Mobile devices are the Swiss Army Knife of many companies. We have helped daycare employees use mobile devices to communicate needs with parents, and we have helped nuclear engineers get relevant accurate information when machines fail, and we have proved real time data to employees working in remote locations. Mobile devices are so versatile and common place that people rely on them without thinking about them. We help our client find ways to improve their organizations by putting relevant information and the right digital tools in their employees hands, where ever they are.
Mobile devices are changing not only personal communication but also how business interact with their customers and staff. We have built mobile applications that are used on the factory floor, and applications that are used in some remote locations. Ultimately it doesn't matter where a staff member is, they need access to data and to the online tools they need to get their job done. Mobile applications are most commonly used for providing data and pulling data from your staff in the field. A simple example is a service technician who drives around to meet your customers. What used to be done on paper forms, or by calling back to the main office can now be done by opening an iPhone with data access and handling the issue in real time. The time your team can save by entering data directly into your ERP system instead of rekeying paper forms or calling to have someone else do it is a huge cost savings.
Other uses of mobile applications we have built include allowing day care facilities to push information to parents throughout the day. While the vast majority of the information was non-urgent in nature, parents were able to see pictures of their children while they were at work by access their tablet or phone. The customer retention rate for our client saw a very favorable gain.
Native application development refers to building a application specifically for the device. For instance if you are going to build an application for the iPhone or iPad you need to build it in Objective-C or Swift for the iOS. If you are going to build the same app for Android you would need to build it with Java for the Android OS. What this means is that the same application targeted for both Apple and Google devices needs to be built twice. This can significantly increase your development and maintenance costs. Many applications can be built in HTML and Javascript and use a converter like PhoneGap to "port" it to a native app. While this usually works well there are plenty of limitations.
If you are considering building a native application please give us a call first so you can determine if that is the appropriate option for you.