Foreword
Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey! With 389 responses, the Severa mobile survey proved to be one of the most complete inventories of mobile use for project management and
professional services organizations. We were unable to find much research on this topic, so we have decided to publish the data publicly.
Visma Severa was released as a cloud service almost 10 years ago. Back then, cloud service and SaaS terminology was not even invented yet. Nowadays cloud service is a commodity. Companies expect business applications that can be used without software installation from anywhere, at anytime. During the last few years, more and more mobile business apps have been released. Saas has become more mobile and also more user-friendly than complex enterprise systems.
Visma Severa released its first mobile app over 5 years ago. It was a simple WAP application that included time tracking, as well as a customer search and task list. However at that time, mobile phones were still meant for phone calls – not apps. Now the situation is different. A recent TechCrunch article indicates that iPhone and Android mobile apps have been downloaded 40 billion times and US consumers are using mobile apps approximately 94 minutes a day.
Visma Severa will make major investments in the development of mobile apps based on the results of this survey. Our goal is to make it possible that regular customers don’t need a computer at all. Of course, computers will still be the main tool for power users like controllers and project managers. We will publish more information about our mobile project throughout the development process.
Ari-Pekka Salovaara
Managing Director Visma Severa Oy
How do you want to use
Visma Severa on your
mobile?
Background
The survey was held from March 1 to April 15, 2012, on the web. Our main goal was to get feedback, and understand consumer interest in different mobile features. Feature categories included CRM, project management, time tracking, travel reimbursement, invoicing and reporting. Features within a category were rated as very important, good or not important. Respondents were able to provide additional comments and feedback as well.
A total of 389 people answered the survey. Respondents were spread across various countries with 209 responses in Finnish, 106 responses in Swedish and 74 responses in English.
The survey targeted people who work in project management or professional services organizations, and nearly 75% of the respondents where current Visma Severa customers.
Table 1: Respondent familiarity with Visma Severa
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
I use Visma Severa at work I had a free trial account A colleague told me about Visma Severa
I didn’t know about Visma Severa previously
CRM
Results for the CRM category were the most interesting part of the survey. The ability to search and update customer information, track communication, update sales cases and call contacts quickly were the most important features for respondents.
In Sweden, the level of interest in CRM features was higher than for any other category. Nearly 60% of all
respondents indicated that the ability to search and update customer information and track customer communication were very important.
Table 2: Importance of mobile CRM features
Project management
The ability to search and update activities, as well as view project deadlines and statuses were the most important project management features. Respondents in Swedish and English indicated that project scheduling and profitability reviewing were very important as well, while in Finnish the interest in these areas was significantly lower.
Table 3: Importance of mobile Project management features
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % Search and update customer information See customer location on a map Track customer communications Call customer directly from contact business card Add and update sales cases Browse customer sales and invoice history Review sales forecasts and other reports
Very important Good Not important
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % Search and update activities Schedule projects View project deadlines and statuses Review profitability, progress and budget reports Communicate with customer and team members View resource allocations
Time tracking
Entering work hours with your mobile phone was the most important feature overall for respondents in every
language. Over 80% of all respondents think that mobile time tracking is very important while only 4% thought it was not important. In English, approving work hours and reviewing productivity were identified as very important by 50% of the respondents.
Table 4: Importance of mobile Time tracking features
Travel reimbursement
The results were similar across all languages regarding travel reimbursement features. Entering travel expenses was number one, while photographing receipts was the second most important feature.
Table 5: Importance of mobile Travel reimbursement features
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % 90 % Enter work hours Use the Stopwatch to record hours
Approve work hours Review productivity and billing See work hour balance
Very important Good Not important
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 %
Record mileage using a GPS Enter travel expenses for projects Photograph receipts for reimbursement
Approve travel reimbursements
Invoicing
The ability to invoice customers through a mobile app had the lowest importance ranking. Approving invoices was the most important of the category features with 29% of Swedish respondents indicating that invoice approval was very important.
Table 6: Importance of mobile invoicing features
Reporting
The most important reporting features corresponded with checking team task lists and receiving notifications about project problems. In contrast to respondents in other languages, nearly 50% of Swedish respondents thought that checking team task lists was very important.
Table 7: Importance of mobile reporting features
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 %
Browse customer invoice history Create new invoices Approve invoices Send invoices
Very important Good Not important
0 % 5 % 10 % 15 % 20 % 25 % 30 % 35 % 40 % 45 % 50 % Review revenue, billing and profitability reports Check team's task list Receive notifications about project problems Check the sales pipeline
Overall ranking of mobile features
The overall ranking of mobile features was based on the importance of individual features to respondents. The ranking was determined using the calculation: The number of “very important” responses minus the number of “not important” responses.
Table 8: Ranking of mobile features
Ranking Feature 1 Enter work hours
2 Search and update customer information 3 Search and update activities
4 Track customer communications 5 Enter travel expenses for projects 6 View project deadlines and statuses
7 Call customer directly from contact business card 8 Add and update sales cases
9 See work hour balance
10 Photograph receipts for reimbursement 11 Receive notifications about project problems 12 Check team's task list
13 Communicate with customer and team members 14 Use the Stopwatch to record hours
15 Approve work hours
16 Browse customer sales and invoice history 17 View resource allocations
18 Approve invoices
19 Record mileage using a GPS 20 Browse customer invoice history 21 Schedule projects
22 Approve travel reimbursements
23 Review revenue, billing and profitability reports 24 See customer location on a map
25 Send invoices
26 Review profitability, progress and budget reports 27 Create new invoices
28 Review productivity and billing
29 Review sales forecasts and other reports 30 Check the sales pipeline
