Technology in the form of desktops and laptops have become a staple of most work environments in the last few decades.
Most workplaces will provide these items in the office for their employees, but a recent shift has seen these legacy systems become outdated.
In a shift towards a more mobile society with the rise of smartphone devices, many businesses are opting to create a digitally transformed enterprise.
Essentially, these enterprise mobile app strategies are all about conceptualizing, creating and deploying apps in order to create a mobile workplace.
These intelligent, industry-specific apps provider many benefits for employees and consumers alike, not least because they allow people to access the backend system more efficiently.
In a 2016 CITO survey, taken at a time when mobility was just beginning to gain popularity in the workplace, 23% of those polled agreed that creating mobility through the use of apps also increased productivity in the workplace.
From an employer perspective, the mobile apps deployed from an enterprise strategy also provide you with real time analytics that allow you to make more critical decisions when needed.
Though this sounds great, it’s important to remember that jumping into it without defining or planning the process isn’t ideal.
According to Digital Authority Partners, it is this lack of planning that results in 99.99 percent of apps failing after their launch.
Even apps created specifically for business purposes can experience this with poor planning leading to complications, which is why we have put together the five steps you must complete to define your enterprise mobile app strategy.
Understand Your Business Goals
The very first thing you need to do to define your enterprise mobile app strategy is to understand your business goals.
You also need to evaluate these business goals to work out how mobility within your organization would make it worth it.
To put it simply, the goals of the organization should influence the mobility objectives.
Mobility has been proved to be a great way of reducing management costs if that’s what you’re looking for, for example, with one study finding that average costs reduced by 20%.
Having an enterprise mobile app strategy may also be an effective way of facilitating a work from home environment in your organization.
Identify Use Cases For Mobility
The next thing you need to do is identify cases within your business that could potentially be mobilized.
This includes core lines of business as well as other functional areas that may see an improvement from increased flexibility.
In industries like healthcare where technology is innovating the field, mobility may be useful for physicians to receive and share data from personalized health apps.
During this process, it’s important to bring other members of your organization in to discuss what they think could be improved with an enterprise mobile app strategy.
This process is also an effective time to think about prioritizing your app, which is important when the average app costs $270,000 to develop and launch.
By doing this, you will be able to determine which departments have mobility first, or which apps you release first, allowing you to make room for mobility in your budget.
Determine IT Needs & Create A Framework
The final stage of the planning process towards your enterprise mobile app strategy is to create a framework that helps the IT team to standardize software.
This framework should show plans that can be implemented across the entire organization, making it as easy as possible for your IT team and employees once the apps are up and running.
You also need to use this step to determine your bring your own device (BYOD) policy.
Some companies expect employees to use their own devices to access these enterprise mobile apps, but this isn’t always the best idea.
According to Forbes, 60% of employees were reluctant to bring their own devices to work or connect them to the company network.
These numbers may be higher or lower depending on the industry, but it’s always worth asking for feedback from your employees before you jump in and do anything.
Define Your Implementation Strategy
Now that you’ve worked out the planning process of your app, you need to create an implement strategy that explains in detail how you are going to make your plans a reality.
This should include a timeline where priorities are accommodated for, as well as matters like departmental needs, deadlines and anything else you may have highlighted earlier in the process.
You also need to create a key performance indicator that allows the company to make smart decisions about the future of mobility within your organization.
It’s during this step that you should create a budget, and be mindful that budget constraints may slow the process down, so it’s important to prioritize.
You also need to be mindful of any approvals you may need from different departments within your company, and where resources should be allocated, which you should complete before moving onto the next stage.
Develop & Deploy Apps
The final step of defining your enterprise mobile app strategy is the actual development and launching process.
This is where you really define things, with some companies choosing to completely overhaul their business and launch several apps at once, while others will do it one at a time.
Regardless of what you do, it’s important to prioritize and focus on developing the mobile app that will make the most difference to your business first.
Summary
As you can see, a large part of defining an enterprise mobile app strategy involves planning and getting to know your business on a deeper level.
Though this can be a long process when you’re looking to mobilize your app, it is absolutely essential as increased mobility completely changes a work environment.
This process can also help to reassure reluctant employees, especially if they are involved in the process, preventing you with less problems when you launch your enterprise mobile app.
With benefits including increased productivity and a better work environment, these five stages are absolutely not to be ignored when creating your strategy.
To read more on topics like this, check out the business category.
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