One Place to Work: Custom Mobile Workspaces in SharePlus Enterprise Make Your Business Truly Mobile

In the previous post in this series, “One Place to Find Everything,” I talked about how SharePlus Enterprise can help you easily locate all your content no matter where it resides — in your SharePoint system, in your network file shares, or in online repositories like OneDrive or Dropbox. Of course, finding information is important, but making use of it is what really drives your business forward. That’s where the customized mobile workspaces in SharePlus Enterprise shine: They provide not just business content but the tools and workflows you need to turn information into insight and action.

SharePlus Enterprise comes with easy-to-adapt templates for custom workspaces, or you can create your own workspace based on the unique needs of your business. A custom mobile workspace brings together not just content but calendars, workflows, and business contacts, so you can work anywhere at any time, online or offline.

For example, imagine I’m a mobile technician for an HVAC installation and service business. I need to spend the day going directly from one service call to the next without returning to my office to check in or upload materials. With a custom mobile workspace created using SharePlus Enterprise, I can access my calendar of appointments for the day, including driving directions and detailed information about the repair request. I can see the full record of maintenance and repair for the customer’s installed machinery. I can also access the repair manuals and troubleshooting guides for every piece of equipment we install. With the phone on my mobile device, I can take a photo of the machinery to document damage, and instantly add it to the service record with my notes about the repair — very important if there’s any question about whether the work is covered under the terms of the customer’s service contract. If I’m not sure of the best way to fix a piece of legacy equipment, I can use built-in messaging to contact one of my colleagues for guidance. And I can instantly update the service record and schedule a follow-up visit, with the confirmation email going out to the right contacts before I’ve even pulled out of the customer’s parking lot. Most important, all those capabilities are contained within a single dashboard; I don’t have to jump in and out of different apps to get it all done.  

The mobile workspace is optimized for simple navigation on a smartphone or tablet, surfacing only the resources users need based on their roles and identities. That saves time in the field, whether you’re answering a customer’s product questions, marking a construction design as approved, or ordering supplies to be delivered to a remote location. And with integrated data visualization, mobile professionals can see not just facts but their meaning — which regional offices are leading in sales, for example, or whether the current pace of work on a job site is going to push the project over deadline, and by how many days. It’s easy to capture information, keep up to date, and make informed decisions from anywhere.

Not only are SharePlus Enterprise mobile workspaces easy to use, they’re easy for IT professionals to configure and manage. In the next post in this series, I’ll explore the management side of the custom mobile workspace and the SharePlus Enterprise portal.

Learn more about how your business can get more out of SharePoint with our three-part on-demand webinar, SharePoint Unchained, hosted by Infragistics solution consultant Kiril Matev. Kiril explores the value of empowering your mobile business, the underutilized power of SharePoint, and how SharePlus brings it all together. And try SharePlus Enterprise free for 30 days to see the difference it can make for your business.