Belitsoft > Mobile Development > Enterprise Mobile Applications

Enterprise Mobile Applications: Key Questions to Consider Before Development

What are proprietary enterprise mobile applications for? How to distribute these applications to employees? And should companies provide employees with devices or require them to bring their own?

Contents

What are enterprise mobile applications for?

Enterprise mobile applications are meant for internal use within the company. They streamline doing business by bringing together all the processes.

Examples of an enterprise mobile app

  • Applications to supervise contractors at a construction site;
  • In-store survey apps;
  • Apps for merchandising audit;
  • Field reporting applications;
  • Applications with reference information;
  • Applications for employee communication on work-related questions.

5 reasons for enterprise mobile application development

  1. To skip the paperwork and free up employees from transferring these data to a digital format;
  2. To enable photo and video recording;
  3. To provide an employee with the most relevant information about the task online;
  4. To manage dynamic data;
  5. To avoid communication issues within the company.

A corporate mobile application should be based on a business logic that allows performing the tasks of each department and employee with minimal costs and maximum efficiency. To increase the efficiency of the application and help the business to grow, identify weak points, analyze business processes preliminarily and optimize them.

Should companies provide employees with devices or require them to bring their own?

Advantages of purchasing devices

  • Development in a single native language

If you don’t purchase devices for employees, you need to develop the application both on iOS and Android. Of course, now it’s possible to use Flutter or ReactNative to develop on two platforms at once. But in practice, applications in non-native languages are more suitable for simple solutions where information from the server should be displayed. There are cases when the application has to work with poor internet or no internet at all, for example, in the construction industry (a car park, a site outside the city), in supermarkets (jammers on site), etc. In such cases, the application needs to store a large amount of data (photos, videos) until the Internet restores, otherwise, all the work done will be lost. For such applications, we recommend using the native languages Swift, Kotlin, Java.

  • Simple support

Most likely, some of your employees have old gadgets. When purchasing devices, there is no problem with maintaining outdated technologies. You will know what performance you should count on and be confident in the performance of the system.

  • Users will not complain that there is no free space on their devices

Seems that in 2021 it’s not a problem, but the fact is users save megabytes.

  • The ability to set up MDM (Mobile Device Management)

You will be able to control all device data: geolocation, usage time, files, blocking. Install and update applications, restrict website visits.

Cons:

  • You will have to spend money on purchasing devices and accessories for them (cases, chargers);
  • You will need to keep records of devices and establish the process of issuing;
  • You need to buy SIM cards and top up the balance.

How to distribute enterprise mobile applications to employees?

The security team often prohibits distributing corporate mobile applications in Google Play and AppleStore. There are also the companies that don’t want to opt for the open distribution for the following reasons:

  1. Sensitive data (security requirements increase because any user can download);
  2. Customers and competitors can see the company's applications;
  3. Dependence on the moderation from Apple or Google (sometimes an application can be under moderation for 1-2 weeks due to constant addition of new requirements).

And if to Android users you can simply send a link or file to download, then with iOS app development it’s much more difficult. You have two options here:

Apple Developer Program ($100 per year)

Apple Developer Program suits you if the number of employees who will use the application is lower than 100. Employees install the application through the TestFlight program and become its internal testers. Keep in mind that if there are more than 100 employees, the application will pass Apple moderation and go to the public AppStore. 

Pros: low cost, no moderation, and no legal approval. 

Cons: the limited number of users.

Apple Developer Enterprise Program ($299 per year)

The best way is to use the Apple Developer Enterprise Program. After passing legal procedures, you can send a download link (outside the AppStore). You don't have to wait for moderation, and most importantly, you can use over 100 users without public access. 

Pros: the unlimited number of users. 

Cons: the cost of service and legal restrictions on use.

Bottom Line

Ask yourself a few questions before a proprietary enterprise mobile app development:

  1. For which operating systems do you want to develop an application?
  2. Are you ready to purchase devices and pay for mobile services?
  3. How many employees will use the app? And where will you distribute your application?

The advantages of implementing corporate mobile applications are obvious. But there are still fears that prevent some managers from digitalization. There is also a danger of sabotage by workers or a decrease in motivation if the staff is conservative. Employees are not always happy with innovations requiring a new collaborative culture in the company, and a leader himself may be at the head of such ideation. 

But today, even if your company has a great past, even if it is an integral part of the country’s infrastructure, there is a risk of losing its advantage overnight. Young companies with an agile approach and creative products can overtake clumsy conservatives at once. 

As stated in a press release from the British airline company Thomas Cook Airlines Limited, they could not compete with online services. This is happening everywhere. During the lockdown in many industries, only the companies that have mastered the technology have survived. And the companies that had implemented corporate digital systems before the coronavirus were the least affected and quickly moved their work to remote locations. Today it is obvious that there is no turning back, and corporate mobile applications in any company are only a matter of time.

Belitsoft specializes in mobile application development. If your business is ready to level up in enterprise technologies and competitiveness, contact us for a free quote.

Never miss a post! Share it!

Written by
Delivery Manager
"I've been leading projects and managing teams with core expertise in ERP development, CRM development, SaaS development in HealthTech, FinTech and other domains for 15 years."
5.0
2 reviews

Rate this article

Recommended posts

Belitsoft Blog for Entrepreneurs

Portfolio

Portfolio
Mobile Applications for a Sports IoT devices Manufacturer
Mobile Applications for a Sports IoT devices Manufacturer
Our client is a successful manufacturer of an innovative sports IoT device named Sportstation. We developed IOS and Android applications which can communicate with it. We also made Integration with several third-party systems, e.g. with the system of the children’s football camp of Real Madrid.
Instant Payment App Development for Mobile Banking
Instant Payment App Development for Mobile Banking
Belitsoft was contacted by the founders of a startup from one of the EU Member States. They wanted to create a mobile app that would support SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst) scheme to make real-time payments.
Android and iOS Mobile App Development for a Drone Company
Android and iOS Mobile App Development for a Drone Company
Our Client, one of the world’s largest drone companies, decided to create a convenient mobile video editing app. Belitsoft has provided the Client with a team of Android and iOS mobile developers to create custom mobile apps for editing videos recorded using the drones produced by our Client.
Healthcare Education Mobile App
Healthcare Education Mobile App
Our Client, an eLearning startup from Boston, wanted to create an app based on the microlearning approach to help people study on the go. React Native was chosen for the project with 80% code reuse with the aim to save over $7k compared to estimated development costs with platform-specific technologies.
AngularJS to Angular Migration and Optimization of E-commerce Mobile MVP
AngularJS to Angular Migration and Optimization of E-commerce Mobile MVP
Belitsoft was approached by an e-commerce startup from Israel that had an innovative coupons app in its MVP stage, but needed optimization and improvement.
Mobile App for Golfers
Mobile App for Golfers
A startup founder from Ohio has developed a special set of sensors for golf players to improve their strength and accuracy. The client then contacted Belitsoft to create a mobile app complementing the hardware.
Custom Mobile App Development (iOS, Android, Windows) for an E-learning Company
Custom Mobile App Development (iOS, Android, Windows) for an E-learning Company
We created for our Client (with 4 million clients in 40+ countries) mobile apps for the existing LMS to increase customers’ loyalty and meet the global trend of using mobile devices for learning. Developed for Android, iOS, Windows with the supports 12 language versions.
SCORM Player for Mobile
SCORM Player for Mobile
The Client received an offline SCORM Player for learning and passing exams even without a constant network connection. Among other benefits he received there is secure storage of SCORM content and students' attempts information during system utilization.
Custom Mobile App for a Learning Management System
Custom Mobile App for a Learning Management System
We developed a simple-to-use and intuitive mobile app for a Learning Management System. Available for Android and iOS. It’s a good complement to the web version.
Music Social Network Mobile Application
Music Social Network Mobile Application
Our client asked us to create an iOS mobile application for his music social network web portal which we've previously created for him. The distinctive feature of this iOS application is to give its users an opportunity in recording their own multi-tracks with user-friendly interface.

Our Clients' Feedback

technicolor
crismon
berkeley
hathway
howcast
fraunhofer
apollomatrix
key2know
regenmed
moblers
showcast
ticken
elerningforce
Let's Talk Business
Do you have a software development project to implement? We have people to work on it. We will be glad to answer all your questions as well as estimate any project of yours. Use the form below to describe the project and we will get in touch with you within 1 business day.
Contact form
We will process your personal data as described in the privacy notice
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply
Call us

USA +1 (917) 410-57-57

UK +44 (20) 3318-18-53

Email us

[email protected]

to top