The Apps That Keep Me Organized: Smart Phone Apps to Manage Your Work Life

As the winter season comes to an end and the spring season starts, so goes for my kids and their youth sport seasons. I reminisce on how much technology has changed the way I manage my personal life, as I load the list of practices and games for my kids in a calendar app.

When I was a kid, the handwritten schedule copied on a monochrome copier was handed out to all the parents. Directions for away games, with instructions to “turn right at the gas station,” were handed out on handwritten sheets of paper.  Parents also received a phone tree list to be executed when there was rain and a game or practice was cancelled.

Email certainly has made all of these communications easier, but smart phones and apps have taken it to another level. For most of the teams my kids are on, their coaches have been using TeamSnap. This app manages the schedule, communications, field locations and more.  The coach can send a communication of a schedule change, and the participant can indicate their availability; then, when it is time to go, I click on the field address and launch Google Maps or Waze to navigate my way to the field. Then I use the Nowait app to make a dinner reservation on the way home from the game.

So what are the 9 to 5 apps that I use on my smart phone to manage my work life? So far, it is email, calendar, and travel apps.  Sales and marketing personnel may use social media and CRM apps, and a traveling workforce may use time and expense apps; but what about accounting and operations?  Most ERP applications have not focused on providing an app for accounting and operations, but that’s changing. As tablets have become more prevalent in the workforce, and productivity apps like Google Docs and Office 365 have become more widely used, apps that access accounting and operational data are the next logical piece of information we will want to consume. I’ve seen it happening for the applications we sell, implement and support at Schneider Downs – applications such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which released an app user interface in October 2015. It will be interesting to see how quickly it is adopted by end users.  Check back with us for updates!

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