The intricacies of developing apps differ significantly depending on the goal of the apps. If you are looking to develop an app that seeks to serve the needs of a large corporation, your goals and specifications will be much different than they would be for a small business just looking to build brand awareness. Your app will be the touchpoint with potentially thousands of employees, who all need to access and understand it on a similar level. Here are 5 key considerations you should keep in mind when developing enterprise apps.
1. Scalability
Let’s begin with the obvious. To be used successfully in a large enterprise, your app should be scalable. That means it should function just as well whether five or 5,000 employees take advantage of it. Its performance should never suffer, either in terms of technical ability (such as server downtime and loading speed) or usability. If your enterprise app is not scalable, it will not work in an environment in which potentially thousands of users access the same features at the same time.
2. Performance
Of course, the performance of your app is not just dependent on scalability. It should be reliable even for a small number of users, and perform up to the advertised standard. Chances are that when you introduce this app to your workers, you will expect to them to use it as a significant part of their work day, and perhaps even to evaluate their performance. If the app cannot reliably perform to that level, you have a problem.
3. Security
Access by potentially thousands of employees also means that your app security becomes absolutely paramount. Various employee hierarchies within your company should have various security clearances, allowing them to see the information and data relevant to their operations. You should also build in security ‘checkpoints’ and benchmarks that enable you to check regularly whether any issues with security occur, so you can proactively prevent or promptly resolve a security breach.
4. App Training
If you’re developing an app for enterprise operations, you should also begin to think about employee training early in the development process. Especially as you first introduce the app, your employees will not be familiar with its interface or functionality. Building in tutorials enables them to get started more easily, but you should also consider holding formal training – and perhaps even building a separate training app, for very full-featured or complex applications – to ensure your workers use and take advantage of your app to its greatest functionality.
5. App Distribution
Finally, pay special attention to just how you make the app available to your audience. For internal operations, it should clearly not live in the app store, where anyone could download it. Instead, consider using an MDM solution, sharing it via your company intranet, or on a secure server that is only accessible with employee identification.
Once you’ve found a home for it, develop a strategy of rolling it out – which could include employee emails, news announcements on the intranet, or preparation meetings with department and division heads to help them introduce the app to their workforce. Even the best mobile app will not be effective if it’s not distributed thoroughly to your audience.
In many ways, enterprise app development is similar to building apps of any kind. Once you know its purpose, you work with professionals to ensure it’s built to your specifications, test it throughout that process, and roll it out. But you should still know about the various unique considerations that come with developing apps for large corporations, such as scalability, performance, security, training, and distribution.
If you keep these considerations in mind throughout the process, nothing should stand in your way of an effective and successful enterprise app. If you need an app development company that will make sure your app is built and implemented to your unique needs and specifications, contact us.