By Victor Martin
With the majority of enterprises mobility as the important strategy for their business process and operation, enterprise mobile app development is continuing to get more traction and prominence. According to latest prediction, the mobile workforce is going to touch 100-million benchmark within 2020 in the US alone. So there is practically no check on the growth of enterprise mobility shortly. In fact, enterprise mobile apps in volume and diversity are soon going to compete with the consumer apps.
Just as the opportunity of developing enterprise apps is unfolding, we can expect a lot of new challenges as well. New technologies in the world of mobility are pushing the boundary and developers need to stand on their toe with the fast-evolving changes and emerging challenges. Let us introduce here ten invaluable tips for enterprise mobile app development for the present and future.
Considering back office integration
It is a common mistake by many developer companies and enterprises to consider back office integration of the mobile app only in the last phase of development process but in the time to come it has to be addressed to check the drainage of resources and development process without prior focus. When building a new mobile app, the businesses should consider integrating with the back office systems and operation throughout the development process. In fact, back office integration can guide the development of the app in many respects.
Different layers and customization options
This is the second most important aspect of modern enterprise mobile app development. In any enterprise, the usability of the mobile app across the business verticals and employees of different roles and responsibilities varies to a great extent. Naturally, the mobile app with all its features and access points for different information and processes cannot serve all the users in the same way. Top management personnel will not use the enterprise app in the same manner as a professional responsible for marketing or product promotion. So the mobile apps for enterprises with many verticals and different job roles must be provided different layers and customization options to make the same app useful for everyone in the company.
Enterprise mobile app security
Security has come as the biggest pain point in the recent times when it comes to mobile app development for enterprises. The sweet and lovable era of BYOD is already over. Enterprises can no longer feel assured and complacent about data security by depending on a loose approach to enterprise mobile security referred as Bring Your Own Device or BYOD.
Developers now need to consider integrating better and richer security tools inside the mobile app or deliver different layers of access to crucial business data. While the first option is about creating inbuilt security mechanism the second option is more about handling permissions to access data. But these approaches to mobile app security are radically different from earlier approaches like BYOD.
Building group of apps controlled by an admin app
To address the question of access ability and data security in healthcare enterprise mobile apps it has now become a popular approach to developing a number of apps for different verticals and responsibilities within the company and allowing control of them through an admin app. Through this approach, the businesses can ensure controlling access to crucial business information at different levels. While the top management will have total access and control to information handled by all respective apps, the individual employees in different roles can only access apps which are meant for them. In the one hand, this will ensure better security; on the contrary, it will boost efficiency and productivity without needing to sacrifice the ease of mobility for the safety reasons.
More native performance
Enterprise mobile apps can no longer sacrifice the productivity and efficiency in work process because of unavailability of a network. This is why it is extremely important to ensure more native performance and reduce the dependability on network connectivity. From design to the accessibility of business data to the availability of crucial features new breed of enterprise mobile apps should accommodate more native look, feel and performance. Even when there is no Wi-Fi connection available the sales personnel in the field should be able to use his company app to give a live demo or prepare a sales report.
More visual design with emphasis on quick usability
Enterprise mobile apps are important tools to build efficiency and ensure productivity of the workforce. Naturally, these apps cannot afford to hamper traction and engagement through the unnecessary clutter and text content. It should offer a look and feel of a tool rather than a content rich website. For most employees, enterprise apps are something quickly actionable and result oriented. So, a visually optimized design with quick to access features and tools is the ideal design approach for enterprise mobile apps.
Usability check and testing is crucial to ensure success
Finally, enterprise mobile apps should pass through different levels of usability checks and tests. When it comes to testing the app, the developers should go through a full stack of testing with each, and every aspect addressed. From testing the localization to contacting functional tests to testing performance with different workloads, the app should pass through all the tests and performance evaluation. After passing through all these tests, it is extremely important to test the new app in a real world setting. The last one will provide the insights about the app in real life situations.
To conclude, we can refer to the evolving trends in enterprise mobile app development to notice the upcoming challenges for developers. In the time to come, we can expect enterprise mobility to manage with the consumer apps and deliver consolidated apps with different layers for company people and consumers of the respective brand. The company employs, and consumers can use the same app with different access points or layers. If it comes, true companies will enjoy deeper access to consumer data and relevant insights to drive business even more accurately. Still, now it is just a possibility we can count on for the future.