Useful Business Apps for Tablets

Technologies are getting easy, fast and straightforward. Employing a tablet into your workflow could allow you to stay productive while reducing the weight of your gear bag. And when you add in a keyboard, getting work done on a smaller, slimmer device will be easy. Rather than lugging a massive widescreen laptop around, a tablet can be the perfect solution to achieving business productivity on the move, whether by taxi, train or aeroplane. Working from a touchscreen also allows interactive content such as graphs, presentations and video to be accessed in an instant.

Established business houses to new entrants in the market, the focus, is shifting towards customer satisfaction. With companies focusing on consumer trends, to extract maximum information, a process like KYC or know your customer have helped them delve deep into consumer choices. Used by banks KYC process helps in registering a customer’s identity. Technologies like these are sprouting up every day.

Applications like Ziosk, the tabletop ordering system has taken the United States’ restaurant ordering process by a complete storm. With features like an optional built-in printer, encrypted card reader and multicolour LED’S the tablet is being used for ordering, paying and calling servers. These tablet apps or tabletop apps are only making the experience easy and delightful for both the guests and the managers as customers can now browse the digital menu with High Definition images of menu items, description of the item, key ingredients, etc. and also place the order from the digital menu. The seamless workflow benefits restaurants with an increase in revenue through an increase in order tab, faster table turns and repeat customers.

Air travel and booking for hotels on the mobile phone have left the customers sour-mouthed, hampering their overall leisure/business experience. The mobile screens do help to an extent, but tapping and seeing real-time images of the data has helped them get the clear picture. Apps like Cleartrip have made it easy to book flights, hotels and railway tickets from your smartphones. You can easily reschedule and cancel flights from the apps. To print or not print has gone out of context. All a person has to do is check-in and download the boarding pass on the tablet. The boarding pass is now saved and ready to be scanned in the Bag Drop area, security checkpoints, and gate, and presented when boarding the aircraft.

Among a variety of apps, education is another sector that has been using tablet technology to its fullest. Apps like UbiClass are very helpful. It is based on the flipped classroom concept, in which students learn important information at home on the computer through videos and recorded lectures and explore the concepts and complete activities in the classroom. Students do not need a teacher there when they are just viewing a lecture which can be done at home before the class and then devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions in class, with support from the teacher. Even in the classroom, teachers use tablet computers with each of the students as a means of quick assessment. It is a type of blended learning that reverses the traditional educational arrangement by delivering instructional content, often online, outside of the classroom

The aim or suitability of a tablet computer is to create a device that can supplant other productivity tools and in that case, real estate and e-commerce are primarily the sectors which have hugely benefited from the advent of the device. Industries like real estate and e-commerce websites require customers to get a real time experience and feel of the property or the products that they wish to buy; tablets come handy in these situations as it has a bigger screen space and vibrant visuals which make live viewing delightful.

Apps like aCalender, Duolingo, Microsoft Office for tablets and Cisco WebEx Meetings are some of the few apps that have changed the overall tablet experience for a user. The success of Tablets entirely depends on efficient functioning. And internet connectivity is another factor that has a high impact the tablet business. In countries like India, 2G networks still cover the majority of the population and technologies that work on 2G networks are required. Companies should provide technologies that give consumers Internet access on 2G networks and are affordable for every class.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the publication