Mobility improves productivity and profitability. When your business applications work anywhere, and on any device, employees can be more productive both in and out of the office. And the even better news? Mobile business applications now continue to work even if your internet connection fails.
The benefits of business mobility: improving productivity
The key advantages of mobility include enhancing productivity, staff engagement and customer experience. Enabling staff to work out of the office means that they can collect data from customer locations without having to ‘re-key’ it into a system back at the office. They can also have access to real-time information or analytics at their fingertips. And there’s no fear of losing data by having to rely on a consistent internet connection.
Three ways to build business applications that work anywhere
Broadly, you have three main options when building business applications that employees can use without being tied to a single location. Choosing which one is best will vary according to the needs of your business.
1. A mobile app
A dedicated mobile app is best for businesses that issue company-wide smartphones or tablets. Developing a business application for one platform such as iOS, Android or Windows Phone saves a lot of time and budget. In some organisations, employees can use their own devices in which case the application will need to work cross-platform using a developer framework such as Xamarin.
2. A web based application
The benefit of a web based application is that it doesn’t need to be installed on a user’s device. As long as they have an internet connection, your staff can continue to access business systems from wherever they are. Web based apps are built for one operating system which makes them easier to maintain, update and keep secure.
3. An offline or occasionally connected application
This type of business app is structured to continue working despite a loss of internet connectivity. They enable workers in even the remotest locations across the world to work without the fear of losing connectivity. They won’t lose any data if the connection does drop because it is stored on the user’s device. Offline apps use a specific technology called HTML5 and can be a complicated process without the right developer.
Read more about how our mobility services are improving productivity for Guideline Lifts, RSA Insurance and Save the Children.
