FAILURE TO LAUNCH
7 Steps to developing mobile apps your employees will actually use
ENTERPRISE APPS
Enterprise apps for mobile devices are now a competitive necessity that can give employees the
The main problem is that many internal apps are developed ad hoc, without a clear strategy or
power to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively – boosting both productivity and retention.
process to ensure they are truly useful and usable. Often, such apps are initiated as a “me too”
However, many companies are finding it hard to develop apps that their employees will actually
response to a competitor’s app – or as an executive’s pet project – and in many cases are driven by
use. A study by SAP found that 78% of enterprise mobile apps are abandoned after their first use.1
hunches rather than thoughtful analysis of business needs. Also, they tend to be developed with
Another study found that over 41% of employees are unimpressed by the corporate mobile apps
much less effort and rigor than mobile apps targeted at consumers.
they are expected to adopt, and that nearly 60% abandon such apps due to a poor user experience.2
The likely result? Ill-conceived, half-baked enterprise apps that waste time and money, and that
could tarnish the reputations of both the company and everyone involved in the development effort.
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2
A BETTER APPROACH
Corporate employees are also
consumers. As such, they have
grown accustomed to mobile
apps that are powerful yet
also intuitive, convenient, and
aesthetically pleasing. To achieve
a high rate of adoption, your
enterprise apps should meet or
exceed those high expectations.
And that, in turn, involves a new
development approach based on
leading practices from the world of
consumer apps.
Through our experience helping
Seven steps for effective enterprise apps
Following this seven-step process can help you determine if an app should be created in the
first place, and will likely help improve its chances for success.
1. STRATEGY & VALUE Understand the app’s value and have a clear goal
2. USER INPUT Gather early input from end users
3. APP DEVELOPMENT Iterate quickly and follow device-specific design principles
4. DISTRIBUTION Make the app easy to obtain and install
companies build world-class consumer
mobile experiences, we have created
a rigorous and effective process for
5. USER SUPPORT Provide robust post-release support
developing, distributing, and supporting
enterprise mobile apps.
6. SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION Foster a mobile-friendly culture
7. CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION Gather feedback and use it to make the app better
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STEP 1: STRATEGY & VALUE
Many enterprise mobile apps are
doomed from the start because
the developers don’t take time
to understand and validate the
unique needs and desires of the
company and its end users.
This is particularly true when
developing “me too” apps that
are a response to what other
companies are doing.
Whether you are mobilizing existing business applications or
Understanding the problem to be solved – and then defining
developing mobile solutions for new business needs, a clearly
a clear strategy for solving it – can help you develop apps that
defined mobile app strategy helps provides a foundation for
your employees want to use. It can also help you anticipate the
success. When getting started, you should:
technical requirements for scale, performance, and security that
will ultimately be necessary for the app to be effective.
•
Describe the business need, desired user experience, and
expected business impact
•
Define the specific problem to be solved, and then
develop use cases to show how the app will solve it
•
Define success criteria and metrics
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
•
and is mobile the best solution?
The business benefits of a mobile app are typically measured in
time savings, cost reduction, and other tangible benefits. But
•
when developing an app strategy, it’s also important to find
the solution require additional process
specific features and functions employees need or want that
and experience optimizations for mobile?
will make their lives easier and help them do their jobs more
•
Have other mobile apps failed to be
adopted by the employee base? If so,
For example, your field employees might wish they had more
why? What lessons can we learn?
convenient access to business systems that are currently hard
to reach from outside the corporate firewall (and require use of
Will mobilizing an existing business
application and process suffice? Or will
emotional “hooks” that will promote usage and adoption – i.e.,
efficiently and effectively.
What problem is the app trying to solve,
•
What is unique about this app that
a VPN). A mobile app could serve as an integrated launch pad
cannot be achieved through existing or
that provides easy access to the business functionality those
similar apps?
employees need while on the go.
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STEP 2: USER INPUT
Most consumer app developers
know their apps must be appealing
to end users or will be ignored,
thus they tend to invest significant
time and effort to understand their
targeted customers through usercentered design methods such as
personas and customer journeys.
However, many enterprise app
developers rush through or skip
this step, blithely assuming they
already know what users need – or
that employees will use the app
simply because they are told to do
so. That’s a mistake.
To develop an app that is able to meet users’ needs and provide
real benefits, you need to solicit their input – not just during the
discovery phase, but at every stage of the development lifecycle.
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
•
•
Define the dominant personas and find out how they
needs and preferences been identified
would use the app in various locations and scenarios
•
Ask users to validate app functionality
and usability
•
•
Have the desired end-user functional
and validated?
•
How often do employees need or
perform the targeted features/functions?
Refine and optimize the app based on
user feedback
•
Where and when will the app be used?
Understand users’ evolving needs in order to drive long-
•
Have different user types been considered?
term growth and value
Effective ways to gather input from users include: usability
testing, field or end-user interviews, target-user testing,
prototyping, and pilot testing. The right method will depend
on where you are in the development lifecycle, and what
information is needed.
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STEP 3: APP DEVELOPMENT
Key activities for enterprise mobile
app development include creative
design, architecture, technical
design, development, test,
and production release. When
developing an app, developers
typically employ either a waterfall,
agile, or hybrid method.
Many consumer-facing mobile app developers use an agile
and iterate quickly, thus being responsive to changing user
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
needs and market requirements in near real-time. Enterprise
•
methodology, which helps them deliver working products early
app developers could benefit from doing the same, as the
services aligned with the business and
development methodology used for a mobile app can have a
enterprise strategy?
significant impact on its ultimate success. Given the importance
of user experience, iterative development, and continuous
stakeholder collaboration, effective development efforts tend to
•
•
doubling as both a developer and a user experience designer.
These roles require distinct capabilities and should be treated
as such.
Have creative and technical design
resources been identified for the project?
on the development team. Many companies make the mistake
of asking their engineers to wear multiple hats – for example,
What development methodology will be
followed (Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid)?
naturally align with the key concepts of the Agile Manifesto.3
Companies should ensure that the right skill sets are staffed
Are the target mobile platform and
•
Are the appropriate environments and
tools (development, migration, project
management) set up for the team?
It is also important to pick an app development platform
and technical architecture that aligns with the organization’s
technical and business strategy. Many companies are in such
a hurry to get an app developed and launched that they end
up creating a solution that is misaligned with their technical
roadmap and creates fragmentation within the enterprise.
Successful apps are created using development tools and
solutions that align with the organization’s broader enterprise
technology, and help deliver the desired user solutions.
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STEP 4: DISTRIBUTION
Locating, downloading, and
installing a mobile app should be
simple, intuitive, fast, and secure.
Otherwise, people won’t do it.
Public app stores, such as the
Apple® App Store® online store
or Google Play™ store, have set a
very high bar – contributing to an
expectation that the process will
be streamlined and intuitive.
However, getting an enterprise app onto an employee’s
and most secure; however, it can be expensive and some
mobile device isn’t always quite so straightforward, and every
users might consider it invasive.
distribution option has pros and cons:
To improve adoption rates, enterprise apps should be more
•
Public app stores provide an effective and inexpensive
actively promoted within the organization. Just as there are
way to deliver mobile apps. However, this channel might
marketing and awareness campaigns for consumer-facing apps,
not be appropriate if you have concerns about making
enterprise apps need carefully orchestrated marketing and
your app accessible to the public. Also, feedback gathered
launch activities to help build awareness and excitement. Simply
through the app store might be less reliable and could
developing and publishing a high quality app is not enough.
reflect opinions from people outside of your targeted
user base.
•
Enterprise app stores typically contain only enterprise
apps, and limit access solely to employees. This helps
improve security and make it easier for your targeted
users to locate and download your app. However,
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
•
enterprise app stores generally require extra steps to
an app, and is there a simple process to
install apps on personal (non-corporate) devices – e.g.,
download and install it?
installing enterprise developer certificates and profiles.
This can discourage people from installing and using
•
are an increasingly popular option, with the number of
organizations using enterprise app stores rising from 23%
to 35% between 2015 and 2016.4
How long does it take average users to
set up the app on their mobile devices?
the app. Despite these challenges, enterprise app stores
•
Where and how do users discover/locate
•
Is the app download and delivery
process secure?
Mobile application/device management solutions offer
a range of products and services that help organizations
deploy and support mobile enterprise apps. These
solutions enable you to efficiently push applications and
updates to company-owned or company-managed devices.
This distribution option is likely to be the fastest, simplest,
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STEP 5: USER SUPPORT
The proliferation and rising complexity of mobile devices and apps
in business can create significant
headaches for users and IT help
desks alike. Frustrated users want
one-stop support for all of their
mobile technology issues – not just
for enterprise apps, but for their
mobile devices and wireless service
as well. This is a big problem for
traditional IT help desks, which
often are not staffed to support
device and service issues that
would normally be handled by the
user’s wireless provider.
Adding to the challenge is that users increasingly expect to
Mayday service offers a response time of less than 10 seconds,
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
summoned with a simple screen tap.5
•
receive mobile support in real-time. For example, Amazon’s
Is the support experience efficient?
Where and how do users receive
Given these common challenges – and mobile’s growing
support? Can they get assistance from
importance in day-to-day business operations – companies
within the app itself?
should increase their focus on supporting mobile technologies
and creating better user support experiences. This will likely
require significant investments in resources, training,
•
Is the support personalized?
Do users have to navigate through
and infrastructure.
automated menus and messages, or are
Support for mobile apps should be mobile-enabled,
they connected to a live person on the
personalized, and real-time. Users should be able to choose the
support team?
communication channel with which they are most comfortable,
be it voice, messaging, email, or chat. And ideally all of those
•
Are service levels sufficiently high? Are
communication channels should be conveniently supported
users supported in real-time, or near-real-
from within the app itself. This advanced feature is quickly
time? Are their issues resolved quickly and
becoming a standard expectation.
effectively?
•
Are there enough qualified support
resources? Are they sufficiently trained to
support all corporate apps and approved
mobile devices?
•
Is the support infrastructure up to
the task? Is it capable of enabling
personalized and real-time support?
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STEP 6: SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION
Company culture can play a major
role in encouraging or discouraging the use of enterprise apps.
While some organizations have
embraced mobile technology and
view it as a strategic and operational imperative, others continue
to treat mobile as a novelty – or
even a nuisance.
One way to foster mobile app use is by establishing a mobile
develop, launch, promote, and support mobile apps. An MCOE
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
can provide guidance and structure for mobile initiatives;
•
center of excellence (MCOE), which can help you successfully
improve app design and user experiences by sharing best
practices, establish guidelines, and
practices related to visual design, personas, user journeys, and
provide governance?
storyboarding; and help evangelize agile methodologies that
enable developers to deliver apps in fast iterations, delivering
the most valuable functionality first.
•
apps in isolation and then releasing them to employees without
Is training and educating employees on
the benefits of major mobile initiatives a
high priority?
An MCOE can also provide a governance structure that helps
rein in a “wild west” culture of individual departments creating
How does your organization share best
•
Does your organization view change
proper oversight, coordination, and guidance. This governance
management and post-release support as
structure includes business processes, technical standards,
a key activity?
architecture, and operational guidelines to help consistently
support and sustain mobile apps throughout the organization.
An effective MCOE can push your app development capabilities
to the next level of maturity, improve coordination across
organizational silos, and offer complementary skills for project
teams to leverage. Benefits include improvements in app quality,
user experience, and governance, all of which are important
levers for creating a mobile-friendly culture and boosting
enterprise app adoption.
9
STEP 7: CONTINUOUS OPTIMIZATION
Many companies need to focus
more attention on improving the
quality of their existing apps, rather
putting the lion’s share of effort
into churning out new apps. In
addition to regular maintenance,
mobile apps generally require
continuous development and
feature enhancement. Many also
require significant post-release
bug fixes and optimization, since
tight development schedules and
resource constraints often lead
to app releases without sufficient
testing, QA, user feedback, or
debugging. With mobile apps,
a “one and done” approach is
rarely effective.
By anticipating the need for ongoing development, and by
Today’s enterprise users have grown accustomed to consumer
planning quick release cycles to fix technical problems and
mobile apps that are nimble and responsive, and thus have very
optimize user experiences, updated versions can quickly be
little patience for bloated apps and cumbersome experiences.
created to address problems that arise with the first release.
In the fast-paced world of mobile, apps don’t get many second
chances to engage the user. High abandon rates, infrequent
User feedback and comments can help identify problems
access, and poor user feedback are clear indicators that an app
with app stability, performance, navigation, and the user
is in trouble and needs immediate corrective action.
experience. However, people who provide feedback need
acknowledgement and updates about the changes they are
requesting. Customer survey tools such as Medallia enable
channel that keeps users informed and engaged. Mobile
KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK
application management solutions and app stores can also be
•
collection of real-time feedback and create a closed-loop
set up to enable user ratings and feedback. After gathering user
submit feedback and honest reviews?
feedback and metrics, planning changes, and fixing bugs, a
new and improved version of the app can be released.
Is there a channel for employees to
•
Is your organization equipped to collect
and measure key app metrics and user
satisfaction?
Mobile app analytics enhance the continuous optimization
process by providing valuable insights that can help drive
adoption and performance – before, during, and after an app
•
Do you have a team in place to work
is launched. In particular, advanced usage analytics – including
on continuous optimization and
location and time metrics – help pinpoint what is working well,
maintenance?
and where users are struggling. This can lead to new features or
even entirely new apps.
•
Do you have a process and action plan to
increase user adoption?
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WHAT’S NEXT?
People engage with mobile applications in very
different ways than traditional applications. As such,
creating effective mobile apps – and getting your
employees to use them – requires a paradigm shift in
development, distribution, and support.
Enterprise apps can be extremely valuable tools for
companies and can ultimately improve the productivity
and success of the business. The steps outlined above
can help you avoid the most common pitfalls and
create enterprise apps that your employees want to
use, and that provide real value to the user and
the company.
Apple® App Store® is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in
the U.S. and other countries.
Google Play™ and the Google Play logo are trademarks of
Google Inc.
Amazon and Mayday are trademarks of Amazon Inc.
Medallia is a trademarks of Medallia Inc.
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REFERENCES
1 Kaneshige, Tom; “How CIOs can Boost Mobile App Adoption” CIO from IDG (2014)
http://www.cio.com/article/2453985/mobile-apps/how-cios-can-boost-mobile-app-adoption.html
2 Murray, Alan; “Where the Enterprise Mobility Stands Today” Innovation Insights (2014)
http://insights.wired.com/profiles/blogs/where-the-enterprise-mobility-market-stands-today
3 Beck, Kent; “Manifesto for Agile Software Development”. Agile Alliance (2001).
http://agilemanifesto.org/
4 Apperian, “Executive Enterprise Mobility Report” (2016)
ttps://go.apperian.com/rs/300-EOJ-215/images/Apperian%202016%20Executive%20Enterprise%20Mobility%20Report_FINAL_20160216.pdf
5 “75% of Kindle Fire FDX Customer Questions Now Come via the Mayday Button – Average Response Time is Just 9.75 Seconds” Business Wire, (2014)
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140613005080/en/75-Kindle-Fire-HDX-Customer-Questions-Mayday
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AUTHORS
Andrew Wegleitner, BTA
Binh Doan, BTA
David Day, Manager
David Smud, Managing Director
Paul Moceri, Manager
Shamoun Maayr, Manager
Sungkey Paik, Specialist Master
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