5 Things to Look for in an Enterprise Mobile Development Platform Solution

The article is written by Mike Miranda, who writes about enterprise software and products covered by software company such as Rocketsoftware.

Today many companies are looking to have their own mobile applications for the employees. With the right solution, you can build a mobile app that will fit your organization’s needs like a glove.

1. Intuitive development is a must

The whole point of picking an enterprise mobile app development platform is that it puts you in the driver’s seat of the development. However, this won’t be doing you any favors if once you get there, you have no idea what you’re doing. Obviously, there will be a bit of a learning curve involved, but what you don’t want is a solution that is difficult to adopt.

Even when your developers are highly skilled, you want to choose a solution that is easy to use. It will also help to look for a platform designed smoothly carry out your mobile objectives. Look for one from an existing vendor who has already succeeded in your field and you’ll be far more likely to find a practical solution that won’t cause endless headaches and delays.

2. Real-Time updates

Another feature you need in the chosen solution is real-time updates to the app you’re building. One disadvantage with hiring mobile app developers is that you may not see what you’re paying for until the development is all done. It may then become apparent that the developers made some mistakes, at the very least, you’re going to wait a while before you get the app you want. Besides losing time, you might need to spend additional money fixing the mistakes.

To avoid this same problem when you’re at the wheel, find a solution that will make it clear the current status of the app while you’re building it. Otherwise, you could be in for an unwelcome surprise.

3. Seamless integration with your enterprise’s business systems

Most likely you already have many applications and systems your company depends on and uses in its daily work. Take this dependency into consideration before choosing a right solution and definitely before you actually building the app.

It is vital to have your custom-built mobile application sync up with your enterprise’s digital anatomy. Amongst other things, this means a flexible API entry point that will allow easy sharing between your application and the host systems your business runs on.

Once everything is synced up and working properly, the result should give your mobile app one sole system for engagement that will work as a gateway to the rest of your enterprise systems. Otherwise, you’ll be making more work for your users who may ultimately decide it’s not even worth it.

4. Security at the design level, from the ground up

Most of you have probably already considered information security important, must-have feature. Anytime you go online; you need to be sure you’re safe from malicious parties that may be targeting you. Of course, this needs to be an even bigger concern for those of you going online with a mobile application linked to your company’s internal systems. The application backend, especially, is an attractive target for hackers and other prying eyes because the valuable corporate data is highly concentrated there.

Fortunately, security is such a common demand these days that software vendors pay extra attention to it.

Encryption any form of communication. Only chose a solution that ensures every type of message sent through your app is completely encrypted. You can’t place a high enough priority on this feature.

However, security also means thinking about the people who use your company mobile app. Whether it will just be your own employees, customers, partners or contractors, it’s a good idea to look for a solution that will give you the option to keep track of all your users. You want the digital equivalent of a logbook so that you know when people used your app and even what they did. This way, if something goes wrong, you’ll know who is responsible.

Sometimes, problems are caused by perfectly well-meaning individuals. All the same, you need to be able to trace such actions because it might mean more retraining or going over procedures with the employees.

Lastly, at some point, you’ll most likely have to revoke someone’s access to your enterprise mobility application. The employees may decide to move on to another company and no longer need to use the application. This is when you need to not only be able to erase their credentials but all application data they may have on their mobile devices.

5. Application Management

This segues nicely into another important feature you need to look for in an enterprise mobility solution. Once the development of your mobile app is complete, you want to be able to manage it, for example, to control people’s access.

You might want to pull reports on your app to assess how well the app is being used and any problems that might be occurring. The soon you track, the sooner you make sure the problem don’t turn into something far worse.

Application management is a lot like the analytics and reporting you use to track your website’s performance. Not only you want people to use your app, but you also want to make sure they’re doing so optimally. Otherwise, in some way or another, you’re wasting money to build an app few people want.

The data you track will also come in handy when it’s time to update your program as you’ll know precisely what needs to be improved and what can be left behind.

Hopefully, you now see how important it is to have a custom-built mobile application for your company needs. If you’ve been putting off getting one in the past, it may have been because you were afraid of the cost associated with it and the security risks it might introduce to your company.

As long as you pick the right solutions to help you build the app in house or the right partners, this no longer needs to be a concern.

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Rocket Software's products cover Terminal Emulation, Legacy Modernization, Enterprise Search, Big Data and Enterprise Mobility.