and proposing long-term perspective in a career. Although these young talent will have to be trained, this could be balanced with a quicker onboarding and generally higher level of productivity through mobile devices and applications.

What they lack in expertise they might be able to compensate with more empathy, mainly towards their peers who will also constitute the majority on the client end. Millennials, with their growing purchasing power, can be just the right target for selling financial services. And who could better convince them than someone who is exactly in their shoes? And someone who is in their shoes knows well how a mobile application can be more convincing than a face-to-face meeting.

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The post Mobility Attracts Millennials to Any Job – Even in Financial Services appeared first on Scolvo.