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Archives for February 2018

A Team Communication App That’s the First of Its Kind

**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**

Sometimes texting your boss is hard…but now, there’s an app for that.

In fact, now there’s an app that lets you access your schedule, switch shifts with your coworker, and stay updated at work so you always know what to say to your best customer.

Crew is a team communication app that enables companies to communicate freely and easily with employees. No longer do restaurant managers have to communicate separately with Front of House staff and line cooks, nor do retail employees have to text three different people about switching shifts. Now there is an easier way for all staff to see new schedules, switch shifts, communicate, and share important information.

This is an app that will transform the way your company functions on a daily level.

Forbes calls it an app that “helps to improve communications and saves time.”

Why does the world need an app for improving team communication?

Think about the number of people working at a local French restaurant: you’ve got the head chefs, the pastry chefs, the line cooks, the sous-chef, the servers, the hostesses, the bakers, and the dish crew.

That’s a lot of people in one restaurant whose knowledge of the ins and outs is what keeps the restaurant running daily.

And according to the National Restaurant Association there are over one million restaurants in the United States today.

So Here’s The Problem

There is a constant flow of information coming and going, widening the window for mistakes in communication and making it increasingly difficult for all staff to be up-to-date on the same level.

Schedules vary, which means shifts need to change; menus change seasonally and on some days, an ingredient might run out which means two of the signature dishes need to be altered and the head chef needs a few minutes to nurse his disappointment; someone might go home sick, or there might be an impromptu meeting because the truffle oil keeps being used by the pastry chef for his experimental croque-monsieurs.

The list could go on and on, and the potential for miscommunication increases. Plus, tempers start to rise when French cheese sandwiches are on the line.

There is an ever-widening window for mistakes in communication.

It’s not just a problem for busy restaurants—it’s a problem that arises for any company whose staff doesn’t have an employee email to easily connect with their team. This includes a wide range of industries, such as retail, healthcare, pharmacy, hospitality, travel, repair services, and construction.

The Crew app makes it possible for all employees on every level to receive updates, communicate with any team member, and share photos or documents.

Healthy and effective communication is vital to the success of any business. As industries change and consumer needs change, businesses have to maintain a level of agility that allows companies to adapt and change too.

And one of the most important and basic areas where success begins is with communication. Only when every employee is on the same page can the team function smoothly and achieve success.

With a team communication app like Crew, companies have an opportunity to improve their methods of informing, scheduling, updating, planning, and training. It’s a real game changer for millions of businesses.

About Crew

Founded in 2015 by Danny Leffel and Broc Miramontes, Crew is a communication app designed to enhance and simplify internal communication so that businesses can function smoothly every day.

It’s a free and easy-to-use app that creates one centralized location for all information and all team members, right on their device.

Crew is different from most collaboration software that caters only to the needs of office workers. It’s the first of its kind to solve the needs of millions of workers across many industries that don’t have access to an effective communication service.

Seven Ways Crew Can Help Your Team

There are many special features on the app that can keep your team running smoothly every day, no matter what.

1. Easy Messaging

Employees no longer have to dig around for the correct phone number to text—instead they can use the app to ask the head chef a question about the menu or find someone to cover a shift.

2. Customizable Schedules

Each new schedule can be updated or created within the app and shared with everyone. There’s no need to jump on a computer or wrestle with the printer that keeps running out of ink. Plus, there’s the added feature of pick-ups and approvals.

3. A Simple Way to Switch & Cover Shifts

Sometimes finding someone to cover a shift becomes a huge and stressful hassle. With the Crew app, messaging coworkers and updating the schedule is simple and easy to do.

4. Read Receipts

When workplaces are busy, it’s often easy to see a message but forget to reply or run out of time. Instead of getting stressed out wondering if your message was seen, users get a read receipt every time a message is opened.

5. Unlimited Photos and Videos

Whether it’s a photo of a new product or a short training video, it’s easy to send and receive files from the Crew app.

6. Works With Any Smartphone

Don’t worry; you don’t have to make every employee get the same phone. The Crew app is usable on all iOS and Android devices. You can even access it on the web if you don’t have your phone nearby!

7. Notifications To Stay Updated

Team leads can rely on Crew’s notifications to update the entire team on high-priority information.

“Thousands of teams across every industry are using Crew to help their businesses run more smoothly…”

Internal communication for any business within any industry is often a source of problems, and for businesses whose employees don’t have access to an on-the-job communication platform, it makes daily tasks much more complicated and stressful than they need to be.

With the Crew app, businesses have a free and easy platform for sharing important information that is vital to the health and success of both team and business.

This is an app that’s changing the way we do business while making lives simpler at the same time.

We’re Wearing Our Data – What Wearables and the Internet of Things Mean for Data Privacy

Dave is an average US worker.

His day starts when his smart watch buzzes gently on his wrist, and ends when it tells him he needs to get some shut eye to rack up the eight hours he needs.

Throughout the day, his smartwatch tracks his blood pressure, his heart rate, and how many steps he takes. Some days Dave doesn’t get enough sleep and he feels groggy, and other days he does more than his recommended daily amount of exercise and he feels great.

Dave likes knowing this information, just like millions of other consumers out there who have invested in wearable technology.

But while Dave and his fellow consumers might like knowing this information about themselves, they don’t want it to be captured and kept by large corporations.

Understandable, right?

However, that becomes particularly difficult when wearables rely on collecting user data in order to provide personalized programs and enhance user experience. Take Fitbit, for example, which collects data on health levels and uses that information to improve its algorithms and offer individual fitness programs.

Now, alongside the ever-increasing news about government-backed surveillance programs and data breaches, consumers are getting more and more paranoid about who has access to their data.

And, as we begin to dive into a world of wearable technology that’s with us all the time, the worry that has been simmering away is starting to bubble over.

So What Do Wearables Mean for Our Data Privacy?

Popular wearable products like the Apple Watch and the Fitbit have shifted the industry from heavily health-centered into the realms of popular culture. And, while this means that wearables can be used for a whole lot more than tracking our heart rate, it also means that the healthcare industry rules and regulations around data protection become hazy.

Sure, consumers all over the world are clamoring to get their hands on fitness trackers and smartwatches, but the vast majority of them don’t know what these devices mean for their data security.

In fact, a study released by the Center for Digital Democracy and the School of Communication at American University claimed that the health privacy regulatory system in the US doesn’t give consumers the protection they might expect when it comes to wearables.

As the wearable trend expands from people’s personal lives into their working lives and other verticals, users are becoming increasingly skeptical. Now, 82% of workers that use wearables as part of their job believe that it’s invading their privacy, while 86% think it makes them more susceptible to data breaches.

Why Wearables are Challenging Consumer Views on Data Privacy

In a report put together by the University of London and Rackspace, it was discovered that wearables boost user productivity rates by 8.5% – so yes, there are many positive points surrounding the industry.

But the increased usage of them has an impact on data privacy for two reasons.

Firstly, wearable devices increase the popularity of apps – because, well, the majority of them need an app to deliver the information from wrist (or clothing) to a screen. The problem with this is that apps are more susceptible to data breaches than general web browsing because they collect data and store it all in one place.

Secondly, wearable devices are used in real-time. They don’t need to be used in a certain place at a certain time; they can be used, wherever and whenever, which is one of their biggest draws.

This means that the devices are processing greater volumes of information at every moment the user is wearing it. This is great for the user, because they get loads more data on-the-go, and it’s also great for the wearable provider, because they’re also constantly getting their hands on data to improve and refine.

But where is the line? Where is the line between being beneficial to the user and the provider having too much information?

Let’s take a look at an example.

One of the biggest benefits of wearables is that they can be used discreetly – for the most part, they double up as fashion accessories and can blend in with any outfit.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Google_Glass_detail.jpg
Credit: Antonio Zugaldia (Wikimedia) Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

A number of casinos in Las Vegas are tapping into this benefit with a system that buzzes staff member’s wearables when a high roller walks past. When they check their smartwatch, the staff members can gather information about the high roller so they can then greet them by name.

While it can be argued that this improves the customer experience and it helps the casino get more money by targeting high rollers, who is the process more beneficial for?

And Then There Are Cyberattacks…

With any new technology the risk of cyberattacks increase. And, when wearables often connect to wireless networks, it can be a struggle to keep the system safe.

Let’s look at the numbers.

At the end of 2015, there were around 200 million wearable devices on the market. By the end of 2018, there is predicted to be around 780 million – a considerable increase in just a few years.

This shows the industry is continuing to blossom regardless of whether users are concerned about their data or not, but it also gives hackers more opportunity to steal sensitive data for their own gain.

Chief consumer security evangelist at Intel Security, Gary Davis, says that “the information that’s contained on your wearable that’s stored either on your smartphone or stored downstream on a cloud is worth ten times that of a credit card on a black market.”

This is because credit card companies are well-versed at detecting and dealing with fraud, and can make it go away pretty quickly. On the other hand, data stored on wearable devices is permanent – people can’t change their Social Security Number or their date of birth.

It’s Not All Doom and Gloom

But while there are undoubtedly increased data security risks from wearables (any kind of new technology is vulnerable to this), there are plenty of ways wearables are improving certain industries, whether it’s just enhancing customer experience in a shop or going all out and improving medical treatments for serious illnesses.

In the retail sector, store employees are increasingly tapping into the power of smartglasses to find key information about products on-the-spot. This improves the customer experience, but it also optimizes employees’ time. And, in the medical industry, smartwatches are able to monitor blood pressure and even examine a baby’s heart rate in the womb.

Which begs the question: do the benefits outweigh the data risks?

But perhaps the more pressing question is whether anything is being done to quash consumer paranoia?

In most industries there are a set of accountability laws and regulations. In the health industry, there’s the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which puts rules in place for what medical companies can and can’t do with data.

But the key problem is that this act, for example, only covers healthcare providers like doctors and hospitals, and doesn’t stretch as far as health-conscious wearables.

What’s the Future Like for Wearables and Data?

If predictions are right, the wearables market is only set to explode further in the next couple of years but, like with any fast-growing tech arena, it looks like there needs to be some serious thought put into how data is collected and used.

Like other industries, we might see a new rules and regulations act pop up that devotes itself to monitoring and laying down laws for the wearables industry, regardless of whether a smartwatch is being used for health reasons or to boost productivity in the workplace.

What we can be certain of is that consumer paranoia about wearables and data privacy is completely justified, but the next few years are vital for the industry to prove that it has its users at the front of the mind.