What is Enterprise Mobile Application Development?

July 29, 2021

The term enterprise mobile application refers to mobile apps developed by individual organizations for their employees to use in carrying out functions required to run the organization. An enterprise mobile application belonging to a company is expected to be used only by employees of that company. 

 Examples

 Here are a few examples to help you understand what an enterprise mobile application is.

  •  A for-profit organization may develop a mobile app for its employees to track raw material inventory levels used in product manufacturing. This type of mobile app is referred to as an enterprise mobile application. However, the same organization may also develop another mobile app to sell products to distributors or end-users – and that mobile app would not be considered an enterprise mobile application.
  •  A non-profit organization may develop a mobile app for its members to use in tracking the inventory levels of supplies distributed to the communities they serve. This type of mobile app is also referred to as an enterprise mobile application. However, the same non-profit organization may develop another mobile app to raise awareness of the services provided to communities among the general public, including those communities – and that mobile app would not fall under the definition of enterprise mobile application.

 

Enterprise mobile solution providers

 Enterprise Mobile solution providers create and develop apps for individual organisations to purchase rather than create the apps themselves. Organizations purchase the apps for a variety of reasons, including time and cost savings, as well as technical expertise. Today, Enterprise Mobility is a key driver of enterprise transformation. Today’s businesses require increased productivity in a timely manner. By assisting enterprise mobility solutions, enterprise mobility enables business owners to build their work in a progressive manner.

Integration of enterprise applications

Enterprise application integration is a framework for integrating systems and applications across an enterprise that is made up of a collection of technologies and services that form a middleware or “middleware framework.”

Many types of business software, such as supply chain management applications, ERP systems, CRM applications for customer management, business intelligence applications, payroll, and human resources systems, cannot typically communicate with one another in order to share data or business rules. As a result, such applications are sometimes referred to as automation islands or information silos. This lack of communication results in inefficiencies, such as identical data being stored in multiple locations or simple processes being unable to be automated.

Enterprise application integration is the process of connecting such applications within a single organisation in order to simplify and automate business processes to the greatest extent possible while avoiding sweeping changes to existing applications or data structures. Applications can be linked at the back end via APIs or (rarely) at the front end via the graphical user interface.

According to Gartner, “[EAI] is the unrestricted sharing of data and business processes among any connected application or data sources in the enterprise.”

The various systems that must be linked may run on different operating systems, use different database solutions or computer languages, or use different date and time formats, or be legacy systems that are no longer supported by the vendor who created them. In some cases, such systems are referred to as “stovepipe systems” because they are made up of components that have been jammed together in such a way that they are extremely difficult to modify in any way.

Enterprise mobile apps provide both employees and customers with unique value.

Every time a field worker uses a tablet to solve a problem or a customer uses a smartphone to pay a bill, it is the result of an enterprise’s investment in digital integration and app development. Many businesses have used middleware technologies to standardize their application development processes as part of their digital transformations.

Utilities, telecommunications, oil and gas, and manufacturing are among the industries that are utilizing mobile platforms to enable field workers to maintain and upgrade their infrastructure. Mobile workforce management apps, when securely integrated with back-end systems, can help workers make better decisions, communicate, record their activities, and work more efficiently. Similarly, businesses are utilizing customer-facing apps to improve customer service.

A cloud-native development platform with built-in mobile services can do the following:

  • Provide a unified approach to the development of mobile, web, and cloud-native apps
  • Compatibility with the modern client- and server-side application frameworks
  • Ensure that resources are used efficiently
  • Provide a consistent user experience
  • Streamline operations such as installation, upgrades, and lifecycle management.
  • Enable workload portability so that apps behave consistently across cloud boundaries.
  • Allow for horizontal scalability so that an organization can respond to changes in demand