Startup Idea: Virtual Office Communication App for Agriculture Entity
I am the main front office secretary for a local entity who helps families with agriculture issues, like 4-H involvement, animal nutrition questions, gardening concerns, crop related issues, insects, etc. these are generally things that revolve around horticulture and animal husbandry. We have six leaders and three specialists in our office who have vocations across the spectrum.
On a normal day, there is always one or two individuals who are away from the office, sometimes for an entire day or the person is in a client meeting either on site or away. I almost always have a difficult time trying to get everyone on the same page most days.
My daily frustrations are: asking my leaders about general items, budget concerns, new clients with questions or concerns, complaints, and general business duties, reminders. I need a more efficient and quick method of contacting them. We have tried email messages, old fashioned sticky notes on desks (which always get lost), direct phone calls, bulletin boards, but these attempts all seem to fail when we need to be on the same page, at least for my mind's sake!
I need a user friendly system in place to help me relay my questions/concerns in a quick manor such as a phone app or computer program that can send immediate notifications but is more than just a text message service, something more like a "virtual office setting." And if I could use it on my computer as well, that would be awesome! I started to wonder what would work the best I immediately thought of the old 1990s AOL computer messenger (yes I am that old!). A program that shows who each individual is, whether this person is online and available to chat, in a meeting, away, out of the office, gone home. An app with options such as a message system that a person can post a message to a specific leader that he can see when he "comes back online." This would be great for me, without having to play phone tag, or not to have to interrupt his meeting for a question (unless it was an emergency,) or sit and hope he opens his email before the end of the day. An app that would be available for iOS and Android users. This would also be a great way to have a digital office message board to share important staff information, meetings, budget concerns, etc, without having to waste paper to print reminders - which just eats the budget cost more.