HOW TO: Get Your Business ‘Mobile App-Ready’

Over the weekend, I read a great article on LinkedIn by Daniel Burrus, Innovation Expert, Global Futurist and Strategic Advisor (among other titles), about the transformation of business processes. He goes on to explain how business mobile applications designed for a company’s internal use and competitive advantage will explode over the next couple of years.  In his words, business mobile apps are a “hard trend”, which is something that will happen.

Why Go Mobile?

The ability to conduct a business while on the go, anywhere and at any time, is becoming an essential competitive element in most businesses. (Click to Tweet)

Many executives and employees carry around the most sophisticated and powerful mobile devices that are on the market, so why not use these devices for business purposes? Mobilizing important corporate applications and functions will truly change the way we do business (Click to Tweet). The growing mobile workforce and the latest mobile tech advancements have the capacity to improve employee efficiency, executive decision-making and overall company productivity and growth.

Advantages

• Increases productivity as employees can input and send data anywhere, any time
• Increases speed of information shared by employees
• Eliminates paper & pen traditionally used by employees on inspection and construction sites– data becomes more accurate and accessible
• Employees can keep better track of projects & tasks by staying connected to the office at any moment
• Easy and quick access to sales force data when on the road
• Faster access to important information for better decision-making (essential for owners, executives and managers)
• Real-time data recording to improve quality and reduce errors
• Stay competitive in the industry

Steps to Enterprise Mobility

In 2013, Burrus surveyed 700 companies asking if they had developed a mobile app for their business and only 4% responded with ‘yes’, whereas 100% of the surveyors agreed that at least half of the businesses in their industry will have their own apps for business functions within the next 2 years. These responses clearly show that business executives understand this shift to enterprise mobility but haven’t taken the necessary steps to develop an application for their business yet.

If you’re a business executive looking to get started in developing a mobile app to manage your supply chain, logistics, purchasing, maintenance, warehouse management, project tracking or even sales support, follow these simple steps:

1. Look for areas in your company where mobility can truly add value to your business
2. Plan out the business process (or flow) of those areas and how you would like the data to be displayed
3. Choose the platform you want (i.e. iOS, Android, Windows Mobile…)
4. Choose between Native, Hybrid or Web application
   • Native: App developed on a single platform with the ability to take full advantage of device features. Downloadable through the App Store
   • Web: App run by a browser (mobile-optimized webpages); uses standard web technologies (i.e. HTML5, JavaScript…) and works on multiple devices.
   • Hybrid: Combination of Native & Web capabilities
5. Is your mobile app for Internal (employees) or External (customers (i.e. Mobile Commerce)) use
6. Choose whether you want Offline or Online use; see previous article

Therefore, in Burrus’ words, “you need to get ready for the mobile business app revolution now. Remember, we have two revolutions taking place: a hardware revolution (where our primary personal computer is shifting to our mobile devices like smart phones and tablets) and a software revolution (which is the mobile apps that will run on those devices). That means the rise of mobile apps for all business functions is a hard trend you can’t ignore” (LinkedIn, 2013).

Don’t be the last to make the change. Empower your employees with the right mobile applications for your business to achieve new levels of success (Click to Tweet).