Does
your company have everything it needs to succeed in the 21st
century? Hopefully, the answer is yes, but it’s worth it to think through all
this will entail. One element many companies are missing, despite their
confidence that they’re destined to succeed, is an app. If you’d like to join
the thousands of companies that have built their own, all it takes is an enterprise
mobility platform. Below, we’ll cover what this important tool does and how to
pick the best one for your company.

An
app is one of those things you may have been putting off for some time.
Although just about everyone owns a smartphone that’s packed with apps these
days, it’s still easy to think about them as the type of technological feature
reserved for other companies in other fields.

However,
this is the way a lot of people used to think about websites and the types of
companies they ran. Then, it was blogs and then it was social media pages. It
usually only took a few years for people to learn they were wrong about all of
these and needed to act quickly if they were to take advantage of these
options.

Apps
are now in the same boat, insofar as most companies are realizing they need to
develop some of their own. There are a number of reasons for this though. One
is simply that apps offer one more way for you to engage with your market.

An
app won’t just help you engage with your market though; it will allow you to do
so in a way that will make it easier to track your customer’s relevant actions
in relation to your company. Your customers will appreciate this because they
now have a direct line to you and know that you’ll be using this app to improve
how you service them.

Perhaps
the app you’re planning on building won’t be for your customers though.
Instead, maybe you’re looking for another way to connect with your employees.
An app will not only allow you to do this, but as in the prior example with customers,
it will let your company learn much more about your employees during business
hours.

If
you’ve been putting off acquiring an app with your company because you’re
afraid of the costs involved, you’re not alone. However, thanks to enterprise
mobility software, this is no longer much of a valid concern. This type of
program can allow you to develop your own custom app from scratch.

Let’s
now move onto the important features you want to look for in any app
development program you invest in.

The
whole point of buying an enterprise mobility platform is that this type of
software makes building an app something the laymen like you and I can do. If
you find that it’s difficult to work your software, then it defeats its own
purpose.

This
shouldn’t even be an issue, though, when you consider how far along the
software has come. You should literally be able to create the majority of your app
by doing little more than clicking and dragging. Find a platform that works
like this and it will be worth every penny you spend.

Another
cool feature to look for is a window in the interface that shows you what your
app looks like in real-time while you build it. This is the type of feature you
find with a lot of coding software, so it makes sense you’d find it when
creating an app. Basically, every time you make an addition or adjustment, the
window shows you the effect it will have. The point of this feature is that it
saves you from finishing your build and then being surprised by what you’ve
been making this entire time.

One
really easy way to ensure you get exactly what you want from your software is
to request a demo. Most manufacturers will include one no matter what, but if
you don’t see the option on their website, simply contact them and ask. They
will most likely understand the importance of this request. While a demo won’t
give you the full effect of what you’re paying for, it should still give you an
adequate idea.

Enterprise
mobility programs make it possible to create just about any type of app you may
have in mind. There are a few basic models you may be interested in creating
for your company or you might have something truly ambitious in mind.

Whatever
the case, it’s important to think about how your app will be working with your
company’s internal logic. At the moment, your company runs on a collection of
systems, right? It’s vital that your app is able to play nicely with this
digital infrastructure or you’ll most likely have created an asset for your
company that falls very far short of the mark. In fact, it may even cause more
harm than good.

Let’s
say you’re creating a customer-facing app, for example, that allows them to
place an order whenever they please. If you want this kind of thing to run
smoothly and actually serve as a convenience for your customers, you need the
app to connect with your company’s internal inventory system as well as the one
for shipping, if your company handles it in-house.

If
you skip this important feature, you’ll have to create a third-party connection
or otherwise have the orders taken manually once they arrive at the firewall.
Neither of these eventualities is very attractive. In fact, as we mentioned,
they could become problems.

Create
an app for your employees that involve a cumbersome workaround and they’ll most
likely ignore your efforts and come up with their own. Aside from the fact that
you then wasted your money, this kind of thing could leave your security
compromised.

It
probably goes without saying that you want to make sure you purchase an enterprise
mobility program that makes security a priority. Without solid security
measures, it will only be a matter of time before a hacker or some other
malicious party comes around looking for a handout.

Keep
in mind, too, that creating an app, while advantageous for a number of reasons,
means that there will be more instances of access to your company’s internal
system. It might not mean that your company gets more people trying to access
it, but there will definitely be more instances of employees trying. This alone
will make for an attractive offer to any hacker paying attention.

However,
if you’re making your app for employees, then you will definitely increase the
number of people trying to access your system, which represents an ever bigger
risk.

Fortunately,
encryption negates much of this. If the communications being sent from your app
to your company’s internal logic are protected with encryption, then you have
little to fear.

Still,
it’s worth thinking about role-based access for your users. Find a program that
makes this possible and you can keep access a bit more organized and worry less
about who is using the app and how.

Whether
we’re talking about a time card program or the blog on your site, it’s
important that you’re properly managing it. This is especially true with enterprise
mobility software though.

For
one thing, you want a log book of sorts that gets a digital imprint whenever
someone accesses the app. Then you want a way of monitoring what they did once
they were using that app. This might sound like a security measure, but it’s
just as much about improving performance and getting a firm understanding of
what your users may like to see in the second version you put out.  

Speaking
of which, this is also an important reason to find an enterprise mobility
program that gives you plenty of management features. Here’s something a lot of
people learn the hard way: the first attempt at making an app won’t be your
last, even if you’re using an enterprise mobility program.

You’ll
create one and it will look good and perform the way you want. You’ll even have
a number of people test it out and then refine it a bit before finally
releasing it. That’s when the feeding frenzy starts. Your app is going to get
pushed to the limit and it’s then that you’ll know what you could’ve done
better.

As
long as you have management features with your platform, though, this doesn’t
have to become a major concern. Just update the app based on what you found and
send out an update to all the apps on devices that already downloaded it.
That’s really all there is to it. 

Don’t
become one of those companies that get beat out by competitors simply because
they shied away from leveraging technology. While a lot of digital assets out
there aren’t worth your time, mobile apps are. By using software to create your
own, you can get a high-performing one that’s unique to your business.