If your company is still lacking an app, don’t wait any longer. Instead, invest in enterprise mobility software and just make your own. The following is a list of features you’ll want to look for.
Intuitive Design
No one wants to deal with software that isn’t easy to use. That probably goes without saying. However, it’s important to consider the type of program you’re purchasing here. After all, it’s not like you’re buying an add-on to your email. Except for perhaps very few of you, enterprise mobility applications will represent a brand new world. You’ll have never used something like this before, so the easier it is to get started, the better.
Also, let’s not forget that ease-of-use is the whole point of this type of program. If you had all the time, money and patience in the world, you could just hire a professional programmer for the job or try handling it on your own. Any software that wasn’t made by a developer who understands the importance of intuitive design will most likely never get used. It will become what we refer to as shelfware, which is software that ends up, you guessed it, on the shelf.
Fortunately, most manufacturers understand that their market places a premium on this kind of thing. As a result, you can find platforms that are easy to use as clicking, dragging and dropping. Just choose the functionality you want and you should be able to handle the rest with your mouse.
Still, many of you will probably be a bit nervous about this initial step. To assuage your concern, try out a demo of any product you’re considering or go through a trial period. Both of these are fairly common within the industry, so you have to wonder about any company that doesn’t offer them.
Fluid Integration
Another really important feature you need to look for in your choice of enterprise mobility software is fluid integration. By this, we’re referring to how the platform will work with your company’s internal system. Unless you’ve literally just begun your business, you most likely already have a digital infrastructure you depend on for your day-to-day functions.
In most cases, too, you want the app you build to work well with this internal system. For one thing, it would be great if you could take advantage of what your internal framework already does and pivot it toward other goals. This would expand what your app is capable of and also keep you from having to reinvent the world in some cases.
However, the main reason you need your enterprise mobility and internal systems to get along is because that’s the only way you’ll be able to create a high-quality app. Imagine if you wanted to use that app so that customers could order from your company while on the go. How well do you think that would work if their order couldn’t go right to your company’s inventory system? What if the order went through, but the inventory wasn’t noted or the shipment couldn’t get sent?
Some of you might be thinking you don’t need this type of API functionality. Instead, you might try to map a workaround on your own. You wouldn’t be the first one to try this, but you also wouldn’t be the first one to regret doing so. That’s because these workarounds usually leave a lot to be desired.
Then you end up with an app your customers won’t touch, making it a complete bust as far as your investments go. If it was supposed to be for your employees, they may decide to ditch it too or try their hand at creating a workaround. Despite their best intentions, this attempt could create something far worse that comes back to hurt your company in the end.
Encryption
No digital investment would be a good idea these days if it wasn’t protected from hackers. It’s a sad state of affairs, but the online world just isn’t safe for anyone who doesn’t take necessary precautions. However, this is especially true for companies. Malicious parties know that hacking a business’ system will give them plenty of opportunities to make money, cause embarrassment and stir up trouble for their customers.
Although the benefits of creating an app far outweigh the potential burdens, it’s still worth considering the risks this type of asset involves. You’ll be greatly increasing your company’s exposure online. Every time a customer uses the app, that’s another communication sent to your internal system. This also means another opportunity for a hacker to find their way in.
The best form of protection for this job is encryption. With encryption, an impossibly complex string of code is used to protect access to the sensitive data and only those with the right key code can get through. Only use enterprise mobility platforms with this type of digital protection.
Application Management
Lastly, there’s the management of your app to think about. What you’ll soon find is that once you get done using an enterprise mobility platform to create an app, you still have plenty more to do. An app is will need to be constantly managed, just like any other digital component of your business.
A big part of this will be managing who has access to it. Depending on the type of app you create, you may not want all employees and/or customers to have access or at least not to equal degrees. You may also wish to change this level of access as you please too.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that the first time you create your own app, it will most likely have a bug or two. That’s to be expected, but if you have the right management features, you can quickly make the changes you need to make and get an updated version out to your users.
This may sound complicated, but just remember that an enterprise mobility will help you create a custom app for your business. Just take the time to apply the list above and you’ll find the software that has all the features you need.
About the Author
Mike Miranda writes about enterprise software and covers products offered by software companies like www.rocketsoftware.com about topics such as Terminal Emulation, Legacy Modernization, Enterprise Search, Big Data and Enterprise Mobility.