When Gartner released its 2016 Magic Quadrant study of mobile app development platforms, the research firm that approximately 60 percent of businesses were developing their own mobile apps. This represented a 73 percent year-over-year increase. Very simply, businesses that fail to create proprietary solutions miss an opportunity to align their business and technology capabilities. As a result, they are at risk of falling behind competitors.
This is all well and good for organizations that can afford large-scale development platforms or dedicated in-house dev teams, but what is the rest of the business world going to do? Custom development providers are emerging to help businesses bridge the competitive gap in the mobile market place by helping them create unique solutions. A technology consulting company can enable organizations to ramp up mobile development, but they can't solve all of a company's problems. A good solution starts with an understanding of what a business needs.
"Organizations that fail to create proprietary solutions miss an opportunity to align their business and technology capabilities."
Getting custom app projects off the ground
Organizations that want to find success with custom apps can't simply throw together a specifications sheet and hand it over to the custom developer. The results could end up extremely underwhelming.
A Computerworld report offering guidance to businesses creating custom apps explained that developing a clear understanding of the problem being solved is a critical first step in finding success with an application. The news source explained that companies should:
- Talk with end users to understand the problems they are facing and why they need an app to resolve those issues. This guidance from the production teams ensures the app is actually being developed to support the right processes and workflows.
- Develop rapport with non-tech users so the IT team can more easily gather feedback, get accurate information and create a stronger partnership within the business.
- Identify the genuinely unique problems and processes that are making a custom app necessary. In some cases, these may only lead to small features in the app, but those capabilities are vital for value creation.
This fact-finding process is particularly important when working with a third-party custom development specialist. This partner needs to be able to get to know your business, understand the challenges you are facing and make sure its team is aware of how technology can solve those problems.
Sustaining success with custom development
Of course, getting a mobile app development project off to a good start is just that, a solid beginning. Businesses need partners that can execute on initial strategies and deliver solutions on time and on budget. At MC Services, we provide an edge because we offer:
- Custom programming and database development that can work alongside mobile app creation to optimize data management processes in the backend.
- A culture focused on collaboration with clients that stems from our history working on projects involving extremely complex database and web hosting systems.
- Flexibility to perform web or mobile app development to support the full range of needs in the modern enterprise.
On top of all of this, our brand is built not just around development, but on technology consulting. Because of our emphasis on consulting, our development projects begin with an analysis of what you need. We'll help you identify if you truly need a custom solution or if a modification to an existing solution or third-party software integration will get the job done.
Some custom developers want to help clients create an app. At MC Services, we want to partner with you to solve your IT problems. That priority makes us open to a variety of project types and strategies focused on creating sustainable value for clients, not just completing a one-off project.
