Big Trends in Enterprise Mobile App Development

Mobility is going to be the big change-maker in the businesses across industries, across the world in the coming few years. While enterprise mobile app development has been discussed and debated over the past couple of years, 2014 is going to see many businesses shed their inhibitions and begin taking baby steps into this space.

The push for enterprise mobile apps comes from supporters who believe that they have the power to increase employee productivity by enabling them to work even on the move. Enterprise mobile apps can also drive revenues by providing more features and flexibility to the workforce. But even as organizations debate the benefits of developing mobile apps for their business, the lack of a clear directive and the inertia to push for something new prohibits them from creating a comprehensive mobile strategy before taking the plunge.

The following is a discussion about major trends in the enterprise mobility space that organizations should consider in 2014:

Increased focus on user experience

User experience is no longer a concern for customer-facing applications, but is expected to become just as important for enterprise mobile apps as well. Earlier, business apps may have focused merely on providing functionality with very basic design, but in 2014, you can expect to see richer, more interactive enterprise apps being developed.

It wonât be enough to just create an app that works - it would be just as important to have an app that your employees will want to work with. Organizations going in for a mobile app in 2014 should marry the idea of providing business value and a great user experience to really succeed in their mobility strategy.

The rise of the hybrid app

2013 saw mobile app developers spend considerable time and energy in finding the right app development platform - whether to go native, choose HTML5 or develop hybrid apps. But looks like at least with regards to enterprise mobile apps, native apps will be the way to go ahead.

Unlike the typical mobile app, enterprise mobile app developers have to worry about security and affordability just as much as they have to worry about accessibility and usability. Native apps have the distinct benefit of offering better speed by storing information within the device rather than downloading it off a server, allowing for offline usage as well.

In addition, hybrid apps offer more security and customization, giving enterprises additional benefits for their mobile apps. However, given that there arenât as many hybrid app development tools available, organizations going in for hybrid mobile apps will have limited options to choose from in this regard.

Componentization gets a big push

Customization helps achieve maximum efficiency and this holds especially true for enterprise mobile apps as well. Breaking up business apps into smaller, individual parts will make it easier for corporate IT to provide customized enterprise app experiences to a bevy of employees.

In addition to ease in delivery, componentization will also help ease maintenance woes of such enterprise apps. 2014 could see businesses opt for customized enterprise apps instead of going with prepackaged, ready-to-use apps.

This move will help businesses go mobile with greater efficiency, achieve economies of scale, and enjoy greater flexibility in terms of app deployment among the workforce.

Reference links:

http://www.zdnet.com/three-trends-in-business-app-development-you-need-to-be-aware-of-7000021110/

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/mobile-enterprise/trends-in-enterprise-mobile-app-development-infographic-021895.php

http://ovum.com/press_releases/ovum-predicts-mobile-first-mobile-enterprise-apps-and-corporate-mobility-policies-to-be-top-of-the-cio-agenda-in-2014/