With each new version, Apple Watches continue to make a big impact on wearers’ day-to-day lives. Now, businesses are looking to replicate the same success in their industries. Companies are realizing that a wearable app could fit into their business strategy on an enterprise level — whether they are empowering employees or fostering effective customer interactions. Apps for personal communication, organization, and health and fitness are paving the way for CRM apps, task management features and presentation assistance tools. Explore industry applications of wearable technology and find out how your business could benefit from an enterprise Apple Watch app.
| Read Part I: The Benefits of Apple Watch Apps for Business |
Types of Enterprise Apple Watch Apps
There are multiple different types of Apple Watch apps for businesses. Customer or client facing apps can serve as an extension of enterprise mobile apps for iPads or iPhones. These wearable apps often display notifications or hone in on key features of business apps, fostering a connected User Experience (UX) and offering streamlined Handoff capabilities between devices.
Internal Enterprise Apps can help improve business responsiveness and keep scheduling and customer information literally within arms reach. Whether you choose an internal Apple Watch app for business or a customer facing mobile app, your company can leverage on-the-go benefits of wearable technology.
Industry Examples of Enterprise Apple Watch Apps
Determining the core components of your enterprise Apple Watch app will be dependent on your industry and business services. Consider these industry examples and applications for development inspiration.
- Manufacturing and Shipping – The Walkie Talkie feature of the Apple Watch is perfect for businesses in the industrial or warehousing industries, without the bulk or inconvenience of carrying around actual communication devices. Manufacturing businesses could also develop an Apple Watch app or dashboard to monitor the status of machinery and current production processes.
- Retail – An Apple Watch with a well-built smartwatch app can replace a clunky wrist-mounted smartphone, enabling retail workers to perform tasks such as managing the checkout area and clearing scanning errors on self-service cash registers, to communicating with a walkie-talkie function, along with performing price checks and inventory management.
- Contractors/Sales – Using dictation and voice commands, contractors can take voice notes, access conversations and check their meeting schedules on the fly. Businesses with CRM software can develop a wearable app to enhance the capabilities of their sales team. For better communication with a diverse client/customer base, Siri capabilities on the Apple Watch currently support translation for ten languages.
- MLMs – With an enterprise wearable app, MLMs could provide dashboard data for their field agents and allow them easy access to team communication and company podcasts.
- Sports – With the impressive healthcare tracking capabilities of the Apple Watch, sports teams can easily organize and monitor team workouts and fitness challenges.
- Healthcare – Businesses in the healthcare industry can take advantage of the health and wellness capabilities of Apple Watches to provide their patients with customized care. Patients can share and discuss their vitals and healthcare data trends with doctors and specialists during appointments for a more comprehensive analysis of their health.
- Finance – Businesses can provide their budgeting and expense tracking services on-the-go. Users can log purchases as they occur, receive budget reminders, and track spending and progress toward financial goals.
There are so many benefits of Apple Watch apps that you can customize based on your business. These industry examples are just the start of what you can design with a custom software development company.
Wearable Apps Best Practices and Key Takeaways
Apple Watch apps benefit a variety of industries and can take your mobile strategy to the next level by providing new value for your customers and clients. When developing an Apple Watch companion app, keep these best practices in mind.
- Focus on practical features and functions that support on-the-go activity.
- Limit user input and utilize voice interactions when possible.
- Anticipate needs and optimize the use of notifications.
- Keep interactions brief and support handoffs.
The Future of Wearable Apps for Smartwatches
As technology continues to become more and more ingrained in our daily lives, businesses should offer services that are responsive to their customers’ needs. Apple Watch apps enable businesses to interact with their customers on an ongoing basis in a highly interactive way. This is a growing opportunity to highlight the benefits of your services, if you are willing to put the time and thought into truly identifying the core components of your business. You might find that during the process, you will learn more about your client base and can optimize your business processes.
Technology often promises to make our lives easier while instead making them simply more high tech and complex. With the small screen size and high interactivity of Apple Watches, companies’ services are put to the test. Wearable apps are growing in popularity because they take services back to the basics while still finding new and innovative ways to meet the needs of their users.
As BYOD culture continues to become the norm — further proliferated by the quick shift to a remote working environment in 2020 — it is likely that businesses will realize that Apple Watch apps are a great next step to improve the performance and productivity of their employees.
Work With 7T, A Top Dallas Development Company
If you are interested in developing an enterprise Apple Watch App or custom mobile app, the team at 7T is ready to help. We develop innovative mobile apps and enterprise software platforms for businesses looking to transform their industries.
Interested in custom software development but don’t know where to start? Ask us about our 7T Foundations Program where we help clients define their project requirements, draft user stories and create a working prototype before starting the development process.
Fill out the form below or contact 7T today to discuss your development project.
