Services

The current generation of smartphones offers a range of opportunities for businesses of all sizes for a range of applications. Whether enabling efficient data comms with field operatives or offering customers new ways to book services, apps provide businesses with a means to extend their IT systems outside of the desktop.

Addison Lee’s iPhone app was developed in just three months and now enables around 10,000 bookings per week, generating over £1million of business per month. The fast development and smooth customer experience is founded upon the web services provided by Haulmont. All iPhone bookings interface directly with the same systems accessed by call centre operatives and online bookers, speeding development, improving customer service and providing an unmatched example of how smartphones can develop new channels to generate sales (around 10% of all Addison Lee bookings are made by iPhone, just one year after the service launched).

Android-based phones now offer roughly the same UK market penetration as iPhones and Haulmont has developed custom-built applications for Android, for both customer-facing booking apps and to enable field operatives to send real-time information to office-based systems. With a wide range of devices available and a more open development and approvals environment, Android is Haulmont’s preferred smart phone platform and offers a great opportunity for businesses looking to take advantage of the high quality GPS and great processing power of modern smart phones.

In emerging markets where smart phone penetration is not so high, Haulmont’s JAVA apps offer similar benefits to Android and iPhones without the need to buy expensive smartphone handsets. JAVA apps are somewhat limited in functionality by the hardware of older phones, but do provide viable alternatives for regions where smartphone penetration is weaker and can be used on most handsets built in the last five years.