Are Custom Enterprise Apps a Better Choice?

 With the surge in iPhone and Android app development over the recent years, enterprises have been rapidly increasing their IT budgets, with the aim to invest more in acquiring an effective mobility solution that suits their business needs.

So when a company decides to take its first step on the road to mobility, the first hurdle that it stumbles upon is deciding between custom mobile apps and off-the-shelf enterprise apps.

While the gap between the two mobile solutions may seem non-existent, the difference between them is undeniable and should not be neglected by enterprises.

 Off-the-shelf mobile apps are widely available in the market and are capable of performing the work of any customized enterprise app. But, designing and developing their own mobile apps may work out better for companies in the long run.

According to CDW’s Enterprise Mobile App Report, the enterprise mobile app market is expected to double its current size by 2018. 48% of the survey respondents reported increasing their mobile app budget from 2013 to 2014.

Let’s take a look at why companies should go for a custom mobile app and what are the key tradeoffs of choosing an off-the-shelf app.

Long Term Value of Initial Investment

The tradeoff, of developing and designing a custom mobile solution is that it costs more than an off-the-shelf app. However, if we look beyond the initial price tag of a custom enterprise app, it turns out to be far less expensive in the long term.

Higher Business Value

Tailored to a company’s business needs with the focus on transforming processes, custom mobile apps deliver higher business value than off-the-shelf ones that are designed for general enterprise needs.

According to a survey report by CDW, many businesses have seen tangible benefits of investing in custom mobile app development and observed substantial increases in efficiency and productivity.

Better Control and Competitive Edge

When you design a custom app, you have sole control over application updates and enhancements that are deployed. With an off-the-shelf enterprise app, businesses usually stick to a general set of features, adding extra functionality every now and then.

Keeping all your long-term objectives in mind, a custom enterprise app is built to accommodate future demands as well. It helps your organization work faster and better, giving you a competitive advantage over others.

Time and Cost Saving

With a custom mobile app for business, employees can work remotely without having to deal with the major risks associated with using third-party apps. Similarly, customers can also engage with your business, giving companies the unique ability to pioneer innovative, business delivery models.

Nearly all the respondents of CDW’s survey reported saving 7.5 hours per employee, per week, with a custom enterprise app solution for their day to day operations. 82% of respondents believed that their businesses generated additional revenue that measured up to 16% with 29% cost saving and 27% customer satisfaction.

Recent years have seen a significant surge in the world of iPhone and Android enterprise app development. A plethora of off-the-shelf applications are already available in the market to cater to general and specific needs of businesses.

What makes a custom mobile solution score over other apps is the value it brings to your business in the long term. While adopting it may appear a bit costly at first, the long-term benefits it yields are undeniable. Choose wisely!

Are you currently using an off-the-shelf enterprise app for your organization? Does it have any limitations? How have they affected your business operations?

Top 3 Mobile App Trends to look out for in 2016

Substantial growth took place in terms of the number of mobile devices that were launched last year and also the innovations that took place in the IT industry as a whole. In 2015, mobile applications took center stage and enabled organizations to engage more effectively with their consumers, across devices and in a very personalized manner. It may not be wrong to state that apps turned into individual experiences.

Let us shed light on some of the biggest application trends that we can expect to see this year:

• More Personal and Contextual: We will continue to see mobile apps getting more customized as per user needs and preferences. Users will only engage with a business when the messages delivered to them via apps are tailored around their choices, location and desired content.

• Remarketing is on the Rise: While push alerts may have helped businesses attract consumers in the past, that's no longer the case. According to a study by Localytics, almost 50% of people choose to disable their push alerts. Once they do that, there's no way to reach them outside an app. Enterprises need to use remarketing techniques to entice customers and app users depending on their engagement history with your brand, social media preferences and so on. 

• Increase in User Engagement: A personalized and seamless omnichannel user experience is what leads users to engage more with your brand. For example, WestJet does an excellent job to connect with its customers beyond the flying time through its app. Fliers can not only check-in and access their boarding pass but also receive all important flight updates on their smartphone.

What other app trends do you expect to foresee in the near future? 

A Rundown Of Magento 2 Technology Stack

Magento is widely used as an eCommerce platform by online stores across the globe. Magento’s much talked about version 2 has been in the works for quite long. It was finally launched to the general public a few months back with significant updates to its technology stack.

There are major improvements for every firm offering Magento solutions. It’s more developer friendly and the backend has been completely revamped to focus on ease of use for store owners and merchants.

Let’s briefly take a look at the changes and feature additions in Magento 2 Technology Stack:

1.  Apache: By far the most widely used web server, Magento 2.0 requires you to run Apache 2.2x or 2.4x. This is a solid upgrade from Magento 1 which ran on Apache 2.x.
2.  Nginx: Nginx is a popular reverse proxy server which can be used in place of Apache. Magento 2 has built-in support for Nginx which is a welcome news for Nginx lovers who are looking for low memory usage and faster performance than Apache.
3. PHP: The programming language at the core of Magento is getting an upgrade and a significant one at that. Magento 2 now requires PHP version 5.5 or 5.6x by default and it even supports the latest PHP 7. This should translate to faster performance for Magento stores. A number of PHP extensions like PDO/MySQL, mbstring and crypt are also required in Magento 2.
4. MySQL: The most loved database for open source projects gets an upgrade to version 5.6x in Magento 2.
5. Varnish: This is an efficient caching mechanism for loading sites faster. In Magento 1, Varnish had to set up using third-party extensions. With Magento 2, Varnish is deeply integrated into the core and can be setup with a few commands or clicks in the backend.
6. Composer: The popular dependency manager for PHP, is now integrated into Magento 2. With this, developers can easily manage their libraries for a project and browse/install packages from https://packagist.org/.
7. jQuery: The write less do more Javascript library is a welcome change in Magento 2. It replaces the aging prototype JS library from Magento 1.
8.  Zend Framework: Magento 1 borrowed components from Zend Framework 1. It continues this pattern and now utilizes important components from the updated Zend Framework 2.
9.  Symfony: This is a new entrant in Magento 2. Besides pulling from ZF1 and ZF2 frameworks, Magento 2 now re-uses Symfony components at various places in Magneto 2. 

The upgraded technology stack will bring in more opportunities for everyone. This will certainly mean more engaging online stores for users, easier administration for merchants and a better checkout flow with more conversions.

Magento 1 was getting dated fast and now is the right time to retire Magento 1 for your stores and upgrade to Magento 2. It’s truly a new era of commerce innovation and the possibilities are endless.

What are your opinions about the changes in Magento 2 Technology Stack? Please leave your comments below.