There are a few decisions to be made when developing an enterprise mobile app for your company to use. For example, what features should the app have. Or whether to go with native development or rather take advantage of cross-platform apps. The most important question to answer though will be should the app be developed by the own in-house team, or maybe it would be better to hire an outsourced team. 

Asking your own developers to build the app might be a good idea if you have a bigger team and are sure the project won’t affect their regular work.

However, if you are short on time or don’t have enough skilled employees to handle the project, then asking a dedicated mobile development company to build the enterprise app can save you time, budget, and nerves too.

You can gain far more from outsourcing your mobile enterprise app development project, though – read on to find out how much.

What is an enterprise mobile application?

Mobile enterprise applications are apps that are specially made and customized for a specific enterprise-level business and used by the given company’s employees to handle their work tasks. Since those apps can be accessed anywhere and anytime just through employees’ mobile devices, they can significantly boost productivity, streamline business operations and simplify many daily tasks.

Those benefits are leading more and more enterprises to consider developing enterprise mobile apps for their employees. In one of Hubspot’s reports, over 73% of enterprises said they see enterprise mobility solutions as one of their priorities. In the same report, 84% reported an overall increase in productivity after adding mobile applications to their company.

What makes the mobile enterprise application development process a bit tricky is that there are a few significant differences between building regular and enterprise mobile apps:

  • Enterprise mobile apps often handle plenty of sensitive data, making them a frequent target for cyberattacks. So while those apps, developers must pay special attention to security features, especially since those will be most often installed on personal mobile devices.
  • Those apps need to be highly customized, both when it comes to the features included and the designs
  • The app usually needs to have features tailored to the enterprise goals, such as real-time data processing, multi-factor authentication, push notifications, or cloud data storage.
  • Enterprise apps often need to be integrated with other business platforms or legacy systems used in the company, so developers must add specific integrations for those.
  • Applications for enterprises need to be easy to configure and customize for each enterprise department or employee

What’s equally important is that since the applications will collect and exchange data regularly, they also need to comply with the company’s internal regulations, privacy policies, and data protection laws, so there’s more legal work involved in designing such an app as well.

Why might you consider building an enterprise mobile app in-house?

Considering that the app will be created for and used only by your employees, it might seem to make the most sense to ask your own developers to handle the project from start to finish. Especially since there are a few specific benefits of keeping the whole development process in-house:

  • In-house teams understand your organization’s main business objectives and needs and are familiar with all internal policies, so you won’t have to spend time explaining those to them.  
  • The entire organization’s schedule can be synced to find time for regular project reviews and discussions. Plus, you have the luxury of immediately calling the team in case there’s an urgent issue to solve.
  • Building an app in-house will give you complete control over the project when it comes to scope, technology, team mix, and deadlines.

However, developing mobile applications customized to the enterprise’s main goals in-house isn’t as easy as many might think. The first problem they usually face when outlining the enterprise mobile app development project requirements is that they might not have enough skilled developers to implement the essential features.

One option here would be to recruit and hire one or more developers with the desired skills. However, that would mean you’ll have to spend time:

  • Creating a recruitment offer
  • Checking the resume and portfolio of each candidate
  • Running several job interview meetings
  • Preparing the paperwork for hiring the chosen candidate
  • Spending time on onboarding and training the new employee  

All of this might take plenty of time – even a few months if you are looking for someone with a specific set of skills. As a result, the project might need to be put off until you’ve completed the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding processes. 

The biggest problem though, especially for smaller companies, are the costs connected with hiring new employees:

  • Recruitment, onboarding, and training costs
  • Base salary and work benefits
  • Preparing the employee’s workstation (workspace, equipment and software, office supplies)

In total, CodeSubmit estimated that hiring one developer as a full-time employee can cost between $28,548 and $35,685, taking into account that the median annual wage for software developers was $110,140 in 2020. The costs will obviously increase if you need to hire more than one develope – so that might be quite a strain on your budget.

Hiring a full-time developer might be a good idea if you know you’ll have enough work for them in the future or when you want to improve the skills of the main team. For a one-time app development project though, it might be a better option to reach out to mobile development companies that are familiar with enterprise mobile application development.

What are the benefits of outsourcing a enterprise mobile app project?

A KrusheCompany study found that 60% of companies outsource their app development projects today, making it the most commonly outsourced IT service. Many modern enterprises now reach out to  mobile app development companies as well, either to ask them to develop the app from scratch for them or to “borrow” developers for their in-house projects. Why? 

Take a look at some of the most significant benefits of outsourcing a project to mobile applications development company.

 

Access to vast numbers of talented developers from various areas

 

Running a successful enterprise app development project requires more than just a team of skilled developers – you will need UI/UX designers, project managers, and quality assurance engineers as well. And this is precisely why building an entirely in-house project team can be quite difficult, even for large companies. It simply might not be possible to find enough in-house developers to handle the project from start to finish.  

Development agencies, meanwhile typically have dozens of developers with different skills and experience levels working for them, as well as connections to hundreds of other developers. So whether you need to build a dedicated team for the enterprise app project or temporarily hire one or two people to help your in-house team, a mobile app development agency will surely have the people with the exact skills you need, ready to work with you. 

 

Development companies are familiar with the latest tools and technologies

 

You might want your newest enterprise app to have big data analytics features or artificial intelligence but don’t exactly have the budget to invest in the newest technology though. How about about taking advantage of the newest mobile technology through mobile development companies though?    

Those companies have the advantage of having the latest tools and technologies at their disposal, as well as developers who know the tools inside and out. Whether you are looking for someone who knows how to use a mobile enterprise application platform or developer familiar with frameworks for building a cross-platform app, you’ll be able to hire them through the development company.

Additionally, you can benefit from the development company’s expertise when it comes to recommending specific tools or frameworks that will work for your enterprise mobile app project the most.

 

Great flexibility given

 

Another great benefit of outsourcing a project to a mobile development agency is allowing you to add, remove or swap team members as you need.

Has it ever happened to you that during a project or task, you found out your team has been struggling to solve a development problem they came across? If yes, then you probably know just how much time and effort it takes to find someone who can put the project back on track on short notice. If you work with an app development company though, you can add new mobile developers to the team (almost) straight away and hire them for as long as you need.

For example, let’s say that you want to add a new feature to your future mobile enterprise application – but it would require adding an extra team member to the current team. When working in-house, that could be a bit troublesome. When cooperating with a app development company, all you will need to do is to contact the project manager, explain who do you need, and they will make sure to find the right person for the task. 

Plus, you can specify that a given developer will be only responsible for one task – for example, for fixing an issue your current team doesn’t know how to solve. That way, you can scale up or down the project team as you need – something that would be difficult to do even if you had a large in-house team.

 

The process gives you time to focus on the core business tasks

 

The development of mobile apps usually takes a few months to a year – developing enterprise mobile apps might take even longer. If you want the in-house team to work on the project, then you will need to adjust their schedule and the amount of work they have. The extra workload shouldn’t much affect how your business operates every day if the project is short or simple and only a few people are needed to complete it.

However, things can get more complicated if the project is long-term or requires an entire development team to work on it. Your team simply might not have enough time to work on the project while also managing their regular work duties. In addition, monitoring project progress, deadlines, results and responding to any issues or problems that arise wouldn’t leave you much time to grow the business either. As a result, you might either end up with a significantly delayed project or with an app that doesn’t look or work the way you imagined. 

When reaching out to software development partners, how much you want to be involved in the project will be one of the first things they will ask you, so they could then tailor the cooperation model to your needs. You can either leave the entire project in their hands so that your team can fully concentrate on the usual tasks, or you can hire a few people that will work alongside them – whichever method will fit your needs more. 

 

You get faster development time

 

You might think that a new app will be finished faster if all developers are working in-house and you can keep an eye on their work. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case,  as plenty of things can slow down the project’s progress. Lack of time, miscommunication, unexpected problems, different opinions on what should be done next – and the progress might slow down.  

Mobile app development companies meanwhile have been managing similar projects for years and have tried and tested methods for designing applications from start to finish. Plus, as they know plenty of tricks and best practices how to do a given task faster, they can deliver a ready and full-functional app to you much faster. 

 

They know what to do when something doesn’t go as planned

 

Here’s another benefit of outsourcing, but it’s one that is often overlooked. No matter how well-planned the enterprise mobile development project may be, you might run into issues in the middle of the project that gets your team stuck – and the project delayed.

Because development companies work on many different projects, they’ve seen and solved several issues and challenges that might happen during an app development project. That way, they might already have a ready solution for the problem that got your project stuck. In addition, by looking at the outline of the project, they can also predict what problems your team might face, which will help you prevent those issues from delaying their work.

 

It’s cost-Effective and efficient

 

Looking at how much agencies charge for working on a project, many companies might still believe that building a mobile app in-house is cheaper than hiring a dedicated team. That might be true, but often only if they already have a large team or the project is short enough. In other cases, reaching out to a development company to ask them to build the app for enterprise might cost less than making it yourself.  

The first benefit is that you will not have to spend money on recruitment, training, software licenses, resources, or office space, costs of which could quickly add up to staggering amounts. Secondly, experienced developers usually only need a look at the project and a short discussion to determine where they can cut project costs without compromising quality or what potentially costly issues might happen during development. 

Plus, you will only pay for the time they spent developing your new app – nothing more. So, in the long run, you’ll be able to save a good part of the budget.

 

You get top-notch security

 

In the vast majority of cases, your employees will install and use the enterprise mobile application on their personal mobile device and use those to access the corporate data.

That makes making sure that they are as secure as possible a priority, as any security issues or vulnerabilities can lead to very costly data breaches or compliance issues. Designing intuitive applications with foolproof security and for any operating system the employees might be using takes some experience and skills though – that your team might not have. 

Developers who have worked on enterprise mobile applications projects in the past will know how to secure the applications against data breaches or hacks though and will be able to recommend you the best way to protect the data inside your system. 

How to choose the right mobile app outsourcing company?

Once you’ve decided to outsource your next custom enterprise app development project, the next step is to find a mobile app outsourcing company that can turn your  enterprise app idea into a fully-fledged product. It will be necessary for you to do some research here though, as there are thousands of mobile app development companies out there, and, unfortunately, not all of them are worth your time.

To make this process a little easier for you, below we’ve added some points that you should check while reviewing different mobile app development companies to find the one that matches your needs the most: 

  • What is their background?
  • Do they offer enterprise app development services?
  • What kind of tools and technologies are they using? 
  • What is the process they follow to build applications?
  • With what companies have they been working earlier? Do they have an app in their portfolio that is similar to what I need? 
  • What cooperation models do they offer?

Once you have selected a few app development companies that suit your needs best, you should either send them a project brief or schedule a quick meeting to discuss your expectations for the project in detail. The research will likely take time, but that’s the only way to find a mobile app development partner you can trust with the project – and who will deliver an app that meets your expectations.

If you already have an enterprise app project in mind, why not talk to us at INVO about the details? Whether you need a custom enterprise app made from scratch or only need a bit of support on handling the project in-house, we’ll surely be able to match the project with the right people to make it a success.

After you send us your project brief, we’ll schedule a meeting during which you can meet our enterprise mobile app developers – and have a talk with them about how they can create an enterprise software that will meet all of your business goals.

Conclusion

Want to build a mobile app for your enterprise employees to use, but you don’t have enough time or developers to handle the project yourself? Or maybe you just need to “borrow” one or more developers that will help your in-house team finish the project successfully? Reaching out to mobile development companies like us at INVO can help you with both of those things. We’ll be happy to chat with you about what your enterprise needs the most – and how we can turn those ideas into a ready app your employees will love.