Apps that make powerful management tools

The beauty is every file is accessible from my iPhone/iPad. Accessing the files is very fast, too. For instance, recently on a Friday night, our inhouse fleet mechanic called me and needed the receipt for a part in one of the trucks that was just under a year old and still under warranty. He wanted the receipt so he could get an exchange right away.

Without the technology, we might have had to just pay for the new part if we couldn’t quickly access the documents. While sitting at the dinner table, using my iPhone, I navigated straight to the truck’s file in our digital cabinet (which is accessible through Carbonite), found the receipt, and immediately sent it to the mechanic in just a couple minutes.

He was able to get the parts store to honor the warranty and get the replacement part for free. Just a couple of savings like this more than pays for the iPhone.

Some apps do require setup on the computer side, and accordingly, it does take varying levels of skill. But again, this article was written with the goal of providing insight on what is possible using the iPhone and iPad.

While I focused on Apple hardware in this article, most of these apps are also available for the Android platform.

About the Author

Paresh Patel, Ph.D., M.B.A., is owner and president of Courtesy Vending LLC in Portland, Ore.