Enterprise Mobility has proved to be an opportunity for organisational transformation. ‘Anytime-anywhere’ access to critical business information and realisation of benefits like better customer service, employee satisfaction, new business opportunities and reduced operating cost are crucial drivers to implementing enterprise mobility across industry verticals. All these factors have turned mobility into a key component of enterprise IT infrastructure, driving mobile investments and propelling growth of the global enterprise mobility market.
But the primary challenges of enterprise mobility – Cost, Complexity and Corporate Data Security, need to be addressed. BYOD has created a grey area for businesses regarding separation of company and personal information. Implementing plethora of software and applications across the board so that all devices seamlessly work together is another challenge. Security, remote access to tools like CRM on mobile devices, fragmentation of devices etc., are all parts of the bigger challenges.
It’s clear there are many issues standing in the way of efficient enterprise app development— from lack of strategy and budget to inappropriate infrastructure. As the number of apps being developed is expected to grow, it’s only going to get worse. Apps have the opportunity to increase productivity, create revenue streams, and improve employee satisfaction. Hence, the process by which they are developed needs to be given proper attention. Here are 5 things to help overcome key challenges of Enterprise Mobility:
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1. Cloud computing:
For many organisations, deploying apps in the cloud allows for significant cost savings and increased speed to market. Leveraging the cloud during app development can be beneficial during prototyping or parallel branch development. It’s important to keep in mind, however that some apps aren’t suitable for development in the cloud—it doesn’t always work like in the real world.
2. Centralise app development:
Building apps in silos—allowing product lines or functions (e.g., sales, marketing, etc.) to lead their own app development projects—can lead to inefficiency. Plenty of today’s mobile leaders have admitted these product groups lead their own projects independently. However, centralising development via enterprise IT has many benefits. Most significantly, it helps in determining the key phases of the app lifecycle process—such as development, testing, and deployment—which means best practices can be established, repeated and improved upon with each app.
3. Identify organisation-wide goals for mobile:
CIOs must balance constant pressure from all sides of the organisation. Before embarking on a new initiative, there are several factors to consider. For example, which mobile projects will best support corporate goals? Where does mobility fit into IT? How are mobile projects prioritised? How will sensitive information be protected? Creating a strategic plan means defining the organisation-wide priorities for mobile, and how initiatives will be structured, deployed and managed. And eventually, determining how these goals and strategies will evolve and grow.
4. Turn oft-repeated development steps into reusable building blocks:
chances are that the building blocks of an app has been built before for another project. Therefore, pulling out and categorising oft-repeated development steps to turn them into reusable building blocks is a way to save time, money, and frustration for future projects. Don’t duplicate your efforts. App integrations done once and exposed via service catalogs can enhance productivity and efficiency, with the same ringing true for mobile client features (caching, sync, network management etc.).
5. Stick to your core competencies:
Some businesses are experts at mobile infrastructure, but the vast majority is not. With all the moving parts and players in mobile development, it’s important to find partners who are experts in areas you’re not. If you can’t overcome these obstacles in-house, evaluate provider options and find a partner that fits your unique needs and will help you stay up-to-date. Negotiate the contract and terms—and leave scalability, uptime and feature upgrades to a platform company who specialises in these areas.
Robosoft is well equipped to meet the challenges of Enterprise Mobility. We have a proven track record of offering one of the best ‘user experience’ in mobile app development services. We offer complete (end-to-end) services in the mobility space, covering every aspect of mobility life cycle (Strategy & Design, Engineering and Marketing).
Why not connect with us to find out how we can add value to your enterprise?
