For most businesses eyeing a long-standing digital journey, mobile application is the most comfortable place to begin with. A properly built mobile application remains at the edge of positive outcomes over competitive platforms. Mobile applications - when strategically developed - provide a fast, seamless experience; make pinpointed scope for generating personalized content, get businesses instantly connected with their core both online and offline, and churn out interesting narrative and storytelling to engage with even the most uninspired lot of audiences. So, mobile applications are the new frontiers of digital businesses. But do all applications sell? Why is it that despite investing devoted budget, time and effort, many businesses still lack the engagement and selling factor in their applications?
At OMSOFTWARE, one of our core offerings is mobile application development - and naturally, we get to meet new work requests everyday that are diverse in nature, and some are extremely complex from the beginning. We get queries that reflect the evolving landscape of the present-day business. Small businesses, big enterprises, mid-sized entities - all know and are familiar with the benefits a solid digital presence yields, and as part of the building digital footprint, they want to invest in mobile applications, but many of them are genuinely and legitimately cautious.
So far we've developed hundreds of mobile applications suiting the personalized and budgetary needs of our clients, and while doing so we have developed a highly relevant layer of understanding about what clients want, and care for. This blog entry is to share those understanding and learning.
The Two Crucial Challenges Clients Face before Investing an Application
(Cost and Benefit)
Client - I know an app is a costly investment, and hence I'm reluctant to discuss the budget.
(While part of the thought is factual, the cost of an app varies from requirement to requirement and the ecosystem where it needs to be built on. Clients need to be oriented with this)
Client - The lack of app literacy makes the entire concept vogue for me. If I don't know how it brings me results or - to be precise - how it benefits me, why should I invest in it at the first place?
(Very relevant query, and that's why the true benefits of a mobile app need to be discussed with the help of case studies)
At OMSOFTWARE, we understand that at the end of the day, what a businessperson thinks and likes is what brings him business and profit. Therefore, we focus on two integral part of the situation, before getting started -
First, increasing clients' app literacy with the help of real-life case studies.
Second, making the client familiar and comfortable with all the aspects of cost. A lot of people happily invest in application when they learn an application is so affordable than what they thought.
Once a client is entirely in the know of the process, benefits, costs involved, we do believe starting on the development is an early decision. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered first.
Who are your audiences?
There are demographic differences between android and iOS platforms, and thus getting an entirely clear and genuine picture of the target audience is extremely important. It is usually crucial to learn about the target audiences and their evolving preferences before starting to develop an application for them. We have seen queries where clients want to redevelop the app from scratch only because the true purpose of the earlier version was not understood properly, and resulting development was disastrous.
What is your deadline?
Requirement gathering, app store submission, multi-platform testing, design and development, creative, ideation, management - all take time, a lot of time in fact for high-end applications. So, rather than telling 'We will do it' the relevant assurance is 'We will do it by _ this time". Of course, if your client has deadline commitments, you need to discuss the feasibility.
What are the business objectives you want to achieve with the application?
Increasing workforce efficiency? Encouraging ecommerce sales? Building engagement? When you know what you need to develop and for whom - and necessarily - for which purpose, it becomes easy to integrate the related feature and functionality.
Whom will the mobile application compete with?
Competitive research is an integral part of mobile application development. Part of the task is fulfilled by our digital marketing team, and the rest by the technically proficient developers. Ask - How the future users of your application presently solve the problem for which you are building this application? Quite often, this results in interesting answers - a foundation for the development.
What is the monetization strategy for your mobile application?
If your client is familiar how it wants to make money, it's good. If he is still unsure and has only presumed, it is never a bad idea to introduce him with the monetization strategies based on the industry standards. Some clients might have a rosy picture of the monetization strategy - telling them of the real picture and making them comfortable with the development.
More Questions
• What are the challenges that might hinder your app's growth?
• Do you have any preferences?
• What is special about the application?
• Do you know how the process development stages? Can you give enough time joining the development?
• Who owns the code?
These are just a few of the questions, and we know the list gets populated depending on the client and requirement. What do you think of the mobile application development questions? I'm looking for your experiences in the comments. Thanks for reading.
Most Recent Mobile Application Development News from OMSOFTWARE
We have successfully developed mobile application for MYAUTO - an S & L InfoTech venture. I will soon post about the development soon.
Reference :
MYAUTO :ENJOY COMFORTABLE TRIP - Online Book My Auto Service
OMSOFTWARE :Mobile|Web|Ecommerce|UI/UX Design & Development Company
