What Does 2013 Hold for Enterprise Mobile Apps

The end of a year and the beginning of a new one always seems to lead to lists, lots of lists. Lists of what has happened in the previous year and lists of what might be the highlights of the year to come.

Priya Viswanathan, on December 18th, posted her Estimated Mobile Industry Trends for 2013.

In it, she shared these areas where she pictures changes:

1. The Use of Mobile Internet

She particularly focused on an increase in the growth in payments and transactions being made on mobile devices.

The Snappii Platform provides all of our users who set up a Paypal account to include paypal payments in all of their Enterprise Mobile Apps. You can also include the ability to capture customer signatures as well.

2. Increase in Mobile Technology

Snappii Platform users can be assured that as Mobile Technology changes, we will change our visible WYSIWYG Drag and Drop Editor to ensure we update the code to be appropriate for every device we support.

3. Mobile Device Wars

 No matter how much Apple and Android might fight it out for top Mobile Device, Snappii users have the assurance that the Snappii Platform allows them to develop their app for both platforms easily, help them upload their apps to both platform's app stores, and updating apps made with Snappii and updating them to reflect either app improvements or new changes in the device requirements is both included as a Snappii customer, can be accomplished quickly, and users can receive update notices swiftly.

4. Mobile OS Wars

In keeping with the Device Wars, Snappii will also keep their customer's and their apps up to the most current Operating Systems.

5. Mobile Operator Wars

From Ms. Viswanathan, "Mobile network operators will introduce newer devices and network offers to lure more customers. This will again see the consumer reigning as king. While 3G networks will continue to be popular in certain regions of the world, 4G services will come to the fore and make its mark on the mobile network industry."

6. Native Apps vs. HTML 5

Snappii Customers already have the ability to design all of their Enterprise Mobile Device Applications in not only the Apple and Android formats, but can easily create apps to also work in HTML 5. Literally, Snappii provides you with the opportunity to develop your app to work on every mobile device.

7. Cloud Computing

According to Ms. Viswanathan, "The cloud will form a vital part of all digital computing and more users will shift toward using these services."

This will prove to be an additional asset to the Snappii Platforms ability to upload data from a variety of sources. Your mobile enterprise app will allow company personnel and customers to access any information they need from your mobile application, wherever they may be.

8. Mobile Security

The Snappii Development team can work closely with your IT department and other development team to ensure the safety of all your data remains secure in your app by following industry standards like OAUTH.

9. Rise in Enterprise App Stores

As a Snappii customer, you can be assured that as more Enterprise Mobile App stores begin to arise, we will ensure you will be able to sign-up to post your app to these locations and post them from the Snappii Platform.

There is a great deal of growth coming to the Snappii Platform in 2013. I am excited to share just some of these remarkable additions with you in the coming days. Today is a great day to make your resolution to build your company an enterprise mobile application. You and your development team can do it today without needing to hire anyone to build your codes. With the Snappii Platform, there is no need to write the code. We're done it for you. You simply need to lay out the information you want your app to include. With the visual WYSIWYG Drag and Drop Editor, you and your team can build your app together and then test it on your own devices before uploading it for your customers to use. Change anything you want before it's ever released.

May 2013 be a successful year for you, your family and your company, as you save money and improve customer service with your new Enterprise Mobile Application.

Alex 

5 Reasons Businesses Need Enterprise Mobile Apps

I was recently reading a whitepaper on the value of mobile business apps to help organizations, both large and small, across various industries - from direct store delivery to home health care, state and local government, construction and field services.

Smart phones, tablets, and mobile apps have truly transformed the way we communicate, play and manage our personal lives. A recent story in Computerworld by Mark Hamblen sites a Pew survey that half of all U.S. adults own a smartphone or tablet. Considering that was prior to the holiday shopping season and the typical wave of post holiday shoppers that "may have not gotten what they wanted" and head out in, we can be pretty certain that this percentage is even greater today.

With this increasing number of users, the same transformation to these devices are taking place in businesses where they are becoming nearly standard issue tools for every member of a mobile workforce or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies are bringing these devices into the everyday work environment.

Field staff, who regularly work out of their car or truck, often rely only on a phone and are abandoning the clipboard and multiple, duplicate forms for apps they can fill out right on their smartphone or tablet.

Here are five specific benefits your organization should consider if you haven't already made the decision to build an enterprise mobile app to improve workflow, ensure higher quality data and work details benefiting both your overhead, your staff's productivity, and your customer interactions.

1. Better data capture from the field.
When your field personnel are able to capture key customer data through a mobile app, you reduce tremendous amounts of paper forms, greatly increase the accuracy of the data collected and that information can be shared enterprise wide literally instantaneously.

2. Improved job management to get more work done each day.
Sales, service managers, dispatchers, and parts managers are just a few examples of the company personnel that can use an enterprise app to communicate job details directly to field personnel. These details could easily contain the customer address, the parts required to complete the job and even past activities with this specific customer.

3. Proof that a job was completed correctly and on time
Enterprise Mobile Apps can be designed to capture customer signatures, job site photos, QA symbol scans of all materials used on the job. All the data is captured with time and location stamps. Organizations can not only measure what materials really are consumed on a project, they can use the  time data to develop an accurate history of the length of time certain jobs take to complete and build labor rates and scheduling practices based on this accurate, from the field, information.

4. Decreased payroll costs and processing time.
With mobile apps recording an employee shift start/end time and breaks right on their mobile device, employers can gain control of overtime pay and ensure actual work hours are truly being completed productively. By directly integrating this field data into your payroll service, you can eliminate the costs and resources historically involved with processing payroll.

5. Real-time visibility into employee location
While employees may not want to feel like their every move is being scrutinized, it also can make their work day flow much smoother. If they need a part, a dispatcher can locate over field personnel and cross check to ensure they have the part with them. If an urgent customer service call comes in, dispatchers can send the closest field staff, saving fuel costs and increasing response time.

While some companies may want to try to configure your Enterprise Mobile App needs into their predesigned app, you likely will need to make great compromises of features your organization really  needs.

 Your best choice is to build your own Enterprise Mobile App with the Snappii WYSIWYG Visual Drag and Drop Editing Platform.  With a Rich Library of Industry Specific Templates, it is more than likely there is an app you can use to begin laying out the features your company needs. With our visual editor, you can construct a development team from every department and they can all be involved in creating it and testing it together. Not only can you develop an App for just one platform, you can create one for IOs, Android and HTML5. Truly, your enterprise mobile app can work effectively on any device. Best yet, the Snappii Platform development team has written all of the development code. You or your staff doesn't need to learn how to code. You simply add the images, data and features you need.

Check it out today at http://www.snappii.com.

Alex

Government Agencies Turn to Enterprise Mobile Apps

Earlier this month, I wrote a blog on how police departments in Maine are using enterprise mobile apps to communicate with citizens to help fight crime in their communities. A recent story on Citizen Services by John Moore for the Digital Innovation Gazette included an interview with Lisa Wolfisch, chief of the U.S. Census Bureaus’ Web & Social Media Branch and Alexander Permison, who works with the Census’ Application Services Division.

Ms. Wolfisch and Mr. Permison spoke on the August release by the U. S. Census Bureau's release of its first mobile app, America's Economy along with a public API which allows developers to build their own apps using Census data.  Both of these releases are in keeping with the White House's Federal Digital Strategy, which calls for agencies to boost access to data.


One of the points both Ms. Wolfisch and Mr. Permison emphasized was the need to not make and maintain an enterprise mobile app in a vacuum. Ms. Wolfish said, "There was a lot of collaboration involved in creating these apps. We pulled a team together from across the enterprise - - communications, IT, subject matter people, and research methodology people." Mr. Permision would add "getting IT security people involved early encough is critical." He would also add that after the initial release the app development and maintenance doesn't end. "We have a mobile app working group that is looking at a strategy for developing apps and a Center for Applied Technology where people can get hands on."

When you develop an Enterprise Mobile App with the Snappii WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Visual Drag and Drop Editing Platform, you can easily include your entire app development team in the entire app design and QA process together. Ongoing additions and adjustments are easily built in the Snappii Platform and again can incorporate your entire development team to ensure every team is able to contribute and participate throughout the process.

Regarding the public API, Mr. Permison shared that "the U.S. Census Bureau has a mobile app working group that is looking at a strategy for developing apps and the Center for Applied Technology." Ms. Wolfisch would add that "what we are doing is building Census.gov as a platform - - whether it is through mobile apps, APIs, or interactive apps." She would go on, "We are looking at codeathons where we can get our data people together with developers...to learn what kind of services they'd like us to provide."

Do you have an app and/or an app development idea utilizing U.S. Census Bureau data? With the announcement of the release of Snappii 2.0, it also opened up the door to utilizing data bases in Enterprise Mobile Apps developed on the Snappii Platform. You can read more about Data Integration in this recent Snappii Blog. 

I wish you the very happiest of holidays and encourage you all the benefit you can receive building your organization's apps using the Snappii Platform. Whether you be a local, state or federal agency, an enterprise corporation, a private business person, or an individual business person or app designer, Snappii will free you from the cost of app development and provide you with all of the resources to design your own Enterprise App for the new year.

Alex

Snappii Can Help SMB owners Get the Mobile Apps They Need Today

Alex Sherman, in his post, "Why the Future of SMB-Focused Applications Is Mobile" shared several valuable ways mobile applications are going to impact how SMB's(Small and Medium Size Business) operate successfully. Mr. Sherman "acknowledged that most current SMB-focused applications are web-based." But he went on to say that "the rising adoption of the smartphone as the de facto dashboard for small business owners will drive a wave of mobile applications customized for them." As New York developer Scott Masciello is quoted as saying,"I probably spend 4 hours a day on my computer, but my smartphone is with me all the time."

Mr. Sherman shares 4 benefits the small business honors finds with a smart phone:

1. Portability
2. Ease of use
3. Familiarity
4. Affordability

Here are some other statistics from the AT&T Small Business Technology Poll 2012 showing why SMBs are using mobile apps in a growing, more meaningful way.

1. 85% of small business owners already use smartphones
2. 74 % of small business owners believe mobile technology is important to their future success
3. 3 out of 5 small business owners say mobile technology is more effective than other tools
4. 3 out of 5 small business owners wish mobile technologies were more relevant to their enterprises

Mr. Sherman mentions these specific areas where Mobile Apps can provide value for the Small and Medium Size Business.

• Payment and transactions
• Inventory and supply
• Employee management
• Scheduling and booking

All of these and so much more are tremendous reasons why the Snappii Platform is the perfect Enterprise Mobile App Development solution for any SMB owner.

• First, we provide them with a free online visual What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Drag and Drop editor. No need for the expense of a programmer to design your app.
• Second, we have full Paypal Integration to make it easy to process customer payments through your app. You can capture signatures digitally and use QR codes to create customer coupons to increase business.
• Third, using the QR (Quality Response) codes with your merchandise, you and your staff can keep an update inventory of all your products, service parts and even on road equipment. You'll know when something needs to be ordered and when materials that are loaded for a job aren't accounted for.
• Employment inquiries and forms can be filled out through your App, as well as any other HR forms that need to be filled out annually. Business notifications can also be distributed through your app.

Best of all, with The Snappii Platform, you are able to quickly build your app as a team and even test it yourself on your mobile device before even releasing it. The code is already incorporated in the platform, so you can build your app on iOS, Android and HTML5 without paying the tens of thousands of dollars at a minimum it will cost to hire a developer for just one of those platforms.

Once you've built your apps, the Snappii Platform will continue to support you on every app platform you created. This provides easy management of the app. When you need to update something in the app, you just make the change once and they are made across all the platforms simultaneously. In addition, Snappii's development team continues to stay updated on any changes to the app store requirements, so you don't have to. We continue to update each platform in our Snappii Platform, so it always is updated to the latest requirements. You can quickly update your app knowing you can send your update to all of your users and your app will continue to perform to optimal standards for every platform.

Take a look at how straight forward building your own App to your standards is working in the Snappii Platform. Go to http://www.snappii.com and get started today. Our support staff is available via email, online chat or phone. Let us know how we can help you today.

Alex

Defeating the App Programmer Problem with Snappii

In my recent post, Solving the App Programmer Problem, we talked about some of the problems with outsources the development of your enterprise mobile app development. As I've come across other individual's point of view on these problems, I thought it was appropriate to share them with you today.

In her article on Mobile App Development: The Cost Factor, Prita Viswanathan, offers several good points about the successes and challenges of Mobile App Development.Another important article Ms. Viswanathan wrote that I've included points from is Do You Need to Develop a Mobile App for Your Business?.

For Success

1. It usually takes a team of people to develop one app
2. You need to about the functionalities you want you app to include.
3. It would be wise to think about the quality of your app.
4. Developing an app for your business adds value to your overall marketing strategy
5. Mobile apps need to be updated constantly to pull in more and more customers
6. Work with a platform that can provide you will full cross-platform formatting

Challenges

1. More complex apps cost you much more.
2. Hiring an app developer is an expensive proposition. You will be billed by the hour.
3. DIY app development software not only can be expensive, but you need a functioning knowledge of app development.
4. App Development charges can run as high as $50,000 and above.
5. Developers will charge by the hour for every change and update you continuously make.
6. With a developer, cross-platform formatting will cost you extra money, time and effort.

In comparing the challenges to the keys for success, it clearly shows the value of developing your enterprise-level mobile app in the Snappii Platform.

First, with Snappii's web based (WYSIWUG) What You See Is What You Get Visual Drag and Drop Editor, your entire development team can work together to ensure they can develop an app that meets all of your company's and customers' needs. Because it is designed to help you create enterprise level apps, you will not need to worry about having to compromise any quality. In fact, you will be developing a mobile app that can easily offer more capabilities than a developer likely could have provided without going over your budget.

Building in the Snappii Platform, you will be able to make all the changes you want at no cost, any time you want, and easily push it out to everyone who has downloaded your application. In fact, with Snappii, you will have an account that also provides you with a dashboard showing you how often your database is downloaded and how often it is used.

You are able to design your app for free and edit and add to it until you are satisfied it has all the functions you need. You'll even be able to test it on your smart device before ever releasing it to the app stores you desire. You are able to easily build your app to work in IOs, Android and HTML5. Again, all at no additional fee and within the same Snappii Platform. 

Use your own staff to develop your app without the budget breaking cost of an app developer. Involve all of your critical personnel from IT, Marketing, Sales, and Human Resources among others.  Get started today. Go to http://www.snappii.com today to set up your account and get started. The training video will help walk you through every step. You can also use our online chat to reach out for assistance any time you need it or you can email your questions to support@snappii.com.

With predictions for 2013 for 21.6 billion apps to be sold for a total revenue of $29.5 billion and 25% of this revenue being generated by free versions of mobile applications, it is critical that you and your development team begin building your Enterprise Mobile App using the Snappii Platform today. It may likely be the most profitable decision your company makes this year.

Alex

Solving the App Programmer Problem

Everyone is trying to solve the challenge of developing apps themselves. The first challenge is you need developers that are capable of writing code in both Objectice-C and Java. It's rare to find a single programmer that are capable in writing in both languages. Even if they took introductory courses, if they haven't done a project using either language in quite a while, they are not likely to be able to remember how to do it well enough to be capable of tackling the development requirements for the capabilities of an enterprise mobile app. Most of the time, it means companies hire different people. Mobile App Developers know they are in big demand and can require a big price. Currently, the minimal investment for 2 people is running around $250K.

Yet, how many developers are out there, if you go to Monster.com., you'll find nearly 50 pages full of mobile apps jobs. Unless you're a gambling person and willing to take a huge risk, what do you really think your odds are of finding the really exceptional candidates out of the companies filling those 50 pages of job opportunities on Monster?  I'm sorry to say, but they're probably not great.  Even if you were to find some developers to get you started, as Andrew Chen said in a blog post, "Mobile App Startups Are Falling Like Its 1999, "we see startups burn 1/3 to 1/2 of their seed round before they release anything, it becomes really dangerous when the initial launch inevitably fails to catch fire. Then the rest of the funding isn’t enough to do a substantive update."

But, with Snappii and our WYSIWYG Visible Drag and Drop Enterprise Mobile App Development Platform, there is no longer a need to chase the elusive mobile apps developer. You also preserve your capital by designing your app for Apple, Android and HTML5 without the need to write any code and without any initial investment before you see any final App.

Another tremendous way Snappii can ensure you develop an Enterprise Mobile App that will be successful for you is we are constantly updating our Snappii Platform to ensure it includes any changes that are made to the Apple, Android or HTML 5 platforms. As Chris Bailey stated in his blog post, :Why mobile development is so hard, "However, crucially the biggest problem we've faced is that the mobile platform is an ever changing beast. Mobile apps exists within a market that is in a constant state of flux and the one thing you can rely on is that THINGS WILL CHANGE. Don't underestimate this."

One of the other strong benefits of the Snappii Platform is you have the ability to test and edit your app as many times as you need, without incurring any expense. Corrections are easy to make in the WYWIWYG Visible Editor and test again. Chris emphasized how critical this aspect of app development is when he simply but firmly stated, "and finally, test, test and test some more."

Snappii's Platform, with its visual editor certainly benefits you and your development team by having the ability to literally drag and drop pieces that you want into app right into place. You visibly watch the app come together right before your eyes. Even better though, is you can gather your entire development team together to build the app together in the Snappii Platform. Well, one of the many challenges when you hire outside developers is they control the design. If they don't interpret your notes and instructions correctly, you will be paying for any additional changes to eliminate design flows. Carter Thomas, in a blog he wrote on the cost to develop an app, stated "be wary of the quality and how much control you will have over the process."  Carter includes many other helpful costs related to blog development that you should consider.

Consider who knows best what your app needs to be able to do? Your own staff. Will app developers who are off premises really be able to gain a full enough understanding of what your customers, sales, marketing, service, shipping and HR need from an Enterprise Mobile App? 

There truly is no need to seek mobile app developers. Use your existing programmers and your other staff to use the Snappii Platform to build just the app you need.  Discover you could use apps specific for different departments? You can do that easily too.

Start by going to http://www.snappii.com and  begin to build your first app. There is plenty of help, with online assistance, FAQ, video demonstrations, and support that's just an e-mail away. I encourage you to try it for yourself today.

Alex

Coming Soon on Snappii: Web Services

It was just a couple of months ago when Snappii mobile app development enterprise released Snappii 2.0. With this release, users were enabled by the Snappii Platform's WYSIWYG visual Enterprise Mobile App editor. This empowered users with the ability to create databases on their own. With these databases, you are able to fulfill many different operations with them, including add/delete/update/edit, send data via email, and many others. These enhancements greatly expanded the functionality of the potential apps that could be created with the Snappii Platform and made it more flexible than ever before. The one single area our development team was working on simplifying that way that data could be updated. Presently, each time you want to update your datasource, you have needed to append new data or upload a new datasource containing all the recent changes. However, I'm pleased to share that before years end, Snappii will be releasing Web Services features that will push the Snappii Drag and Drop editor to a new level. It will make the data in any apps created on the Snappii Platform live and even easier to handle and change.

A Web service is a software function provided at a network address over the web or the cloud. It is a service that is "always on", as in the concept of utility computing. With Snappii's Web Services release, the data from your server can now be retrieved, changed and handled simultaneously. In static datasources, there are no opportunities to even send or retrieve data partially according to a query. With Snappii's Web Services,  it will all be possible. The WYSIWYG Visual Drag and Drop Enterprise Mobile App creator will have the abilities to handle any data which users add on their end, sort and search through the data and save it to your own server.

With the addition of Web Services, the Snappii enterprise will also be growing to support access to the following web services:

- Twitter
- Salesforce
- Instagram
- LinkedIn
- Google API
- Vimeo
- Facebook
- etc

The list will continue to grow to meet the needs of today's Enterprise Mobile App. At the moment, a beta version of Web Services is already available and, by the end of the year, it will appear on the main "production" site. If your goal is to create multi-functional, powerful mobile apps inexpensively and in a matter of hours the Snappii platform is the best solution you could ever dream of or imagine. Big enterprise companies spend tens of thousands of dollars to create enterprise apps and then often need to wait several months to get a completed, fully functional product. With Snappii, you will get what you really want and it will be a cost-effective and complete and full functional in an amazingly quick period of time.

Track our blog to always be updated with the latest Snappii news. Our list of features is continually expanding and there are many more improvements on the road ahead. Join us today to see where we will go. Grow your business with the value of an Enterprise Mobile App built on the Snappii WYSIWYG Visual Drag and Drop Editing Platform.

Snappii 2.0 Offers Data Base Integration for iOS, Android and HTML 5

A news story on Sitesetter by Bhanu Sridhar, announced to any Users who are utilizing Snappii 2.0 can now develop apps that make use of database(s) for iOS, as well as Android devices. The databases have the capacity to store any type of data including numbers, text, videos and pictures.

Mr. Sridhar went on to explain that "this information can be evaluated, edited and modified from the apps. To be able to share data with other users, databases can be stored on any device locally or be server based."

As I shared with Mr. Sridhar, "marrying databases to apps enables our customers to create all kinds of mobile apps that work with live and dynamic data. This further distinguishes Snappii as a platform for creating enterprise grade mobile apps, but still not requiring any mobile programming skills.”

An interesting question was raised on a Linked In board this week that speaks well to why ensuring your app has enterprise level capabilities, not just basic app capabilities. A great enterprise app is one that integrates with data sources. A great app  should let you access data in a variety of internal enterprise systems. like SAP,  IBM, and MS for just a few examples. In addition, enterprise apps should also integrate with your cloud services like Salesforce and Amazon for just a couple examples.

In addition to the importance of giving mobile app users access to data, it's what users can do with the data in Snappii created apps.  As Mr. Sridhar said, "this information can be evaluated, edited and modified from the apps. To be able to share data with other users, databases can be stored on any device locally or be server based."

In a blog post on software solutions titled Catch Up shared what they felt were the benefits of enterprise mobility solutions.

• The use of mobile devices has been shown to increase the worker’s efficiency and enhance overall productivity. It enables employees to remain connected with their workforce from all places, all the times. Employees enjoy flexibility enabling them to be more involved in their work and have access to the information that will let them perform at their best.
• For marketing professionals, mobility is a blessing in disguise. It enables them to attend to customers’ questions instantly and solve their problems. Mobility within the enterprise has improved customer service and customer satisfaction. It has also resulted in enhanced sales for the business.
• Enterprise mobility solutions play a major role in fostering business growth. It enables businesses to cut down the IT costs and increase revenue for the firm.

As you can see after reading there three points, every one reemphasizes the importance of data integration with enterprise mobile apps in order for them to receive true enterprise benefits throughout the organization.

Learn more about Snappii 2.0 and how you can build apps for iOS, Android and HTML 5 that integrate the critical data your clients and staff need to be truly beneficial in generating greater revenue, enhance customer satisfaction and retention, and make employers throughout the office and field more efficient with their time and more effective with all of their efforts for the company and their customers.

Alex

Functions That Will Drive Enterprise Mobile Apps

While many associate the beginning of enterprise mobile app development to the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007, but the real need for enterprise mobile app development really escalated in 2010.  In that one year, more than 5 billion apps were recording as having been downloaded. This figure doubled the total for 2009.

80% of the apps downloaded in 2010 may have been for free, yet the remaining downloads still drove a revenue stream of $6.8 billion. The revenue stream is expected to surpass $10 billion by the end of 2013.

In his article, "Expansion of Mobile Application Development for Enterprises", Yancy Marry shared these six functions that will assist the further growth of Enterprise Mobile App development.

1. Apps can be used to complete daily enterprise work such as collaborating on documents, sharing ideas, direct workflow, and conducting online meetings.

2. Every business unit requires the deployment of mobile apps that help conduct paperless auditing effectively.

3. Medical mobile apps connect with the IT dashboard of an enterprise with the electronic health records of a hospital thus enabling patient interaction.

4. The chief goal of an enterprise is to market its products & services. Mobile apps enable interactive sales presentations, delivery of goods, and map efficient pickup services.

5. In order to maintain increased sales of an enterprise’s products & services, access to the helpdesk of field & sales forces experts is required. This can be done only with the help of mobile apps.

6. Technology like the cloud has already invaded enterprises; successful exploitation of this platform is possible only if the enterprise workforce is provided with compatible mobile apps.

The key to each of these functions is providing your personnel with the opportunity to be immediately responsive to meet any client's need they may encounter. Orders can be taken in the field, sent to order fulfillment for immediate processing. An identified client need can be immediately communicated with service personnel. Documentation of both transactions and service needs can be immediately documented in the enterprise app and emailed as a form, PDF or email text directly to the client.

What functions can an Enterprise Mobile App incorporate that will save your business, time, excessive costly paperwork, and provide greater and more proficient service for your clients?  Using the Snappii WYSIWYG Visual Drag and Drop Enterprise App Development Platform, you and your development team can sit down and design the Apps that will meet all of your needs cost effectively, accurately and in an exceptionally short time frame. Go to http://www.snappii.com today and we'll be glad to show you how simple Enterprise App Development can be for you.

Alex

Forrester Analyst Shares Benefits of Visual Mobile Dev Tools

I was very pleased to see Forrester Analyst Michael Facemire's blog post on December 4th. In his blog, Michael shared the "Three visual tooling changes that will make your life better in 2013."

In setting up the value of visual tooling, Michael summed up the current development process in place by saying "the majority of web and mobile apps are written by developers manually writing source code in text editors or IDEs." He takes his look forward by saying "tomorrow's tooling is becoming much more visual in nature." Here are the three tooling areas that excite Michael as he looks forward to 2013.

1. Wireframing/visual requirements. 
2. Visual development tools. The reach of development tools now extends beyond developers. While prototyping tools allow business analysts and designers to work together, new visual development tools allow these same individuals to go beyond simple prototyping activities and actually create the base framework for an app, including some connection to back-end services. 
3. Visual test tools.                                                                                                                                      

    Visual development and, specifically, Snappii's visual WYSIWYG drag and drop editor really sets us apart from anyone else in the Mobile Application Development Platform. Not only does Snappii offer visual development; you are also able to fully test your applications before releasing them into any public app stores or out for enterprise use within your own personnel.

I strongly agree with Michael that visual development for mobile apps is ideal
for the following reasons:

1. It broadens the universe of people who are able to participate in app creation
2. It accelerates the entire app development process
3. It improves the usability of apps because those working on the development get to test it before it is released.

4. You receive all of the needs from every member of the development team before an app is finally released.


I encourage you to read all of Michael's blog, then go to www.snappii.com and see for yourself why developing your app with a visual development tool like Snappii's Enterprise App Development Platform is so much easier, inexpensive and rapidly shortens the development cycle, while tremendously improving the app's quality  before it is released to the public.


Alex

Businesses Can Profit from the Snappii Mobile Enterprise Solution

The mobile market continues to see explosive growth. There are new iOS and Android apps released monthly, with many coming out weekly. More and more companies need to support at least these two operating systems as employees continue to bring their own devices into the workplace and insist on using them for work. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is a spreading practice gaining increasing popularity among office and field workers.

In Michael Fauscette's article called "The Mobile Enterprise", he mentions employees regularly told him what they wanted from mobile devices, and it was really not that complicated to understand. They just wanted to be able to do most or all of what they could do at work from any connected device.  It's "any device, any time", but there's more to it than that. Employees need the real time connectivity that these devices offer and mobile apps installed on them that will offer them this level of access to their work applications.

The more functionality becomes available in apps, the more working people are interested in getting them for their work and personal use. Most consumers want to check emails when they are not at work and perform some tasks which need immediate attention using their mobile devices.  As the line between work and personal grows more and more blurry, it will become even more important to offer access to enterprise systems and support across any device employees may seek to utilize successfully for corporate business.

As I mentioned in my previous post,  building mobile apps is not an easy task for enterprise companies. They must cut out the existing they've come to rely on institutionally in order to become able to support mobile optimized platforms. That quickly becomes expensive when choosing a time consuming outsourcing option, or when you try to reteach your current programmers to become "mobile" programmers in languages they may have never learned or at least not used in years.The Snappii mobile enterprise platform solution fits most every company perfectly. Not wanting to overwhelm you, I will only list a portion of the features The Snappii visual WYSIWYG Drag and Drop Editor Platform provides:

- Nearby functionality using Google Maps
- Ability to create databases and connect them to already existing web services
- QR codes and QR code scanner
- PayPal integration
- Social Channels support
- HTML tab/button to add code to an app, increase its functionality
- YouTube videos
- Digital forms to be filled out and various calculators
- Digital signature
- More

Together with its intuitive, user friendly layout, The Snappii Platform appearance makes it the best solution for making apps ever for businesses of all sizes. Just to add a little more of The Snappii Platform benefit, you have the ability to simultaneously create and test apps. Need to make a change in the app you are working on? Simply save it and you can immediately see the update on your device using Snappii Live Preview App. No more multi-level and long app development process, which is often common among typical program development processes. Using The Snappii Platform, no coding knowledge is required to make mobile apps here.

Moreover, The Snappii Platform supports the most popular mobile platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Android and HTML5 web apps. Create an app and run it on all available devices to address the needs of most, if not all of your potential clients.

Visit Snappii website today to understand why mobile app development doesn't need to be difficult when it's created in The Snappii Platform.

Go Mobile With the Snappii Enterprise Solution

Mobile devices have never been as popular as they are now. Most people use them to fulfill a lot of daily tasks at work, as well as at home. Recently, the majority of bank clients were afraid to use the online functionality of some bank's Apps to check their accounts, make money transfers, pay bills and send checks because of wide spread apprehension of becoming a victim of fraud and fishing. However, experience has shown mobile systems to be as secure and accurate as if you went to the bank yourself. It is a concern to most industries that mobile devices and applications are managed to ensure they will make peoples' lives easier and less stressful. Why go somewhere to get something, if you can easily make payments online, book rooms, call and order a taxi, look through your favorite magazines and newspapers, watch videos, check weather forecasts and more, all with a small gadget in your palm.  

Big corporations are certainly aware of the growing popularity of mobility and certainly intend to find a mobile solution for their software. No doubt, this task is a high priority. However, it is not so simple to achieve. As the population becomes more mobile, businesses must hone their mobile offerings.  Often, these offerings appear to be enterprise mobile apps. Large companies have have people on their staff who are capable of writing code. However, it is difficult for them to quickly switch from writing in other programming languages, to mobile App languages like Objective C or Java they may have no background in or haven't used in years. On average, it takes even experienced programmers more than half a year to accurately learn them. Retraining an existing team to code for mobile apps will not only create additional expenses from the  time it takes the developer to become effective with the new coding languages, but there is the loss of work on other projects which would likely offer a more crucial meaning for the business than even the app. Hiring third-party developers is not a reasonable solution to the problem as there are not many of them that have the experience and availability. Because they are in such high demand, they are able to charge rates that are likely to put the app development budget overly excessive. That leads to the issue some companies are facing now. How can I meet the urgent necessity to go mobile and meet the needs and demands of my clients and customers?

There is a great solution for every company asking this question. It's the Snappii enterprise app development platform. Snappii offers excellent opportunities for businesses to build their own apps. Using the platform's  visual WYSIWYG visual drag and drop editor, mobile apps are quick and easy to build. All important app platforms are supported, including iOS, Android and HTML5 web apps. You can utilize your existing staff to create apps and solve the problem of retraining your own staff or hiring overpriced or unavailable experienced mobile app programmers. Most amazing, it isn't even necessary to have programming skills to successfully design an app using the Snappii platform. And, it's not only basic, simple apps that can be made using the Snappii Platform. The list of new and powerful features is always growing. In December, the features will become even greater when Snappii will release its new Web Service feature. This will make it possible to connect any of your apps to different web services, draw upon them using the app, then be able to display and use the required data in the app. With Snappii, mobile enterprises will save significant time and money - one single Enterprise fee will include all of the platforms, white label and dashboard options as well as allowing you to create an unlimited number of apps through your Enterprise account. The Enterprise account will free businesses to create all of the apps they need and design them to fit any specific needs a department may have. If you are a savvy, budget conscious CEO looking to ensure your corporation doesn't get swept under by the wave of apps on the market, visit Snappii website today and check all of the benefits your could be taking advantage of while increasing your market share.

As companies work to tighten up their mobile strategies, customers and enterprises alike will go on reaping the benefits.  Thanks to mobile enterprise apps, organizations can streamline business processes, and connect with a wider range of clients, whether they are at home, the office, or just on the road.  The mobile era is here, and enterprises are seeing the rewards if their they're investing in their mobile-facing efforts.

Alex

Recent Research Shows Apps Are Becoming More Popular Than PCs and Nearly TV

Simon Khalaf, of Flurry, posted a blog on December the 5th titled, "Mobile Apps: We Interrupt This Broadcast."

In his story, Mr. Khalaf shares the results of a study on Mobile App Growth Flurry conducted in November. Among the results, Flurry "measured over a trillion events from over 250,000 applications created by more than 85,000 developers.  Events are actions completed by consumers inside apps such as completing a game level, making a restaurant reservation or tagging a song.  In November, we also measured over 60 billion sessions, which is the start and a stop of an application on a mobile smart device."

"The chart to the right updates Flurry’s analysis comparing time spent in mobile apps on smartphones and tablets to time spent on the web using a browser.  For web usage on desktops, laptops and smart devices, we build a model using publicly available data from comScore and Alexa.  For mobile applications, we use Flurry Analytics data, now gathering data from over 250,000 applications.  This time around, we add time spent on television using data released by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010 and 2011.  Note that the bureau hasn’t yet released their 2012 numbers, but given the maturity of the TV market, we assume that time spent on TV is flat year-over-year."

"Between December 2011 and December 2012, the average time spent inside mobile apps by a U.S. consumer grew 35%, from 94 minutes to 127 minutes.  By comparison, the average time spent on the web declined 2.4%, from 72 minutes to 70 minutes.  By our measurement, U.S. consumers are spending 1.8 times more time in apps than on the web."  

I honestly have not see an analysis that captures the growth of APP use greater than these. What caught me a bit by surprise is the clear separation in the popularity of Mobile Applications over standard web browsing from a PC or a laptop. Clearly, we're in a very mobile society, as well as a society that wants to be able to access every social activity, from phone calls and texting, to accessing all of the personal social networks, videos, and games.  Needless to say, the idea that mobile apps may soon become used greater than television only seems sensible once you see all the references to social media throughout most television shows today, whether news or entertainment. 

When you look at the scope of these numbers, then add the growth in the time spent daily using APPs, it makes it even clearer that every business, every organization, and even every home based occupation requires an app for customers and employees to use.  The Snappii Platform is truly the right fit for any size company and organization. With no programming, a free WYSIWYG Visible Drag and Drop Editor, designing an APP that will work on Apple, Android and HTML5 devices will never be easier and the result will never be achieved in a shorter amount of time. Go to www.snappii.com and give it a try. Watch our "how to" presentation on You Tube, refer to our FAQ section if you get stoke, or our support team is always available to chat when you select the help flag on our main page at www.snappii.com. If you need further help, don't hesitate to click on my name below and send me an e-mail. I'd be glad to respond or ensure a member of our development team responds promptly to help you.

Alex

What's On Your APP Store Wish List?

I was talking to one of developers the other day and he was working with a customer to develop a very interesting APP.  The APP would allow citizens to take pictures of pot holes around their town and send them through the APP directly to the public work's department. Certainly a unique APP that will give the citizen the satisfaction of a way to ensure the need to fill the pot hole directly to the branch of city government that can take care of it. Meanwhile, the transportation department can use the help of the citizens to identify the pot holes and go directly out to fix them rather than having to drive around just trying to spot them.

In our home, the morning and sometimes the evening
beverage of choice is often a nice, warm cup of tea. Often, I've heard the question arise, "how long should I let it steap?"  Often, to get the best flavor from the tea leaves, it is important to ensure you've allowed it to sit in the hot water long enough to get all of the flavor out of it.  That's why I thought it was ingenious when I downloaded the Teavana APP. As you might expect, it has a listing of all its teas, how to order them, and any other valuable information about that tea. But, for every tea, it also has a timer on the listing for each tea that counts down the precise amount of time that tea should steap. I couldn't think of a more brilliant feature to add to a Tea Company's APP that customer's would find to be a great benefit.

This feature really got me wondering what APPS and APP features might be on your APP Store Wish List for this holiday season or even for 2013.

Just for fun, I thought I'd see whether others had expressed their wishes for us to see. Thomas Fuchs would like to see these 10 APPS. Chris Pirillo has a special interest in weather APPS. Here are his top 10 requests. From Tara-Nicholle Nelson of Inman News, here are the four real estate APPS she'd like to see. Finally, Evonne Lack would like to see these three parenting APPS.

Needless to say, there are APPS desired for personal and professional use. What are the APPS you'd like to see?  What are the APPS you can't do without and why?  I'd love to see your answers.

Meanwhile, the Snappii WYSIWYG Visible Editing Platform can help you easily create any of the APPS you'd like to see. It's drag and drop technology makes it easy to make an APP for Apple, Android, and HTML5 without having to write any code. Watch this video and you'll quickly understand how easily you can become an APP maker. Start your own APP design business or surprise your boss with your new found skill when you show him the APP you created for advancing your business.

Contact me today or leave a note with your APP Wish List or your favorite APPS and why.
Alex

Police Departments Finding Benefits of APP Use

One of the more intriguing parts of designing Apps for individuals, businesses, government organization, and non-profit organizations is the growing uses people are discovering for APPS and how they improve their ability to do their jobs for effectively and efficiently.

As I watched the news the other night, there was a story of two police forces who had created apps for their departments. According to Auburn Deputy Chief Jason Moen, "When we have computers in the cars for our officers to be able to access real time information to getting out information to the public. Facebook, Twitter, those tools have really changed the way we do police work". Moen went on to say, "Its about putting the technology right at people's fingertips. As society changes and technology become more sophisticated people are expecting that information right at their fingertips".

A story on PoliceOne.com by Brian Fraga of the Las Cruces Sun-News highlights a "New anti-DWI smartphone app" has hit the market.  Mr. Fraga describes how he met recently with Alvin C. Dominguez, the cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Transportation."It's extremely easy to navigate and get through," Dominguez said during an interview at the Department of Transportation's offices in Las Cruces, Dominguez took out his smartphone Friday to show how a new application, called ENDWI, could help educate New Mexicans about responsible drinking and keeping the roadways safe. As of Friday, 1,009 people had downloaded the ENDWI app since state officials unveiled it at a Sept. 5 press conference in Santa Fe.

While there are companies that specialize in creating apps for police departments, they tend to be very generic and aren't specialized to the individual department and their community's potential needs. A major city like Los Angeles or New York will not have the same needs as the one's referenced in this story. Snappii.com can work with any department or development team to develop an APP that meets all of your needs using our WYSIWYG Visual Editor. We also have many rich templates that you can use to begin your development process. Best of all, the development time is 30 times faster than if you needed to hire developers to code your APP from scratch. The Snappii technology can help you develop an APP for Apple, Android and HTML5 devices commonly in under a week. You can see a proof in 48 hours working with our development team.

Visit today and we'll be pleased to built an APP you and your force can use to help protect the community you serve.

Alex

The New Snappii User Interface and Design

Snappii mobil app development platform allows people without programming skills to create iOS, Android and HTML5 web apps in hours. That is possible due to specially designed WYSIWYG editor with "Drag and Drop" functionality. Coding from scratch is not required, just drag and drop already available tabs and buttons, enter necessary content and build your own app.

Snappii developers and designers have updated App Gallery and now you can search and find templates according to your requirements. Snappii team has improved the templates and integrated all the latest features supported by Snappii into them. Just select any and modify it as you prefer.

Snappii does its best to ensure a great user activity. Excellent user interface makes app development process easy and pleasant. Snappii has changed its design greatly and looks even more attractive and professional. All the necessary information is at hand now: easy to find and use. The editor has undergone positive changes as well. They are the following:

- HTML5 web app settings are put into a separate category
- Collapsable left panel which opens more free space for app creation, no need to scroll tabs and fields, they are all visible now
- "My Apps" button is placed in the editor 
- Better perfomance and no "Saving" issues in various browsers
- The new editor fits most frequently used screen dimensions
- Easy access to Live Help and Webinar trainings if users get stuck
- Additional box for Android Live app id to set up Paypal account integrated in Snappii apps

Both current Snappii users and new comers will find the new design more intuitive and convenient. That all means that app development is becoming quicker and more simple. Snappii will continue improving its editor based on customers' feedback and ideas. The WYSIWYG editor is a valuable solution for DIY and Enterprise clients. Make apps and test them on your device right away.  All are welcome to try the enhanced Snappii editor and enjoy creating their apps there.

Hotels Drive Revenue and Guest Satisfaction with Mobile APPS

Hotels often play a much more important role in our lives than we often realize. We may often think of Hotels as just a home away from home for the business travel, or simply a place to sleep and leave our stuff while we’re on vacation. They often play many other roles, whether it is as a place to stay during family events like, weddings, holiday gatherings, a family member’s sickness, or even when a loved one has passed. Whether it is a child’s athletic event or searching for college, your hotel room is often where you go to relax and feel a little pampered.

The hospitality industry is embracing Mobile Apps as a way to make their guests stay even more pleasant and memorable.

In the article, Optimizing Hospitality Industry Mobile Apps in HotelExecutive.com, Michael Kasavana, NAMA Endowed Professor at the Michigan State University School of Hospitality Business, shared several ways Mobile Apps are being used in the Hospitality Industry. Mr. Kasavana shared "Forrester Research predicts by 2015 eighty-two million people will rely on mobile devices as a primary reference tool. Through the use of a mobile device, consumers are able to receive timely announcements, alerts, promotions, discounts, and a host of concierge services. 

Some of the specific capabilities found in some of the top hospitality industry mobile apps include:

• weather conditions
• navigational/directional mapping, including routing and landmark indexing 
• business directory, based on proximity or destination querry
• entertainment activities and venues
• hospitality specific business indicators, with ratings and physical descriptors
• local news, with alerts and warning information
• notification of offers by event, promotion, price, discount, or reward

In the Hotel Executive article "Driving Revenue Through Your Mobil App_, Tom O'Rourke, CEO & President, O'Rourke Hospitality Marketing, made several additional great observations on how the Hospitality Industry is beginning to see the potential of Mobil App marketing to their properties' success.

"In most cases, mobile bookings will be your biggest opportunity for increasing direct revenue. First and foremost, before you can make money with your hotel mobile application you need to put it in the palm of your guests’ hands. Increase app downloads with careful planning and strategic marketing tools, and you’ll be well on your way to driving revenue through your mobile app.

Our clients have seen spikes in downloads, mobile bookings and revenue from effective marketing, As smart phone adoption rates continue to climb, your app’s downloads and mobile bookings will steadily climb as well.

If your hotel offers room service, how would you like to see an 18 percent increase in orders? A study from buuteeq, a Seattle, Washington-based digital marketing company, revealed that hotels with a mobile presence have seen increases of this magnitude in room service orders. Some hotels offer room service payment options within the app, while others add room service charges directly onto the room bill; either method provides easy tracking and a seamless, efficient process for your guests.

Many hotels are also using apps and their on property tablets and mobile phones for other in room purposes. Hotels are adding convenience to the guest experience by taking everyday activities and putting an app behind them. At some properties, it is now possible for guests to bypass the check-in desk and use a hotel mobile app to unlock the door of their room. Some hotels provide iPads in rooms with preloaded applications that can regulate the temperature or change the channel.

Every hotel has something special to offer, and you can utilize your app to highlight this unique feature. Are you known for your exceptional weddings? As part of your App, inform you wedding couples about the app as a wedding planning tool. With features such as custom itineraries, room block booking capabilities, directions and maps, the bride and groom can easily help their wedding guests make travel arrangements, book rooms, find local activities and restaurants, and much more.

If your hotel has a restaurant or spa, you can highlight that you have them within your app and distinguish yourself from the other area hotels. A mobile app makes it possible to take an active role in pushing reservations and can help you dramatically increase reservations and revenue at your spa and restaurant.

Hospitality is the number two industry for mobile engagement, second only to retail. This mobile audience carries vast potential to drive revenue. Your current and future hotel guests are already in the mobile space, and they are searching there for their favorite brands and new places to discover. Your hotel could be missing out if you aren’t mobile-friendly and ready to meet the needs of these tech-savvy guests. If you are at the beginning stages of contemplating a mobile strategy, instead of thinking of it as an expense, think of all the lost revenue you are missing out on because you are lacking a mobile presence. And when you launch a mobile app, you can reach an untapped audience with limitless potential to drive additional revenue.

On average, how many rooms are vacant at your hotel every night? By offering special pricing with push notifications to last minute travelers who use your application, you can start selling those empty rooms. A slightly discounted rate offered exclusively to app users has the potential to bring in nearby guests within a few hours of your hotel. This type of marketing will not only serve to help you fill empty rooms, but also builds guest loyalty."

Still have yet to build you own hotel a mobile APP? Snappii’s platform can help you build an App in just days or even hours. Use one of our two Rich hotel templates and your App can be built even more quickly. Just edit the template to reflect your property and your client’s needs.

Alex

•