App Spotlight: Avaamo

For business owners, the main game is finding ways to work smarter and finish jobs more efficiently. This was the central idea behind business messaging app Avaamo.

“Our thought was that there is this new class of mobile workers who have been set free because of the smartphone,” said Ram Menon, founder and CEO of Avaamo. “This is a worker who didn’t grow up using Microsoft Outlook, Skype or any of the office productivity tools that we have been using for years. We wanted to create a communication and productivity-enhancing tool that is designed for that mobile worker.”

To do this, Menon said, they had to design a tool for a worker who spends the majority of his time at work nowhere near a desk. It needed to be simple, act like a consumer app but have the governance, administration, controls and security that business user or business owner needs.

How do I get it? The app is available for download on iOS and Android systems for tablets, mobile phones and computers. Avaamo is built for businesses across all industries, but its features work well with bridging the communication gap of construction workers in the office and in the field.

How does it work? Business owners can customize the app to offer a slew of different features. Groups can be created to include certain teams on a project or the entire project team. Unlike texting, business managers can elect to receive notifications when members of the group have read the message. Reminders can be sent out when needed. One extremely helpful tool, Menon said, is the offline mode.

“On a construction site, the joke they tell me is you can go from 3G to no G in 50 feet,” Menon said.

Avaamo allows users to send a document in an area with bad connectivity, and it will send the message when better connectivity is achieved. The app team calls it the “fire and forget feature.”

“When a worker sees a dimension is wrong, he wants to punch out a message correcting it, and he wants to do it right then” Menon said. “You type the message, put the phone back in your pocket and when it finds the bandwidth, it sends the message for you.”

Why do I need it? A lot of employees in the field still don’t have an email ID. So, for example, if there is a price list from the lumber supplier that needs to go out to specific employees in the field, how do you broadcast that quickly and efficiently? With Avaamo, Menon said, you have the ability to send messages to multiple groups on a very customized level.

“The HR department for one of our customers, for instance, finds it difficult to get everyone to sign paperwork and bring it back to them,” Menon said. “They will send an email to all, and the read rate is around 1 percent. With Avaamo, you can track who has seen the message and send reminders.”

Additionally, the app boasts secure encrypted messaging, so business owners can trust that their information will be kept safe. The app offers voice messaging for ease of use, and documents from any cloud-based service or storage, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud, can be linked to the messages.

How much does it cost? There is a free version and a premium version.

The free version offers users, unlimited messages and the free app. The premium offers the following additional features: data compliance, automated user on and off-boarding, broadcast capabilities to company users, all other administration controls and premium support from the Avaamo team. Menon said one of the best features is the ability to verify that employees on the app are actually with the company, and control their access to it if they leave the company.

“You don’t want your competitors getting your private information because an old employee has access to it,” Menon said. “This prevents that from happening.”

Current Users: There are approximately 7,000 companies using the app currently.

Rating: 4 Stars in the App Store

For more information, visit Avaamo. To view a Youtube demo of the app, click here.