Mobility is transforming the workplace by streamlining business processes and allowing employees to be more efficient than ever before, says JourneyApps. But there is a high risk associated with building enterprise apps. Many mobile initiatives fail, costing enterprises millions of dollars and months in development time, ultimately resulting in a loss of competitive advantage.
Businesses have many options when building apps. They can use in-house developers, hire outside experts or completely outsource a project. With so many options and vendors at their disposal, enterprises have to choose wisely. Whichever solution they do choose, they need to ensure that it addresses the unique needs of their organisation, at the lowest possible risk.
Enterprises should keep the following in mind when deciding on their strategy:
1. Optimise for speed of implementation rather than control
According to Gartner, using development tools that can produce apps more rapidly is crucial when trying to bridge the gap between mobile app demand and supply. Traditional coding approaches need to be replaced with more effective Rapid Mobile Application Development (RMAD) tools, which allow people with no programming skills to quickly assemble app prototypes and iterate on designs.
When it comes to software - and particularly app development platforms - there is always a trade-off between using complex, yet highly customisable technologies, and technologies that enable high speed of development. Enterprise apps usually don't require 80% of the complexity offered by 'highly customisable' app strategies. Development time is slowed down when enterprises want to retain complete control, and be able to customise every aspect of apps. Projects are also more like to fail due to technological complexity.
2. Favour rapid speed of deployment in order to go live as fast as possible
According to 56% of CIOs and mobile leaders surveyed by Kinvey, it takes anything from seven months to more than a year to build one app. In a fast-paced world where enterprise strategy and business processes evolve fast, this is far too long.
Rapid deployment is even more important than rapid development when it comes to maximising ROI, but many organisations continue to struggle with the best way to get apps to users.
3. Favour rapid iteration
Mobile apps are never truly finished. Users have come to expect regular updates and new features in apps and according to Oracle.com, 87% of enterprises update or release mobile apps every six months or less.
However, making changes to apps can be very cumbersome. Enterprises should opt for platforms that offer dynamic, over-the-air deployments of updates and that do not require any user intervention or app store submissions.
4. Avoid long technology learning curves
Some technology platforms can take months or years to master before organisations can competently build solutions on them, and companies don't have nearly enough internal capacity to build their own apps. Enterprises can overcome this by outsourcing development to a knowledgeable team that has proven success with delivering enterprise mobile apps. They will do all the development work and deliver successful apps the first time around.
5. Avoid infrastructure maintenance
Enterprises should opt for a platform that runs fully in the cloud. This means there is nothing to install or maintain, and therefore implementation and deployment can occur instantaneously.
6. Avoid vendor lock-in and large upfront expenditure
Many platforms try to lock their customers into long-term contracts, or they require a large capital investment upfront. More often than not, there are hidden costs and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) which enterprises did not budget or plan for. Enterprises should choose vendors that offer customer-friendly contracts which lower risk.
7. Avoid the risk of costs spiralling out of control
According to Kinvey, 18% of Mobile Leaders and CIOs say that they spend anything from $500 000 to over $1 000 000 per app, with an average of $270 000 per app. Development usually takes longer than planned, and cost more than planned. This often happens when using traditional approaches such as building applications in-house or hiring traditional outsourced consulting vendors.
Enterprises can avoid these nasty surprises and unplanned costs by favouring a vendor that offers a technology platform, as well as application development and support for a fixed monthly fee, therefore eliminating the possibility of cost spiralling.
8. Choose world-class offline support
Mobile apps should work just as good offline as online, but proper offline support for mobile apps is notoriously difficult to provide and implement properly. Many vendors claim to provide offline support, but this is often painful to use, and is subject to various limitations. Mobile solutions should offer asynchronous global automatic data sync capabilities, which allow apps to function fully offline.
9. Opt for a full-stack, fully integrated platform
Enterprises should choose vendors who combine the MADP with a tightly integrated Mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS), as well a mobile runtime with tightly integrated user management for optimal results and the lowest risk.
Steve Wood, a technology platform commentator, writes that enterprises should be very sure that vendors support the end-to-end platform. "Often vendors include third party frameworks and development tools as part of the platform offering. Make sure they will provide support for those frameworks, so if something breaks you have a clearly identifiable 'throat to choke'."
10. Choose a solution that integrates with existing systems
Difficulties in linking mobile platforms to existing databases will cause 45% of mobile enterprise app initiatives to be delayed or go over budget in 2015, according to an IDC report. Businesses should consider whether a platform has a comprehensive set of APIs before making any decisions. Vendors should have APIs that allow apps to integrate seamlessly with enterprise databases and systems.
11. Opt for bulletproof security
Security is the top mobility challenge facing enterprises today. Platforms should provide top-class infrastructure-level security. Data should also be protected on three different levels: In use (on mobile devices), at rest (in the cloud backend), as well as in transit (all communication between mobile devices and servers should occur over a Transport Layer Security encrypted channel.)
12. Choose well-designed architecture
When it comes to the mobile "frontend" architecture, decision-makers have to choose between building native apps, web apps or hybrid apps. Building native apps on multiple platforms is normally the most expensive option, as developing for each new platform adds up to 150% of the original cost. Developing natively also adds significantly to support and maintenance costs, as organizations require different skill sets for different platforms.
When it comes to backend architecture, enterprises must especially understand what capabilities are important before deciding on a particular approach. They should look at aspects such as app updating mechanisms, data handling, security sandboxing, integration and APIs.
13. Choose a scalable backend platform
Platforms should have measures in place to ensure high-availability, and to provide fault-tolerance for various infrastructure failure cases. Selected platforms should utilize redundant load-balanced application-server clusters and replicated database clusters.
The cloud environment of a platform should run on world-class cloud infrastructure and should have proactive infrastructure monitoring and paging systems in place.
14. Opt for cross-platform compatibility
Enterprises tend to steer away from native app development, as this means building separate apps for every platform. Ideally enterprises should be able to build an app once and run it on all major platforms. A useful bonus, is a platform that can also support running apps on a desktop computer, for example through a Chrome app.
15. Be absolutely certain about support availability
Often enterprises do not prioritize support when planning an app rollout, and are then faced with additional unexpected costs down the line. Decision-makers should choose a vendor that provides high-quality, continuous support.
To talk to a mobility expert about your business processes, get in touch or send an email to hello@journeyapps.com. To learn more about what JourneyApps does, visit www.journeyapps.com
Share
JourneyApps
JourneyApps combines a world-class platform with highly trained and experienced engineers, to deliver flexible mobile solutions at lightning speed. They help enterprises understand their mobile challenges, and build and deliver complete solutions for them so that enterprises don't have to worry about a thing.
JourneyApps' tailor-made solutions enable management to use mobile devices as tools to track and measure processes and performance in real time, in order to gain better visibility and control, and save costs.
Editorial contacts