Bruce Penson, managing director of Pro Drive IT, picks his five favourite apps for small businesses
Today, we live in a fast evolving, digital age where apps are commonplace across various devices from desktop computers through to laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Many of these apps are designed to improve innovation, creativity and productivity in both your workplace and personal life. App designers are constantly breaking new ground with ideas we all gravitate towards.
A good app can change your life, the way you work and improve your happiness factor, too.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular workplace apps currently on the market designed to help boost staff productivity levels.
When inspiration strikes: an app to pen down your thoughts
Capture your every thought as it happens. Creatives and those who like a clean desk will love apps like Evernote. Evernote provides a great platform to store and prioritise ideas, projects and to-do lists to ensure no job is left undone. It even stores handwritten notes to make capturing your ideas that bit easier.
Stop, collaborate and listen: an app designed for project management
Tools for improving time management tie in with the idea that employees benefit if 20-30 per cent of their time is spent thinking about the bigger picture, how to improve the company brand, and how it all ties together. Apps like Trello encourage team collaboration.
Stay safe and sane in the password maze
Losing time due to password loss, re-typing, or worst-case scenario, getting hacked, can be somewhat averted using password security applications. For businesses, it’s important to keep password security up to date and hard to crack. LastPass is also a platform with cloud options so you can manage the apps used on and off site.
All under one roof: workplace chat, meetings, notes and attachments all in the cloud
Perfect for joined up thinking, Microsoft has come out with Office 365, its latest offering in cloud service application technology. Microsoft Teams is part of the Office 365 package. All your favourite and familiar Microsoft files can be co-authored from this app including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint and Power BI.
Put it down: a light-hearted app deterring mobile phone use
Watch in satisfaction as your forest stays green and lively if you remember to put down that device. Forest is a cute idea. It rewards people who reduce their time on their smartphone and grow a forest when they need “a break”. It’s about staying focused, and in this age of internet addiction, probably something to suggest when HR start asking for ideas about how to improve wellness around the office using technology.
The key to office productivity is about using your existing technology with a few smart tweaks to make it work that bit harder for you. You can always try out and enjoy new apps to enhance productivity as well as creativity and team collaboration too, but always remember that no app fit all; determine which apps would work best based on your business needs.
