Rent-to-own News - High Touch goes mobile: helps businesses streamline, connect with customers

First there was email, then came Web sites, then social media.

And if you're business is up to speed on all those fronts, High Touch technology is helping clients prepare for the next trend in the way business gets done -- mobile technology. And High Touch is wasting no time helping its clients connect to everything from anywhere, according to a recent piece in the Wichita Business Journal.

High Touch’s Luis Rodriguez, manager of research and development, and Jason Mock, director of corporate growth initiatives, are working on several applications of mobile technology for their clients.

Mobile, smart phones, tablets. You name it. Devices that allow business people — and their customers — to connect from anywhere are picking up steam and opening new doors for business/customer relationships.

“I can now bank, get a rental car, check on flight status or check in for my flight, order a pizza, check the status of DVDs at the local RedBox or Blockbuster kiosk, access business intelligence information on my company, and so much more (through mobile applications),” says Jason Mock, director of corporate growth initiatives at High Touch Inc. “Companies that don’t have a mobile application ... are missing the next possible technology."

Luis Rodriguez, manager of research and development at High Touch, says that means reducing forms.

There are forms customers sign when a service is performed, forms supervisors fill out when checking on a department, and even slips waiters use to take our orders.

“There’s always a point when that analog information turns to digital,” so the information can be referenced later, Rodriguez says. That conversion requires staff time, he says, and therefore money.

High Touch’s new mobile app, Envia Forms, eliminates that step.

The user can fill out the form on an iPhone or iPad (Android is coming soon, Mock says), and the data goes to the company in whatever format it chooses, such as through an e-mail or in a spreadsheet.

But mobile app development isn’t easy. The Bill Guy Technology Solutions developed an iPhone app about a year ago in conjunction with Alltite Total Bolting Solutions.

President Bill Ramsey says he hasn’t yet seen much growth in that part of his business, partly because companies don’t know what’s involved in app development.

“They think it’s going to be cheap and easy to do,” he says. “They want it to be on iPhone, Android and Blackberry, and they don’t realize that’s three separate programs.”

Mobile technology is one more way businesses are connecting directly with customers and clients, says Dave Mace, assistant director of the Kansas Small Business Development Center at Wichita State University.

“You have to get rid of the notion that your market doesn’t use these things,” he says.

360ideas Production Manager Brandon White says a mobile-friendy version of a company’s website is essential. 360ideas has developed a mobile version of just about every website it’s worked on over the past few months.

“A mobile version of a company’s website is very simple and low-cost, and consumers have come to expect it,” White says.