Best iPhone apps for business in 2018

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BYOD. The paperless office. The mobile workforce. We’re forever bombarded with corporate catchphrases and trends that encourage us to lift the shackles off traditional business structures to let employees and companies thrive.

That’s all very well, but the tools must be on hand to make such changes a reality and ensure productivity and process doesn’t suffer. That’s where the following apps come in – a host of services designed for iPhone, allowing you to manage just about everything in your business, from granular-level daily tasks to company-wide performance analysis.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of business-centred apps on the market, so we’ve brought together a wide range of project management, collaboration and administrative platforms so you can see what’s right for you and your organization.   

• We've also highlighted the best iPhone apps to download in 2018

Salesforce

With Salesforce establishing itself as such a prominent enterprise platform, its only right they took care of business on mobile. Thankfully, for fans of the platform who like to work on the move, the Salesforce app has plenty to keep you productive outside of the office.

The service’s CRM data tools, communication tool Chatter, diary organization, and business process features can all be utilized from your iPhone or iPad. You can also receive updates from accounts on the go, tap into conference calls, access your sales actions via the publisher, log calls, create and update opportunities, and complete sales tasks.

Contextual notifications keep you up to speed wherever you are, as do report dashboards and live updates from your business. If something requires an action, the aforementioned Chatter tool enables you to start conversations with colleagues, with the ability to attach photos and files too. 

For organizations that use Salesforce and encourage mobile productivity from their workers, the Salesforce app is an excellent tool to have in the software arsenal.   

• You can download Salesforce here

Trello

Enterprise organization and project management is always a complex, multifaceted affair, but Trello aims to ease the headache by bringing everything together on one easy-to-use platform.

The breadth of features on Trello means virtually everyone in your organization is served, from sales and marketing to HR and operations, and teams can design and customize the platform to suit their needs. It also includes over 100 integrations with productivity tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Jira.

Those who use Trello on iPhone and iPad received good news earlier in 2018 when a significant update took place on the app. Among the improvements was the custom fields power-up enabling you to organize information in new, visually appealing ways, enhancements to the calendar and date selector, clickable links in checklists and comments, plus the ability to attach and send multiple files at the same time.

For an app of this nature, Trello is surprisingly easy on the eye and with a slick UI bringing together it’s range of tools and features, this is a very strong mobile tool for work on the move.   

• You can download Trello here

Workfront

Workfront is a work management platform for the enterprise, helping organizations get the full picture of their processes. 

With more agile and less hierarchical ways of working increasingly becoming the norm in the modern-day company, Workfront says it supports the “democratization of the work management process” and hopes its technology can support this trend.

With Workfront, users can evaluate workstreams and proposals and determine they which they deem most profitable for their organization. Helping them make these decisions are operational reporting tools, consolidated task lists, collaboration zones for real time communication with co-workers, and the ability to send insights to colleagues and stakeholders.  

A little disappointingly, the Workfront user experience on mobile is somewhat inferior to desktop, meaning iPhone sessions are more likely to supplement the work you do on your main computer, rather than making up the bulk of your time on the software. 

• You can download Workfront here

ServiceM8

If you’re in the services business, ServiceM8 may well be on your radar. The application is something of a catch-tool for this field and is designed to be used by every member of an organization.

ServiceM8 aims to reduce paperwork and simplify the storage of company records, provide scheduling tools so you don’t miss appointments, give a live overview of all staff and jobs, and make quote and invoicing more efficient. For businesses with a high turnover of relatively small jobs, ServiceM8 ticks the boxes.

If you’re concerned about the app’s compatibility with accounting packages, you may be reassured by its integrations with Xero, MYOB and Quickbooks online, among other similar services.

The subscription plans are appealingly flexible too. ServiceM8 comes in four capped plans to suit the size and requirements of your business, and there are no contracts, set-up fees or ‘per-user’ pricing changes. You can also give it a 14-day free trial before you commit.   

• You can download ServiceM8 here

Wrike

Built in the cloud, Wrike is a one-stop-shop for project management, planning and team collaboration. Adaptable to tasks both big and small, organizations ranging from SMBs right up to Fortune 500 companies are among Wrike’s purported 15,000 users.

Rather than merely serving as a mobile add-on to your Wrike account, the iOS app aims to be a standalone, multi-functional service in its own right. From creating a brand new account with Wrike to managing workflow across your business and sharing reports, virtually every phase and feature can take place in the app.  

The tools include live inbox communication, access to folders, projects and tasks, assigning and scheduling work, sharing images and files, tracking time spent on tasks, accessing personal and shared dashboards, and viewing and sending performance stats to people both inside and outside of your organization.  

While the iOS app is free, Wrike accounts themselves are at the more expensive end of the market, with packages for small to medium size businesses (5-200 users) costing $24.80 (£19) per user, per month.   

• You can download Wrike here

Best of the rest 

Favro is a customizable project management and collaboration platform inviting developers, marketers and executives to work together in the same space. It is designed for organizations of all sizes and enables users to add features and integrations as and when they need them.

Made for small to medium size services businesses, Housecall Pro helps you with all aspects of daily workflow, from job scheduling and customer database organization, to invoicing and payment processing. 

Its name my fill you with dread, but Monday.com could make your project management an altogether happier experience, thanks to its bright, user-friendly interface that allows you to manage a whole number of ongoing tasks all in one place.   

TimeCamp homes in on the time-tracking element of project management, offering SMBs a centralized platform for managing time and budgets. Visual trackers, manual timesheets, time entry notes and reporting technology leaves you with no excuse for running late on delivery.   

Also aimed at SMBs, mHelpDesk helps you stay on top of your staff, workflow and customer interactions all in one place. It has the bonus feature of being able to run offline, allowing the productivity to continue wherever you are.

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