Category Archives: Mobile Applications

Why Enterprise Sales and Marketing Teams Are Turning to Mobile

Mobile Sales Enablement

Within the past 12 months or more, we have seen a dramatic rise in mobile development projects for large, enterprise corporations. Specifically, the need has been for these organizations to arm their sales teams with mobile tools that allow them to better engage and sell to their customers.

This trend is being driven not only by the proliferation of tablet devices, but also by the realization that if built correctly, mobile sales tools can save cost and improve efficiency.

The recent term for this is “mobile sales enablement.” Gartner, a global technology research firm, predicts that sales automation systems for customer collateral, sales presentations and ordering systems will become the #1 commercial business application category for tablet devices.

Watch Gartner’s global head of research discuss the outlook of mobile and what it means for business organizations.

Tablets make excellent selling tools, but simply distributing them to your sales force is not enough. To get the best results from mobile sales tools, you need to make strategic decisions about interactive presentations and optimize the customer experience.

With this in mind, we have prepared a new white paper entitled Mobile Sales Enablement 101. Taking an overview of industry trends and best practices, the white paper covers the following critical topics:

  • The benefits of mobile sales enablement
  • Questions you need to ask before you get started
  • Options in mobile sales app development
  • Solutions that Signal developed and delivered in three different sales organization scenarios

We hope you’ll find Mobile Sales Enablement 101 a useful resource for adopting mobile tools to improve sales performance and redefine the selling experience. Download the white paper now!

Choosing the Right Technology for Your Mobile App Strategy

You’ve identified the need to develop a mobile app for your enterprise. Now you need to decide on your mobile application strategy and make the right choices in technology. One fundamental question is, should it be a native app, a web app or a hybrid app? What’s the difference between these choices, exactly?

Native apps are standalone software installed directly onto a smartphone, like the “app store” mobile apps we’re accustomed to. These are developed for a single platform in their native programming language – Objective C (Apple iOS), Java (Android) or C# (Windows Phone).

Web apps, on the other hand, function via web browsers on mobile devices. They are developed using web standards (HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3), which means that one version will work across multiple platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Windows Mobile, you name it.

Hybrid apps combine features of native apps and web apps in a way that might offer the best of both worlds in some cases. But first let’s take a closer look at the differences between those two primary categories. While the technology can be transparent to users, native apps and web apps each offer unique features and benefits.

Native Apps & Web Apps: Know the Difference

Mobile App Strategy: Native Apps or Web Apps

The technology selected is a fundamental choice that will determine how your app is developed and how users interact with it. Selecting the wrong technology can be a costly mistake, resulting in inaccessibility or poor performance.

With advances in smartphone browsers and HTML5, the functional gap between mobile websites and native apps continues to close, and in some instances, it’s possible to develop a similar, feature-rich user experience using either approach. The landscape is changing daily, so it will be vital to keep up with the latest developments to make the best decisions in mobile app strategy going forward.

The good news is that once you’ve defined your business objectives, target audience, and technical requirements, the correct approach between native and web apps is usually an obvious choice. For instance, if you need an app for your sales force to use exclusively on their assigned iPads, then you might want to go for a native app. If your app is going to have a general consumer audience, the wide accessibility of a web app could make more sense.

Corporations with unlimited resources can offer both web app and native app options to ensure their applications offer optimal user experience and accessibility. Of course, not all organizations can afford this luxury. But there is a more economical way to have your cake and eat it too.

This increasingly popular option, as previously mentioned, is the hybrid mobile app. This means that the majority of an app is developed in reusable HTML5 web app technology, but it’s contained within a native app wrapper. This allows the app to utilize native app functionality and distribution and also reduces the development effort when creating versions for additional platforms.

It’s predicted the majority of mobile apps will be web apps in the future – but it’s important to remember there is no clear winner that works best in all cases. Native apps and web apps are just two different solutions. As technology evolves, this topic will continue to be the focus of much discussion and debate in mobile app strategy.

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iPad Apps to Help Salespeople Sell

It’s been predicted that tablets will soon overtake laptop sales (by 2016 or sooner). Because of this, it’s not surprising companies continue to look for ways to integrate tablets into their sales processes. For many businesses it makes a lot of sense:

  • Reduces traditional printing and distribution cost
  • Engages better using interactive multimedia
  • Ensures your sales team is delivering consistent information
  • Content updates can be made centrally and available to everyone at the same time

Here are two ways Signal helped our client John Deere leverage the iPad as part of their sales process.

Mower Match

Originally designed as a tool to help dealers showcase certain product features that are hard to demonstrate on the showroom floor, the app uses video, 3-D imagery and animations to engage potential customers and help them decide whether a lawn tractor or zero turn mower is the best fit for them.
Download the App

 

John Deere Water

Released just this week, this iPad app serves as a sales tool for dealers, offering a searchable library of marketing materials for John Deere’s irrigation products. Users can read brochures or watch a variety of videos, all categorized by product – no more fiddling around to find the right video or printed sales sheet.
Download the App

Both of these were created as native apps, a choice that allows for greater customization and for all of the content to be embedded, so that no Internet connection is necessary.

However, native apps are not the only solution. Depending on your needs, you can consider web-based apps, publishing platforms like Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, or even eBooks as a possible answer.

I know first hand that sales teams are always looking for tools that can help them engage a prospect and improve a sales presentation. These are just two ways we’ve helped the same company in this effort. How might you use the iPad?

 

Signal Unveils Bald Head Island iPhone App

When visitors board the passenger ferry to Bald Head Island, North Carolina, they leave behind their car and the stress of everyday life… but now they’ll want to bring along the official Bald Head Island mobile app developed by Signal.

Bald Head Island Limited came to Signal seeking a mobile app that provides visitors and residents with easy access to current information. Signal has just released a multi-functional mobile app with up-to-date Bald Head Island news and weather, an interactive map of the island, a calendar of events, a live web cam and more. It’s a must-have whether you’re exploring the island on vacation, looking for property or counting down the days until your next visit.

The Bald Head Island app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is now available as a free download from Apple’s App Store. Download it now to check out some island culture and get a taste of what Signal can do in the mobile app world. Just let us know if you’re interested in having us help your company develop your own mobile app.

The Signal Mobile App: Creative Power at Your Fingertips

Signal mobile appWant a cool new way to stay in touch with your favorite creative communications agency when you’re on the go? There’s an app for that.

We are proud to announce the release of the Signal mobile application for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, now available as a free download from Apple’s App Store.

Download it now!

The app gives you the latest news updates from the Signal blog, plus contact information and driving directions for our locations in Raleigh, Wilmington and Nashville. You can browse a mini portfolio of our design work and watch videos we’ve produced. Meet the Signal team in our staff bios and in fun photo galleries from special events and creative challenges.

The Signal app marks the first finished product resulting from our extensive study and research into the mobile application market. We have plans in the works to release versions of the Signal app for the BlackBerry and Android platforms, and we will soon be debuting nifty mobile apps created for our clients.

Mobile is the most popular and most rapidly adopted technology in the world with an estimated 4.6 billion subscribers, about 70% of the world’s population. And with smartphone sales accelerating rapidly, mobile devices are on their way to becoming the #1 means of accessing the Internet. In this new landscape, mobile apps will change from novelties to necessities. Ask us how Signal can help you stay ahead of the curve by developing your own mobile app.