Enterprise Mobile App Development

Mobile App Development Tips 

Here is a list of things I found useful when building a mobile app for enterprises-

1. Minimum viable functionality - This is true for companies who may have a web/portal platform or an ERP in place and are looking build a mobile app. The mobile app is not a replacement of the desktop interface so you don't need to worry about providing all the bells and whistles that your backend software has. Focus on what can be done best from the mobile for the application scenario and build that.
2. What problem does it solve - Does your mobile app make it engaging, fun, easy to do a business transaction for a user? If you need a high user adoption make your mobile app is fun to use and practical. I had worked on a mobile app to bring the expense management process from SAP to mobile phones. The application provided consultants the ability to scan and complete their trips while they were in-flight, returning home at the end of every week. Here are the most used features that users loved -
1. Receipt scanning - Users snap a picture of their receipts and bundle them together for every trip.
2. Default Templates - To make the expense entry fast we provided the ability to create templates so if a consultant traveled Mon-Thu from Newark to Austin and stayed at the same hotel, it was really easy to repeat that data every week.
3. Push Notifications on status updates - Whenever a trip was approved or there were other updates the users were notified immediately so they could correct the entries and resubmit their expenses. 
4. Due date reminders - Users were notified when a trip was started but not submitted within the duration. 
3. Security and access - Depending on the size of the organization this may vary, but consider how your mobile app will access your backend system when users are not within the company network. Also consider what happens if a device is lost and you have sensitive information residing on the phone.
4. Gamify - In my experience we have used gamification to increase user adoption of the mobile apps. This has been a second phase approach after an app has been rolled out. The most frequently implemented scenarios were with leader boards with personal goal settings. 

The bottom line for any app for enterprises is that it should be almost as easy to use as a consumer app. If users need to enter multiple passwords, vpn into the network or wait for security tokens, it makes the app less appealing to use. Think about whether you really need to build these security measures in your app and risk losing the user's interest or would you rather keep it simple and fun even if it means less functionality. Less is more when it comes to mobile apps.

The biggest difference between a desktop interface is that the transactions are much shorter in duration  and more frequent on mobile apps. In the case of expense management we noticed that the users on an average used SAP Travel Expense Management once a week in the backend but used it 3-4 times a week on their mobile devices.