ClickSoftware Technologies Ltd. announced the release of the new ClickAppStore, offering a rich variety of business apps and a visual development studio to integrate discrete apps into composite apps, sharing context and running streamlined workflows. Its built-in integrationwith organizational back-office systems and business-grade mobility infrastructure, establishes ClickAppStore as the most complete platform for enterprise mobility, and overcomes many of the limitations of contemporary consumer-level AppStores. Now every mobile worker, from field-service technicians to insurance agents, from healthcare workers to public safety providers, from sales representatives to bankers and business executives, can boost their productivity with a device of their choice.
Recognizing the unique characteristics of enterprise mobility, ClickSoftware built its newest patent-pending innovation of mobility solutions around the following concepts:
Starter Packages for Basic Mobile Workers
The Mobile Worker Starter Packagecontains a subset of integrated apps designed to cover the basic common needsof all mobile workers, such as clock-in and clock-out, daily schedule, navigation help, job notes, and more. This baseline provides an enterprise-class equivalent to the introductory apps one has when opening the box of a new mobile device, but before downloading additional apps.
The Mobile Worker Starter Package servesas the cornerstoneon which you can place additional apps that you download fromthe ClickAppStore, or newly developed ones. In fact, using the basic Mobile Worker Starter Package, the ClickSoftware team has already built additional verticalized starter packages, such as the Field Service Starter Package, whichincludes Schedule, Timesheets, MyView, Performance, and MyShift apps.
These can be further tailored into specialized versions for cable technicians by adding, for example, Up-Selling, or Remote Activation apps. Other examples of Starter Packages include the FieldSalesStarter Package designed to serve the needs of a traveling “door–to-door” sales person. In addition, theExecutive DashboardStarter Package provides real time updates to a travelling executive on key performance indicators of the business, such as numberof jobs completed, utilization, travel time/miles, customer service score, crisis emerging alerts, and more. A complete listing of ClickApps and Starter Packages are available online.
Developers’Easy-to-Use Visual Studio
In addition to its repository of numerous apps, ClickAppStore also includes an integrated visual development studiothat lets developers drag and drop apps from ClickAppStore, and configure and interconnect them into streamlined workflows with the starter package apps. It also offers tools to build the user interface on the mobile device.
“Collaboration and communication among the mobile workforce has grown rapidly in recent years as a variety of industries leverage the availability of smartphones and tablet devices,” said Nicholas McQuire, Research Director, Mobile Enterprise Strategies EMEA for International Data Corporation (IDC).“ClickSoftware's development of an enterprise AppStore will significantly improve the ability for organizations to manage and unify their mobile and field services workforce. The ClickAppStore will be an attractive option to a myriad of industries looking to overcome the 'Bring Your Own Device' issues that are a fast rising headache for IT departments."
“For over a decade, we have been developing and deployingbusiness mobility solutionsfor some of the most advanced enterprises in the world. We have taken our experience, knowledge and technology, repackaged it for the modern mobility world, and are now making it available for all mobile workers- from office workers who travel occasionally, to mobile workers who literally spend all their working time in the field;and from line staff to managers and executives,” said Dr. Moshe BenBassat, Chairman and CEO of ClickSoftware.
“We are enabling businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the new tablets and smartphones to boost their productivity and improve customer service,by transmitting and sharing data and decisions in real time, and we extend communication outside of the enterprise as well - to the customers of our customers, contractors, and suppliers,” BenBassat added.
In a February 2012 report by Forrester Research Inc., entitled “Corporate App Store Environments Open New Market Opportunities,” author Michele Pelino writes: “Corporate app store vendors must offer enterprises a range of delivery models to address demand for both on-premises and ‘as-a-service’ delivery.”
ClickSoftware’s mobility solutions and ClickApps are available on-premises, on-demand, or as a hybrid offering, providing flexibility for organizations, regardless of size or budget. Furthermore, ClickSoftware offers to its customers the infrastructure to create their own company’s app-store, by 'carving out' for them a portion of ClickAppStore that contains the apps that they license.
At the front end, the apps can be delivered as native apps, as HTML5 web apps, or in a hybrid native-plus-web mode, even allowing the same user to run the app on several different devices – for example, utility engineers using in-vehicle laptops and smartphones at the work site. Therefore, ClickApps are device agnostic – making them suitable for all organizations, including those that embrace a “bring your own device” (BYOD) policy for the workforce. Moreover, in all modes, users can continue working even while disconnected. All in all, this flexibility delivers maximum agility and future-readiness for ClickAppStore customers.
ClickSoftware offers workshops for the customers’IT staff, System Integrators and other developers - on how to use and expand the existing apps on the ClickAppStore.