What is an 'App'?
'App' is short for “application”, and in the old days this was a fairly generic term for any standalone piece of software that ran on your PC or Mac. Nowadays and largely in response to the growing popularity of Smartphones - Apps appear to be everywhere – you'll no doubt have heard the phrase...there's an App for that...and the chances are there probably is!
Does your business need an 'app'?
Well, it largely depends on what kind of business you have and what you want your App to do for your business. Smartphone Apps should probably be categorised as follows:
- Apps for fun/entertainment.
- Apps to broadcast information.
- Apps to do business.
For the majority of businesses Apps for 'fun/entertainment' and Apps to 'broadcast information' are not likely to deliver
significant business benefit unless you happen to be selling games or selling valuable content
(i.e. news, business reports etc).
Apps to 'do business' are different – these Apps must deliver real business benefit since the
investment required to develop Apps such as these is likely to be significant. Apps to 'do business'
will probably be required to interface with one or more back-end database systems – this is where
things can get complicated, this is where things can get expensive.
Are mobile 'Apps' different to other 'Apps'?
Not really, Mobile Apps just happen to be running on a smaller screen than the Apps (software) running on your PC or Laptop. The user interface is still just a piece of software, the data that is being captured and/or displayed is still probably being retrieved from a database – so it's really nothing new, it's just a different device.
Are 'Apps' easy to develop?
Apps are easy to develop but only if you know what you're doing. Having a Mobile App developed is just like having any piece of software written, there are good and bad developers. Good developers will focus heavily on your existing business systems and processes to make sure that the App will work for your business.
We might need an 'App' – what's next?
Well our opinions are FREE so if you have any questions, please click here to contact us by email or alternatively just give us a call on 0115 987 7690. You'll be under no obligation whatsoever and we absolutely won't try to sell you something that you don't need.