Mobile Apps

One of the areas in which Northwoods has developed a bit of a specialty is in "mobile apps".  A mobile app is custom software that is:

• specifically designed for tablet PCs
• primarily used "in the field"
• designed to have data entered by some type of stylus (rather than a keyboard). 

These types of applications are particularly well suited for companies which have employees doing work or gathering information outside of their office.

Automating Sales Quotes

One of our clients, a drywall and insulation installer, has a sales force which goes to construction sites and gathers information to provide a quote for their services.  The sales people then go back to the office and enter their information into a computer, which calculates the quote.  In the past, this was a time-consuming process, particularly as the number of sales people increased, and the quotes were not produced very quickly.

Northwoods developed a tablet application to automate the gathering of the information and the syncing with the back office.

Step 1 - Starting the Job

The process starts off by letting the sales person know basic information about the job - where the property is located, the customer name and contact information, etc.

Step 2 - The Power of a Picture

Once on site, the sales person can draw in relevant information or highlight areas to pass along to the installer.

Step 3 - Filling out the Quote Form

The sales person fills out all the information needed for the quote - the dimensions (to calculate square footage), the types of materials needed, etc.

Step 4 - Syncing with the Office

Finally, once the on-site visit is over, the sales person can sync the information collected with their back-office system.  This is a two-way sync, which collects information from the sales person's tablet and which also updates the tablet with new pricing and materials information, new jobs, etc.

The Results

 Automating the sales-quoting process has:

• increased the number of quotes a sales person can produce
• improved the speed of getting quotes out
• reduced time back in the office for a person to enter all the quotes
• totally reduced manual transcription errors
• improved the installation accuracy out in the field
• improved the communication between the installers and the sales force
• increased the accuracy and profitability of the quotes