Top Tips for Enterprise Mobile App Development

A surge in mobile enterprise app demand prompted a 3.3 per cent growth in the overall applications market in 2012, whilst a staggering 68 per cent of businesses were estimated to develop a mobile app during 2013.
Specialised mobile enterprise apps, which are specially designed to aid business practices like training or sales, can increase efficiency tenfold, whilst significantly improving a company’s ability to service their client. However, before taking the plunge, there are a number of key considerations to be taken into account…
Planning
Before starting application development, it’s imperative to determine exactly why it’s being developed in the first place. Only by doing this from the outset will the key objectives be met when the app is deployed. Questions to ask include:

• What problem are you attempting to solve?
• What workflow issues do you want to streamline with the new technology?
• How will your employees use it to become more productive?
• How will it benefit the client or customer?

You will also need to determine how the application will be managed internally; there’s no point developing a program that takes so much management time, the benefits of having it in the first place are negated.
Put the User Experience First
Ideally, a mobile app should enable the workforce to be more productive, time-efficient, and can even – when thought out correctly – revolutionise their way of working. To ensure the maximum benefits are gleaned from it, the app’s functionality and design should be tailored to accommodate the needs and preferences of its end user.
Consider the Business Context
There are so many popular consumer apps around that it’s difficult not to let them shape and influence applications designed for business use. However, consumer apps with simplistic functionality and slick design often don’t need the capacity to perform what’s required of an enterprise app.
To achieve the key objectives outlined in the planning stage, sometimes business apps need the functionality to run complex features and analysis. Don’t try to over-simplify processes at the expense of getting what you need from your software.
Choosing a Hosting Provider
Selecting a reliable hosting provider for your app is imperative for its future success. Determining the service level agreement will reduce the risk of security or reliability issues tenfold. When selecting a provider, at the very least you should take care to determine:

• Whether the data centre is staffed 24 hours a day and who by; is there a constant security presence?
• What is the protocol in the instance that technical difficulties arise?
• Will the data be encrypted?
• How often is data backed-up, and where is the back-up data stored?

When designed and implemented properly, enterprise applications can provide businesses with a competitive edge and significantly increase workforce productivity. However, due care should be taken to ensure that they become a help rather than a hindrance to business operations.
This guest blog post is written by Ali Raza on behalf of http://www.interoute-iam.com/. Ali is a very keen blogger and writes content to please emerging business audiences and add value to their lives. In his free time, Ali likes to get things ticked off from his bucket list.