Many companies now look into developing enterprise mobile apps to effectively manage communication between employees, track progress and automate accounting in an organization.
This article will help you better understand the world of enterprise mobile app development, oversee the upcoming challenges and choose the right framework for the solution. Moreover, you can find estimated costs and timeframes for the future app. Let’s go!
What is enterprise mobile app development?
An enterprise mobile app is a solution used by a company to facilitate work processes and to make them cost and time-efficient. However, the definition is not that easy.
The world knows many examples of non-enterprise apps that became commercial usage cases and vice versa. For instance, Microsoft Word, Excel, Zoom, Skype or even Adobe Photoshop. So, what is the core feature that makes an app ‘enterprise’ if not the purpose of usage?
Forbes says that an enterprise solution is one that is ‘built for speed, built for scale and built for all the down and dirty data flows it will have to shoulder in its post-operationalized state.’
How can a company benefit from an enterprise mobile app?
Structured workflow and well-organized internal processes can enhance a team’s efficiency and mental well-being. Research shows, implementation of enterprise mobile apps can increase productivity at a workplace by 40%.
The link between productivity and enterprise apps is simple: for example, if you connect all employees via corporate messenger, instead of calling, sending faxes, or running between the floors, they can just find a person on the app, spending less time and nerves. While you will cut expenses on paper and phone plans.
Many companies worldwide have already unlocked these benefits. According to Fliplet, 66% of organizations are expected to increase their investments into enterprise mobile app development in the next three years. The enterprise mobile solutions market is expected to reach $430 billion in revenue by the end of 2021.
Types of enterprise mobile apps
Generally, there are three types of enterprise apps basedhttps://www.cleveroad.com/blog/enterprise-mobile-application-development on the category of their users:
👤Employee-level apps. These are used internally only by co-workers to help keep up with updates, communicate with each other or to create and track tasks within the company.
👥 Department-level apps. Such solutions help specific departments, for example, marketing or customer support. They can be both internal and external and, for example, help customer support managers stay in touch with clients and manage feedback.
👨👩👧👧 Company-level apps. They work like a private network, connecting all employees in the company. The difference between employee-level and company-level apps is that the second one can have different levels of access or database and document storages.
Examples of enterprise apps
Enterprise apps can have different functionality, and you have probably heard about several popular solutions! Let’s break down a messenger, a task tracker, a customer support software and an online payment service.
Slack
The Slack team believes that messages are more productive than emails. That’s why they created a corporate messaging platform where you can send a text person-to-person, create a private group or an open channel. Also, they allow voice calls in the app. The enterprise tool has been proven to increase productivity by simplifying communication within a team.
Jira
Jira is a software for project management. It allows users to create bugs or issues, assign them to the responsible department and track progress. No task will be lost or forgotten!
Salesforce
Salesforce is a service as a software (SaaS) company that brings together customers and companies. The app gives all departments — including marketing, sales, commerce, and service — information about sales and the source of it, including a single, shared view of every customer.
Stripe
Stripe is an online payment service that helps companies send and receive payments. They proved APIs that you integrate to a web or a mobile application to add banking features.
5 key benefits of enterprise mobile app development
Enterprise mobile apps can make the life of your company easier in 5 different ways:
- Speed up the distribution of information. Enterprise mobile solutions not only facilitate communication between team members, but also help to keep important files and documents in one place. To share important news with all employees you only need to send a message to a channel. Members will receive notification shortly and see what you have to say.
- Optimize the workflow. Let’s imagine, you have a task for a design department. Instead of emailing your idea and waiting for a reply, you can just create it on your task tracking app and see when they start working on it and when you need to jump in and check the results. No more lost emails, missed calls or long, printed task descriptions with technical requirements!
- Boost agility. The agile method is a flexible and transparent approach to planning and executing in a company through communication and collaborative effort. Enterprise mobile solutions can simplify supply chain management and improve the overall efficiency of the completion of tasks.
- Onboard employees. If you want to enhance efficiency, then you should use an enterprise app to simplify the onboarding process. It will save time and effort of HR managers.
- Monitor the performance via smartphone. Another reason for enterprise app development is to monitor financial performance . Such accounting apps help users see all transactions of the bank account and store all the bills right in the app.
Challenges of enterprise mobile app development
Here are 5 things to consider before starting enterprise mobile application development for your company.
- Data security. Your enterprise app will inevitably be installed on personal devices. Since you will be storing company documents and secrets in the app, it is essential to think about the extra protection of corporate information. One of the many ways is to automatically turn on two-factor authentication for all accounts.
- App management. To control and update an enterprise app, you will need a trained IT team who are aware of how the solution was developed and, thus, know all hidden secrets.Also, related to both app management and data security, your company will need an IT policy — a document, a quiz, a short course — anything to help employees learn how to protect both their and the company’s data.
- Real-time updates. Technologies in the modern world change rapidly and new features occur every year. To keep your app up-to-date and provide the most innovative features, make sure you have a team of developers that keeps an eye on technology news and can provide updates.
- API integration. To unlock more useful features for your enterprise app, integration with third-party software is a must. For example, it can be cloud services, like Oracle, SAP and others.
- Expertise and experience. Enterprise mobile app development process needs a team of experts to fulfill all its goals. It contains crucial aspects like database integration, UI/UX design, and the needs of the security system — only experienced developers can make such apps convenient for usage.
Mobile Enterprise Security
Mobile enterprise security is the biggest challenge for software development because weak authentication can be easily hacked and all the corporate data will be accessible for malicious users.
We’ve already defined that data security is a great challenge of enterprise mobile software development and here are some tips for you to keep the mobile enterprise app secure:
- Document a comprehensive policy to every mobile device user. A clear policy will help all users avoid security threats.
- Enroll and configure every new device. Every mobile device should be correctly configured to avoid threats to organizational security.
- Protect data and user’s privacy. If you comply with GDPR, you protect not only data and user privacy but also extend a measure of legal protection.
- Prioritize updates. Failure to update can cause errors and stop the normal operation of the device, and can leave devices vulnerable.
Step-by-step enterprise mobile application development process
You have an idea of developing an enterprise app. What’s next? There are 7 steps of the mobile app development process.
Step 1. Determine business goals. Firstly, you need to solve the problem of people who use your mobile enterprise application platform. It’s better if you understand the goals clearly — so you’ll know what features your future app should have.
Step 2. Calculating budget. You need to find experienced enterprise development companies that provide app development services and ask for estimates to make your decision
Step 3. Choosing a platform. Now you need to pick a platform: iOS or Android. If you want to build an enterprise mobile app or application for one of these platforms, then you need native development services. If for both — then cross platform. Determining the type of app development services and software development is important because it allows you to choose the enterprise mobile application development company right.
Step 4. UI/UX design. Wireframes show the main app logic and are prototypes of your future app. They help you make sure you move in the right direction.
After the wireframe stage, move to UI/UX design. The logic of the app should be clear and the app’s interface should help users solve their problems. The app’s success depends on how it looks and feels.
Step 5. Development. Here the development team shows its worth and starts software development. It’s the most challenging part of enterprise mobile application development.
Step 6. Testing. Testing happens during the enterprise mobile application development process and after the software development is finished. The QA team checks every user’s scenarios and reveals errors and bugs to make the app comfortable to use.
Step 7. Support and maintenance. After the app is released, it’s time to collect feedback and provide timely updates.
Costs and timeline
Usually, we determine precise costs of the project on the discovery stage, as it may vary depending on the complexity of your idea.
| Stage | What are we doing | How long it takes | Costs |
| Brief interview | Discuss the idea of your app | 1 day | no costs |
| UI/UX design | Plan and execute the interface, build a prototype | 4 weeks | $ |
| Development | Create the interface as a user will see it. Deal with the architecture of an app and connect it with servers. | 10 weeks | $ |
| QA Testing | Test the usability of your application | Alongside development | $ |
| Project management | Chaperoning the project and solving administrative tasks | Alongside development | $ |
In total, according to similar projects we executed, enterprise mobile app development will take up to 6 months and will cost up to $150,000 approximately. If you wish to get a precise estimate of your enterprise mobile app development project — contact us!
How to choose an enterprise mobile application development company
Today there is no lack of software development companies. But how to choose the best of the best?
Good portfolio
If you want to build an enterprise mobile app or application, you need to search for good portfolios. A good portfolio shows technical expertise and niche experience and helps identify similar successful projects. The portfolio gives a glimpse into team experience and skill set.
Happy clients
There’s nothing wrong to connect with previous clients of an enterprise mobile application development company. Such feedback will be useful if you can’t decide which company to choose.
Budget-friendly company
One of the important factors is cost. If your app has many features or a high level of complexity, then your budget needs to be flexible. The budget also depends on timeframes and position of the development company. It’s a great decision to outsource the mobile app development process — it’s cheaper and easier because the team is already well-working and needs less time for the software development process.
Our cases: iZumator
iZumator is an educational platform for a mobile phone store chain.
The client had a clear understanding of the business goals. iZumator was supposed to be an onboarding platform, but then it became something more than just an internal onboarding and education platform. It grew outside the company and aimed to take space on the online education market.
The killer feature — every student can become a mentor and teach other users. They can switch between the Student and Mentor roles without creating a new account.
Wrapping up
If you are a business owner, an enterprise mobile application can bring many benefits to your company: increase the productivity of the team, cut operational expenses, optimize workflow and, overall, make the process more smooth and agile.
There are 4 obstacles you might face during the development: data protection, management of the apps, updates, and API integrations. At Purrweb we will help you to get through the main challenges during mobile app development.
We create robust solutions with a focus on cutting-edge UI/UX design to provide an enhanced user experience for your startup. With us, the development of an enterprise app will take approximately 6 months and will cost around $150,000.
If you are looking for an enterprise mobile app development company, we are here to have your back!
Wanna get a personalized estimation of your future enterprise app? Just fill in the quote and we will get back to you👇
