Enterprise AppsTech, September 30, 2015

A new whitepaper from enterprise mobility management (EMM) provider Globo offers five key tenets for building quality enterprise apps, including user-centric design, partnerships, and security concerns.

“Enterprise mobile apps are revolutionising the way we do business,” the report begins. “They are transforming the mobile employee experience and significantly improving business efficiency and workflows, and driving billions in new revenue. One thing is clear – mobile apps can pay off exponentially when designed, developed, and maintained well.”

According to the latest Mobility Index figures from Good Technology, the average organisation uses more than three apps alongside email, indicating custom app deployment is on the rise. To have apps which employees will want to use, a user-centric design is key, according to Globo. “No longer can ‘clunky’ enterprise apps be considered good enough,” the report notes. “When designed correctly, your enterprise app can hook users, boost work output, drop support costs, and gain competitive advantage.”

Despite this, the report makes strong mention of catering to as many use cases as possible; from B2E, to B2B, to B2C and further. “Building a successful B2E mobile app can be a tightrope walk – balancing productivity with compliance,” the report explains. “It requires putting the best UI/UX in the hands of employees while keeping security and control firmly in the grasp of IT. This means having an iron-clad app with the right security infrastructure in place to protect critical data.”

Security, almost always the most important conversation point when any enterprise mobile rollout takes place, is mentioned elsewhere in the report. Globo argues companies should look for a mobile application development platform (MADP) solution with end-to-end FIPS certified encryption, to connect their apps to third-party systems using a secure gateway, and protect sensitive data from unauthorised access.

The other key rules Globo advocates is with regard to mobile OS and not reinventing from scratch each time a new iteration appears, alongside selecting pure play vendors and not forgetting lifetime costs when assessing the budget for an enterprise app. You can find the report here (registration required).

You can read the article here.