Demand for Enterprise Custom Mobile Applications is Still Growing

We’ve stated the importance of adding mobility to your web application before, stressing that your company can be empowered with the tools and information that will enable your employees to ultimately be more accessible and successful. An article posted by Enterprise Apps Today refers to a newly published CDW survey that states that, 48 percent of 374 respondents said their mobile app budgets were bigger in 2014 than in 2013, with 20 percent of them noting that budgets grew more than 10 percent. Businesses approved an average of 5/6 off-the-shelf and custom mobile application solutions for employee use.

For the CDW survey respondents, “the most popular areas for custom mobile apps were communication, mentioned by 36 percent of respondents, sales support (35 percent) and data access (34 percent).” Not surprisingly, sales professionals were the most likely to utilize custom mobile apps (35 percent), followed by business/operations and IT systems (which tied at 32 percent) and senior management (31 percent). All facets of a company have something benefit from implementation of a mobile application.

David Nichols, IT transformation leader for EY Americas, spoke with eSecurity Planet and stated that if software development firms simply react to business needs without analysis and consideration to the mobile strategy, then they run the risk of “misaligned technology, policy and vendors that cannot even help you enforce your policies,” Less than half of CDWsurvey respondents prioritized strategic planning as a part of their mobile application deployment priority. Strategic planning and analysis that builds with a fundamental understanding of a company’s business needs will give way to an optimal security policy.

Many enterprises find that providing their end-users with “pervasive documentation that answers potential questions and serves as a go-to resource for end-users in need of help” was critical in optimization of time and the new resource they have acquired. It is the most sought-after part of implementation of a custom mobile solution with 34 percent of businesses stating that they would benefit from technical support and guidance through communication and documentation in using their new software. Following that, 30 percent support integration with current network services for an optimized experience,  26 percent advocate supporting the most popular mobile platforms in native applications for Apple iOS and Android, 26 percent prioritize optimizing the user experience with proper design and communication with the company itself, and 23 percent prioritize development firms that can accurately estimate project costs.

While there are many considerations to acknowledge before the design, development, and deployment of your mobile application, going mobile has proven to improve productivity and has become imperative in today’s increasingly less desk-bound world.