How Top Small Businesses Use Technology

Small businesses and mid-sized businesses have no choice but to stay up to date on technology. But how are the top small businesses really using technology and what’s working to get them ahead of their competition?

Mobile and the cloud are popular with small businesses today. Companies with fewer than 20 employees are more likely to be using the cloud than large companies, and the best small businesses know that embracing mobile also means growth: those SMBs that use mobile payments intensively, for instance, see revenues grow twice as fast as their peers.

“A growing majority of SMBs regard mobile solutions as essential business enablers, with 60 percent saying mobile solutions are critical to business,” says Laurie McCabe, an analyst with the SMB Group. “Mobile solutions also account for a growing share of small business technology budgets when we compare findings over the past four years.”

Find more details about what’s working for the best small businesses and then get yours up to speed.

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How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential

TE3CO provides mission-critical pressure relief technology and services to customers across the oil and gas industry. They employ a highly trained and capable workforce of field technicians and engineers. Before working with GoCanvas, TE3CO relied on spreadsheets and emails to manage their ticketing process but found the system time-consuming and difficult to track.

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VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

VIP Lighting is a retail lighting and electrical maintenance company that services retail chains across Australia and New Zealand. The business has been operating for 25 years and now services 10,000 retail sites across both countries. Prior to joining GoCanvas in 2018, the business had multiple systems running different aspects of their technician and contractor network.

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Man in a hard hat inspecting HVAC vents.

Three HVAC Maintenance Checklists that will Reduce Errors and Grow Your Bottom Line

For HVAC technicians, so many errors within their daily tasks come from using outdated paper forms while completing a job. Using these HVAC inspection checklists will prevent issues before they happen, so your technicians can collect comprehensive and consistent data at every job.

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HOW TOP SMALL BUSINESSES USE TECHNOLOGY

The Cloud: 87% of all businesses and more than 60% of businesses with less than 99 employees now operate in the cloud.

SMBs with less than 20 employees are 20% more likely to have adopted the cloud than companies with more than 500 employees.

60% of SMBs say mobile solutions are critical to business. 84% of small businesses and 87% of medium businesses view mobile apps as complementary to traditional business applications. 66% of SMBs have a mobile-optimized website; 16% do not. 80% of internet searchers use their smartphones. 47% use a tablet.

Mobile payment: Only about 13% of small businesses are currently accepting mobile payments. But the SMBs that use mobile payments most intensively see revenues growing up to 2x faster and add jobs up to 8x faster than their peers.

CRM is expected to grow to a $36.5 Billion market worldwide by 2017. Since 2012, CRM is gone from a rank of 0 to 7 in the list of technology that businesses say support their goals. 71% of small businesses prefer cloud-based over on-premise CRM systems go up from 48% in 2013.

69.7% of U.S. Internet users prefer email for communicating with businesses. 59% of marketers plan to increase their email marketing budgets in 2015.

Universal Waste Management Saves $20k Annually with GoCanvas

Universal Waste Management Saves $20,000 Annually with GoCanvas

Overview

Universal Waste Management (UWM) is a medical waste transporter and storage facility headquartered outside Jacksonville, Florida. It specializes in the retrieval, transport, and storage of hazardous medical waste for organizations.

UWM was started by professionals frustrated with the high price and poor customer service in the medical-waste transportation and medical waste disposal industry. UWM strives to create close personal ties with its customers, considering each an incredibly important relationship.

The Problem

But as UWM tried to provide great service, it struggled with the growing burden of paperwork. Florida law requires medical waste generators (who handle infectious waste, biohazard waste, infectious substances, clinical waste and more) to hold records for at least three years. As UWM’s customer base grew, so too did its number of filing cabinets and space required for paperwork.

Invoicing customers for service was also bulky. As a paper-based company, UWM had a four stage process. The office would give information about the customer to the driver. Then, the driver would return to the office with his carbon copy proof of service. An office employee would then add pricing to the carbon copy. Finally, it was sent to the bookkeeper.

The result? Invoicing customers would take anywhere from four days to a week. Not only was this process slow, but it also created opportunities for errors. “With paper and pen,” said Jason Kenny, President of Operations, “we couldn’t read what [drivers] were doing.” Carbon copies led to issues with inaccurate invoices and slowed down the company’s billing cycle.

As a growing business, UWM wanted to be able to continue to provide great service while reducing storage needs, increasing cash flow, and, eliminating human error. Management began to look for a solution that would streamline communication and get rid of paper.

The Solution:

In November 2012, UWM switch to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business. Thousands of organizations leverage Canvas’s cloud-based, software-as-a-service mobile app platform to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps.

The Outcomes

Businesses can search from over 21,000+ ready-made form templates in the GoCanvas Application Store (many of which are for documenting hazardous waste, biohazardous waste and more) that can be customized to an individual business user’s needs. In addition, GoCanvas offers a do-it-yourself app builder that enables non-technical users to build their own custom apps in minutes.Over the past two years, UWM’s employees have ditched paper and use a mixture of Android devices with GoCanvas mobile apps. UWM even created a custom PDF output for a seamless brand experience.

The company has discovered measurable results.

Real-Time Billing

Previously, it would take up to a week to bill customers. Worse, the four-stage process allowed multiple opportunities for errors. “Once a customer called us [to complain],” Jason said. “She was billed for 11 containers, but only two had been picked up. The driver had put down two lines and the office saw it as eleven.”Going mobile has removed any confusion. Today, text is always clear. With drop down fields and barcode scanning, information returns in a standardized format.

By using GoCanvas, UWM receives all its medical waste transport details accurately and in real-time. All documents are stored in the GoCanvas cloud, making it easier to find and track submissions. Calculations are now embedded in the app, so invoicing can go straight from the driver to the bookkeeping staff. Going mobile has dramatically streamlined the invoicing process. Sending an invoice once took a week. Today, UWM can send it out in the same day.

Improved Customer Service

From the beginning, UWM has strived to provide the best in service to every customer. Yet it wasn’t happy with how carbon copies presented the company to its customers.
In addition, if a customer called UWM for a copy of a lost invoice, the office staff could spend up to an hour trying to find it. Instead of presenting tired paper tickets, drivers today show up on client sites with tablets and smartphones. In real time, tickets can be emailed to the client by entering the customer’s email at the end of a submission.

UWM’s customers also get the added benefit of having their medical waste removal documents saved in MyCanvas, a portal for customers of GoCanvas subscribers. Its customers get free cloud storage and easy access to their critical information.“We used to have to find records for customers at least once a day,” said Jason. “Today we only get a request once a week.” Improved access to information frees up UWM’s administrative staff for other important tasks. Canvas’ PDF receipts and MyCanvas help UWM provide better service to its customers as well as a more professional and clean layout of important work information.

Enhanced Data Security and Accessibility

Previously, employees would write down waste disposal manifests on a triplicate form. Then they would bring the forms to the office at the end of a long day. This time lag and multiple site visits made it easier for drivers to lose records, putting both clients and UWM at risk.

It was also difficult for UWM to access the information. It was only available at the office inside UWM’s filing cabinets. It took time to find the documents, and meant certain tasks could occur only inside UWM’s office.UWM now has two different places to store information. Canvas’ integration with Google Drive allows UWM to host its information both in the GoCanvas cloud as well as on Google. This provides double protection and copies of UWM’s data.

It also provides flexibility for access. “Our office manager prefers accessing information from the GoCanvas portal,” Jason explained. “For me, it’s easier to access the information on Google Drive from my smartphone. The Drive integration has been huge.”The changes in productivity, customer service, and billing have had a dramatic impact on UWM’s bottom line. “We spent a couple hundred a month on our paper forms alone,” Jason said.

Going mobile has reduced UWM’s labor, invoicing, and recordkeeping costs. Jason estimates that the organization has saved up to $20,000 a year by going mobile.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides the flexibility to update the mobile form’s content and even add new features and functionality. As needs evolve and change, GoCanvas makes editing form apps a frictionless process. For instance, as UWM grows, it’s easy for management to add new customer information into their GoCanvas apps. UWM doesn’t need to rely on IT support or have any knowledge of coding. With GoCanvas, it’s a simple drag-and-drop interface that anyone can use.

Other mobile app alternatives make this process cumbersome or costly, weakening the effectiveness of their platforms. With GoCanvas it is a frictionless process at no additional cost. Today, UWM has gone completely paperless with mobile apps. With more time in their workday, they can focus on providing the best medical waste management solution.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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Improving Your Operations with Field Service Management Software

Whether you have two or 200 employees, your business’ success depends on their hard work. Passionate, motivated team players are the difference between…

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Should You Connect Field Service Management Software with QuickBooks?

Field service management software has shown to increase productivity both for employees in the field and operations teams in the office. You may be wondering how field service…

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How the Best Field Services Businesses Use Mobile Apps

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Cascade Integration Inc. Scales Their Business by Going Paperless

The Background

Cascade Integration, Inc. has over 20 years of experience in Residential and Commercial low voltage and electrical systems. The team understands every aspect of electrical and low voltage wiring, including automation, audio and video systems, lighting control, networking, security, camera surveillance, and advanced structured wiring.

More than experience, Cascade Integration brings exceptional service to its customers. Whether a commercial or residential project, distributed audio, or a home theatre, this business strives for great quality work finished in a timely fashion.

The Problem

Yet, as Cascade Integration was growing, back-end processes were undermining its work. Getting work orders back from the field was time-consuming. “Our guys would have to remember to fill it out right, track it to the calendar, and turn it in on Mondays,” explained Jay Divine.

As the company grew, teams would start to have turn their paperwork in every other week. “It was slowing down everything,” Jay said, “including our billing.” All of the paperwork, data entry, and additional work would require an entire day of work.

On top of slow turnaround for work orders, the language wasn’t standardized on bid forms. Each of the project managers had a different way of saying the same thing. This made creating bids more complicated. In addition, the estimating software with prices was back at the office. Without important information in the field, errors would occur in some bids. Confusion around these forms slowed down Cascade’s process in getting new business.

Cascade Integration realized that paper forms were holding it back from even more growth. It began looking for a solution that would improve processes and allow employees to focus on providing great work.

The Solution

In October 2014, Cascade Integration switched to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business. Thousands of organizations leverage Canvas’s cloud-based, software-as-a-service mobile app platform to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps.

Businesses can search from over 16,000 ready-made information-gathering app templates in the GoCanvas Application Store that can be customized to an individual business user’s needs. In addition, GoCanvas offers a do-it-yourself app builder that enables non-technical users to build their own custom apps in minutes.

The Outcomes

Cascade Integration’s 25 employees in both Hawaii and Washington State have ditched paper and now use GoCanvas mobile apps. The transition was easy: Cascade uses a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, reducing hardware costs. To begin, the team gathered for 10 minutes to go over how to use GoCanvas. A month later, the team came back together and discussed any outstanding issues or problems and fixed them quickly.

Over the past six months, the company has discovered measurable results.

Improved Data Accuracy

Handwritten forms have always had information issues, missing fields, unclear handwriting, and incorrect information. Cascade Integration struggled with these issues as well.

By using GoCanvas, this organization has gotten rid of many common types of errors. Required fields ensure that all work orders submitted to the office return completely filled out. Reference data allows them to prepopulate apps with pricing and product information. Speech-to-text options have made it easy for all employees to fill out the information as well. In addition, all submissions (completed forms) are automatically emailed to the office. Once an employee has filled out a work order, it’s stored in their GoCanvas account in the cloud. Work orders no longer get lost between jobs, or forgotten in the truck. By going mobile, Cascade Integration has more accurate data and made capturing it easier than ever before.

Standardized Language

Previously, bids for projects were different from manager to manager. With different word choices and different focuses, it made it difficult for estimators to properly assess a project. Often, project managers would go through and fill out parts that weren’t pertinent to the project or omitted things that were necessary. This slowed down potential bids and chances to get new projects.

By switching to GoCanvas, all bids are now filled out in a standardized format. Drop-down lists, required fields, and other GoCanvas functionalities allow Cascade Integration to have a streamlined and standard bid form. Another powerful feature, conditional logic, has also improved the experience. With conditional logic, project managers can skip parts of the bid form depending on how they answer certain questions. So, this feature saves project managers’ time, helping them to focus on the parts that matter. Going mobile has reduced confusion and error as well as making it faster to fill out information for bids.

Streamlined Administrative Processes

When working with paperwork orders, the process for billing was painful and time-consuming. “The challenge,” Jay explained, “was getting all the paperwork back in time. Everyone waited until the last minute. It led to a stressful scramble.”Today, all work orders return in real-time to the cloud. When Jay goes to do billing, all information is available, accurate, and ready for processing. With an integration to Google Drive, it’s become even faster.

This streamlined administrative process has saved a significant amount of time: Though Jay has 50% more work for billing, he is able to complete it in the same amount of time. Faster billing processes has allowed them to grow and maintain a short sales cycle.

Improved Oversight

Before, jobs were scheduled using Google Calendar. This allowed management and employees to easily see and understand what was happening, especially as the number of employees grew. However, tracking jobs and understanding the work in real time was lacking. Today, Cascade Integration uses GoCanvas in tandem with Google Calendar. With our light dispatch functionality, jobs are sent to employees as pre-populated forms with information including customer name, address, and the work wanted by the customer, allowing employees to get started working quickly.

Not only do employees spend less time filling out forms but management also gets more oversight. With dispatch, management can see when a dispatched job has been opened and when it is sent back to the office. With both Google and GoCanvas, management can understand the big picture schedule and the details of each job in real time.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides the flexibility to add new features and functionality to any of their mobile apps. As needs evolve and change, GoCanvas makes editing apps a frictionless process. For instance, as pricing for tools or products changes, it’s easy for management to add or update information into its GoCanvas apps. Cascade Integration doesn’t need to rely on IT support or have any knowledge of coding. With GoCanvas, it’s a simple drag-and-drop interface that anyone can use. Other mobile app alternatives make this process cumbersome or costly, weakening the effectiveness of their platforms. With GoCanvas it is a frictionless process at no additional cost.

Today, Cascade Integration receives better information and enjoys faster processes. As a growing business, it can focus on continuing to provide the best electrical systems service to customers.

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How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential

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VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

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Three HVAC Maintenance Checklists that will Reduce Errors and Grow Your Bottom Line

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Customer Story: Hafsco Achieves Business Success and Operational Improvements

Hafsco Achieves Business Success and Operational Efficiency with GoCanvas

Overview

HAFSCO, founded in 1934, is a full-service food service company located in West Haven, CT that provides commercial and restaurant kitchen design, sales, and service along with consulting services. As a family-run small business, the firm sells and services commercial kitchen equipment and products for restaurants, country clubs, universities, hotels, etc. For 78 years HAFSCO ran its small business as many do, relying heavily on paper forms for business processes ranging from work orders to invoicing and human resources. This was especially true for HAFSCO’s 7 technicians out in the field responsible for delivering and servicing customers’ commercial equipment requirements. These technicians carted around piles of 3-part carbon work order forms – forms that were critical for ensuring customers could be invoiced, and that product, service, and maintenance requests could be filed in an accurate and timely manner.

The Problem

HAFSCO knew they had a problem with paperwork orders, but it wasn’t until mid-2012 that it realized how massive this problem was and that it was costing them upwards of $10,000 in revenue per month. Often, technicians would lose or misplace copies of the work order, which meant that HAFSCO could not invoice the customer and get paid or really have any insight into where technicians were on a given day and what they were doing. Equally damaging is that it might be 3-4 days before a technician would return to the office, which meant that a work order request for a product or service made at the customer premises on a Monday wouldn’t even be filed until the end of the week.

Convinced that inefficient paper processes were costing the firm revenues and customers, HAFSCO’s management team sought a mobile solution that could be deployed quickly, inexpensively, and with an intuitive user interface so that technicians would embrace the transition.

The Solution

After exploring several technology options and vendors, HAFSCO turned to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for businesses. GoCanvas has established itself as the fastest-growing mobile business app store in the world, with thousands of organizations leveraging the GoCanvas App Store to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps that work on nearly every smartphone and tablet on the market. The firm’s app store now has several thousand ready-made apps to use or customize to an individual business user’s needs, and GoCanvas also offers a do-it-yourself app builder toolkit that enables non-technical users to build mobile apps in minutes.

HAFSCO was drawn to GoCanvas’ mobile solution for its ease of use, ease-of-deployment, and ability to allow technicians in the field to submit work orders at the customer premises – or anywhere – from smartphone and tablet devices. Equipped with Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet devices and using their GoCanvas work order app, HAFSCO technicians are able to:

Capture all of customer information in real-time on their mobile device, ranging from, the parts they use to make repairs, the costs, the time they start and stop the job, and a customer signature.
Customize any form depending on specific customer needs.
Send work order and invoice information in real-time via the Cloud to proper HAFSCO back-office systems, so that parts can be ordered immediately and billing can be made promptly.

HAFSCO also uses GoCanvas to audit its billing. All data collected with GoCanvas is stored in the cloud on GoCanvas’s servers where GoCanvas subscribers can access it anytime they wish. HAFSCO logs into their GoCanvas account and visits the “Submissions” area to view all work orders that have been submitted by their mobile users. They export the data in a CSV file for the time period they are interested in, and can then check them against what has actually been billed in their system to ensure that all work is being invoiced

The Outcomes

By transitioning from paper-based work orders and employee time cards, HAFSCO has realized several key benefits:

Elimination of missing work orders – With GoCanvas mobile apps, the percentage of missing work orders has dropped from 25% to, in effect, zero, as technicians now use the GoCanvas app to send work orders from Galaxy Tab devices to back-office systems in real-time via the Cloud.
Converted lost revenue into business growth – Eliminating lost work orders added thousands of dollars in previously lost revenue to HAFSCO’s coffers, and the firm has utilized those revenues to grow the business by hiring additional staff and purchasing more vehicles for technicians servicing customers.
Rapid invoicing and payments– No longer would it take technicians several days to return to the office and manually prepare invoices. Through GoCanvas mobile apps, invoices are generated in real-time and sent to HAFSCO’s billing department via the Cloud. As a result, HAFSCO is able to receive customer payments much sooner than with the paper-based invoice system.
Improved customer service – The elimination of missing and delayed work orders has improved the ability of HAFSCO to live up to its reputation providing the highest level of customer service. Customer complaints dropped significantly after transitioning to GoCanvas from paper forms

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

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How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential

Read their story

VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

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Three HVAC Maintenance Checklists that will Reduce Errors and Grow Your Bottom Line

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How Mobile Apps Are Improving Productivity

All businesses have information they need to collect and share. There are millions of processes happening each day–some you see (e.g., the plumber who brings an invoice to your house) and some you don’t (e.g., safety inspections happening at every construction job site).

There’s a revolution happening with how these organizations are collecting and sharing information, and it’s awesome seeing GoCanvas lead the way.

But how are businesses and organizations really using mobile apps to better collect, share and learn from their data?

We love seeing all the ways businesses are streamlining their processes and rapidly transforming their work with mobile forms on phones and tablets. Organizations are not only using multiple form apps, but they’re also building and deploying them to their workforces faster than ever before (almost 70% built an app in a day or less!)–an indication that businesses of all sizes are shifting from expensive, resource-intensive custom builds to cloud-based mobile business app solutions.

Here’s a look at how a few key industries are using mobile form apps to automate their work processes.

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The GoCanvas 2015 online survey was completed by more than 1,600 decision makers from a broad range of company sizes and industries that have historically relied heavily on paper forms and manual processes, most prominently construction and contracting, field services, retail and wholesale distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, government, and transportation & logistics.

Key Survey Findings

Organizations using multiple mobile business apps – Two-thirds of respondents indicated their organization used 1-5 mobile business apps in 2014, and a robust 20% of organizations used 10+ mobile business apps last year.
Organizations are saving money converting manual processes to mobile apps – Of those tracking their cost savings, 17% saved between $25,000-$100,000 annually switching to mobile apps, while 81% indicated cost savings between $1,000-$25,000.
Mobile apps are still used most heavily for inspections and work orders – When it comes to specific tasks businesses are using mobile apps for, inspections (52%), work orders (35%), checklists (20%), and surveys (20%) remain the four most popular – as was the case in last year’s survey.
Signature capture and image capture popular features – The 2015 GoCanvas survey also tracked, for the first time, which mobile business app features organizations have used in the past 12 months. Image capture (56%), signature capture (52%), workflow (23%), and GPS (22%) were the most popular.

Use of Core Business Applications

64 percent of businesses see value in integrating core business applications – such as Dropbox, PayPal Here, Salesforce, and Quickbooks – with mobile devices and tools, up 1 percent from last year’s survey. That said, significant customer data gains were experienced by Box and Google Drive for cloud storage, and PayPal Here for credit card processing.

What business applications are being used in 2015

The survey of GoCanvas customers, conducted March 25^th – April 7^th, 2015, included companies from a broad range of industries and sizes. Of the respondents, 28% were from businesses with 500+ employees; 26% were from businesses with 101-500 employees; 19% worked at organizations with 26-100 employees; and 27% hailed from small businesses with 25 employees or less.

Interested in how your business can streamline manual processes, eliminate paperwork and transform the way you collect, share, and learn from your business information? Browse our collection of Inspection and Survey mobile templates.

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Smarter, Faster, Safer: Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Compliance, there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of business. We all know how crucial it is, helping save…

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Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

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Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

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Businesses Rapidly Building, Using More Mobile Apps

The 2015 survey of more than 1,600 businesses suggests that organizations rapidly building and deploying multiple mobile apps.

Construction Businesses are using mobile apps for: 49% Work orders; 31% Checklists; 61% Inspections.

33% of businesses used more than 5 mobile business apps last year. Retail Businesses are using mobile apps for: 36% of Inspections; 38% of Checklists; 41% of Surveys.

68% of organizations were able to build a mobile app in 1 day or less. Manufacturing Businesses are using mobile apps for: 25% Work Orders; 30% Audits; 41% Inspections.

Google Drive, Box, and PayPal Mobile applications saw the biggest year-over-year usage gains. General Businesses are using mobile apps for: 20% Checklists; 35% Work Orders; 52% Inspections.

64% of businesses see value in integrating mobility with core business applications, such as file storage, CRM, credit card processing, note-taking, and accounting. Healthcare businesses are using mobile apps for: 25% Work Orders; 18% Invoices; 20% Logs.

Eye Opening Facts About Field Service

Eye-Opening Facts About Field Service

There are dozens of websites, publications, and email newsletters dedicated to field service technology. But what’s actually driving field service companies to technology? What kinds of software and devices are they using?

We’ve gathered some eye-opening facts to help you understand where the industry is today, and how real businesses are using technology to innovate and stay productive.

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Mobile technology is no longer a rarity in field service: it’s becoming expected for staying competitive and improving service. You may have noticed that this trend is only going to grow further to 2.5 million units.

Discover the innovation-making field service companies thrive

Learn more in our free ebook: How the Best Field Service Businesses Use Mobile Apps

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Improving Your Operations with Field Service Management Software

Whether you have two or 200 employees, your business’ success depends on their hard work. Passionate, motivated team players are the difference between…

Read the Blog

Should You Connect Field Service Management Software with QuickBooks?

Field service management software has shown to increase productivity both for employees in the field and operations teams in the office. You may be wondering how field service…

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How the Best Field Services Businesses Use Mobile Apps

Mobility and field service: the talk has been happening forever. The idea that real-time information improves customer service and boosts technician productivity is changing…

Read the eBook

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Let’s Build A Plan Together

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EYE-OPENING FACTS ABOUT FIELD SERVICES

Driving field service mobility: 80% customer demand for improved service; 44% Competitive pressures; 33$ Need to work with reduced field workforce; 41% Growing volume of service requests.

Common mobile workforce challenges:

1. Ensuring the mobile workforce is at optimal productivity/efficiency

2. Accurately capturing and sharing data in real-time

3. Improving first-time fix rates

Berg Insight expects mobile workforce management to grow to 2.5 million by 2018 in North America and Europe.

What devices are the workforce using? – 66% Currently use an automated software solution; 47% use a cloud solution; 41% mobile phones; 22% tablets; 37% computers.

Top 3 reasons for the cloud: 1. Faster deployment; 2. Less strain on IT; 3 Lower upfront cost.

Clear Water Streamlines Communications and Saves 200 Hours

How Clear Water Products Streamlined Communications and Saved 200 Hours

Overview

$66,684 Annual ROI
Standardized language for records
Saving over 200 hours a year
Improved customer communication
700% increase in productivity

Apps Used

Dewatering Quality Testing Form
Daily Report
Maintenance Request Form
Extra Technician Request Form
Materials Request Form
Testing Completion Confirmation

The Background

Clear Water Products, LLC offers 27 years of oilfield experience along with cutting-edge solids control services. Offering the most effective solids control equipment available on the market today to satisfy the ever-changing needs of the oil & gas industry.

Clear Water Products is dedicated to customer satisfaction. The company understands that each rig and each project is different and work closely with each rig to optimize their solids control program to minimize costs to the drilling companies

The Problem

Yet Clear Water Products struggled with internal communications. While they enjoyed the speed of sharing information via group text, it was difficult to sift through, and often missed important information for reports.

The end result? Managers back at the office would waste time sifting through text messages for pertinent information. There was no standardized language for reporting. Information would be missed as the rigs locations are incredibly loud and made it easy to miss text messages.

Jay Ziesler, an Engineer with the company, knew they could do better. “Our company was growing” Jay said. “We needed better communication between the office and various locations and between locations.”

So Jay reached out to his Verizon rep for a technology fix that would make their reporting easier and clearer.

The Solution

In November 2014, the company’s Verizon representative helped Clear Water Products switch to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business. Thousands of organizations leverage Canvas’s cloud-based, “Software-as-a-Service” mobile app platform to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps.

Businesses can search from over 16,000 ready-made apps in the GoCanvas Application Store that can be customized to an individual business user’s needs. In addition, GoCanvas offers a do-it-yourself app builder that enables non-technical users to build apps in minutes.

The Outcomes

Over the past fourteen months, the company’s employees have stopped using group text messages and started to use tablets and GoCanvas mobile apps. The company has discovered measurable results, including:

Uniform Record Keeping

Previously, employees used multiple names often for the same chemical compound. The office manager would simply write down the name used in the communications from the field. The various names made it difficult to track chemical use and understand work occurring at various locations.Today, Clear Water Products now uses a drop down menu for chemical inventory. With one click, reporting is easier for employees on the rigs. At the home office, management enjoys better understanding of what is going on in real time.

Improved Response Time

With group text messages, it was difficult to respond quickly. Everyone received a text on a technical issue, not just those who needed to know. This made it easy to ignore the stream of messages, and harder to know what employees did or didn’t have to respond to.With GoCanvas, these reports are now separated. The company now has multiple apps it use inside of GoCanvas, each submission going to the appropriate manager. “I don’t have to go through 30 messages to look for something important” Jay explained, “the reports I need come straight to me.”

In addition, working with oil rigs meant projects were often moving in remote places. “If someone got sick and needed a replacement,” Jay said, “it was easy for the person traveling to the new location to get lost.” He estimated that this was a problem they faced at least once a month.A trick with GoCanvas has removed this issue: geo-tagging. All GoCanvas submissions include a location tag. Now if an employee needs to get up to a remote site, they can take the tag from a recent submission. This will automatically open in Google map and give the driver directions straight to the site. Getting to remote locations has never been easier for Clear Water Products.

More Robust Data Sharing with Customers

While using group text messages, it was incredibly difficult to share information with their customers. Jay explained, “It was too much information for customers to get the big picture. With drilling operations 24/7 all year round, it wasn’t feasible to share.”GoCanvas mobile apps make it easy to share specific reports with customers via email. Even if the report is in the middle of the night, it won’t cause a disturbance like a text message. As a PDF, all the information is easy to read and understand.Now customers can stay in the loop without being dragged down by unnecessary details.

Enhanced Data Collection

Clear Water Products also receives stronger and more accurate information with GoCanvas. Previously, reports would be inconsistent in both language and what was reported.“I had to reread text messages multiple times to get all the information.” Jay said. “If someone missed something in their message, I’d have to call them to find out the answer.”

Now, all the information Jay needs returns with every submission. GoCanvas does this with the option of required fields. An employee can skip a field in the GoCanvas mobile app, but if a field is required, they won’t be able to submit the app until the required field is completed. Jay no longer struggles with missing information or searching through whole series of text messages.

Real-Time Savings

Previously with all messages in the same long chain of text messages, Clear Water Products struggled to create reports. “It used to take me an hour and half to do one report” Jay said of their old system. With all submissions immediately available in the cloud, Clear Water Products enjoys easier reporting with real-time access to information. “Now it takes me just ten minutes to create a report.” Jay said. He estimated that moving to GoCanvas will save him over 220 hours in 2015 on creating his reports alone.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides Clear Water Products the flexibility to add new features and functionality to any of their mobile apps. As needs evolve and change, GoCanvas makes editing apps a frictionless process. For instance, as the materials change, it’s easy for management to upload a new materials list into their GoCanvas apps. Clear Water Products doesn’t need to rely on IT support or have any knowledge of coding. With GoCanvas, it’s a simple drag-and-drop interface that anyone can use. Other mobile app alternatives make this process cumbersome or costly, weakening the effectiveness of their platforms. With GoCanvas it is a frictionless process at no additional cost. Today, Clear Water Products has ditched group messaging for mobile apps. With more time in their workday, they can focus on providing the best in solids control services.

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When placed side by side it’s enough to cover – 4,443,33 miles. That’s nearly the distance between Washington D.C. & Rome.

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Who we work with – 106 partners, over 30 major industries, 27 Fortune 1000 companies, 5 different telecoms.

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Great Lakes Fusion Saves 400 Hours Annually Going Paperless

Great Lakes Fusion Saves 400 Hours a Year By Going Paperless

The Background

Great Lakes Fusion (GLF) started in 1998 as a small construction company specializing in the Landfill Industry as a Methane Gas pipeline installation and repair contractor. Since that time, they have grown into a multi-faceted construction company with the expertise to take on most any project in the excavation and construction industry.

As a family run business, they’ve worked hard for the past 17 years to grow their company. But with that growth, their paper records became a heavier and heavier burden on their business.

The Problem

This burden was affecting GLF in various ways. Forms, from equipment inspections to work orders, were supposed to be returned to the office every night. However, if employees were working at job sites far from the office, these forms could come back days or even a week later.

As their team grew to over 30 employees, this delay also put pressures on the back office. “Time cards wouldn’t come in until Monday”, Jamie GLF’s office manager, said, “With payroll going out on Tuesday, it put a lot of pressure on our office.” GLF decided they needed a solution to these slow and cumbersome processes.

The Solution

In April 2013, they decided to go with GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for the construction industry. GLF found the transition to paperless processes easy and full supported in taking their construction company paperless. “Employees picked it up easily” Jamie said, “It’s been a simple transition.”

GLF found itself in the same position thousands of GoCanvas customers have; the GoCanvas platform—with 20,000+ customizable mobile apps, the app builder and real-time data collection—was revolutionizing their internal processes.

The Outcomes

GLF has seen real, measurable results from implementing GoCanvas as their paperless solution for construction projects. Some of their immediate benefits include:

Measurable Time Savings

Previously, GLF struggled with a growing burden of paperwork. Job site timecards, for instance, would come in on Mondays, and payroll would have to be finished by the next day. This time crunch put pressure and stress on the office. Being on paper, they would need to be organized and typed up again into the database for processing.

With GoCanvas, this process has been dramatically streamlined. Foremen now collect time cards on their smartphones. These mobile time sheets now go straight to the cloud and is immediately available to the office staff on the same day.

This streamlined paperless process has given GLF measurable time savings. Switching to GoCanvas saves them two hours a day. Over a year? That’s over 400 hours they can use towards growing their construction business.

Faster Invoicing

In additon to saving time in the office, GLF also has a faster sales cycle as a result of paperless workflows. With all their construction projects, GLF relies on work orders to invoice customers. From the week’s work orders, the office sends out billing every Friday. But if a form didn’t return until Friday afternoon, GLF couldn’t bill the customer for another week, slowing down their sale cycle dramatically.

With GoCanvas, these issues have been largely eliminated for this construction firm. All work orders are immediately available in the cloud. This makes it easy for the office to create and send invoices straight to the customer. If a form is missing fields, then the field employee won’t be able to submit the form. This forces completion of inspections with all necessary documentation.

By eliminating paper forms, GLF has dramatically sped up their sales cycles with paperless billing. What once could take weeks to send to customers now happens in a day or less.

Improved Data Accuracy

Working in the field at job sites and on construction projects, it’s easy for conditions to change. Yet with paper, employees would have to start over their work orders if something happened. This meant additional work on already long shifts.

Today with GoCanvas, GLF employees can edit their records while they work. Is the well drill taking longer than expected? That can be added into the report. The shift to mobile ensures that employees spend less time reporting, and can focus on great work for customers.

With drop down lists, employees in the field capture important information faster. They also use reference data. This feature allows them to pre-populate parts of their app with information from their own system, including pricing and equipment information.

By taking their construction company paperless, employees spend less time trying to find information, return forms with fewer mistakes, and focus more on doing great work.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Organizational Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use app builder, GoCanvas provides this construction firm the flexibility to quickly add new features and functionality to any of their mobile apps. As needs evolve and change, GoCanvas apps can be updated easily, with no programming required.

For instance, as GLF’s equipment changes, Jamie can go into her GoCanvas account and update the equipment inspection. Within seconds, the updated equipment inspection will be available for all her users. These real time updates ensure easy transition, with limited possibility for errors in future inspections.

Other mobile app alternatives make this process cumbersome or costly, weakening the effectiveness of their platforms. With GoCanvas it is a frictionless process at no additional cost.

With GoCanvas, GLF has replaced all of their paper forms with mobile apps and paperless workflows. They’ve cut down administrative work, and receive more accurate information from the field. Going paperless and using electronic documents allows them to continue to grow as well and provide the best quality work to their customers.

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