If corporate real estate is about one thing, it's about keeping track of dates. Between lease milestone dates, monthly rent dates and all of the meetings andother time-sensitive work you do, maintaining your calendar is crucial. While Android and iOS mobile devices have calendar apps built in, their native programs are relatively run of the mill. Here are 3 excellent apps for the busy corporate real estate professional:
Tempo (iOS, free)
Tempo is only available (for now) as an iPhone app. Once you install it, it automatically goes to every calendar that you already have synched on your iOS device, including data stored in your company's Microsoft Exchange servers. Unlike the iOS Calendar app, creating events and appointments in Tempo is designed to be simple and straightforward. Tempo's developers also included five different views - agenda, list, day, week and month to help you visualize how your time is being spent.What makes Tempo unique is that it's smarter than the average calendar. Some of its features that help busy corporate real estate professionals include:
- Pulling down any information - like maps or parking ramp availability - that you need to successfully attend off-site meetings.
- Integration with your contacts so that you can easily get the phone numbers or email addresses of the people that you're scheduled to see.
- Automatically pulling down flight status data to update you if your flight is late or cancelled.
- Scouring your email boxes to find messages that related to meetings. If Tempo finds one, it links it to the calendar entry.
- One-touch "I'm late" notifications to make it easy for you to stay in touch when you're running behind.
- Identification of conference call dial-in numbers so that you can simply touch them to dial.
AppGenix Business Calendar (Android, free/$4.99)
While AppGenix's Business calendar app lacks some of the advanced intelligence of Tempo, it also handles the basics exceedingly well. For corporate real estate executives that need to track multiple calendars at once, it offers a color-coded view that lets you see where each event on your schedule comes from. The app also offers color-coded monthly and yearly views of your calendar. The app also offers pinch-to-zoom functionality to help you quickly look through your calendar.The paid version adds a few functions that are particularly useful to business people. These include the ability to link events to contacts as well as the opportunity to automatically email everyone attending an event. It also offers more ways to customize its view and is also advertising-free.
GoToMeeting (Android, iOS)
While GoToMeeting isn't a calendaring app, it does help you schedule the most important thing on your calendar: meetings. Well known as a desktop tool, GoToMeeting is a must have for any corporate real estate executive that spends a lot of time on the road. While there are other meeting tools that are less expensive, perhaps including one provided by your company's VOIP telephone system, GoToMeeting is universally understood and easy to use.GoTo Meeting's mobile functionality is relatively limited. You can't create future meetings from an iOS or Android device, so you'll still need to either use your PC or Mac or use a remote desktop program to login to it. You can, however, create instant meetings or join already scheduled ones from the app. The iOS and Android apps also support both audio and video conferencing.
