In many ways, India will soon become one of the most digitally advanced countries. Proliferation of low-cost, feature-rich smartphones and increased access to high-speed internet are all rapidly creating an evolving consumer base that eats and breathes online.
The country had more than 600 million internet subscribers in December 2018, according to a TRAI report. It also consumes more amounts of data per month, compared to other countries, an average of 9.8GB per month, a figure that is poised to reach 18GB by 2024, thanks to the increasing popularity of rich video content, according to Ericsson.
We’re spending more than 4 hours a day checking our smartphones. From shopping to streaming movies, we are addicted to our apps. The obvious question then is, when do people have time to actually work? Do smartphones really hamper work? The answer is a surprising and emphatic NO! On the contrary, mobile apps have actually translated into increased workplace productivity. No matter what your profession might be, you will find an app that could make work easier in some way, says the team at Veris, the leading provider of visitor management systems in India.
So, let’s take a look at 3 young achievers in this organization, its co-founders, for a sneak peek at how they are using their smartphones to do their jobs efficiently.
For the love of to-do’s and comics
Vaibhav Jain, co-founder and VP Product, leads the engineering team and has been at the forefront of product vision, strategy and growth at Veris, since its inception. For a person who spends a lot of his time analyzing business models, automating processes and systemizing operating structures, he wanted an app that could make his days easier to plan.
Vaibhav says Todoist helps him get a daily overview of what needs to be achieved on priority. Earlier, he had used Trello, but soon found Todoist to be more efficient for his needs. He loves the colorful and intuitive interface, detailed task priority arrangement structure, that lets every task to be organized around a particular project. It also allows him to visualize daily and weekly achievements, to plan better for the weeks ahead.
Between meetings and commuting, Vaibhav unwinds with Amazon Kindle, where he has a huge collection of graphic novels and comics to indulge in. He loves that the app can be synced across devices. We loved how enthusiastic he was about the vast collection of titles that Amazon has for comic buffs like him. Vaibhav says, “It’s important to keep pursuing a hobby. It is a great way to de-stress, which works wonders to increase productivity.”
Reading between the lines and the notes
Co-founder and Vice President Sales, Anoop Poonia, strongly believes in the motto: Listening to customers is one of the best ways to grow your business. That’s why he likes to take notes on the Evernote app, which lets him jot down random ideas, as and when they strike him. It also allows him to track conversations during meetings. It was in one of these meetings that he came up with the idea of including the facial recognition feature in the Veris visitor management software.
“You can’t always rely on memory. There are so many meetings and even mini-conversations within meetings. When I started using an app to keep track of all that was being discussed, I found I had greater insight into the direction in which we need to Veris forward,” Anoop stated. He explained that meeting with HR heads across the nation revealed what a huge security threat physical employee cards could be, since they could be misplaced, stolen or simply not returned when an employee left an organization. This made him wonder how employee attendance could become part of an iPad check-in system. The answer came in the form of facial recognition technology.
Evernote has multimedia capabilities, which Anoop likes. Moreover, he is able to attach images, videos and tagged content from various sources to his notes, which he feels proves handy for the designers.
The marvellous serendipity of instant & integrated communication
Aastha Sharma, one of the founders and currently VP Growth, is a marketing mastermind, with extensive experience in the development and execution of organizational projects, designed in collaboration with C-Suite. She marvels at how WhatsApp has completely revolutionized communication with clients and colleagues. One can simply drop a message, send an update, attach files or call, without any hassle.
Another great platform she swears by is Slack, which she feels offers more integration options than any other messaging platform. She can create different groups, make checklists, tag team members and more, all from this app.
“Slack’s ability to integrate with Google Drive, Salesforce, Dropbox and even Twitter is what makes it so powerful and easy to use. This is why we wanted our visitor management system to seamlessly integrate with the most popular applications, like Google and Outlook, Eventbrite, MailChimp and even what you need in office, like wi-fi systems commonly used,” says Aastha.
Yesterday’s fiction is today’s reality (or Frustration is the mother of innovation)
We’re living in such exciting times. Technology has revolutionized the way we work and play, and it has also been a source of inspiration for them. Aastha, Vaibhav and Anoop reminisce on the time when they had to stand in frustrating queues and fill extensive logbooks, outside a corporate office, wasting precious time just to get in to meet with someone. Plus, no one could actually verify that the information they wrote down was accurate.
This made them think about how companies can enhance their front desk management systems not just to improve their brand image but to strengthen security. The Veris visitor check-in system has now become another example of how smartphones can help us save time and increase productivity.
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