Software Development Tips for Building Business Apps

By Simmar Kumar

At a time when more and more consumers are walking around spending more time on mobile apps than on personal computers, it will be foolish for organizations not to have a business app fitting their business requirements. A couple of useful tips for developing a smart and efficient business app are as follows.

Spot the Appropriate Coding Platform

There are three major stores to sell business apps: iOS App Store, Google Play Store or the Windows Store. Since every platform has its own set of required coding skills it is important to determine in which store the app will be published. Once this is known, the appropriate coding platform can then be used for developing the business app. For example, the business app can be coded in Objective C if it is for iOS, or in Java and XML if it is for Google Play. Getting it right the first-time in terms of the coding space helps to ensure high performance and the latest API support.

Focus on the Target Audience

Before starting with the development of the business app, it is important to identify the target audience. This helps in defining the style and the branding of the app. Business apps should ideally serve a niche and solve a problem. Defining the target audience helps in determining the look-and-feel of the app. Identifying the target audience also helps in determining what content, graphics, buttons, icons and fonts are to be used for the app. The process also helps developers to integrate strategies that would boost customer loyalty and engagement.

Leverage New Tools

App development is known to require development knowledge for different platforms. However, new tools have now emerged in the market that simplify the process of developing an app and eliminate the costs associated while doing so. Developers can now use templates to create audience-specific apps. They can even go for multi-platform business mobile apps by using some really great multi-platform developer tools. Examples of these tools include Appcelerator, PhoneGap and Whoop.

SEO

As more and more business apps are being submitted to the mobile app market, competition to rank higher also gets tougher. It is now imperative to integrate analytics in the business app while it is being developed. That is the only way to track the visitor stats and keep on improving once the app is published and launched. It is a good idea to have as many back links to the app as possible from as many quality sites as possible. Taking a look at the apps which are at the top of the niche and emulating their keywords and descriptions is another way to make the app search-engine friendly. The very fact that Google Play's app ranking system now takes into consideration how many Google+ likes (or +1's) an app has, underlines the importance of SEO for a mobile app.

Location and Push Notifications

These features are the latest in mobile app development technology that can benefit a business app. Mobile app developers are now gradually waking up to these sophisticated features. When push notifications are integrated with a business app, the user is informed through alerts that some update has happened on the app, even when the app is switched off. Incorporating geo-location during the software development phase of the mobile app is highly suggested. Location technology is another extremely valuable mobile app feature for businesses. Geo-location allows a smartphone user to check-in socially (similar to Foursquare check-ins) when visiting the business. This allows organizations to deploy targeted advertising.

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