Lately as I’ve chatted with colleagues and friends about my company and what we do, I’ve found that there are many folks out there that don’t understand the nuances of Mobile Application Development. Although L-Tron has been providing barcode, scanning, data collection, RFID, and industrial level computing products and solutions for decades, mobility technology solutions is one of our specialties and I thought that the following information might provide you with some clarity.
Big picture: Mobile application development is the process followed when application software is developed for smaller hand-held mobile devices such as industrial mobile devices, smart phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). The applications are typically available pre-installed on the devices or may be downloaded by customers from various distribution platforms.
So, as I explain to my colleagues, business-to-business applications are actually quite different in scope from consumer smartphones and applications. We are all familiar with many of the application “stores” available and the top trending “apps” for our daily use. As businesses look into deploying a mobile application development strategy, there are many requirements they need to focus on and it is so important for them to allow their field sales, service and proof-of-delivery members to have full access to core applications, as well as applications developed for their specific business needs.
Bottom line: Companies should be asking a lot of questions when selecting mobile application developers. Here are the top five I would suggest:
- How much experience do you have developing software-mobile apps?
- What can your company, as my developer, add to my project?
- Do you have enough familiarity with my type of business workflow to allow for improvement recommendations?
- What type of development process does your company follow?
- What kinds of support are available both during and after the application is deployed on my mobile device?
Bonus question….
What type of experience does your company have developing a requirement scope of work to solve my company’s key business issues?
All in all, you will want a company to become a partner in your business strategy and help you grow. So for all of my friends and colleagues asking me about this topic, I hope this provides you with perspective. Please comment on my blog as I would love to hear your feedback.
If you’re interested in hearing more about my company’s approach, please feel free to contact me.
