During a road trip through the Mojave Desert a few weeks back, I embarked on an interesting conversation with my family. The discussion started when my husband and I were talking about old songs. I mentioned casually that I couldn't remember who sang "Jessie's Girl."
"I wonder who that was", I said as I went through a mental checklist of the possibilities. Within 30 seconds, my 16-year-old came back with: "Rick Springfield in 1981." My first thought was, "How on earth did he know that?" but before I could ask, he chimed in again with "I ChaCha'd it."
Now, we Google things all the time, but ChaCha? My son doesn't have a smart phone, so I knew he wasn't online in the back seat. So what is ChaCha and was it going to show up on my phone bill? The answer was no. Apparently, ChaCha is a service that you can send a question to via text message and it will send back an answer.
So this got me thinking. We no longer wonder about anything anymore. I remember wondering about things as a kid. Most of the time, you could get an answer, but it would take a long time or a lot of luck. Now, however, we have answers for everything at our fingertips. For some things, this falls on the "want" list, but for others, it is a "need."
As annoying as it would have been to not know who sang "Jessie's Girl," in five minutes I would have forgotten all about it. However, when it comes to running a business, "wondering" can waste both time and money. This means that our business applications of today have to keep up with that concept and for manufacturers, mobile ERP tools do just that.
Not so many years ago, knowing what was happening on your production floor meant being there. Now, you can take the shop floor with you on your smart phone or tablet. Mobile ERP applications give users the control, freedom and peace of mind to get things done while on the move. Corporate leaders can monitor production and performance from the road and sales executives can stay connected while in the field.
Plus, keep in mind that mobility can sometimes mean inside the walls of your facility. Whether you need to perform material transactions without leaving the forklift or enter rejects while standing at the machine, your ERP software should come to you, not the other way around.
IQMS offers many mobile ERP applications to support the needs of our users. From CRM to RealTime™ Machine Monitoring, our list of mobile ERP applications continues to grow. For the latest news on what is available, check out our manufacturing mobile ERP software page and wonder no more.
