Business Mobile Apps: Planning and Strategy

The mobility parade is gathering steam and rolling down Main Street USA. Where are you viewing this parade? From the street corner watching as it passes by, or are you an active participant sitting on the main float that everyone else admires? The reality may be a bit of both, depending on where you are in your mobility development cycles and in setting your business goals strategy.



Here are five matters to consider:




USER MATTERS - Who will use your app and what will be the end-result of their usage? For example, do you have a user's group that provides feedback for your products or service offerings? How do they communicate with your company? Got an app for that?



COMPETITION MATTERS - What are your competitors doing in your market space and does their efforts give them any advantages? Are you being proactive or reactive to your market environment? Are you playing catch-up or leading your sector? Got an app for that?



COLLABORATOR MATTERS - Unless you live and work in a vacuum, your company interacts with other companies in many ways: suppliers, partners, logistics, sales, channels, marketing, and much more. What can you do to make your collaboration efforts better and easier? Just because you always have done it one way does not mean it can't be improved. Got an app for that??



COMPLIANCE MATTERS - In the supply-chain world of business, mandatory compliance issues are an everyday reality. Proper labels for this, correct documentation for that, serialized markings here, and security/anti-counterfeit features seem to be popping up everywhere. Sharing information freely, quickly, and rationally is not just good business, it is has become required, mandated and increasingly regulated. So, how are all those additional business processes and procedures working for you? Need help? Got an app for that?



EXECUTIVE MATTERS - Rarely does any pipedream mobile project become reality without an executive sponsor. That's because pet-projects and software development budgets are controlled by executives who set company priorities and objectives. Executive discussions for mobile apps often come back to financial issues of cost vs. perceived benefits received. But, is it always about dollars or should it also be common sense? Perhaps someone should develop a mobile business app to assist in making mobile business app decisions. Who's got an app for that? No doubt it would sell well.



Return on investment is always crucial in mobile app development conversations. But, the problem is that tangible and intangible returns are not always easy to calculate or quantify - especially with regard to some of the matters above that may be thrust upon an executive team (especially matters are government or industry regulated as a cost of doing business). And, not every team member executive is qualified to discuss or understand all of the tangible or intangible matters.



As my friend John Schiff at Oracle is fond of saying, begin your mobile app planning and strategy with the end in mind. I believe John is exactly right. If your executive team determines that the end results are justified, then make a strategic corporate decision to live with it, regardless of the perceived ROI economics. Go make your mobile apps!
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