Business Transformation with Mobile Applications

Mobile devices combined with relevant, robust applications have the ability to transform a business. Are you getting the most from your investment of time and resources?  How do you know?   Do your applications enhance business functionality?  Do they enrich the mobile user experience?  Are you using best
practices when developing your mobile applications?  Taking advantage of all the benefits of going mobile requires careful planning of a corporate mobile strategy. It is important to understand the evolution of mobile infrastructure and applying that knowledge to the mobile application development plan. 

Users of mobile applications need access to data and applications on a 24/7 basis.  Their device is always with them, and so they want to access the enterprise systems any time the need or impulse strikes.  The information that the user is accessing needs to be quality information, in some cases, real-time
information that is critical for decision-making.  Today’s smart devices have amped up functionality, such as a camera or GPS system, which if used properly within the enterprise, can enhance the user experience.

All of these considerations are great, but underlying these factors, is the need for understanding and applying a mobile application lifecycle development plan.  Addressing the issue of device and platform heterogeneity is key to being able to offer the wide variety of devices that your employees are demanding.  Also, deploying apps that merge well with a variety of data sources is fundamental to a successful mobile deployment.

Getting the most out of your mobile investment can be a complex and frustrating exercise, but it doesn’t have to be.  Strategic planning and thoughtful review of all aspects of the mobile application development plans will take a lot of the complexity out of the process.

You can read more about using mobile devices to their full advantage in this whitepaper by Jorge Garcia of TEC ;  Moving Beyond the Basics: Key Considerations for Successful Adoption of a Mobile Platform. The whitepaper, commissioned by SAP, provides a great list of considerations when adopting a mobile application development platform (MADP) and a valuable framework to help guide your decision making. It’s worth checking out!