BusinessHABSmartphones Business Service: Mobile devices provide the opportunity to change how business workflows are completed.
Instead of generic processes that haven’t changed significantly since the smartphone’s introduction.
Enterprise application developers can provide relevant services that adapt to the user and their current environment.
The new mobile world is about ubiquitous computing that is contextually aware and identity-aware.
If you are like most people, you will definitely keep your smartphone by your side.
From checking e-mails to tweets, and making social updates.
It’s hard not to be tethered to your device.
Mobile devices are great for taking photos and videos.
But have you ever thought about creating a vlog with your smartphone or even your tablet.
Especially in this age of entrepreneurship or techpreneurship?
“A vlog?” you ask. But of course! Your mobile device probably captures high quality High Definition video.
So why are you using it to capture family moments alone?
More and more people are interested in using their smartphones to create quality content.
That can be shared socially, and it’s a more affordable and accessible video production solution and it’s always with you.
We have all seen them: people who wander around with a phone glued to their ear as if their entire world depended on it.
And we have all worked with people for whom eye contact means sitting with head stooped peering at texts, emails or, occasionally, videos of real people.
This got us wondering: can normal people actually run their companies entirely from their phones? So I set out to see if it is possible.
1. Smartphones Business Service:What is a vlog?
A vlog simply is a blog with video, and you can easily turn your blog into a vlog by embedding a video within a post.
All you need is an account on a video streaming site like YouTube and you’re good to go.
Video is one of the most compelling and engaging types of media.
It can help you establish authority, build your influence, and raise the engagement level on your site.
2. Smartphones Business Service:Types of vlogs
- Talking Head: A talking head vlog is just that: you sit in front of the camera and talk about a certain topic or share some information.
- How-To: A how-to vlog teaches the audience how to do something by demonstrating the action or activity.
- Adventure/Reality: You go on an adventure or activity outside of the studio and take the camera along to record what you see and hear.
3. Smartphones Business Service:The equipment
To create a high quality vlog.
You should use the same equipment that is used with professional video productions.
You will need: a camera or your mobile device, a tripod, lights, a microphone, and a cable or two.
Let’s assume that you have a mobile device that captures video, so the camera is covered.
4. Smartphones Business Service:Tripod
A tripod is a three-legged stabilization mount that ensures the shot is still and steady.
Entry-level tripods cost around N15,000, and most electronic stores that sell cameras also sell tripods.
To create smooth movements, a fluid tripod is needed.
But wait! You probably noticed that there’s no way to connect a tripod to a smartphone.
You’ll also need a tripod adaptor like the Glif (iPhone only).
Or this universal tripod adaptor that works with both Android devices and iPhones.
If you have an iPhone and want the flexibility of adding additional lenses.
There is a device called the Phocus.
Which in addition to having a tripod attachment.
It has a wide angle, macro and telephoto lens that can give you some creative flexibility while shooting.
5. Smartphones Business Service:Light
If you’re just starting with video, light can be more challenging especially if you’re indoors.
But you should always use some kind of light source because it will improve the quality of the image.
Use lamps or lights that you already have.
Consider replacing your incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs.
The CFLs are either balanced for daylight (5000K) which will be a whiter or bluer light.
Or will be orange-ish which is a characteristic of artificial light (3200K).
You’ll probably need a minimum of at least two lights if you’re lighting a person.
The main light will create general illumination .
6. Smartphones Business Service:Microphones/Audio
Audio is very important, which is why you should connect a microphone to your mobile device.
If you’re shooting a talking head vlog.
A lavaliere or clip on lapel mic will work just fine.
But, be sure to use a TRRS (4-pin) cable to connect the mic to your device’s headphone/mic jack.
A great site for TRRS cables is KVConnection.com, and many TRRS cables allow you to connect headphones.
So that you can monitor the audio after it has been recorded.
Many pros also recommend the iRig Pre to connect a mic to an iOS or Android.
There are also a number of mics that are designed for mobile devices like the iRig, smartLav, and iXY.
7. Smartphones Business Service:Takeaway
Guinness World Record for Vlogging
Charles Trippy, under the Internet Killed Television YouTube channel, currently holds the Guinness World Record for the ‘Most Consecutive Daily Personal Video Blogs Posted On YouTube,’ with over 3,000 consecutive videos.
VidCon
Hosted in Los Angeles, California, VidCon is an annual convention that allows YouTube content creators and viewers to come together in order to share content ideas and business contacts.
The first VidCon event was held on July 10 and 11, 2010, and has now become the largest in-person gathering of Internet creators, viewers, and representatives.
This convention realises that the ways in which society entertains, educates, shares, and communicates are being revolutionised, and chooses to highlight this fact via panels, meet and greets, and talks given to audiences at the convention.
8. Smartphones Business Service: Voice navigation.
While it might not be standard to speak to a PC, voice navigation is normal on a smartphone.
App developers can add voice navigation to streamline access to a frequently used feature such as scan a barcode, find a document, and log a call in CRM.
Voice navigation is especially beneficial for those who work using their hands.
Such as a repair person, a manufacturing worker or a surgeon.
9. Smartphones Business Service:Contextual data.
Mobile devices provide location information.
And a wide range of additional contextual attributes.
That can be used to improve business processes.
Sensors in the latest devices provide information such as motion, vibration, and temperature.
However, these data sources need to be incorporated into existing apps.
10.Smartphones Business Service: Biometric security.
Mobile devices now offer new biometric security mechanisms.
Such as thumbprint, facial recognition and iris scanning, to improve security and make it easier to use.
For example, an enterprise application can be coded to use the presence of a smartphone.
Asmartwatch and a biometric attribute such as thumbprint to eliminate passwords for the user while providing a advanced identity attributes for the security team.
11. Smartphones Business Service:Best in class image capture.
With smartphone cameras exceeding the quality of many point and shoot cameras.
Companies has rebuild applications and workflows to capture images and videos.
Insurance adjusters, field service and inspectors are just a few of the job roles that benefit from the ability to use a smartphone or tablet to capture location-specific images.
‘Given that mobile provides new functionality that allows businesses to move beyond simple paper replacement.
12. Smartphones Business Service: The corporate network
If you have systems in your office that you need to access you will need some kind of remote connectivity.
In my day job they have made it really easy for me.
Because remote access is via a Citrix connection into what is basically a terminal server connection.
Citrix is a nice option because the client application.
Citrix Receiver, is available for pretty much every platform.
I already use it on my PC, Mac and iPad, so getting up and running on the Nokia phone was simply a case of downloading it and firing it up.
The main difficulty with corporate system access is that you are using a gadget without a keyboard and mouse.
So initially there is a bit of a learning cliff to scramble up.
It is really not all that bad once you get used to it, though.
13. Smartphones Business Service:Easy email
I am sure everyone reading this has their email delivered to their phone already.
It is just such a no-brainer, and it took me less than five minutes to get my Hotmail, corporate and private email all configured on the Lumia email client.
In fact it took longer for the client to sync with my mailboxes than it did to go through the initial config steps.
The only thing I would say if you are running your company from your phone is disable that annoying message that says “Sent from my iPhone” or whatever at the bottom of every message.
It makes it seem like you are using some temporary, inferior option and I think looks a bit rubbish.
Read also:How to start cell phone business in Nigeria
14. Smartphones Business Service:Monthly accounts
My billing and accounts are pretty simple to do on the phone because I mostly use spreadsheets to keep track of everything.
To produce an invoice I just make a copy of my template, open the resulting file, change the date, invoice number and line item(s), and hit “Save”.
The only drawback with trying to do this on the Lumia is that there doesn’t seem to be a native “Save to PDF” option in the Office application (doh!).
So I have to resign myself to paying Adobe for the privilege of making PDF versions of my bills.
If you want something more complicated than a home-grown Excel-based approach, though.
Consider whether you want your essential finance information to be sitting on a device that you could lose or break.
Of course you don’t: you will want to sign up for a cloud-based finance system. In the interests of trying it myself I had a look around and decided that I like Zoho.
As well as being a cloud-based accounting service, it also has a mobile app that lets you do all the key stuff without having to muck about in a browser. I used it in a previous life for expense tracking and it was pretty good for small companies.
As a general guideline for cloud apps, if you are looking to do everything on your phone, head toward the ones with downloadable phone apps because the usability factor will be far higher than with a browser-only interface.
15. Smartphones Business Service:Cloud cover
If you are going to be computing on the move.
There is every chance that some or all of your corporate servers are in the cloud.
Instead of sitting in a dusty cupboard in your office with nobody to swap the backup tapes each night.
The ability to manage your cloud service is essential, therefore.
Happily, cloud services are designed to be managed from the web.
I have Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services accounts, and of the two.
It certainly feels like Microsoft has put more effort into making its management portal mobile-friendly.
Everything scales nicely on the screen with the Microsoft offering.
Whereas with the Amazon one things fall off the edge.
In Amazon’s defence, it has produced a mobile console app, but only for iOS and Android, not Windows Phone (at least not yet).
Of the big names in cloud computing, incidentally, Rackspace does have an app for mobile Windows users.
So, then: can I run my company from my phone?
The head of IT at the telco I work for has been known to refer to me as “a cynical old Hector”.
And he is not wrong. When the guys at the Regasked me whether you could run a company from a phone, my instinct was: “Hmmm, probably, but it will be a right pain.”
But you know what? It turned out not to be as difficult as I imagined.
In fact with a bit of thought it can be more convenient than the traditional approaches.
So here are the essentials.
See also:How to Start a Cell Phone Management Business in Nigeria
16. Smartphones Business Service:Top tips
Get the right phone: Don’t think you can do it on something the size of an iPhone 5. You will hate every moment of peering into that little screen. I have loved the six-inch Lumia I have been using, which is about the smallest size I would be happy with.
I would find my iPad Mini too big, but probably only just. It really depends on the size of your pocket (not in a financial sense) and of course how big a phone you can live with before feeling stupid holding it to your ear.
Cloud it: Choose cloud storage and ensure that you pick your office application suite and your cloud storage service as a matched pair.
I can’t really see why you would go for Microsoft applications and then try to use Google Drive for storage, for instance. Make sure that your choice fits with your phone platform.
Use services with phone app add-ons: The business services you use will be primarily cloud-based, so look for those with ancillary applications that run natively on your phone.
Don’t use your phone as a phone: Instead use a service that integrates IP telephony (SIP or proprietary protocols such as Skype’s) and make your phone presence mobile. And remember that video calling is a fantastic tool to have in your armoury.
Be flexible: It is a fact of life that a mobile business won’t quite fit the way you worked before. For example, if you are in the habit of working through the month and then bashing through all your invoicing in a day, you may find it quite tedious to rattle off fifty invoices on a small screen.
Do your invoices three or four at a time as you do the work (which is how I do it anyway – I believe in giving clients the opportunity to pay me as soon as possible) and it won’t be a problem.
Spot the advantages: Why do people save their invoicing to the end of the month? Answer: generally because it is a tedious task.
Yet with a mobile invoicing package it is dead easy to run up a quick invoice. The nature of mobile operation is in fact completely removing the reason for you to put off your invoicing until later.
Accept that it might not be a perfect fit: Nobody’s company technology is perfect, and similarly there are things about running everything on a phone that are not quite as you would like.
As I said earlier, I wouldn’t have wanted to type 2,000 words on the Lumia. If this could be a problem for you there is nothing stopping you from choosing a platform that includes a portable Bluetooth keyboard, for instance.
And when it comes to the fact that the platform you have selected is not what you are used to… well, the same can be said for every platform you have ever used, but you have not had too much trouble adjusting, have you?
So, can you run your company from your phone? Damn right, you can. ®
BusinessHAB