Is there anything more ho-hum mundane than another mobile app? There are currently more than 1.6 million apps available, not including those that never made it to the app stores, those that were rejected, and those that have been retired already. Many of these are business apps — designed to make work faster, easier, more convenient, blah blah blah. Honestly, users have heard it all before. So, what’s it going to take to raise the ante with your upcoming business app? Here’s how to take your business app to the next level.
Can You Eliminate the Data Silos?
There used to be reasons to keep data isolated in silos around the organization, but today’s demand for big data is doing away with that model. Everyone can benefit from the data collected by the others.
When entering the app development process, what developers most often find is that the data necessary to build a comprehensive, streamlined app is isolated in silos around the organization. This used to be a necessary way of doing business — finance owned and controlled their data, customer service owned and controlled their data, etc. But in the modern age of data, cloud, and mobile, it makes much more sense to house all of the organization’s data in an EDW (Enterprise Data Warehouse) or even a data lake. Then the mobile app can access all of the organizational data, and the data is also open to other initiatives, like comprehensive data analysis and predictive modeling.
Do You Have to Reinvent the Wheel Again?
App developers have a tendency to reinvent the wheel over and over again. That is, they build a brand new back end for each business app they create. This is rarely, if ever, necessary. If you have already built a back end infrastructure for another application, reuse it for your new business app. Not only does this speed your time to market, it is also more stable and secure, because you’ve already done the troubleshooting and testing phases, plus most of the bugs have been discovered and worked out.
Is Social Really Necessary?
Unless there is a clear and realistic benefit to incorporating social into your app, don’t add those complexities to the mix.
It’s all the rage to tack social capabilities into every app that rolls off the assembly line, but with business apps (indeed with any apps) this isn’t always necessary or even reasonable. What purpose does the social connectivity serve? Most business apps need not connect to Facebook or Twitter to serve the organization’s purpose, and adding social connectivity can often lead to misuse and abuse of the app by the users. Unless there is a clear benefit for adding social access, leave this feature out completely.
Should User Levels Be One Size Fits All?
Just because a user gets admin or ‘super user’ privileges for one app or feature within the app doesn’t necessarily mean they need those higher privileges across the board. For instance, your CEO may need access to the highest levels of financial information, but (s)he doesn’t necessarily need or even want access to make technical modifications. Similarly, your IT manager needs the highest possible level of access to the technical side of the app, but likely doesn’t need any higher level to the business side of the app than the average user.
Much of the success (or lack of success) of an app is determined during the development phase, before the first testing ever begins. Be sure your app is set up for success with smart design from the ground up. Are you ready to get started on a powerful, useful business app? Visit Glance to get started today.
