Schmidt Equipment Inc. Goes Digital with GoCanvas

The Background

“The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers” – John Egan

For over 50 years, Schmidt Equipment Inc. has provided construction equipment to the construction, and forestry industry in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island. With five locations, they provide parts, rentals, services as well as training courses on emissions. They work not only to provide for customer’s needs, but to help their customers have the best quality equipment.

The Problem

But while their customers loved their work, Schmidt Equipment had a bad relationship with paper. When doing inspections or machine deliveries, they would take photos to go with their forms. However, employees would spend hours matching photos to forms. Schmidt Equipment wasn’t the only business with this issue: PWC found that up to 11% of business documents are misfiled or lost.

With various departments and locations, sharing information was also slow and difficult. More than the time it takes to find a form, it could take hours or days to actually arrive where it is needed. This slowed down their sales cycle and response time.

The Solution

In May 2013, Schmidt Equipment switched to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for businesses. With reasonable pricing options, they were able to start using GoCanvas on a small scale without a significant investment. GoCanvas ensured they had limited risks as they began to make the switch to mobile apps.

The Outcomes

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 that improve their data collection and productivity.

Businesses can search from over 14,000 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.

Results

Schmidt Equipment still has many paper forms. However, they are slowly moving towards a paperless office. “People that have done their job for 20 plus years” Mark explained, “love their paper.”Instead, he works to teach the more tech savvy employees how to use GoCanvas and find a champion in each department. Then their coworkers start to see that mobile apps are faster and easier to use than the old paper forms. Nevertheless, Schmidt Equipment has found measurable results. The benefits include:

Real Time Access to Data

The past year has shown a dramatic rise in Schmidt Equipment’s efficiency and ability to share information. Previously, these forms could take hours or days to return the office. Then, they would need additional time to enter this information into their databases and share forms with the right departments. Today their machine evaluations and inspections are all done on Samsung Galaxy phones. All evaluations and inspections going straight to the cloud, so they can easily share information across various departments and locations in real-time. What once took days now happens in minutes.

“The more important savings are not dollars – but rather efficiency gained by allowing all employees easy access to the data” – Mark Drelinger

In addition, it’s far easier for the entire to company to access this information. Previously, an employee would have to find a paper form or search through old emails for the appropriate document. Today, all these forms can be found with a quick search. GoCanvas also provides custom file naming. Thus, they can name a file on an entry in their forms such as customer name, date, or location, making searches even easier. What once took hours or days to find now happens in seconds.

Improved User Experience

Previously, filling out these inspections on paper was cumbersome. Employees would have to carry long paper forms, clipboards, as well as cameras to get photos. It was slow having to go between paper and the camera, while filling it all out by hand. Today, employees enjoy an easier and faster experience with GoCanvas. Our mobile apps provide a rich feature set to make inspections, deliveries, and other forms go faster and return with fewer errors. Some functionality Schmidt Equipment has benefitted from include:

Drop down value lists
Images captured inside the form
Required fields

With these features, forms return to the office with fewer errors and complete information. Before forms could return with whole sections missing, now any time a required field is left blank, the inspection can’t be submitted. Thus employees spend less time on forms and the office enjoys a more robust information set.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides Schmidt Equipment 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, Mark initially made their mobile apps. Today, he has an administrative employee creating new apps for their company. From the beginning, they never needed 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. Once the edits are made, they can b shared with all of their users in real-time. What once used to take days or weeks to fully implement now happens within minutes. 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, Schmidt Equipment is looking for more ways to turn their once slow and cumbersome processes into faster, real-time experiences with the GoCanvas mobile app. With more and more of their workforce eager and excited by the mobile experience, they are only seeing the beginning of what mobile apps can do for their growing business.

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.

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

The Ultimate Guide to Quality Control Inspections

Discover essential steps and best practices for effective quality control inspections. Ensure accuracy, compliance, and efficiency today!

Read the blog

A man using GoCanvas for the digital transformation of his workflow.

Next-Gen Project Management for Construction

In this on-demand webinar, we showcase GoCanvas’ latest product release, which is designed for construction and trade professionals.

Watch Now

VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

See how VIP Lighting streamlined operations and improved efficiency with GoCanvas, improving data collection speed and accuracy.

read their story

How DC Central Kitchen Improved Their Grant Reporting

How DC Central Kitchen Saved Time and Improved Their Grant Reporting

The Background

DC Central Kitchen is a major non-profit in the DC area. They’re a leader in reducing hunger with recycled food, training unemployed adults for culinary careers, serving healthy school meals, and rebuilding urban food systems through social enterprise. They serve 10,000 meals a day. Through their Culinary Job Training program (CJT) they estimate that for every dollar spent on CJT, they reinvest $3.50 into DC in saved taxed dollars and new tax revenue.

The Problem

In their efforts to reach out and aid the DC community, DC Central Kitchen also battles the problem of food deserts. Their program, Healthy Corners, seeks to provide access to affordable produce to low-income areas. With only local corner stores, these consumers don’t have the opportunity to buy fruits and vegetables. These stores can’t buy from wholesale distributors who ask for large quantity sales.

Thus, DC Central Kitchen has set up a program to provide corner stores with wholesale priced produce in limited volumes. This partnership provides consumers more access to fresh produce at limited risk for the small corner stores.

Like most non-profits, DC Central Kitchen started with paper processes. When working with these corner stores, determining their orders, drop-offs, and other details was done with paper forms, emails, and phone calls. Not only was this disparate information hard to organize, but also created opportunities for miscommunication.

At times these errors caused delays in-store orders and slowed down their work with corner stores. With a grant from the DC government, miscommunication and missing information made their weekly grant reporting difficult as well.

DC Central Kitchen needed a system that was easier to use, faster, and better organized.

The Solution

In January 2014 DC Central Kitchen switched to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business. DC Central Kitchen found the transition almost seamless. With their free trial, they received full support from GoCanvas as they moved from paper to mobile apps. Each and every account gets a dedicated senior mobile app consultant. Together with their consultant, DC Central Kitchen was able to explain what they wanted and to create a mobile experience for their unique needs.

DC Central Kitchen found itself in the same position thousands of GoCanvas customers have; the GoCanvas platform—with 14,000+ customizable mobile apps, the app builder, and real-time app management—was revolutionizing their internal processes.

The Outcomes

With eight users on tablets, DC Central Kitchen has found real, measurable results by implementing GoCanvas. These include:

Streamlined Processes

Previously, DC Central Kitchen struggled to gather the necessary information. At the beginning of the week, store owners would call in their orders. An employee would take it down and then have to send it to the procurement manager. With various steps, it slowed down the procurement manager’s work.

In addition, drivers would take down delivery confirmations on paper. It could be hours before the drivers returned to the office with these confirmations. Then, employees had to spend additional time entering these forms into their system. With GoCanvas, both of these processes have been dramatically streamlined. Delivery confirmation, as well as order information, are collected on-site. Every finished form goes straight to the cloud. No longer do employees need to spend additional time on data entry.DC Central Kitchen has customized its apps for even faster processes. The store orders are emailed directly to the procurement manager. Bills go to the accounting department in real time. This automation reduces the opportunity for human error as well as makes orders easier and faster. What once required hours of additional work can now be accessed by the DC Central Kitchen team in seconds.

Faster Grant Reporting

Previously, DC Central Kitchen had a time-consuming process to gather information for grant reporting. They’d have to set up phone calls, or meetings to learn about inventory levels, and what consumers were buying. This process required additional time and work from an already busy non-profit staff and small business owners. Today, much of this information can be gathered on-site during product deliveries. At the local businesses, DC Central Kitchen asks the necessary grant reporting questions. Not only does using GoCanvas reduce the number of meetings, but also gives DC Central Kitchen real-time information via the cloud.

In addition, DC Central Kitchen needs demographic information on the customers of these local stores. With GoCanvas, DC Central Kitchen easily interviews customers and local residents at Healthy Corners kick-off events. At these events, DC Central Kitchen demonstrates ways to cook with fresh produce and provides customers with more information about the program and how to utilize it fully. Employees attend with tablets, so they can take down information quickly at events and have it stored in the cloud immediately. No filing or data entry, no messy handwritten notes, just demographic information was quickly taken down in the field and useable at the office.

Time for Creative Problem Solving

Nonprofits, often having fewer resources than businesses, can struggle to get everything done. For DC Central Kitchen, switching to GoCanvas has created an amazing new resource for their staff: time. Streamlined processes free up hours once spent on administrative processes.Now the Healthy Corners team can spend that time expanding their program in new and exciting ways. For Janell Walker, Director of Nutrition and Community Outreach, this is important. She says, “People can be more creative when they have more time. Time crunches keep you from being creative and finding solutions to problems. Turning to a digital application allows people to be more responsive and more efficient in their work.”

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides DC Central Kitchen 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 DC Central Kitchen’s grant requirements change, they can easily go into their GoCanvas account and simply update their report app to reflect new questions. Within seconds, these changes will be updated for all their users. This allows for an easy transition and can be done by anyone in the office. 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, DC Central Kitchen’s Healthy Corners program continues to go strong. With more than 50 stores participating, they have enjoyed $40,000 in annual sales of healthy food options. DC Central Kitchen plans on helping even more low-income residents enjoy access to great food options. Because of efficient and streamlined information gathering, they can continue to focus on creative solutions for DC and beyond.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

Two people in an office looking at a tablet.

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

Two people in hard hats looking off camera.

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…

Read the Blog

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

Demmer Saves $1 Million Annually with GoCanvas

Demmer Says Goodbye to Paper and Saves $1 Million Annually with GoCanvas

The Background

Demmer Corporation is a large manufacturer serving the defense, aerospace, automotive, transportation and energy industries. They not only seek to make great products, they seek to create products that give their customers a competitive advantage. This mission puts their business at the edge of innovation.

The Problem

Manufacturing great products, though, requires numerous safety inspections of sites, equipment, and people. Recording all of this on paper, however was taking both time and money away from creating innovative products. Each process required intensive amounts of paperwork for safety, inspections and workflow processes.

It became more difficult because forms would have to go from plant to plant, taking hours or days to arrive at the next site. Multiple inspectors across several plants meant a huge amount of a paper and sluggish data collection. Worse, errors could take weeks to find let alone correct.

Demmer could no longer afford to let paper determine the pace of their business.

The Solution

Demmer began to look for, “real time data straight from the point of collection,” said Jen Malesky, Director of Corporate Quality, Demmer Corporation. They also needed a solution that could be rapidly deployed to their workforce without the need for extensive training or upfront costs.

They decided to go with GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for business. Thousands of organizations leverage GoCanvas’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 20,000 ready-made apps in the GoCanvas Application store, or drill into the collection of Transportation and Warehousing mobile app templates, 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

From the beginning, Demmer saw dramatic results. “We realized very quickly the platform was beneficial,” said Kevin Ouellette, Quality Supervisor.

GoCanvas has provided significant benefits to Demmer including:

Major Financial Savings

They’ve estimated their cost saving at $1 million annually. Switching to mobile apps has made their information gathering streamlined and reduced errors. One app, for example, helped streamline one machine’s efficiency. The resulting savings? $250,000 annually.

Additional savings have also been found by bypassing the need for data entry. All inspections and forms are transmitted directly to the cloud. There, Demmer can easily access these files or export them into their own system. What once required additional administrative time and money has become a simpler and faster process.By skipping paper entirely, Demmer also finds huge cost savings in storage. Filing cabinet costs in a year are between $1,500 to nearly $2,500. By switching to GoCanvas, Demmer can invest money in numerous new ways to grow and innovate their business.

Major Time Savings

More than money, the company is excited by the hours saved. Their safety department estimates they have saved 300 hours a year. With rapid response times, they’ve also seen a reduction in workplace injuries. Production has also become a faster process. Because mobile apps make forms immediately available in the cloud, sites no longer have to wait hours or days for a form to move from one site to another. Instead, sites work together more efficiently with real time information.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides Demmer 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 new regulatory mandates are introduced and data collection procedures change, apps can be modified to meet the new requirements and instantly made available to the end user. Other mobile app alternatives make this process cumbersome or costly, weakening the effectiveness of their platforms. With GoCanvas, this is a frictionless process at no additional cost.

Demmer has embraced GoCanvas’s potential with a vast library of mobile apps. From their original 3 apps, they’ve now expanded to 140 apps. “All kinds of ideas are coming in, from every department,” Ouellette said. “Sometimes we have to rein them in,” Malesky joked.With hundreds of users and growing, Demmer has saved paper, time and money that has more than paid off its investment in mobile apps. GoCanvas has given Demmer an easy-to-use mobile experience that allows the company to create a safer work environment and continue to create innovative products

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

Best Ways to Collect Data in Manufacturing

Data analysis is the heart of any well-functioning manufacturing company. Without accurate, real-time data, manufacturing plants are left in the dark about costs, areas that need improvements, quality assurance, employee production, and so many other valuable insights.

Read the Blog

Improving Your Manufacturing Workflow With Apps

Have you ever wondered how manufacturing companies like Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Intel, and Nike remain at the forefront of their industries? These companies obsess over optimizing their manufacturing process. To create and maintain a near-flawless workflow…

Read the Blog

Wastewater Processing: 8 Tips to Make Your Manufacturing Site More Sustainable

When it comes to wastewater disposal, manufacturers can place a significant strain on municipal water systems. The lack of proper waste management leads to sanitary waste, particularly in metropolitan areas’ water supply.

Read the Blog

The History of the Paperless Office

View As Text

Check out even more resources

Woman looking at tablet inside a large vehicle machine.

Centurian Transport saves $100k every year with GoCanvas

Centurion is the largest heavy haulage provider in Australia. They deliver national supply chain solutions to the resources, energy, construction & retail sectors…

Read their Story

Image of two men in front of kegs on tablet.

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer…

Read their Story

Image of Two Men and a Truck looking at tablet.

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® used GoCanvas to increase data visibility & compliance

With a workforce that primarily works out in the field, many of the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® locations found that paperwork was hindering…

Read their Story

Connect with an Expert Today.

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

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Text Version

The History of the Paperless Office

Creating paperless offices is a popular idea in business today. But how old is this idea? Discover the unlikely journey of the paperless office.

Early 1960s: Computers begin to have video display terminals, such as IBM 2260, allowing people to read text on the screen.

1969: BBC creates a short piece on the automated office future. All processes are streamlined, reducing inefficiency, but also eliminating human contact.

1970: PARC is founded by Xerox, an R&D firm, focusing on hardware and IT.

1975: Businessweek publishes ‘The Office of the Future’, predicting that all records would be electronic by 1990.

1976: IBM introduces the first commercial laser printer, IBM 3800. Soon after Xerox releases the first laser printer for the office.

1980-1995: Paper use doubles due to the rise in affordable laser printing.

The mid-1990s: Cloud storage begins to gain significant bandwidth with the internet.

2001: Sellen and Harper in ‘The Myth of the Paperless Office’, investigate why work is still dominated by paper.

2000-2009: American consumption of paper drops by 20%.

2007: Apple introduces the first iPhone.

2008: The Economist argues that the paperless office is coming with a new generation who rely less on paper, and more on technology

2011-2012: Smartphone use at work jumps from 37% to 60% in one year.

2013: Adobe reports 87% of respondents have a mostly digital office and 59% would like to be more digital.

2013: Millennials push for more tech, less paper. 16% of office workers use Dropbox. Rises to 31% for 18-31-year-olds.

Conclusion – The paperless office isn’t here yet. But, with faster technology and a digital generation, this future is on its way.

What Are Businesses Using Mobile Apps For?

Have you ever wondered how other companies are using mobile apps to run their business processes?

We have, too. And we have some great information on this that we’re excited to share with you, based on a recent survey we did.

Rather than just hit you with a ton of data, we wanted to do something a little more visual. See below for how some key industries are using mobile apps to run their businesses.

View As Text

It is amazing seeing companies revolutionize their business processes and data collection efforts with mobile apps and devices. See below if you’re interested in more details from our survey.

63 percent of businesses see value integrating core business applications – such as Dropbox, Square, Salesforce, Evernote and Quickbooks – with mobile devices and tools. Interested in integrating the data you’re collecting with GoCanvas with other office systems and software? Get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help!

Our survey was completed by more than 1,100 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 (24.4%), retail and distribution (11.7%), healthcare (9.4%), manufacturing (8.7%), transportation & logistics (2.9%), and government (2.3%).

The survey points to an increasingly mobile workforce that is looking to extend more day-to-day business processes to their mobile devices, and the fact that structured and unstructured data collection and collaboration apps are rising to the top of the business decision maker wish list. When it comes to specific tasks businesses are using mobile apps for, respondents cited:

Inspections (46%)
Work Orders (31%)
Checklists (28%)
Surveys (19%)
Invoices (15%)
Inventories (8%)
Other (34%)

Additional key survey findings:

File storage: Well more than half (57%) of businesses are using file storage applications, and of those businesses using file storage applications Dropbox is the dominant choice (51%), followed by Google Drive (16%), Box (8%) and SkyDrive (6%).
Note taking software: 32% of businesses surveyed use note taking software or applications for their business. Of those businesses using this type of software/application, 45% use Evernote, 29% use Notepad, and 5% use Google Keep.
Credit card processing: 13% are using mobile credit card processing applications in their business, with 44% using Square; 13% using Intuit GoPayment; 12% using PayPal mobile; and 31% using other services.
CRM: 30% use a CRM system in their business, and of respondents using CRM tools, Salesforce commands nearly half (45%) of users.
Accounting: 48% of businesses surveyed use an accounting application, with nearly half (48%) of those businesses using Quickbooks, followed by 8% using Sage.

James Quigley, our CEO, is not surprised by the fact that businesses are going mobile. “What this survey demonstrates is that organizations of all shapes and sizes are looking to a broadening array of mobile services to improve their business processes. Everyone from educational institutions and hospitals to large construction companies and service organizations are shifting core business processes to mobile; drawn to the ability of mobile apps to solve challenges associated with inefficient paper-based processes.”

This survey of GoCanvas customers, conducted February 2014, included companies from a broad range of industries and sizes. Of the respondents, 29% were from businesses with 500+ employees; 21% were from businesses with 101-500 employees; 17% worked at organizations with 26-100 employees; and 33% hailed from small businesses with 25 employees or less.

We’d love to help your organization go mobile and save time and money while eliminating slow and inefficient paperwork. Try us free today!

Check out even more resources

Three people in hard hats looking at a tablet.

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…

Read the eBook

Woman reviewing information on a tablet.

Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

Waiver forms are a type of legal protection used by businesses to reduce their liability and risk. This type of agreement between a business and its customers is used…

Read the Blog

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer after it leaves…

Read their Story

Connect with an Expert Today.

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

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Text Version

Businesses Shift from paper forms to Mobile Apps

The GoCanvas survey of more than 1,100 businesses points to an increasingly mobile workforce shifting day-to-day business processes from paper forms to mobile apps.

Construction businesses are using mobile apps for: 35.1% of Checklists; 63.5% of Inspections; 37.6% of Work orders.

$80 – The annual cost of paper per employee.

Retail Businesses are using mobile apps for 31% of Surveys; 34,9% of Checklist; 46.2% of Inspections.

$2,182.62 – Annual cost of owning and operating a standard five-drawer file cabinet.

Manufacturing Businesses are using mobile apps for: 36% Work orders; 23% Surveys; 48% Inspections.

70% of businesses would fail in 3 weeks if they had a catastrophic loss of paper due to a fire or flood.

General businesses are using mobile apps for: 35.1% Checklists; 37.6% Work Orders; 63.5% Inspections.

63% 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: 30.4% Work Orders; 20.5% Invoices; 12.5% Checklists.

4 Types of Data Collectors

Not everyone collects information in the same way. Some people are more wordy, while other people prefer photos and calculations. Here are four types of data collectors you may have in your business.

View As Text

Check out even more resources

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…

Read the Blog

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

Text Version

4 types of data collectors – You care about what type of data you collect, but have you thought about the type of people collecting your data? Here are four types of workers you may have, and some of their particular needs.

1. The Scientist

They are: Detailed and meticulous about the facts. Thus, forget qualitative details.

Ideal for: Quantitative data and tasks requiring precision.

May need: Examples for text descriptions expected from them. A detailed explanation of how mobile apps work.

2. The storyteller

They are: Verbose, animated, and forgetful.

Ideal for: Qualitative data and working with people.

May need: Required boxes, reference data, and additional help learning new technology.

3. The hard worker

They are: Hardworking, knowledgeable, and detest busy work.

Ideal for: Fieldwork and specialized tasks.

May need: Pre-populated fields, checkboxes, and dispatch.

4. The Klutz

They are: Hardworking, always stumbling into problems. Spilling coffee and losing forms.

Ideal for: A plastic bubble.

May need: A protective case around their device.

The Evolution of Data Storage

Time cards, floppy disks, zip drives, and GoCanvas, we’re all a part of the evolution of data storage. Today, we’re taking a look back at the ways we’ve collected and stored information.

View As Text

Check out even more resources

A person sits at a desk holding their phone showing a graph, while their laptop sits on the desk showing more charts and graphs.

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.

Read their story

Two men in hard hats look onto a tablet.

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.

Read their story

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.

View checklists

Connect with an Expert Today.

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

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Text Version

The evolution of data storage

A look back at the last 134 years of data storage.

1880s punch card – a device that helped analyze the 1890s US census data more efficiently than by hand.

1950s magnetic tape – originally made to record audio, became the new storage method of choice.

1962s cassette tape – the Philips company of the Netherlands invented and released the first compact audio-cassette

1963s removable hard drive – IBM brought out the first removable hard drive, which had six 14-inch platters and held 2.6MB.

1971s floppy disk – IBM introduces the first floppy disk which greatly increased the convenience of data handling.

1982s CD-ROM – Sony and Phillips were the first to bring CDs to the market.

1990s CD-Recordable – Sony comes out with a compact disc that can record and erase as well as playback.

1994s Zip Drive – Introduced by Lomega, it was never popular enough to replace the floppy disk nor cloud ever match the storage size on CDs.

1995’s DVD-R – Digital optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic.

1999 SD Card – by Panasonic, Toshiba, and SanDisk, had the ability to store and encrypted data from music to use in phones and cameras.

2000 USB Flashdrive – A rewritable plug-and-play storage device first sold by IBM and Trek Technology.

2013 The Cloud – More than half of the business use could be storage. As of 2013, 1 Exabyte of data is stored in the cloud (that’s 1,073,741,824 GB).

The Surprising Cost of Paper

What’s the cost of paper to the environment and your office? It’s larger than you think.

View As Text

Check out even more resources

How TE3CO Leverages Data Analytics to Unlock Business Potential

Read their story

VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

Read their story

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

View checklists

Connect with an Expert Today.

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

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Text Version

Visualizing paper usage

10,000 Sheets of paper are used a year by the average office worker.

344 pounds of paper is recovered for recycling from each person living in the United States.

How much paper is actively being produced?

The United States and Canada are the world’s largest producers of paper and paper products. Finland, Japan, and Sweden are the next largest producers.

In 1997, the total weight of world paper and paperboard production was equivalent to 200,000 VW Beetles.

126% increase in paper production over the last 20 years.

Computer usage is not decreasing the amount of paper we use.

How much would 120,000 pounds of paper save?

1,000 Trees
22,800 Gallons of oil
2,400,000 Kilowatts of energy
420,000 Gallons of Water

Paper: The price you pay

Each filing cabinet costs 1,500$ per year. Every 12 cabinets require an additional employee to maintain and operate.

40% percentage of time lost searching for files by a typical employee.

70% of today’s businesses would fail within 3 weeks due to a fire or flash flood.

18 mins the average time it takes to find a document.

Every 12 seconds a document is lost by a large organization in the U.S. Soon there will be 4 trillion documents stored by government and business agencies.

The Austin Company Streamlines Inspections with GoCanvas

The Austin Company Streamlines Inspections and Saves Money

Overview

The Austin Company is a US-based international firm, offering architectural, engineering, design-build, and construction management services. The company has a rich history with more than 135 years of experience serving clients in diverse industries.

The Background

One of their core values is a constant focus on safety and quality, ensuring a safe work environment for employees, clients, and partners. For every site or building inspection, the company has a rigorous process for quality and safety reports.

However, paper-based reports were causing delays and issues for the company and its inspection process. Since job site inspections were filled out manually, it could take hours or days for reports to return from the field to the office.

In addition, it required extra hours of data entry to put the final inspection information into their system. The Austin Company realized that paper was inefficient for its inspection program, and it was costing them precious time and money. They needed a better way to capture more information while improving productivity and efficiency.

The Solution

In February 2013, The Austin Company addressed this business challenge by turning to GoCanvas, the global leader in mobile apps for businesses. 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 for process improvement, enhanced site safety and overall data collection efficiencies.

The Outcomes

The Austin Company worked with GoCanvas to develop health and safety and quality apps to be used in the field for any on-site inspection project. About 40 safety and building inspectors are using GoCanvas currently to improve job site inspections. They have seen real and measurable results and improvements to their inspection processes.

These include:

Faster Information Collection

Inspections that once took 2 hours now take only 15 minutes. They found time savings with the powerful feature set GoCanvas provides. Ways they save time include:

Automatically populate forms with job site information such as name, location, and address, instead of filling this information out manually.
Fill out information that applies to specific job sites, without having to worry if they’re skipping fields they may or may not need.
Choose which section of a job site is being inspected and directly navigate to that section within the inspection form. Use automated color coding to quickly determine if a section of a form needs to be started, is in progress, or has been completed.

According to Charlie Engel, their director of QA/QC and Safety, this represents significant cost-savings and process improvements. For each inspection, Austin is saving money in both personnel time as well as the cost of paper, copier maintenance and supplies, and postage required for reports that were previously mailed out. The company is on pace to realize significant time savings in its first year of working with GoCanvas.

Real-Time Access to Data

Previously, collecting inspection information required a multi-step process. Inspectors would fill out the information by hand at the various sites. Forms would return to the office hours or days after the on-site inspection occurred. Finally, an employee would have to manually enter this information into the database. Only then could management access this important safety information.

With GoCanvas, all of these forms are now submitted immediately to the cloud. There, site managers can access inspection reports with a quick search. GoCanvas removes the need for any additional data entry or filing. Site managers can also do a mass export of forms when working on a report. With either an Excel or CSV file, these formats allow for easy integration into other back-end database systems.

Improved User Experience

Switching to GoCanvas has created an easier experience for The Austin Company’s inspectors. Instead of lugging around a clipboard and paper, employees carry smartphones that fit neatly in the palm of their hand.

Also, with conditional branching, inspectors can only fill out the sections they need to on their inspections. This helps them fill out inspections more quickly and not be frustrated by filling out the wrong section!

Instead of a lengthy description of the site, inspectors can now use one click to capture images of the site they’re inspecting. Not only do they expand the data Austin Company has, it helps make the inspector’s jobs faster and easier.

Flexibility to Meet Evolving Business Needs

As a cloud-based, mobile platform combined with an easy-to-use mobile app builder, GoCanvas provides The Austin Company 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 safety regulations change, The Austin Company can easily update its safety inspections to match new rules. What once may have taken hours or days to update, print and send out to various sites now happens in minutes.

With over 40 users and growing, The Austin Company has saved paper, time, and money that has more than paid off its investment in mobile apps. GoCanvas has given The Austin Company an easy-to-use mobile experience that allows the company to focus on quality projects for all its customers.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

Schedule a demo

Check out even more resources

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…

Read the Blog

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

Frontier Construction Company Blazes Trail with GoCanvas

View As Text

Check out even more resources

The Ultimate Guide to Quality Control Inspections

Discover essential steps and best practices for effective quality control inspections. Ensure accuracy, compliance, and efficiency today!

Read the blog

Next-Gen Project Management for Construction

In this on-demand webinar, we showcase GoCanvas’ latest product release, which is designed for construction and trade professionals.

Watch Now

VIP Lighting Gains Business Efficiencies with GoCanvas

See how VIP Lighting streamlined operations and improved efficiency with GoCanvas, improving data collection speed and accuracy.

read their story

Connect with an Expert Today.

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

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Text Version

Success With Canvas – Frontier Construction is a mid-size general contractor in the Chicago area. They outstrip their competition by digitizing their field operations with mobile data collection.

Frontier Construction – Chicago Construction Company Blazes Trail with Canvas.

Mobile Success – With Canvas, Frontier has replaced data stress with data efficiency.

Paper, the Pain! Frontier Construction Struggled From:

Difficult getting workers to consistently fill out required forms.
No standardized reporting system.
Payroll manager needed to spend hours trying to find forms

With Canvas, Frontier Construction now can:

Capture Photos.
Capture GPS locations.
Capture Signatures.
Harness Reference Data.
Communicate with Office in Real Time.

Benefits with Canvas – Saved payroll manager hours with easy access to time cards. Reduced stress for both payroll manager and project manager. Saved money while becoming more competitive.

“Switching to Canvas improved our communication dramatically. It’s been invaluable as we grow our business.”
Gregory Parr, Jr.