While I don’t consider myself to be a technology expert, I am often surprised by my discussions with other business managers who don’t know about, or don’t see the value in, using the internet on their mobiles or downloading mobile applications for corporate use. These days, most business people have smartphones such as the Blackberry, iPhone or G1. The cost of mobile internet is continually lowering with fixed price deals for unlimited access, and many productivity-boosting apps are completely free to use, so surely this is an area businesses would want to investigate?
With regards to our business, A Suit That Fits.com, smartphone technology and mobile apps are integral to our productivity and business processes. A Suit That Fits.com is the world’s first online hand-tailored suit company. We offer high quality suits and high quality service, with a central manufacturing capability in Nepal and a business model in the UK comprised of travelling tailorstops spread across the country. With myself and co-founder David always out of the office, working on the move across different geographies and time zones is an everyday requirement, which mobile technology makes a lot easier.
We have three branches based in London where we measure and fit our customers for individually hand-tailored suits. I try to spend at least one day a week in one of our branches helping customers design their suits, which means I am often having to hop on the tube for a quick commute. The London Underground App means I can plan my routes effectively and avoid ‘minor’ delays. Another app I find useful is Note Everything, which helps keep track of meetings, discussions and actions by letting you make written, audio or visual notes, setting reminders and prioritising important tasks as they crop up.
T-Mobile’s shareAnywhere app also works well for our business. Using it, we’ve been able to compresses image files into high-quality, brochure-like slide shows to offer visual aids when explaining to people about A Suit That Fits.com. Using my G1, I can show them how to get measured, how to design a suit online, where it's made and how much it will cost.
There is a growing number of other apps available for corporate use. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn have developed their own ones to allow easy access to updates on the site for busy professionals. For relaying fitting information quickly and efficiently to our tailors in Nepal, Picsay ticks the box. This allows me to annotate photos with word balloons, titles and graphics and a variety of effects before sending the pictures directly from my mobile.
With a company spread across the world, mobile apps like the ones I’ve mentioned ensure instant communication is possible 24/7, wherever the location. In addition to these, I also use Google Apps (an online collaboration tool which includes an instant messaging service known as Google Talk) to be in constant contact with our style advisers in the UK as well as our skilled tailors in Nepal.
Quite often the most important discussions are conducted out of the office, outside of office hours, and mobile working really enables our business model to succeed on this basis without running up huge expenses. I’d recommend getting tuned-in to mobile applications on smartphone devices and start realising the benefits they can bring to your business, before your competitors catch on.
Happy Apping!
Warren Bennett, is the co-founder of online tailor
A Suit That Fits.com