Cloud Extend Mobile Taps Voice, Touch to Turn Business Users into Mobile Road Warriors

SOURCE: TECHMarket Communications

BOSTON — July 24, 2012 — Fundamentally changing the way business people use smartphones to perform daily work with enterprise cloud applications, Active Endpoints, Inc. today announced Cloud Extend Mobile, enabling voice-to-text and touchscreen input with end-user customization. Available to iPhone and Android smartphone users, Cloud Extend Mobile empowers business users to intuitively visualize, create and modify their own wizards, without IT skills or training. View a video demo of Cloud Extend Mobile at http://ow.ly/cmHdv.

Debuting first on Cloud Extend for Salesforce, Cloud Extend Mobile targets business users who have made smartphones central to their work lives. Given their limited ability to work with mobile devices, smartphone users often wait to do “real work” until they have access to their desktop computers. Now, the customizable, voice- and touch-enabled Cloud Extend Mobile provides a powerful, easy-to-use tool for updating information, scheduling next steps and doing other daily tasks. Mobile users, in turn, are encouraged to do that work while on the go, with their smartphones, rather than wait until they get back to their desktop computers.

“Cloud-based enterprise apps pump the information lifeblood for companies around the world, however, it’s nearly impossible for business users to utilize those apps on the go, on a three- or four-inch screen,” said Mark Taber, CEO, Active Endpoints. “Cloud Extend Mobile is going to spark a paradigm shift for business smartphone users, letting them take full advantage of the incredible computing power that’s available in iPhone and Android devices. Users can finally move beyond calls, emails and text messages and do enterprise app work that requires some heavy lifting. This is the future for smartphones in business.”

Cloud Extend and the Mobilization of Enterprise Apps

Today, companies are using Cloud Extend for Salesforce to create their own wizards to streamline and simplify sales and customer support tasks in the industry’s leading cloud CRM application. Now, those users can build their wizards on the desktop and take them on the road. Simply, sales and field support teams can build mobile-optimized interfaces for qualifying leads, identifying cross-selling opportunities, and performing routine tasks throughout the lead-to-close sales and customer service lifecycle — no coding or IT support needed.

The brilliance of the Cloud Extend desktop interface lies in the customizable, step-by-step approach it takes to guiding users through application activities. Rather than overwhelm users with an interface that displays every available field and function — regardless of its relevance to the task at hand — the desktop interface lets users break tasks into individual steps, so users only see the items they deem relevant to the step being completed. With their attention focused on what is immediately relevant, users get tasks done faster, with more accuracy and consistency.

Cloud Extend Mobile takes simplicity a few steps further with its fusion of voice-to-text and touch capabilities. Cloud Extend Mobile lets users build wizards that are optimized for smartphone screens and use both voice and touch to enter information. The dual input method reflects the advantages voice brings to free-form text entry, as well as its limitations for data that could be entered more quickly by tapping on-screen options, such as icons, pick lists and check boxes.

Cloud Extend for Salesforce users can try out a free mobile wizard to improve their meeting follow-up at http://ow.ly/cnUvS.

In just a few minutes and a couple of clicks in the WYSIWYG designer, users can create a mobile wizard to guide them through any application task. For instance, a sales person might create a wizard for walking through a meeting follow-up process to document notes from the call, new contacts met, new opportunities identified, and follow-up tasks. Here is an example of how a sales person can use the wizard on their smartphone:

• Step 1: A sales exec asks Siri to display a list of the day’s appointments. An Android user would launch the calendar application.
• Step 2: Next, he or she simply taps on an embedded link that opens the meeting follow-up wizard.
• Step 3: The sales exec is guided through the steps to be completed as part of the follow-up routine, with input options optimized for his or her smartphone.
• Step 4: Meeting notes, names, addresses and other text items are entered using the smartphone’s voice-to-text feature.
• Step 5: Other items, such as days, dates and times, are yes/no questions, and similar information is entered by touch.
• Step 6: Once the sales exec completes the steps in the wizard, all information is stored and displayed in the enterprise application.

“The next wave of technology needs to make cloud applications as frictionless as possible to use. Business users are not using laptops to access their applications while they are on the road, and most mobile technology is cumbersome to use,” said Keith Traweek, managing partner of Rainmaker Associates, LLC, a quality driven, customer focused, professional consultancy providing customized business solutions that leverage cloud technologies, such as Salesforce. “Cloud Extend’s ability to make the user experience with Salesforce more fluid with mobile technology will exponentially increase user adoption in the future.”

Availability

Users of Cloud Extend for Salesforce can start using Cloud Extend Mobile today at no additional charge. Cloud Extend for Salesforce is certified and available on salesforce.com’AppExchange: http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003JgFnEAK. Plans to support other enterprise applications are under development.

For more information on Cloud Extend, please visit www.cloudextend.com and follow us on Twitter at @CloudExtend. For more information on Active Endpoints, please visit www.cloudextend.com/company, subscribe to the RSS feed at http://www.cloudextend.com/blog or call us at 1 781-547- 2900, ext. 324.

About Active Endpoints, Inc.

Active Endpoints, Inc. delivers a unique suite of cloud-based and on-premise process automation products and related services to develop, integrate and deploy custom applications quickly and easily. The company’s products —Cloud Extend, ActiveVOS Enterprise and ActiveVOS Service Provider Edition — target domain experts, IT project teams, business process outsourcers and cloud service providers. The company has hundreds of customers worldwide from large enterprises to SMBs, spanning multiple industries such as telecommunications, government, financial services, and media and entertainment. Active Endpoints is headquartered in Waltham, MA with development facilities in Shelton, CT.

###

Cloud Extend and ActiveVOS are trademarks of Active Endpoints, Inc. All other brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.