Enterprise Mobile App Development Strategies That Boost Productivity

Enterprise mobile app development requires superiority in every aspect of the process. Whether it’s designing, understanding the audience, app security, coding, testing, debugging, and everything else, you need a team that has proven expertise in all domains.

But why?

Why is enterprise mobile application development a cumbersome and complicated process relative to other types of development? Add to this, the long list of client requirements amidst a rapidly changing landscape further brews a challenging journey ahead for the top enterprise mobile application development services company.

As someone spearheading such an organization, I would like to share a few strategies we have adopted at Mobmaxime to deliver successful enterprise-level solutions.

Must Read: Follow the Four-Phased Mobile App Launch Process Better Acquisition, Retention, and Revenue

What’s the Challenge with Enterprise Mobile App Development?

My first enterprise app development project was an eye-opener. Even with 10+ years of experience in mobile app development, I wasn’t able to pick the pulse on the scale of work required here. But as designers and developers, we must take every project as a learning to become better, and that’s what we did.

Here are a few challenges you might face in enterprise mobile app development;

• Effective Security

  Given the scale of enterprise apps and the highly sensitive data they handle, ensuring app security is paramount. Add to this the increase in security risks due to technological advancements and the Bring your own Device (BYOD) culture.

  Development companies, unaware of the new vulnerabilities in operating systems, 3rd-party libraries, app code, etc., can succumb to the pressure of providing top-notch security.

  A lack of continuous monitoring systems and adapting to the latest security measures can breed competence issues for the development company.

• Lack of Development Expertise

  According to recent data, 37% of organizations experience a lack of mobile app developers, and 44% experience a knowledge gap. This means there’s a lack of expertise of the right people required to build enterprise-level solutions.

  For enterprise app development, you need developers who have the required experience in everything related to the process. So, whether it’s database management, designing the elements, ensuring performance, etc., subject-matter experts are essential to deliver the solution.

  As we have discussed before, staffing challenges are prominent in enterprise mobile app development.

• Quick Launch Vs. Customization

  There’s an evergoing race in enterprise app development wherein businesses often struggle to decide between;

  Should we take the application to the market quickly with off-the-shelf features?

  OR

  Should we go for a customized application catering to the specific needs of our customers?

  With this long-standing debate, development companies face another challenge of gathering clear client requirements and suggesting a solution. So whether you are going to take a hybrid approach, phased rollout, or use low-code platforms entirely depends on the situation.

• Emerging Advanced Technologies Outpace the Existing Knowledge

  The emerging technologies are quickly overcoming our existing knowledge and this is relevant to every domain, let alone designing and development. See how quickly AI has changed the way of doing things and it continues to make a big impact.

  With enterprise development, this impact seems much larger because developers must learn to balance out this need to stay updated and the client’s unfeasible vision to innovate.

• Data Management

  Enterprise applications handle vast amounts of data, hence data management becomes a big challenge for the development team to combat. The development has to ensure that data is accessible while ensuring it synchronizes with the backend systems; if that’s not all, intermittent connectivity issues and network conditions further complicate things.

• User Experience Designing

  Enterprise applications have several stakeholders, each one with a unique perspective and goal. In these disparate design preferences, finding common ground is extremely difficult for a design and development team. Moreover, even if you get all the requirements, creating a seamless design catering to the target user requirements is a complex exercise.

All these challenges point to the fact that traditional and standardized approaches cannot be used to deliver enterprise mobile application development services. The requirements, market conditions, and technological aspects will change with every client.

Hence, your organization needs to tackle these challenges with a strategic mindset and approach. In the next section, I will share some ways to tackle enterprise mobile app development like a pro.

Strategies to Build Performant Enterprise Mobile Applications

Enterprise application development has cogs that must work like a machine to deliver the intended results. Hence, it requires meticulous consideration of multiple design and development factors so that you can build an application that serves the user’s needs. 

• Agile Development Methodology

  Waterfall development methodology and enterprise app development aren’t meant to be together. Instead, use the agile development methodology, which focuses on app security.

  Taking the agile route, you can create an iterative development cycle, which means;

  • Receiving continuous feedback from the stakeholders
  • Regular testing of app modules to find anomalies
  • Evolution of application according to the new requirements

  Within this, give priority to the app’s security throughout the development lifecycle. For this, I would recommend learning and implementing;

  • Secure coding practices
  • Threat modeling
  • Static code analysis
  • Regular penetration testing

  Going beyond development, follow secure development practices relevant to the app type and industry. Choose the relevant secure configuration management tools and follow the best practices for access control and data encryption.

  In addition, follow the DevOps or DevSecOps methodology to prevent security threats and attacks on the application during development.

• Choose the Right Architecture Type for Enterprise Application

  You must spend some time choosing the right architecture type for your application, and it will depend on several factors. Your decision might change according to app complexity, scalability, and the agility model. Here are seven types of architectures you can choose from;

  Architecture Type	Description
  Monolithic	Good for simple and low-traffic applications, which are easy to build. But, scaling and updating such applications is a monumental challenge.
  Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)	The model is about breaking down app functionality into smaller and reusable services, making them easier to maintain and scale.
  Microservices	It’s an ideal approach to building complex and scalable applications. The architecture is set to break down functionalities into independent and loosely coupled services. This means rapid development while making the app resilient and independent.
  Event-Driven Architecture	Use this development structure when you want to build apps that can respond to real-time events. Used together with the Microservices model it’s ideal for building apps that need real-time processing and self-service applications.
  Web App Architecture	This model defines how web applications in all domains and industries can relate to and interact within a web (internet) environment.
  Mobile App Architecture	An architecture similar to web app structuring and similar capabilities. However this structure has differences pertaining to the capabilities and limitations of a mobile device.
  Serverless Architecture	A relatively new form of architecture where applications are hosted on cloud servers, providing them with effective scalability and minimal management requirements.

  Enterprise applications are large-scale solutions that will also need resources to scale and adapt quickly. As the market and user requirements change, developers shouldn’t have trouble making the required changes.

  Hence, choose the architecture that lets you achieve seamless adaptability and scalability. I recommend using the microservices architecture to build enterprise mobile apps.

• User-Centered Designing

  Achieving customer-centricity with enterprise applications is crucial but also a big task. Here’s how to crack the code;

  • Don’t limit your design inspiration to basic user personas and go beyond to understand the target audience deeply.
  • Conduct user interviews, user shadow sessions, and usability testing with prototypes to get authentic user feedback.
  • Implement iterative design sessions facilitating constant testing of the application and adjusting the design to ensure it is usable, functional, and user-friendly.

  Knowing the target devices is important in enterprise mobile app development. This will help you build applications customized to be as user-friendly as possible. It might take some time to figure out the range of devices, but some hard work now can pay off significantly in the future.

• Use APIs to Your Advantage

  Don’t build enterprise applications in isolation, which can lead to data silos and several integration challenges. This means without APIs, you cannot integrate the application with other solutions like ERPs, CRMS, and data warehouses.

  Using the API-based development approach means these can become these can create a predefined contract between the mobile application, backend, and other systems. Moreover, these APIs are designed for reusability, ensuring they provide consistent functionality.

  While working with the API approach, I have been following these practices;

  • Use industry-standard API design and development principles, such as RESTful APIs, to ensure consistency and effective usability.
  • Make sure to implement a clear versioning strategy for the APIs to manage changes, as it ensures compatibility with the existing integrations.
  • Along with the application deliver comprehensive API documentation to facilitate a smooth integration process with the working environment.
  • Prioritize API security, as attackers can use APIs to gain unauthorized access to the app’s backend and other systems. So, ensure the APIs you integrate have effective authentication, authorization, and encryption.

• Work With a Robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) Strategy

  MDM helps establish a secure user enrollment process according to the devices they are using for accessing the application. A robust MDM strategy is your first line of defense as it protects the devices and data related to the application. Here’s what you must do with the MDM strategy;

  • Build a system for the users to register their devices with the MDM platform, which ensures only authorized people have access to sensitive user information.
  • With MDM, large-scale businesses can control the application deployment from a centralized platform. Through this, they can create whitelists, blacklists, and simplify application deployment, installation, and updates.
  • At the same time, following the MDM approach enforces strong data encryption when it’s at rest or in transit. Data encryption at this level scrambles the information during transit, making it unreadable.
  • Containerization is something I really applaud and implement for enterprise mobile app development. Developers can create a secure workspace for the enterprise mobile application, isolating enterprise data from personal information.

  A comprehensive and well-planned MDM strategy will facilitate adding relevant features and functions, enabling enterprise applications to curate a secure environment.

A top mobile app development company, in addition to building high-performance enterprise applications, goes one step ahead in delivering an exceptional experience. What we do for our clients and their users is training support.

We build comprehensive training material and documentation to offer ongoing support to the users. So, when you hire mobile app developers from Mobmaxime for enterprise app development, expect detailed training material so that you can drive real value with your application.

To Sum It Up

Enterprise mobile app development is easier said than done. A task fit for highly experienced and expert designers/developers, building enterprise-grade applications is an entirely new domain but with immense potential to deliver real business value.

Mobmaxime has all the experience and expertise along with a forward-looking perspective, which we use to build performant and secure mobile applications.

Need to know more, get in touch.