Translating enterprise apps to mobile: Three companies' journeys

Computerworld - When it comes to mobile apps, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has taken some risks. In 2011, the $13 billion global insurance provider rolled out two consumer-facing mobile apps, one for ordering roadside assistance and the other an auction guide for classic car collectors. Flush with its success from "tens of thousands" of downloads from Apple's App Store, the company began to see the value in creating mobile apps for some of its core processes, too.

Turns out that some of Chubb's independent agents were ready for mobile apps, too.

Since independent agents sell multiple carriers' products, details about any given policy or plan can be hard to remember. "When you're dealing with high-net-worth prospects you don't want to seem confused or have a lack of understanding of the product when standing in front of a potential customer,'' says Mike Ribeiro, Chubb's assistant vice president of enterprise architecture.

The mobile app revolution is akin to the beginning of the Web, observes Finley, when "you had to be there. Not so much for your workers but for your consumers or businesses you sell to."

Burger knowledge goes mobile

Around since the 1940s, burger chain Red Robin has been focusing on the need to keep up with the competition and revitalize its business. One strategy, business leaders decided, was the use of mobile and social media tools. With 26,000 team members in 44 states, they determined the best way to train their staff, of whom 87% are Millennials, is in a way they're already familiar with: interacting with technology and networking with one another, says Chris Laping, CIO and senior vice president of business transformation at Red Robin.

Mobile, says Laping, "is the enabling platform to continue to promote change." In addition to using social collaboration software Yammer -- branded internally as Yummer -- to engage management in all of its restaurants on things like testing new recipes or menu items, they designed a mobile app so managers can use Yummer without having to be constrained to an office, he says.

   

Mobile "is the enabling platform to continue to promote change," says Chris Laping, CIO of Red Robin.

Red Robin is also rolling out a new iPad-based interactive training program that includes simulations and games and lets new employees engage hands-on with much of the content they're learning, says Laping. "There's a health and safety adventure tour so they go back to the first-aid kit and use an iPad to scan a QR code and get information from that kit, and then they are directed almost like in a scavenger hunt to the next location to learn more things along the way,'' he says.

The restaurant chain has deployed 1,000 iPads in its 335 corporate-owned restaurants -- as opposed to franchises -- and Laping thinks that will help keep employees motivated to learn and stay with the company. "When you look at turnover, most occurs in the first 90 days and ... studies show most people leave because they don't feel they're growing or developing or have tools to help them be effective in their jobs,'' says Laping. The notion is to provide "tools that are so engaging and compelling that they get excited about them and want to stay at Red Robin."

Red Robin has also rolled out 700 iPads in restaurants with an app called "Nosh List," to tell visitors how long the wait for a table is and to let them receive a text when their table is ready. "The application helps us manage wait times and put in special provisions, like a guest who needs a high chair, and allows us to sort parties by dining room and bar,'' he says.

The app has an analytics component so restaurant staff can track average wait times and determine whether the app is providing guests with a correct estimate. There is also a marketing component; guests who leave their cell numbers receive periodic texts when Red Robin is offering specials.

"When you think about a host walking around with a clipboard and handing you a coaster with a buzzer in it that tells you when your table is ready, this is providing the ability to leave the restaurant and roam to nearby retail stores," he says, and it is replacing the clipboard "with a tool that's much more dynamic."

While Laping would not divulge the cost of the deployment or discuss ROI, he says the firm expects within less than a year to see a reduction in staff turnover. Red Robin also expects to see an increase in traffic to the restaurants as a result, he says, of customers wanting to engage with team members who are trained well.

Creating a paperless cockpit

Mobile apps for business-critical functions are not a new concept in the airline industry. About a dozen years ago, ruggedized laptops became available for pilots and flight crew to use, but they had their drawbacks: They were heavy and clunky, without great battery life and expensive, to the tune of $2,000 to $3,000 apiece. Two were needed on each plane for redundancy. So a lot of aircraft operators didn't use laptops.

   

FlightWorks developed TripPad in 2006 to take the place of paper flight logs and expense reporting, says Johan Segring, vice president of business and information systems at the aircraft management services firm.

That's why FlightWorks, an aircraft management services firm based in Atlanta with 18 aircraft and 110 employees, skipped laptops and went directly to Windows-based HTC smartphones. Johan Segring, vice president of business and information systems at the firm, which also provides private air charters, says the phones' small form factor meant they weren't great candidates for a large number of apps, but there were a few things they could do.

FlightWorks developed TripPad in 2006 to take the place of paper flight logs and expense reporting, he says. "You couldn't replace navigation charts and manuals on board in a mobile form" because the smartphones' small form factor couldn't handle those apps, "but we were able to create a paperless process around scheduling and flight logging."

At that point, TripPad sent data from the phones into the company's flight operations system via RSS. "Our fleet was growing, and we flew a lot of segments each day, and there was a lag getting information," Segring explains. "We didn't want to wait."

Once iPads came out, there was a new opportunity to become fully paperless by replacing heavy binders of navigation flight charts and maintenance manuals and other materials required to be on board by the FAA with electronic versions. The paper binders have to be updated monthly with new charts, a process Sebring says is very labor-intensive.

• 10 Hot Big Data Startups to Watch
• 11 Unique Uses for Google Glass, Demonstrated by Celebs
• How to Export Your Google Reader Account
• How to Better Engage Millennials (and Why They Aren't Really so Different)
• Telltale signs of ATM skimming
• 20 security and privacy apps for Androids and iPhones
• Big screen con artists: 7 great movies about social engineering