2. Mobility has taken over the business world. Companies today are using mobile apps to serve customers in new ways, create new
revenue streams, and solidify a lifetime of loyalty. At the same time, savvy organizations are moving more and more applications to the
app world to boost employee productivity and empower the virtual workforce.
Because these solutions are so custom and being first in the market can create a strategic advantage, companies need a strategy for
optimizing their mobile app development program. For many it begins with the question — should we build an in-house team or look for
an experienced partner to handle it for us?
Each has their merits, but outsourcing is becoming an increasingly attractive option for companies to avoid the challenges and delays
that seem to plague in-house development teams.
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3. Why Outsourcing Makes Sense
Enterprise mobile apps rely heavily on backend connectivity to enable robust
functionality. Sales apps may need access to the CRM, order entry and email systems to
complete a workflow. A support app may need access to customer, trouble ticket and
knowledge center data to function properly. On average, a suite of enterprise apps has
to connect with two and six backend systems to provide the functionality needed to
make it worthwhile to an enterprise employee.
Not every company has the seemingly unlimited resources of an Amazon or a Google,
who can establish in-house development teams ready to quickly respond to any need.
In reality, most companies can’t afford to hire dedicated resources for mobile specific
projects, nor can they easily redeploy existing IT assets without disrupting ongoing
programs.
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4. 4 / 10
Before you can decide which path to take, it’s important to understand what actually goes into creating an in-house mobile app
development team. Many companies think they could just hire 10-15 software developers from the deep pool of talent that’s out there
and satisfy all of their mobile app needs within a month or two. Sadly, this is not remotely close to the reality. Studies show that
94% of organizations that employ a 15-person development team still don’t have the necessary staff to meet their mobile app
demands.
Hiring a larger team might seem like the right answer, but it can become very expensive. Mobile app development requires many
specialized skills — user interface design, backend integration, network optimization, etc. These skills are in such high demand that
32% of in-house teams today are dealing with a shortage of qualified developers as they strive to meet internal release goals.
All of these costs and challenges are pushing companies to switch to an outsourcing approach to mobile app development. Often, the
flat-fee for a project is much less than the long-term costs (in both money and time) of creating an in-house team and companies can
hire a third-party team that has all of the experience necessary to build an app that delights customers and employees.
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As with any major undertaking, a bit of upfront planning goes a long way to ensure the success of the project in the long run.
Defining Requirements
Before diving into the world of outsourced mobile app development, it is important to first define your requirements. If you can’t communicate what you want, you can’t
even approach a potential partner or hope to get an accurate quote or timeline. Here are some tips for getting started:
GETTING STARTED WITH MOBILE APP OUTSOURCING
The first step for any company should be to
define what the app will do and how you
want users to interact with it once it’s
published. You can optimize the experience
if you fully understand who the users are
and what they’re looking for out of the
mobile app. If companies can articulate the
endgame to the outsource team, the
development process will go much
smoother.
Knowing what competitors are doing is
essential to creating the best mobile app
experience. Are competitors using social
media integration? User authentication?
In-app purchasing? On a higher level,
knowing whether to make a free or pay-
to-download app and which operating
systems to develop for make a big
difference in the process.
When outsourcing mobile app
development, it’s important to outline the
types of features that you want to include
before you begin the interview process. You
also need to understand your design
requirements — if you already work with a
digital design team or have one in house,
you may want to leverage them for your
mobile app projects to ensure a consistent
look and feel across all your solutions. If you
need design services, that will make a
difference in the selection process.
6. Are they an agile development group?
In practice, agile development groups are
better equipped to adjust to the inevitable
changes that crop up in complex projects and
better able to ensure that projects are
completed on time and on budget.
Is user experience a core concern?
Providing a great user experience is critical for
ensuring the high engagement rates that
ensure the success of both employee and
consumer-facing apps. Make sure the team you
select believes that user experience should be
top of mind in all projects and has a solid plan
for optimizing the user interface for popular
mobile devices.
Will they continue to support the app
after its release?
Successful mobile app projects don’t stop at
the launch. Look for a company that has a plan
for supporting and modifying the app on a
continuous basis. Some companies will even
provide a tool that “lay people” can use to
make changes on their own without incurring
additional costs.
How big of a concern is app security
for the third-party?
Securing private customer and employee data
as well as access to backend systems has to be
a concern for any enterprise. Ask about the
company’s security strategy as part of the
vetting process.
Do they have project-specific
experience and capabilities?
Each project has unique requirements — some
need complex data integrations where others
demand a complex set of plugins. Understand
the requirements for the project and choose a
partner with the proper level of experience to
get the job done within budget.
Are they innovators?
With so many apps being developed, creating a
unique offering can make a big difference in
drawing more usage. Companies with cutting
edge ideas can provide a significant value add
to your mobile app development program.
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Choosing an Outsourced Development Partner
Once an organization has established its requirements for a mobile app, it’s time to hire a team to get the project moving. When choosing a development partner,
these are a few key points to consider in the process:
7. Develop a Realistic Timeline
Time to market is critical to any mobile app
development, but don’t get ahead of yourself
thinking that an outside development team can
turn around a project in a matter of weeks — no
matter how agile their group may be. It takes some
time for two groups to come together to a point
where they can communicate efficiently.
An agile development group can help compress
the timeline, but it is important to establish a
regular set of milestones and checkpoints
throughout the project to maximize collaboration
throughout the process.
The developer group is bound to run into technical
issues along the way. More importantly, you may
want to deviate from your initial plan as you see
the app created. Asking for builds at specific
intervals will help make sure that everyone stay on
the right track as far as requirements go. Staying
involved in the testing process throughout
development can keep the mobile app on schedule
and ensure a high-quality final product.
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8. Plan for Change
Once your customers and employees begin using your apps and become more
reliant on them, no doubt you will want to make changes over time —
expanding capabilities, streamlining the UI and customizing the app for the
newest devices and OS releases. When architecting your mobile app
development strategy, it is important to devise how you want to handle this
type of work over time.
If you decide that you want to have modifications done by your development
partner, be sure to discuss their fee structure and turnaround time beforehand.
To avoid disruption for your user base, you will need a company able to ensure
that your mobile apps will be compatible with major OS releases from Day 1.
Even though you are partnering with an outside group for the initial
development work, you may want the freedom to make updates in house. If so,
ask if your development group can provide you with a tool that lets you make
minor tweaks and updates to the app without having to alter the underlying
code. When in-house and external development groups standardize on a
specific development platform, companies get the best of both worlds — they
can take on discrete projects when they have available resources and use their
external teams to handle the bulk of the development work.
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9. 9 / 10
CRAFT A STRATEGY THAT ALIGNS WITH CORPORATE GOALS
Today mobility is a requirement of almost every customer and employee productivity initiative — there is no getting around
that fact. When architecting a development strategy, you need to decide how important having those particular skills sets are to
the organization as a whole. Is it enough that the company’s core IT group understands at a strategic level the kinds of apps they
want to deploy or do they need to know Java code as well? Is it enough to meet release goals and offer apps that delight
customers or do they need to manage all that work themselves?
For many organizations, it comes down to numbers. It’s unfortunate but today in-house groups carry an average backlog of
10 to 20 projects. These delays are having a negatively impact on both revenue and productivity in these organizations.
And it will only get worse. With mobile phone sales predicted to hit the 2.1 billion unit mark by 2019, Gartner believes the
demand for mobile apps will far outpace in-house development abilities by 2017.
More and more companies are looking to external organizations for both expertise and time to market advantages. However,
finding the right development organization is an essential piece of the outsourcing puzzle. Partnering with an experienced
team that you can truly collaborate with is critical if you want to keep pace with the increasing demand for mobile apps.
More importantly, these strategic partners can help you take advantage of this channel in ways you may never have known
were possible.
10. About Nexaweb
Nexaweb provides software and
services for the development of
enterprise-class mobile, tablet, and
web applications. Nexaweb was
founded in 2000, offering tools and
enterprise to develop web and, later,
mobile applications for the enterprise.
Today, Nexaweb has more than 2,500
customers around the world across a
range of industries.
Nexaweb Inc.
1 New England Executive
Office Park, Suite 205
Burlington, MA 01803
Tel: 781-345-5500
Fax:781-345-5501
www.nexaweb.com
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