3 Keys to a Successful Mobile Business App Strategy
As far as end users are concerned, mobile business apps cost little (or nothing) to buy, and typically take seconds to download. But behind the scenes, developers know all-too-well that the cost and time investment of creating a successful app is massive — and any planning errors along the way can result in missed download and revenue targets; not to mention, very unpleasant meetings with angry executives and investors. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that developers can set out in the right direction by anchoring their plans to a sound and successful mobile business app strategy. Here’s what VoIP Solutions Provider Votacall (find them at www.votacall.com) advises in light of their experience developing Votacall GO!, an app that supports their cloud-based VoIP platform, and which has earned rave reviews from experts and end users alike since launching a few months ago
- Simplicity is the key.
The doorway to a successful mobile business app is good old-fashioned simplicity. Regardless of how powerful and feature-filled an app is, it must fundamentally be straightforward and fast to setup, and intuitive to use and access. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out this list of 70 great (and free) Photoshop PSD UI kits/wireframes for mobile apps.
Don’t limit mobility to smartphones.
While many of today’s business users are seemingly inseparable from their popular smartphones, developers who want to maximize penetration and usage should include tablets as part of the mix, as well as web clients for laptops.
Don’t call it a business-grade mobile app if it isn’t.
A problem that might be better called an epidemic in the mobile business app world is that many such apps aren’t truly business-grade. Yes, they may have a nice startup screen complete with a corporate logo, but it only takes minutes (sometimes seconds) for end users to discover that they can’t use the app to continue their work journey between devices.
Now, this doesn’t mean that mobile business apps must mirror the functionality and feature set of cloud or on-premise editions — that’s ideal, but it’s not realistic. However, it does mean that if a business is going to label something like a “business app,” that it should be one. It’s frankly better not to release an app (at least not yet) than it is to overpromise and under-deliver. Customers have long memories, and one bad experience can be enough to send them racing to a competitor.
The Bottom Line
While mobile business apps should be easy to use, creating them is difficult, risky and challenging. However, the rewards of getting it right are significant and profitable. Having the right strategy in place goes a long way towards making this happen.
