You have an idea for a mobile app that can help to grow your business and attract new customers. Sounds good. But, how are you going to bring your vision to life?
Looking to streamline business processes or send your profits soaring?
Many businesses choose custom apps in order to deliver value to their businesses and increase their competitiveness in the marketplace. A 2015 CDW study, The App Age: How Enterprises Use Mobile Applications, looked at some of the reasons why businesses prefer to use custom apps instead of off-the-shelf apps.
Custom apps are apps that have been fully or partially customized to meet the business’ unique needs. As a result, they have features that are designed to help the business perform key processes in ways that are unique to the specific needs of the business.
However, this doesn’t tell the entire story of why custom apps have become so popular with businesses. In fact, there are several more nuanced reasons why custom apps are preferred over off-the-shelf apps by the nation’s top businesses.
Here are 7 reasons why custom enterprise apps are so popular.
1. Increased Productivity and Efficiency
Custom apps help businesses to increase productivity and efficiency. According to the CDW study, 21% of small businesses, 21% of medium-sized businesses, and 31% large businesses reported using a custom app to gain a competitive advantage.
As businesses use custom apps to reduce manual processes, data entry errors, and inefficient tasks, they are able to work faster and get more done. This increased productivity and efficiency translates to more sales and increased revenues for the businesses that deploy custom apps to improve their operations.
2. The Ability to Work Remotely
Custom apps help businesses to increase productivity and efficiency. According to the CDW study, 21% of small businesses, 21% of medium-sized businesses, and 31% large businesses reported using a custom app to gain a competitive advantage.
As businesses use custom apps to reduce manual processes, data entry errors, and inefficient tasks, they are able to work faster and get more done. This increased productivity and efficiency translates to more sales and increased revenues for the businesses that deploy custom apps to improve their operations.
3. Lower Costs
For many businesses, using custom apps also mean lower costs because the ability to work remotely is also part of the organization’s cost reduction strategy. With a workforce that is highly mobile, companies can lower employee-related and real estate costs. In fact, the CDW study found that businesses save an average of 7.5 hours per employee, per week.
4. Better Data Availability
Data availability (74%) was cited by the CDW study as the second most important purchase consideration in developing custom apps. This finding is not surprising given that enterprises typically have data availability needs that are more challenging than the average small business.
Furthermore, the study found that for medium and large businesses, the departments that were most likely to use custom apps were IT systems and sales, respectively. These departments often need to make use of data in real-time, gather vast amounts of data for modeling purpose and access standardized APIs for predictive applications. As a result, off-the-shelf solutions simply aren’t flexible enough to meeting these demands.
5. Better Security
The CDW study found that data security (77%) was the biggest purchase consideration for businesses that were looking to develop custom apps. Many companies are using off-the-shelf apps that are not secured.
With exposure to the Internet, these applications are prime targets for hackers. In fact, a 2016 Trustwave Global Security Report found that almost every app (97%) that was tested by Trustwave in 2015 had at least one security vulnerability.
In addition, IT managers often don’t even know that major security vulnerabilities in the apps even exist, especially when they choose to deploy apps that have never even been tested for these issues. In an age where enterprise apps are under constant attack, security is more important than ever.
Fortunately, securing a custom app is possible with the right app developer and an application vulnerability management program in place. Custom apps can offer better security than off-the-shelf apps by incorporating static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), manual penetration testing during the development process.
6. Increased Competitiveness
The CDW study found that data security (77%) was the biggest purchase consideration for businesses that were looking to develop custom apps. Many companies are using off-the-shelf apps that are not secured.
With exposure to the Internet, these applications are prime targets for hackers. In fact, a 2016 Trustwave Global Security Report found that almost every app (97%) that was tested by Trustwave in 2015 had at least one security vulnerability.
In addition, IT managers often don’t even know that major security vulnerabilities in the apps even exist, especially when they choose to deploy apps that have never even been tested for these issues. In an age where enterprise apps are under constant attack, security is more important than ever.
Fortunately, securing a custom app is possible with the right app developer and an application vulnerability management program in place. Custom apps can offer better security than off-the-shelf apps by incorporating static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), manual penetration testing during the development process.
7. ROI
Businesses develop custom apps with the explicit goal of delivering results. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, companies develop custom apps with specific problems that they want to solve and expect the apps to deliver the results that they are looking for.
In fact, nearly all respondents to the CDW survey (82%) believe that mobile apps have helped their businesses to generate additional revenue. These businesses also reported an average revenue gain of 16%.
Rather than deploying off-the-shelf solutions that are slow to adapt to the changing needs of an industry’s major players, businesses benefit more from using custom apps because they provide better scalability and adaptability.
Let’s Talk Custom Apps
At Achievion, we can help you develop your custom app so that you can avoid the pitfalls and take full advantage of the opportunities that are available to your business.
Rather than wasting time trying to “reinvent the wheel,” we offer fast-track app development solutions that not only improve the time-to-market, but also improve the quality of your custom app.
