Injecting mobility into a business can have numerous positive effects on how a company operates, from boosting productivity and making cost savings, to empowering employees and adding flexibility into the workplace.  

With mobility on the action list for many businesses, here are ten requirements to help them rapidly deliver secure, enterprise-level mobile apps with great user experiences.

1. Prepare for the future

Even if you start your app thinking that it will be a simple app to a simple data source, it won’t always stay that way. To drive for a business outcome-focused solution, the typical operational data won’t be in the same system as the analytical or customer specific data, which targets improved customer experience.

>See also: Enterprise mobility management can contract and manage access to corporate data via mobile devices

2. Source feedback from the app’s users and quickly turn updates

After you launch the app through your trial phase and into production, change requests can arrive quickly. The ability to consume, adapt, implement and rollout in a short time is critical to an app’s success for user expectations and adoption. Without this, app adoption will fall fast.

3. Support the employee

Apps must support the business process of the employee the way that the employee works. Ensure that you design outside-in to win.

4. Perceived performance is everything

Good performance is expected, but it’s hard to measure and react to. Uncontrollable network, wireless and external systems will wreak havoc on an app’s perceived performance from a user perspective. Users need and want to know that the app works properly and simply without being intrusive. Make sure the app is designed to occasionally connect and support offline mode for business functions that require snappy user experience or where users may have no connectivity.

5. Ensure security and scalability

Understand how the app supports larger numbers of users and its impact on other systems in the business, both technically and operational. This is another landmine that can impede the rollout of the app in the critical adoption phase of any successful mobile solution.

>See also: The mobile network untangled – how to simplify mobility

6. Don’t overlook integrity and management of data>

Make sure that the apps can pass QA testing on variety and complexity of real world test conditions for data conflicts and data source integration. This is key otherwise the app might have big problems for IT and the line of business.

7. Improve user experience

Take advantage of what only mobile devices can offer around location-based services (LBS) for everything from asset tracking to authentication for a more seamless user experience. The micro app strategy and the additional personas incorporated into the mobile solution might not run the app on a regular basis. Leverage the native notification services to alert and drive action. This can provide two to ten times improvement in the business plan around mobile apps.

8. Secure and agile delivery and management infrastructure

Look to leverage the cloud in infrastructure and multi-tenancy for the operations and evolution of the app roadmap.

9. Make sure your mobile apps are ready to consume data in real-time

As the IT team pushes harder for everyone to consume data from different sources – structured and unstructured – they need to use information from that data as it comes in. Report-based analytics are yesterday and will remain in the back office. Bring that data to the users in real-time as part of their processes and decision-making. Show that you can take in big data to super-charge the apps and create multiples in ROI.

10. Show value

Create a list of functionality and features that support the mobile app roadmap and business plan to get funding approved and support a net-positive ROI to the business. The solution, its functionality and supported business processes are different from anything else in place, especially in the order of priority. You will need a composite app optimised foundation to build modularity into the app foundation and plug-in the right functionality for the right persona. You want to reuse the work in other apps created.

>See also: Improving profitability and productivity through mobility

Industry experts are predicting that the demand for mobile apps will dramatically increase for enterprise organisations over the next few years. Using these ten requirements will help businesses rapidly deliver secure, enterprise-level mobile apps with great user experiences.  

Sourced from Jonathan Best, Kony