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