Exploring the Mobile Web: Are Enterprise Apps Right For Your Business?

If your business hasn’t adopted a policy for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) yet, it may be too late to the party.  IT analysis firm Gartner has predicted that by 2017, a quarter of all businesses will not only have a policy supporting BYOD in the workplace, but will have their own enterprise app stores where they can monitor software procurement and disbursement.

More and more companies are switching to cloud computing models for their IT infrastructure needs. This landscape change makes it increasingly sensible for companies to shift the burden of enterprise technology from old hard-wired models to ones that take advantage of employees’ existing skills with mobile web technology.

However, enterprise apps can be scary, especially if your company isn’t in the programming business. The prospect of investing time and money in software tailored to your business’s needs might make begging off seem attractive.  But while no software approach is right for every business, we see places where specially-tailored apps could increase productivity for small and medium enterprises while avoiding the security pitfalls of wide-release programs.

In reality, US employees are already eager to use new enterprise software. A recent survey found that 37% of all employees would be willing to pay for their own apps in the course of business because they believed so strongly in them based on personal use. Apps like Skype, Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Docs have steadily captured consumer attention as smartphones and tablets have become prevalent, meaning that the jump to an enterprise app would likely be a popular choice, assuming that the app is well-designed.

Although they require initial, upfront investment, proprietary apps allow businesses to have more dexterity and control when responding to market and internal needs.

Where to begin? Well, this list is a good starting point and each tool is cloud-based itself.  Database, spreadsheet, collaborative document, mapping, web design features and more could all be integrated into your business’s app, it just depends on what you need. So, how about it? If you could design the perfect app for your business, what would it look like?