With up to 70% of the world’s population using mobile devices, the ability for businesses to make effective use of mobile technology is vital to their success. Yet despite these numbers, too many companies fail to take full advantage of the technology.

The typical smartphone includes several standard features such as email and voice mail capabilities, a web browser, map app, camera, and simple text notepad. It seems silly not to take advantage of these features when it comes to managing your business.

Your mobile toolset

Let’s look at the collection of tools available to you.

Camera

Let’s start with the most forgotten tool every smartphone features — the camera. I’ve found this incredibly helpful. On the one hand, it’s useful for taking pictures of serial numbers, equipment, and products. Also, when partnered with a conversion app, it can be used as a document scanner to create PDFs, record receipts, and automatically convert business card information to one’s contact list.

More than just voicemail

It’s hard to believe there was a time when cellphones didn’t have voicemail options or that even traditional telephones didn’t have answering machines. Now, of course, your smartphone not only comes equipped with voicemail, but that voicemail can be transcribed to text, stored in different mailboxes to keep things organized, and replied directly from instead of having to backtrack through your phone menu to your contacts. This is how clients, fellow employees, and contractors can keep communication flowing.

While we’re on the subject of voice, most smartphones and tablets today can record voice notes and, in some cases, transcribe them to text and export to multiple destinations. While available storage space can limit the length of a voice recording, the amount of storage space on smart devices has been steadily increasing.

Robust email options

If you’re on the road a lot or otherwise away from your main work computer (or don’t have one), smart mobile devices can handle pretty much any email function a desktop computer could do. Basic operations such as reading, replying, composing, and sending are all pretty straightforward. Additional features such as forwarding, attaching files, and managing multiple mailboxes and addresses are also available and not difficult to figure out after a few minutes. Most smart devices will walk you through the setup and allow you to set your email so that read emails remain on your server for reading on your desktop or laptop computer later.

Secure web browsing

Smart mobile device makers are competing for your business, so it makes sense that the web browsing options they offer are secure and can instil confidence. iPhone’s Safari browser is particularly good at this, although most smart mobile web apps limit the collection of data and cookies. If you feel you need to up your security game when web browsing on a mobile device, you can easily set up a VPN to have more control over how your device interacts with the internet or load a third-party app like Brave or Ghostery.

If that’s too techie for you, but security is still a concern, you can always browse it in Private mode.

The main point as far as leveraging your mobile device for business is that you can enjoy fully-functioning web access from practically any location. You can use this to research client websites, interact with your own company’s business web access, look up delivery tracking, order supplies or stock, and more. If a client has a question about something, your mobile web access can help provide quick answers.

Taking and sharing notes

Whether you’re running an Apple or Android mobile device, you have a built-ni notes app at your beck and call. Typically, it’s a stripped-down, barebones word processing app that’s perfect for quick note-taking, which can then be exported, emailed, or shared with others. Some mobile devices offer speech-to-text functions, so you don’t even have to worry about typing.

If the notepad program that comes with your device isn’t enough, a third-party app such as Simplenote comes in handy. Simplenote automatically updates to the cloud where users can access their mobile notes from multiple devices, including their desktop computers.

Whatever notepad app you decide to use, having less paper to keep track of is a significant bonus.

Leveraging the cloud

If your business isn’t already taking advantage of cloud technology, it really should. Public cloud services hosted by companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dropbox, and others all have mobile apps for accessing cloud storage and collaborative online software such as Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox Paper, Google Docs, OneNote, and so forth. These allow you to retrieve and store documents as well as view and edit those documents from any location with a secure Internet connection.

Just make sure to practice correct security procedures whenever possible with both your mobile device and cloud account. Avoid public DiFi, use strong passwords, and install firewalls where applicable. Cloud services spend a lot of time and money on their security, but security needs to exist on both ends to be truly useful.

Carry less of a load

Depending on the sort of work you’re doing, you may find yourself managing stacks of catalogs, presentation folders, brochures, order sheets, and other paperwork. A large-screen mobile device such as a Kindle Oasis, Apple iPad, or another tablet can replace a lot of this baggage. If you’ve set yourself up with email and file sharing capability, you can digitally transfer sales documents to any client in PDF or Microsoft-compatible formats. If you’re making a presentation, most tablets are large enough to be used for displaying charts, graphs, or other sales slides.

If you’re not making a formal presentation, an efficient alternative to flipping through catalog pages would be to have them available on your mobile device as either a PDF document or as a set of specific photos for your products and services.

Working with the home office

Both Apple and Android devices have apps for reading barcodes. When used in conjunction with inventory apps tied to your company’s database, you can quickly look up any product’s availability or even order inventory without having to go through time-consuming phone calls or unreliable faxes.

Likewise, mobile devices nowadays can easily handle contracts, service agreements, and other business documentation. Such documents can be retrieved, signed digitally, and sent back to the office from your mobile location within minutes. This sends a great message to your clients that you are tech-savvy and can use that knowledge to run an efficient, responsive business.

It will only get better

A lot of these options weren’t available ten years ago. With the integration of business and technology continuing to gain momentum, mobile device makers will continue to make sure you have all the tools you need to be as productive as your office-bound counterparts. It’s entirely possible to run an entire operation solely from mobile devices. At the very least, you’ll find most businesses intend to profit significantly from the successful adoption of mobile business technology.

It can only be to your benefit to take a look at your mobile device use, determine how you could make it more effective, and become the most productive mobile version of yourself you can be.