Voxme Featured in IAM Portal: Going from puzzled looks to "We want it now"

Going from Puzzled Looks to “We Want itNow”

By Max Kreynin, VoxmeSoftware Inc.

The biggest change technology hasbrought about in recent years is that it allows companies like ours to deliversimple, practical and affordable solutions to pretty much everybody in theindustry when the industry needs it the most.

Only a few short years ago, rolling outa digital inventory to The MI Group took seven trips in total to visit eachwarehouse in U.S. and Canada, set up company-purchased iPads, and train staffon printing wirelessly. Not many companies in the industry could stomach thebudget for the hardware and travel alone, not to mention implementation andlicensing costs. Now, it takes an hour of training, any smartphone, and acouple of YouTube videos to get the crews going. There’s no hardware to buy andno servers to worry about. That’s what Apple, Google and Amazon afforded us.

We see a huge shift in industry wherethe actual moving-related work—be it surveys or packing or delivery—is beingoutsourced to smaller and smaller agents and contractors. Often times, acontractor packing for a big brand doesn’t have an office, so everything has tobe electronic and mobile, and even labels need to be printed onsite. Regardlessof who pays for the software license, the only way these types of companies canuse technology is if it’s mobile and browser-based.

Ironically, regardless of the companysize, everybody expects technology to just work and be always on, lightningfast, and affordable. Meeting these expectations in a traditionally low-techindustry like moving while it’s undergoing a huge change is challenging;constant change in the underlying technology platforms alone keeps our platefull. Seeing the industry embrace the new technology is rewarding, especiallyconsidering the looks we caught back at IAM 2004 (then HHGFA) when we honestlythought that every single mover would rush to buy a Palm Pilot. It doesn’t meanthat we aren’t working on something cool. It’s just that we are a littlepreoccupied with scaling at the moment. We live in the instant gratificationage, and our apps are measured against Uber and Dropbox.

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