The latest smartphones not only allow you to keep in touch with your business and customers, they can also enable you and your business to become more efficient. Here are five of the best applications currently available for Apple iPhone, Google Android, Microsoft Windows, and RIM BlackBerry phones.

1.) Evernote

Most business leaders are full of ideas and thoughts, which either get written down on scraps of paper or are instantly forgotten. Evernote, however, allows you to record and collate those thoughts, no matter what device you are on, and in any format you want: voice, pictures, drawings or text. Make a note on your phone and instantly see the note appear on your desktop and on your notebook or laptop. Evernote is free and available on Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices, as well as on PCs and Macs

2.) LinkedIn

The adage “It’s not what you know it’s who you know” was invented for the social network LinkedIn. With LinkedIn you can make business connections, recruit new team members and see what your team and your peers are up to 24/7. It’s also the place to chat with like-minded people and see what’s happening in your vertical market. The official LinkedIn app is free and available on Apple, Android, and BlackBerry mobile devices.

3.) Siri

Siri is a 24/7 personal assistant that you can keep in your pocket. Just click on the app and start talking. The artificial intelligence and the speech recognition software built into Siri allow you to ask simple questions like “where’s the nearest restaurant?” You can also give the assistant commands like “tell the FD I’m running late,” or “book a meeting next Wednesday”, and Siri does the rest. It writes and sends email messages and texts. It searches the web for anything you need to know. It plays the songs you want to hear. It gives you directions and shows you around. It places calls, schedules meetings, helps you remember, and wakes you up. Siri Assistant is a free tool provided on the Apple iOS 5 platform (It requires an iPhone 4S to work).

4.) Roambi Analytics

Spreadsheets are dull at the best of times, and when they’re on a mobile device they’re also largely unreadable, which is where Roambi comes in. Roambi Lite is a free online publishing service that automatically transforms your two-dimensional Excel data into interactive colourful mobile visualisations and instantly sends them to any iPhone or iPad. You can also upgrade to Roambi Pro, which is a secure, hosted service that allows you to add data from Salesforce and Google spreadsheets, share those visualisations with your team, and see the data change in real-time. Roambi is available for the iPhone or iPad.

5.) Expensify

Need a simple way to keep track of your business’s expenses and receipts? Free app Expensify can help. Scan receipts on your phone and export the file directly to your Excel file, so you won’t forget what the purchase was for. Get the app for all your employees to help keep track of their expenses and do away with wasted time spent trying to remember what they did on their business trip. You can also keep track of the expenses you need to bill to clients by project. Expensify generates a simple report and breaks down expenses by budget categories. This app is available on Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, IPad, and Windows phones.