Each week we chat with an AppExchange Partner about their experience of building an app on the Salesforce1 Platform. This week, the spotlight is on AccountAbility Solutions, a company founded to solve a common problem: keeping track of equipment that travels with numerous staff all over the globe. Equipment used for evaluation and demonstration tools, to the various iPhones, laptops, and tablets used by the sales and service teams, and the data center’s gadgets and gear for classrooms and training centers; virtually any type of equipment that needs to be tracked. They recognized this demand to always know which staff had what gear and when important events were going to happen, such as warranty expiry or insurance renewal, without needing to rely on people to complete fill-in forms or paperwork.
More Customization with Less Effort
Confronted with this problem, they created the app, ELTON (Equipment Location Tracking Online). The idea is to track where equipment is at the current time and where and when it is scheduled to go next, as well as the lifecycle events for the equipment. There was a hybrid app by AccountAbility Solutions that was already in use that provided basic equipment tracking functionality on iOS and Android devices.
They decided to rebuild the app in Salesforce1 to deliver a more satisfying experience where the users could customize page layouts and add fields themselves. They ended up with an app that was more customizable with no effort on their part. In addition, the app deploys to all devices immediately with no need to go through the AppStore or Google Play to distribute new releases. Two major headaches were eliminated!
Easier Tracking
With the Salesforce Platform, AccountAbility Solutions provides the core functionality and the end user can extend the app on the mobile, just like how they would extend the app in their browser. This was done using Mobile Cards and page layouts that created a fully functional interface that better suited the mobile user. Best of all, most of their customers can add custom fields into the page layouts and they are immediately updated on the mobile app. The hybrid app is currently supported on iOS and Android but with Salesforce1, it will be supported on many more platforms with zero additional effort.
The app was created with the help of one developer and one UX engineer and took less than a week to deliver. This quick turnaround time to build the app was essential to their customers who were trying to track equipment that is geographically distributed. People can move equipment, drop off loaners, and pick up equipment that is all tracked with the app on their phone while they are doing the actual task. Data entry is more accurate and the GPS coordinates are captured for every entry.
Partnering with Salesforce
AccountAbility Solutions has received marketing opportunities through partnering with salesforce.com by participating in the AppExchange Marketing Program (AMP) and being featured as an App of the Week. They also adopted the 1/1/1 philanthropic model by pledging to commit 1% of their resources (time, equity, product) and integrate philanthropy into their business.
To learn more about ELTON and AccountAbility Solutions, please go to: http://accountabilitycorp.com/