Considerations, Architecture and “Must Have’s” for Enterprise Mobile App Development

SMARTPHONES AND TABLETS are completely changing the way that people run their lives. There seems to be an app for just about every aspect of our personal life. Now, more and more businesses are looking at creating mobile apps for employees and customers alike. 

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But developing software for today’s distributed enterprises is not a simple task. Developers must often work with multiple technologies, highly distributed environments and computing networks often built on a hybrid infrastructure combing legacy systems with newer ones. Add the pressure to develop applications for the growing range of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices and you can understand how many may balk at the idea. 

For those aiming to develop a mobile app that will make employees more productive or customers more informed, there are some common mistakes that developers often make. Issues such as app performance, security and real-time monitoring are ones that are unique to the enterprise and need to be addressed as such.

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To help avoid these, here are some do’s and don’ts: 

DO’s

1. Think about the user experience

Regardless of whether it’s a tablet or a smartphone, mobile devices are fundamentally different from desktop and laptop computers. As such, it’s imperative that you don’t try to simply port an existing desktop application over to mobile.

Mobile devices have a different form factor (and screen size), usually have less processing resources and very different input mechanisms. Trying to simply copy the interface as a one-to-one will make for an app that is unintuitive and hard to manage. 

In the same way as many websites have developed a separate version optimised for mobile, your app needs to be designed with the user experience at its core.

2. Incorporate the sensors and form factor

It1s worth remembering that most of today’s mobile devices have 3G or LTE, a camera, GPS, accelerometers, Bluetooth and wi-fi (and some also include near field communication sensors too).

Make the most of these sensors. From basic features like reorienting the display if the device is tilted, through to allowing users to snap a picture and upload it straight into the system or get real-time updates based on location.

3. Meshing services with a business context

Just as mobile devices place a wide of sensors at your disposal, so there a lot of third party applications that can easily be integrated into your business app, such as mapping and traffic information or even social media feeds if that’s applicable.

4. Empower the users

Our mobile devices are always within reach and highly personal. When developing an enterprise mobile app, make sure it delivers something that truly empowers them.

Instead of just maintaining the status quo but in mobile form, a well thought-out app can enable users to be more productive, make their jobs easier and even revolutionize a workforce. And this can just be the low-hanging fruit; a small change that make a process smoother or shaves a few minutes off a task can make all the difference.

5. Consider real-time

Mobile devices are with us almost all the time. Their always-on and connected status means that a good enterprise mobile app can help a business become more operationally responsive.

By integrating real-time updates into your business app, users can respond to changing conditions based on information from a variety of sources. This could be inventory or logistics management, CRM systems or third party feeds such as traffic updates.

DON’Ts

1. Don’t create an app for the sake of it

When everyone and their dog is creating an app there can often be pressure from senior management to create one as well.

Avoid creating an app for the sake of it. Spend the time to identify a need within the business or industry that a mobile app can help solve. Think about how the app can shake up the way things are done to deliver better results.

2. Learn from consumer apps but don’t try to copy them

There are hundreds of thousands of consumer mobile apps around today. When developing a mobile app for your business there’s a lot that can be gleaned from consumer apps to improve a business application. But be careful not to get too blinded by the slick, simple features.

Sometimes business applications need to offer deep, rich functionality and complex features. These can obfuscated to some degree, but shouldn’t be avoided if needed.

3. Don’t try to ‘mobile’ everything

Just as you shouldn’t create a mobile app for the sake of it, not every aspect of a business is suited to being run over mobile. A lot of mid and back-office services won’t benefit from an app.

There’s no definitive list about what industries, functions or processes will and won’t suit mobile. Spending some time thinking about what applications and services can benefit from a mobile app will ensure you don’t waste time developing something no-one will use.

4. Don’t ignore security and governance

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It’s easy to think of mobile apps as ‘light’ versions and hence not required to stand up to the same scrutiny as desktop applications. But an enterprise will provide access to sensitive corporate information, and need to be treated as such.

In fact, the ease with which mobile devices can be lost or stolen makes security and governance even more an imperative when developing a mobile app for your business.

5. Don’t develop like a desktop application

Many desktop enterprise applications were developed over the course of months or even years. With long development and QA cycles.

Mobile development is extremely well suited for more agile development platforms and methodologies. When developing a mobile app, you can iterate quickly with short development cycles. Once the core functionality is there, you can deploy the app, listen to feedback and adapt to business changes.

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Which tools do you use? Share your enterprise app development tips in the comments below.