I joined Skedulo last year because I was drawn to the opportunity to serve an unserved market. It is with great pride that today, joined by customers, prospects, analysts and partners we declare it is time to recognize the needs of the global deskless workforce.
Breakthrough technological advances are often lauded because of their innovative approach in addressing a pain point in the market. But what’s often overlooked is the evolution of the market itself. The perfect environment for a technological breakthrough can be found at the intersection of product innovation, the ability to meet a critical need, and the state of the market.
And this ideal environment is now for deskless workers.
Let’s start with the state of the market
According to Emergence, the deskless workforce is comprised of 2.7 billion people and represents 80% of the global population. This is a huge number. But, the reality is that deskless workers have been the majority of the global workforce for a very long time. The introduction of desks, offices, and cubicles have been far more recent. Almost counterintuitively, very little of the $300 billion spent on business software is targeted to these deskless workers. Why? Well, the market, the environment wasn’t conducive for innovative solutions targeted to these mobile workers. We needed three things: powerful mobile devices, cloud-based applications and services, and networks fast enough to support untethered work. We have these now and the market is ready.
The critical need
Deskless workers generally work in high-touch service industries such as Healthcare, Retail, Safety & Security sales & services, and Non-profit among others. And these deskless workers often have direct customer interaction on a regular basis. This means that their effectiveness at their jobs directly correlates to customer satisfaction and directly impacts their company’s reputation and brand. Organizations haven’t ignored these workers entirely but have offered them solutions that were not purpose-built for mobile work. These include:
- Industry-specific applications built for back office work with some capability for deskless workers
- Horizontal applications built to address one aspect of a deskless worker’s workflow like individual apps for time & attendance, messaging, workforce management, etc.
- Critical business platforms built for desk workers that have extended their functionality to address deskless needs such as CRMs, ERPs, HRIS, etc
Enter product innovation
The need is evident and the market is ready for a category of deskless productivity software that is purpose-built to put the needs of deskless workers first: mobile-first, cloud-based, and comprehensive. Skedulo is excited to introduce The Deskless Productivity Cloud, a breakthrough solution that empowers businesses to manage, engage, and analyze their entire deskless workforce. The Deskless Productivity Cloud is purpose-built to allow organizations across high-touch service industries such as Healthcare, Solar sales & service, Nonprofit, and Retail to meet the needs of their business in five main areas:
- Manage work and organize the schedules of hundreds of deskless workers both mobile and in facilities or other fixed locations
- Engage employees and customers through the Skedulo web and mobile applications to encourage collaboration, deliver satisfying experiences, and get more impactful work done
- Analyze work results and scheduling patterns to intelligently improve service delivery
- Configure a flexible solution tailored to existing business workstreams
- Extend the deskless environment to interoperate seamlessly with the surrounding technology ecosystem
We are at an unprecedented time where businesses are recognizing the importance of the deskless worker to growth and profitability. To learn more about The Deskless Productivity Cloud, please read the white paper. To find out if Skedulo may be right for your organization, book a demo today.
