There is a scenario that is playing out exactly as it did with the Internet boom of the early 2000’s. This scenario comes down to a hot market, a relatively low cost of entry, and everyone rushing to get out mobile apps. The problem is that lessons from the Internet boom and bust have been forgotten.
How’s this for a late 90s re-creation: mobile app companies, marketing firms and who knows what else, are coming to market with little more – and I really want to say ‘nothing more’ – than an idea. This is great for the evolution of the mobile industry, but bad for today’s eager adopters who do not take the time to ensure they have something scalable, reliable, and secure, which enables them as wireless devices and data plans change. In the last 12 months, the number of times I have heard this has increased exponentially.
Some of these vendors go out of business, others are not true software vendors, so there is a great initial reaction, but the adaptability and scale of the app is not there. The most prominent recent example is that of Citibank. They very publicly had to disclose a security risk with one of their applications.
To help you avoid these painful and expensive pitfalls here is a list of considerations and questions to use when making choices on mobile applications and vendors.
Application questions
- How will the app be initially deployed?
- How are updates deployed?
- Can the app be removed by an administrator?
- Is there centralized administrator control, reporting and security?
- What happens when a new device or mobile OS version come out? Is there a charge?
- When I want to make a change to my application can I do it in one place, or do I have to support multiple apps?
- What are the apps written in?
- How is multi-language handled?
- How do they allow for offline usage?
- Can they handle financial data, medical data, personal data…. securely? How?
Vendor considerations
- What is the largest deployment the vendor has? What are the app details?
- Has the vendor done complex integration, security and authentication work?
- What tools does the vendor provide to allow your company to take over development?
- Can the solution be either on-premise or hosted?
- Are there third parties that can deliver solutions on the vendor platform?
- Percentage of business that is mobile devices (not laptops and mobile Web)?
- Has the vendor done any very high transaction based applications?
Good luck on your mobile journey! Remember the Mobile Masters are here for you.
Tags: Deep Dev, Development, Ken Parmelee, Mobile Apps
