Businesses must maximise mobile app management or risk wasting investment and disappointing users.
This is according to Accenture's recent study - Growing the Digital Business: Spotlight on Mobile Apps which seeks to explore how companies are applying digital technologies to improve organisations.
Globally Accenture surveyed nearly 2 000 executives in nine industries and 15 countries around the world.
According to the study, the vast majority of executives surveyed recognise the value of mobile apps for their business (87%), but few are well prepared to successfully deploy and maintain those apps.
Despite the overall enthusiasm for mobile apps, widespread adoption and use of apps within the enterprise has yet to occur, says MD of Accenture Digital Lee Naik.
Within the enterprise, app adoption is far from widespread. The most pervasive types of apps - productivity, operational, management and customer facing - were reported as being currently
deployed by just slightly more than four in 10 executives, says Accenture.
Naik points out one possible reason mobile apps aren't more pervasive in the enterprise is that many companies have yet to put in place measures that facilitate successful adoption.
Most organisations lack a comprehensive strategy at the start of any mobile app project, or do not have the in-house skills to look after the management of applications post-launch, notes Naik.
Nearly one third of survey respondents (27%) claimed the lack of internal skills when developing, building and managing apps was a challenge for them, says Accenture.
"Businesses are not keeping a close eye on their apps. Nine out of ten respondents told us that they see high customer demand for effective mobile apps, but despite that half of respondents felt that mobile apps cannot be appropriately secured for business purposes, and only 45% of them have crash reporting in place," says Abhijit Kabra, mobile applications practice lead, Accenture Digital - Mobility.
According to Kabra, to get the best results from apps, businesses must do rigorous testing before launch and robust app management once deployed. Not only does this help to provide the best possible user experience, but it will also help make sure that security challenges are addressed as an ongoing priority, he notes.
"Many companies are neglecting to continually improve their existing apps. So, they risk wasting their investment."
Mobile apps should be considered as part of a broader enterprise IT and digitalisation strategy from the start, says Naik. To get the greatest value from apps, businesses must implement strong testing and ongoing app management programs, in order to provide the best possible experience to all users, he adds.
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