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Develop a Mobile Application

Engage your mobile audience and maximize your market reach.

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Your Challenge

  • Today’s business leaders are increasingly focused on engaging a growing mobile audience that will potentially access, use and buy the enterprise’s products or services via mobile devices. However, most IT organizations charged with mobile application development lack insight and prior experience in this leading edge area.
  • Launching a single mobile app is a complex undertaking in itself, but at the same time the marketplace consists of multiple competing platforms, devices, and distribution channels. Given limited development resources, it’s not clear which path will lead to the greatest revenue opportunities.
  • This solution set will help you develop your mobile application strategy and deliver the solution that the business needs to realize its key sales and marketing objectives for the project.  

Our Advice

Critical Insight
  • Although your potential audience uses a range of different mobile platforms and devices, you can’t effectively address all of them in your first release. Identify your primary target very early in the process and only plan to expand to secondary platforms once the app has launched and been proven effective.
  • Beware of scope creep and keep the focus on getting the app out in your established timeframe; understand that incremental updates are your friend.  The leading application marketplaces make the update process very simple, effective, and transparent to end users – you will be able to get additional features out to users in the future with minimal disruption.
Impact and Result
  • Gauge the market opportunity for a mobile application and determine the scope and effort associated with each of the necessary steps from conception to release.
  • Identify commonly overlooked elements that you must address within your mobile application strategy, including promotion and distribution and ongoing measurement and analytics.

Get to Action

  1. Develop a mobile application

    Expand the overall reach and audience for our product/service.

  2. Identify target mobile platform

    Bring the required focus to the first and most important release.

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Tags

Google, mobile, mobility, Apple, iPhone, RIM, BlackBerry, Development, sdk, API, distribution, device, Nokia, application, app, code, smartphone, Symbian, Android, Business smartphone, Apple iPhone, smartphones

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2 Comments

  • Missing_comment
    Andrew O'Brien | 01-28-2012

    This research was helpful, but it would be great to get some advice on where to go to find third party developers. That's been my biggest challenge - finding reputable developers and having the data to feel confident about their work before I get into contract with them. Do you have any such research?

    • 9eb6a2810126f534ebf65557616f34d1_comment
      Info-Tech Research Group | 01-30-2012

      A very interesting question, but one with no hard and fast easy answer. First off, your location does have a bearing on the number of available developers (certainly if you want someone close) If you are willing to look at outsourced contractors that are potentially anywhere then the field does open up, however it also makes the search more difficult since there are hundreds of reputable and very talented development shops (and individuals) in every major center...everywhere.

      If the question is more about finding a "professional services" group, then most of the major mobile development providers have professional services available. For example, there is a fast emerging group of MAM vendors, that’s Mobile Application Management (which is not the same as MDM, or MEAP) Some vendors in this space include: (this list is not exhaustive, and is unofficial since we have no vendor comparison of this space)

      --JackBe http://www.jackbe.com/ - Allows enterprises to create mashup solutions designed to enable end-users to create, customize, and share.
      --Shopify http://www.shopify.com/tour/appstore - a collection of plugins that enable you to extend your existing online store into an app store.
      --apperian http://www.apperian.com/ - This is one of the best potential solutions out there. It has a component called EASE (Enterprise App Services Environment) that is a cloud based app management platform. It has developer SDK, templates for creating apps, provisioning, secure deployment and more. Currently apperion works only with iOS and android, however they are considering expanding to include Blackberry and Windows Phone.
      --Partnerpedia http://www.partnerpedia.com/ - like apperion above, Partnerpedia supports only iOS and android currently, with plans to support BlackBerry. IT administrators are enabled to “self provision” the software, adding/managing users, groups, etc. The MAM is a cloud offering and can be synchronized with corporate LDAP for authentication.
      --Nukona https://www.nukona.com/ - This is one of the newcomers (amongst the list of newcomers really) that offers a feature that allows enterprise IT to install a “wrapper” around each application which they can then apply very specific policies against. As with many of the others, their focus is on iOS and android and offer all the same functionality as their competitors. A few good articles written on/about Nukona can be read here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nukonas-application-policy-management-helps-enterprise-it-safely-embrace-byod-2011-10-19 and also here: http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/403839/nukona_manages_mobile_app_by_app/
      --AppCentral http://www.appcentral.com/ - Similar functionality to all the other vendors listed with one small difference… They support Windows Phone. Their focus is on distribution, security, and administration. A few great articles regarding AppCentral can be read here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AppCentral-Adds-Virtualized-bw-3591541204.html and also here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110426005681/en/AppCentral-Delivers-Multi-Platform-Enterprise-App-Store-Solution

      Of the vendors that offer a pure development environment, these too have professional services available (generally) and can be contracted to build applications to your needs. Some of the vendors in this space include: (this list is not exhaustive, and is unofficial since we have no vendor comparison of this space)

      WorkLight http://www.worklight.com/product/features/mobile-application-development-platform
      --AirPlay http://www.airplaysdk.com/
      --Bedrock http://www.metismo.com/
      --FeedHenry http://www.feedhenry.com/
      --JMango http://www.jmango.com.au/
      --MoSync http://www.mosync.com/
      --OpenPlug http://www.openplug.com/
      --PhoneGap http://www.phonegap.com
      --TotalCross http://www.superwaba.com.br/en/tc_overview.asp
      --WebORB http://www.themidnightcoders.com/

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Engage your mobile audience and maximize your market reach.

Companies Who Helped

  • IDnoodle
  • City of Boston
  • Connected Bits
  • Art & Logic
  • Aaron McGowan

Solution Road Map

Other Solution Sets in Development

  1. Establish Development Best Practices
    Following rules and having standards lead to better code maintainability.
  2. Understand which Development Language Is Appropriate
    Personal choice is not sufficient cause to choose.
  3. Discover the World of Cloud Computing
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  4. Understand Development Strategy in a Service-Oriented World
    Understand and implement a SOA strategy in development projects.
  5. Develop & Integrate Social Media
    Developing social media helps companies engage their audience in new ways, be more personable, develop new connections, and maintain existing contacts.
  6. Have a Mobile Strategy for Business Users
    Design and develop a mobile solution; it is "The Next Great Frontier!"
  7. Choose a Mobile Development Strategy
    Mobile applications are everywhere; it’s time to get with the program, but ignore the hype
  8. Develop a Mobile Application
    Engage your mobile audience and maximize your market reach.
  9. Manage a SharePoint Customization & Development Team
    What you need to know to optimize SharePoint functionality & usability.
  10. Vendor Landscape: Application Development Tools
    Don't ask your Developers about this, they are liable to tell you they can build it better.
View the full Solution Road Map