Many mobility strategies centered on app development

Back in the dark ages of enterprise mobility, which is to say just a few short years ago, a company's strategy may have revolved around giving executives the ability to check work email while out of the office. Times have changed quite quickly.

Advances in all aspects of mobile technology – computing power, wireless networks and a parade of new devices, among others – has completely transformed the face of enterprise mobility and what a company expects of a program. Access to email is no longer enough.

These days mobile professionals' expectations have reached the point where they want to be able to accomplish the same tasks while on the road as they would when sitting at their desks. That's where mobile applications come in.

Mobile apps may very well be behind what has made smartphones, and now tablets, so popular. Consumers love mobile apps because time spent playing word games with friends can make a subway commute go by in a flash. But businesses too have taken to mobile app use.

Much can be accomplished through mobile app development. Organizations can extend existing legacy solutions to the smartphones and tablets in the hands of their mobile professionals, or develop fully customized apps that meet specific industry and company needs.

That's probably why so many companies are now focusing their efforts to further mobile app development within the organization. In fact, Evans Data Corp.’s Mobile Development Survey, which was released this week, revealed that 75 percent of surveyed companies are working to create mobile applications for use by enterprise mobile users and consumers alike.

Visage Mobile wouldn't be doing its job if it didn't remind companies that mobile app development should fall under the umbrella of the overall enterprise mobility platform. This being the case, there are costs associated with creating and customizing apps that could affect the organization's initiatives to control corporate wireless spend.

It's important for organizations to keep an eye on their budgets for app use. The benefits presented by a new solution will be lost if the company overspends because an app is misused.

When developing mobile applications, the Evans Data survey revealed that many companies focus on extending legacy systems to smartphones and tablets. In fact, 74 percent of respondents said this was the aim of their mobile application development projects.

It goes back to employees wanting the same experience no matter where they're working from. The workforce is more likely to embrace and regularly use an application they are comfortable with, and since many have been leveraging the apps on the desktop for long periods of time, it's sensible to make the same software available on mobile devices.

A recent PC Advisor report called the focus on mobile software the "gold rush of mobile apps." The news provider advised companies to seek out the best talent in order to create and deploy the best applications possible.