Author posts Steven Rovito

With the amount of technology coming into existence on a daily basis, it seems ludicrous that much of the labor force still uses paper and pen to complete tasks. There are inspectors who travel miles every day to give a form to their boss. There are construction workers who, after working all day on the field, have to sit in the son and write logs that take hours to complete. There are mom and pop shops, scattered all over the U.S, that still use pen and paper to record the sales out of their vintage cash register. All of these people have one thing in common – an app can save them hours a day.

Snappii is an app company that started around 2011. Over a series of a few years and thousands of customers, we’ve developed what we like to call the “Snappii Platform”. Essentially, the platform allows a user to go in and piece together an app using elements known as widgets. This allows even the laymen to produce apps that complete similar functions to the extremely versatile apps of the app store. In addition to that, we have also developed a way for a user to upload a PDF document, and then customize it to work with their mobile device.

The process is fairly simple, but I thought I would take a moment to go over it from start to finish.

Scan your doc to a PDF

There is a good chance that you only have your PDF available via the paper form that you have been using for years. Often times, we can use this exact paper form in a mobile app. In that case, the first step is to scan the document that you have to PDF. Try to make the document as white as possible so that when it shows up on your phone you will be able to see it clearly. When the process is done, this will be the same document that you are able to print. If you do not have a scanner, you can go to any local Staples or FedEx to get the job done for less than a dollar.

Once you have your doc scanned and readily available on your PC as a PDF, it’s time for the next step.

Access the Snappii Form editor

You can access the Snappii form editor via our Snappii Labs. If you do not have access to the editor yet, feel free to send us an email at support@snappii.com so that we may unlock it for you.

Note – Some features on the editor may not work as intended. Rest assured we are working to fix these bugs.

Upload your PDF

Our Field Reports editor was specifically designed to convert PDF’s into mobile forms that you can use on your device. The platform will automatically generate fields for you if the PDF has fields. If not, you can also manually add the fields onto the PDF document, although it may take a bit longer.

To load a PDF, simply click on the Field Reports button. If you’ve managed to make it into the Field Reports editor without uploading anything, click on this button at the top of the screen to upload your PDF and begin working on it.

Map fields accordingly

As I mentioned before, if you do not have any fields mapped to your PDF before you load it into the editor, then the fields must be mapped manually.

To do this, list the fields that you will be working with in the vertical form. For example, if there is a date field on the PDF, make a date field on the form. Continue this process until you have a field for every single element on the actual PDF.

Once complete, all we have to do is tell the app that we want X information to go into Y field. Click the Field Mapping dialog and you’ll see that you have a bunch of options with drop downs next to them. The idea is to line up the field that you create, with the space that it occupies on the form. This process can be tedious, but once it’s done you’ll have the most efficient way to capture data on the field.

Save and Preview

Note – Currently, Snappii cannot deploy apps to the Apple iTunes store. We are only working with Android until further notice.

To run the app on your phone, download the Snappii Preview app from the Play Store. It should be the first one that comes up when you type in “Snappii”.

Next, sign into the app using the same credentials you used on the Snappii website. This is how the system will know where to find your app. Make sure you save your app before you try to pull it up on your phone, as saves are not made automatically.

And there you have it! You made yourself an app without any coding knowledge – and for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Alternative method – Hire us!

There’s one other way to build an app for your business that does not involve any leg-work at all. Hiring us to build your app ensures that you will get the highest quality app that our platform can provide, and will allow you to do other procedures such as ODBC connectors, MYSql and Java plug-ins. If you would like to find out how much it would cost to build out your app, check out our pricing page here.

Smartphones have completely replaced the need for handheld digital devices in the workplace. What used to take a $4000 piece of equipment to complete, usually a mini computer stuffed into a gun with a scanner, can now be completed with even the older generations of smartphones. Because most employees already own a phone, smartphone apps have led to a cost effective way to improve a businesses efficiency.

For some businesses, the idea of having a mobile app could seem impossible. Hiring a team of coders to program an app to your exact specifications is not cheap, and it often time leads to losses rather than gains. Snappii, a mobile app company, has developed a solution to this problem with it’s Snappii platform. The platform allows ours developers to build apps at a fraction of the cost it would take a native developer. If you need a simple app for your business, Snappii is a readily available answer.

The iPhone in particular has constantly been shifting towards newer and better technology. The upgrades that they’ve implemented since the iPhone 4 have all geared the iPhone into having a bigger screen, the best audio, and a camera that works better than your DSLR. However, some of their recent innovations have left the public confused. The removal of the headphone jack, for example, and forcing the user to use Bluetooth headsets generated a backlash.

The iPhone X, which debut yesterday during the annual Apple conference, is being marketed as the premiere iPhone to own if you’re a business owner, an artistic entrepreneur, or a technophile. For the first time in Apple’s iPhone history, the smartphones screen will extend throughout the entirety of its surface, reaching the rounded, smooth bezel on both the top and bottom of the screen. The screen will also be the first iPhone to take full advantage of oLED technology, reaching a resolution that has been unparalled in the smartphone world.

With the most apparent upgrade being the screen, I thought we could take a moment to briefly go over what makes the iPhone X the best phone Apple has ever released.

Camera Leading into Face-ID technology

The new front facing camera has led way into a new feature that Apple has been reluctant to even talk about in the past. Samsung devices have long since had facial recognition software, most of which works excellently. Apple can be behind with some of these features – they always seem to test the waters before actually releasing it in one of their mobile devices. Yesterday, they introduced that their FaceID software is so powerful, that they would trust Apple Pay with it.

On the other end, the back camera can be used for more than just capturing scenic bypasses. Many companies use Snappii’s technology to capture information like receipts, inspections and logs by using the camera’s on their phone. It is an easy way to add photos to the final PDF.

Superior Housing – Better than ever before

Apple has not released too much information about the glass front and back, but they did mention that the glass was 50 percent deeper.  However, the iPhone is notorious for breaking the front screens glass. There’s even entire companies, like uBreakiFix, that are completely devoted to just fixing glass iPhones screens. To add another one to the back of the device seems like a step backwards.

As with every smartphone, there will be cases. For those that work in a place where the phone can be damaged, there is no reason not to spend the extra money on a case that will protect it from a fall. With the retail price starting at $1000, it probably will not be easy to fix the screen.

A Processor That Is just Unnecessary

I mean that in the best way possible. While normally it’s tough to say if a processor will live up to its hype, the fact is that the A10 already has enough power to run the most daunting apps, the most heavily coded games and display movies in an resolution that’s better than most TVs. Even if the A11 was a complete copy of the A10, the entire phone would still be worth the money. In reality, the processor is just the icing on the cake.

For business apps, this means faster processing of data and sending it to where it needs to be. Better processors usually help out cellular signals, so the device will naturalize minimize the amount dead-zones you may encounter.

If you have ever wanted to build an app for your business but did not know how to get started, now has never been a better time. Check out Snappii’s homepage for some basic information about our service. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@snappii.com

The traditional method of ordering an app always starts with a problem. These problems can range anywhere from developing a solution to in-app orders, to managing an entire warehouse, to ordering a cab. Apps have the upper-hand of being completely versatile, able to fit any mold.

The next step usually involves finding a team of programmers who are willing to take on your idea and develop it from the ground up. While this process can be arduous, it is one of the most important facets of creating an app.

But there’s an inherent problem with this.

Programmers, smart as they are, are not the people with the problem. Many times, apps can be developed that will completely missed the mark solely because of a misunderstanding of what the problem-solution dynamic was in the first place. Snappii has aimed to solve this problem for many years by employing one simple trick: let the client be a part of the decision making process.

How is this possible though? In the world of developers, the layman probably wouldn’t get very. With terminology to memorize, constantly having to convey what it is you want, and the possibility of having a team that isn’t responsive, the idea seems daunting. That’s not even taking into consideration that many of the apps can take at most a year to develop.

Snappii took a simple approach to an otherwise complicated problem: develop a platform that ANYONE can understand to make the app. Rather than focusing on making individual apps for many people, Snappii has developed a platform that allows ANYONE to create an app.

Guru and Express

The platform is divided into two categories, Express and Guru. I’ll briefly go over the differences here.

The intention of Express was to make a platform that is easily accessible, yet powerful enough for a developer to work with. The Express platform gives the user access to widgets – premade features that a user can literally click to add to their app. Once the feature is in, it may take some additional configuration to get it working as intended, but the bulk of it is there. That goes for any widget developed by Snappii. The idea was to keep it simple so that anyone can understand the process. To date, we have hundreds of non-programmers developing entire apps with just this part of the platform.

Guru mode is a bit more difficult to use. It is the version of the platform that the developers within Snappii use to manipulate certain features even further, sometimes creating entirely new applications with previously build widgets and elements. Because of the nature of Guru, we don’t recommend it to first-time users (that’s what Express is for!), but we still encourage anyone to try and master this excellent platform for building software. Guru can do a myriad of things with the platform, most of which can be seen by browsing our app catalog here.

THE Citizen Developer

With this infrastructure in place, translating what we mean when we’re talking apps is relatively simple. By just showing you how the app is built, the customer already gets a good idea of what’s going on.

Think of it like this.

You’re sitting in a room full of programmers, and the uncomfortable feeling of not belonging is beginning to settle into the pit of your stomach. All of them have their eyeballs glued to their screens – a black-screen window filled with thousands of characters that mean little to nothing to you. Some of the developers are putting together the UI of the app, others are trying to figure how to connect point A to point B. Regardless, you have no idea what’s going on, or if they’re even on the right track.

Now put yourself in the same situation in a room where all the developers are using a visual program to put everything together. The fact that the client doesn’t know how to code is irrelevant – they would still be able to glance at all of the monitors and have a sense of what is being worked on, what is going where and so on.

Another perk about working with developers using a platform is that changes can be made quickly and efficiently. The day will come when the app simply is not living up to the demands of the current market. Again, with traditional apps, this would mean going back to that black-screen of letters and numbers – the coders “drawing board” – to add or adjust.

But if the developers are using a platform, moving things around is exactly that. For many of our apps, turn-around times for updates can be as little as a day, and at most a week. If you asked a programmer to develop something that fast, they would probably laugh.

Snappii has been around since early 2012. We have been making apps for companies small and large since the very begining, and have been around to see all the app world has to offer. If there’s a feature out there that you were looking to take advantage of for your own business, look no further than Snappii.

For a FREE quote on how much it would take to develop an app, reach out to us at sales@snappii.com. For questions about our platform, including how to gain access to it, contact support@snappii.com.

Paperwork is usually the last thing you want to see after a day of the office. Unfortunately, for a lot of businesses, logging a report at the end of the day is almost always a part of the job. Daily Reports usually consist of a form, or some sort of format, of information pertaining to what that person did for the day. Although they are sometimes sent through emails, the majority of them are kept on paper, which are then stashed away in a box where it hopes it never has to be seen again.

In industries like construction and inspection, it’s extremely common to have to complete these daily forms at the end of the day. This paperwork can sometimes take up a huge chunk of time, and scarcely are they ever used. None the less, it’s imperative that they’re kept in case of an emergency.

Modern technology can help to alleviate the burden created by using paper to jot down an individuals daily log. While effective in that it’s accessible, platforms created by companies like Snappii work to put the power of apps in everyone’s hands. Using the Snappii platform, forms can be quickly generated and mapped to resemble a PDF output. This makes it easy to complete the form on a phone, but retains the same output as if it were done by paper. You could call it the best of both worlds.

Changing Your Form into an App

Snappii has been around since 2012 trying to perfect the formula. Our platform has been enabling all types of people, from all sorts of occupations, to make apps that have saved them countless hours and dollars.

It starts with a user uploading, or creating, their own form. It could be a form that is used often in the company, or a user can make a brand-new form using Snappii’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor.

Both methods are effective in creating a form. If you’re uploading, the editor automatically generates fields based on what the fill-able fields on the PDF are. If you are making it from scratch, it will automatically generate a PDF upon completion of the mobile form.

Practice Makes Perfect

Once the mobile form has been created, it’s only one more small step to getting it to run on your phone. Saving the form will populate a dialog that shows you where to download the Snappii preview app. The Preview app allows you to pull up apps created on your account so that you can test them out.

Despite the fact that we’ve made countless apps in the past, even we sometimes make mistakes. The inclusion of the Snappii preview app allows you to test out the mobile form you created. It will give you a perfect simulation of what it is like to use the app, and will help you realize areas that could need working on.

Invite the Whole Company If You Want To

The platform also features an invite dialog that allows you to easily recruit other people to test your app out. All you need is their email address – the rest is handled by our automated system.

No matter if the user is using Android or Apple, Snappii’s platform will work. After years of effort, we also have the ability to run the app on a computer as a web-app, something exclusive to Snappii’s offerings.

Snappii has been making apps for both large and small companies since 2012. Throughout the years, we’ve learned about what it takes to make a successful app that is going to change your business. It isn’t about making the most functional app – it’s about understanding the needs of the job. Snappii’s platform stands out in that it is highly adjustable, and can create apps faster than the time it takes for most companies to map out a quote.

If you have any questions about Snappii platform, feel free to contact support at support@snappii.com. If you would like a free quote on a possible app, contact sales@snappii.com.

Few jobs out there will allow you to work the hours that you want. For a lot of us, it’s 9 to 5, no matter what. For people that are trying to start a family, or get ahead in their own career, committing 8 hours a day to a job that you are only in for the money can be debilitating. Over the years there has been ways around this. Some apps are even specifically designed for people to make money, like Uber’s model of get paid to work when you want and how you want. As the required work becomes more technology intensive, more people are making the switch to a freelancer rather than being employed by a company.

In the same way that Uber can make you money by driving people around, Snappii can make you money by selling apps to businesses. Snappii’s partner program allows you to utilize its proprietary app building software, under a personal brand, to make apps. Utilizing the resources and training provided, a reseller can make business apps in a fraction of the time it takes for a developer – with no coding required. The majority of our partners have found success selling on the local business level, but some go above and beyond to sell to even corporate level accounts.

Cost of being a Snappii reseller

One of the major benefits of being a Snappii partner is that you can decide how much you want to sell the apps you create for. The fee you’ll pay to Snappii every month is based off of how many apps are on your account, so as long as your selling for more than what you’re paying a month, you can turn a profit. You get the check at the end of the day, not us. Since Snappii has nothing to do with your clients, you’re business will get all the credit for the amazing service and support that Snappii can offer.

Building an App as a reseller

When using the platform, resellers will have a choice between Guru and Express mode. Express mode is for less complicated tasks. It also a means to use the Field Reports feature that makes building a form quick and easy. Guru, however, is much harder to use. Even without coding, Guru has almost infinite possibilities that can be accomplished, and wrapping ones head around that could be problematic.

Learning the platform, for some, may seem difficult. While it is made for the layman in that it does not use any complicated procedures to put an app together, some of the quirks can only be learned by playing with the platform extensively. To remedy this, Snappii also works with partners to create the apps that they then turn and sell to their clients. If going this route, the partner does still have to pay custom development fees for the app, but the rates will be severely discounted. This way, even if you have no interest in building an app, you can still sell them under your businesses name.

Snappii has been around since early 2012. Since then, we’ve made apps for a wide range of businesses from industries like construction all the way to night-clubs. Our ready-made apps are available on both the major app marketplaces, and can be downloaded for free at any time to get a general idea of how the Snappii platform works. If a user wants to customize any aspect of these apps, they can easily accomplish it themselves, or with the help of the Snappii team. If you want to submit an inquiry about a potential app idea, feel free to contact sales@snappii.com for a free quote.

Portable software used for business has been a staple since computers were first introduced to the fields. Retail stores use them to keep track of inventory as it enters and leaves the store. Warehouses use them for a similar reason, but take it once step further by also managing where in the warehouse they are. Having the power to access information without using a computer is invaluable to these businesses, and it saves them time with tasks that usually eat up hours.

As handheld technology has evolved, so has the way that technology is made. In the past, creating an app for your business usually involved hiring freelance programmers and developers to try and make the mobile app. Often times, trying was not good enough, and customers get left with an app that they may have paid thousands for, but does not do what they need it to do.

Snappii revolutionizes the way the layman can build an app. Snappii has spent years developing a platform that allows anyone to enter and build an app. There are catalogs, white papers and video tutorials to help explain how to complete the process. If you do not want to create the app yourself, Snappii developers are always standing by to talk to you about your app.

Collaboration

What does this have to do with printing a PDF from your phone? Snappii has recently released a new editor that allows users to go in and create a form app. The editor takes care of most of the legwork, and provides a playground for the user to go in and test if the app is something their business can actually use. From the form app, your phone can print the PDF wirelessly to any compatible printer in the area. This process is open to the public, and can be tested our for up to 14-days absolutely free.

When we take your PDF and create it into a form, we are inserting a mobile version of your form into the app. In reality, your entire app can be your form. However, users tend to expand on possibilities. Later on, the user and the Snappii team works together to tack on extra features that will make the app more functional and practical for your business. These features go far beyond what a simple form can do, including things like push notifications, GPS tracking, bar-code scanners and more. Because Snappii’s platform is so robust, we are constantly updating it with the latest features you’ll see throughout apps.

Support

Traditional forms of creating apps tend to vary with support. In some cases, only the original team that built the app will be able to help when issues come up. In rare cases, that team will leave behind enough information for any other team to pick up the problem and understand how to fix it. However, this is not likely. Often times, when an app faces a critical failure, it means thousands to get it back up and running.

With Snappii, problems are fixed the moment they arise. Our support team is open almost all day, and communication with the actual developers who made the app is always seamless. If your app has a problem, it’s likely that we can provide you with a solution the same day. If we can’t, the Snappii support team can reach out to the developers and get you an answer within 24 hours.

Likewise, if there are things you want to update in the app, Snappii’s team will always be around to hear you out and expand on your idea. Whether it is through phone or email, we can work with you to make your app fill every gap of your business. We want to surpass your expectations, and we believe the only way to accomplish that is by working together.

Snappii has been around since the early 2010’s, creating apps for all sorts of businesses. These can include logs, maintenance reports, sign-in apps and more. Because of our extensive experience working with a multitude of clients, we’re guaranteeing that we can cut the time it takes to complete paper-related processes in your business.

If you have had an idea for an app and are not sure how to execute it, feel free to contact our sales team at sales@snappii.com

If you have tried to build an app on our platform but would like some help for certain processes, feel free to contact support at support@snappii.com

Mobile apps launched a wave of new ways to do the same job. By digitizing every bit of information right at the source, companies are able to exponentially increase their production, and reduce the amount of time, with the same tool. A tool that, not to long ago, was only afforded by the top, nation-wide businesses, is now available to anyone.

Snappii, a leader in rapid mobile app development, has produced a platform that is capable of creating a mobile form with zero coding experience. It doesn’t matter if you’re a developer or a carpenter, the Snappii platform is as easy as using a website. Utilize the features that you would like to see in your app as building blocks to create a mobile form that will boost your productivity. Try the online editor out and see for yourself!

Even with the advent of mobile apps, the real magic lies in the mobile forms. Making your paper form into a mobile form can help in a multitude of ways. Here’s how:

Paper

There’s nothing more discouraging then walking into your office and not being able to see your desk because of the mounting paperwork. You’ll sit there, pen in hand, working tirelessly to meet deadlines, and at the end of it all it goes straight into a filing cabinet. More likely than not, you’ll never have to open those filings cabinets looking for those documents – unless you’re throwing them away to make room.

Although not as common anymore, there are still many businesses that use little software on their day to day. Whether this is because of cost or just a lack of knowledge, paper seems to mount up in all corners of the office, making it impossible to seem like you have a grip on things.

There’s another important note – paper is perishable. It’s expensive. Worst of all, it takes up a lot of space for something that actually isn’t that useful after it’s first use.

Forms can flip this notion on it’s head, though. When a form is on a mobile device, it eliminates the need for excessive documents, while still keeping what you like most about paper. You can also add additional perks to your form, like the ability to send a picture or a voice note. That’s just scratching the surface too – there’s a plethora of features on the Snappii platform that you can customize your app with.

Paper-trail

Filing cabinets are a thing of the past. While it’s inevitable that certain jobs must keep every document, the necessity for keeping a physical copy of the document continues to diminish. Seriously, if you’re office is beginning to look overcrowded because every wall is lined with a filing cabinet housing documents that are years old, it’s time for an upgrade.

And I don’t mean bigger cabinets.

There’s an inherit advantage to keeping everything digital – everything is automatically documented. With Snappii, sending a document via a mobile app will prompt you to save the work you just completed. On top of emailing it to whoever it has to go to, the option to email yourself a copy is always there. With the click of a button, you can have your form sent wherever it needs to be, and to a cloud service as well.

Plus you can laugh at the fact that the best paper-trail actually doesn’t involve paper at all.

Time

There’s two ways Snappii’s mobile forms can help you save time.

The first is on the field. Imagine this: no clipboards. As long as your employees have a smart device, which can be a tablet or smartphone, they will have access to all of their forms, checklists and logs right at the press of a button. It also gives your team an extra way to communicate to each other. If a change is made on one end of the construction, then the group on the other side will know immediately. It cuts out the time it takes to relay messages to your team completely.

The other way it’s going to save you time is in the office. All of those stacks of paper can be reduced, or completely eliminated, when you employ the help of a mobile form to your workflow. Because it’s digital, it’ll be easier to find the documents you need, when you need them. Think about it as if you were looking for a file on your computer. Just type what you need and you’re there.

Your secretaries in the office will be the next to thank you for the time saved. All of those papers that are flooding every square inch of the floor can be completely eliminated when you digitize all the data that is being recorded. Workers from the field can send their updates directly to the office personnel instantly. If they ever need a document, it’s as easy as typing a name and date into the search filter – no more looking through papers for hours.

And of course, let’s not forget that you can take your work with you. That means you’ll have access to your documents regardless if you’re in the office or not. All you need is your smartphone.

Impress your clients

You’ve probably seen it when you go to the Apple store. Employees walking around with their iPhone’s and iPad’s with no registers in sight. If you want to purchase something, they start punching away at their phone, and in a few minutes they have a printed invoice and your new product in hand.

There’s a reason Apple adopted this style of check-out – because it impresses!

Apple doesn’t have to be the only company with a remote check-out system. There’s many other ways the same technology can be applied to jobs and services. For example, if you’re a mechanic that drives to your clients houses to service their cars, you’ll be able to have a printed invoice before your car even pulls out of the driveway.

Customers that see this might think you have an edge on the competition, or that you paid a lot of money to hire a programmer to create your own custom mobile app. In reality, this functionality can easily be achieved with just Snappii’s form editor.