This is a question a business is often bogged down by- whether to develop a mobile application or to buy an existing mobile app available in the market.

However, before one jumps into this decision, it is important to ask yourself 2 very important questions- the first one is evaluating your business needs and looking for an existing application that can suit those needs and the second one is asking whether you have the resources to develop a business app in-house or even through out-sourcing it.

The reason why it is important to ask yourself whether an existing application can cater to your needs is because, there are a lot of apps on App Store or Google Play Store that are business-focused. It’s understandable that as a business owner, you might feel that your needs are unique and might require individual attention, however, it could be worth the effort to do some research before you decide to invest in building a mobile app.

Getting your app built

The best mobile applications are usually focused around stream-lined workflows focusing on user-friendly interfaces, more than traditional applications, as the former are incorporating the requirement of key features into the building of the mobile application.

However, even if this may be the case, there is sometimes a need for unique application building and if you are an organization that doesn’t have an in-house IOS or Android developer, the chances are that there will be a significant investment, as the demand for these developers is really high as is the cost that is attached to them.

There have been numerous reports that have suggested that the demand for app developers is one of the biggest challenges organizations face today and it can cost them from anything between tens of thousands of dollars to more than hundred thousand dollars. If you are looking to outsource this, you might be looking at a cost sufficiently higher than that.

If you are buying an application

It is definitely more convenient and easier to look at an app that exists in the market and incorporating it into your organization structure. However, even this comes with challenges and road-blocks of its own.

There is something called as Mobile Application Management Software, which an organization that develops its own application can build hooks in, allowing its IT to control and secure the application and its data. However, this is what you don’t get with publicly available applications. There are some which are compatible with one MAM product and there are some which are compatible with multiple and there are some which don’t work with any at all.

There are some ways that you can use mobile device management to enhance its security features and exercise some level of control, but for those organization that need intimate security and protection features, this can get very frustrating.

Is there an option out of these?

There is another approach one can take, if you want to use your investment smartly. There are certain software vendors who are partially building apps like pre-building them that are designed towards performing certain functions or are catered for specific uses in certain industries.

Business have access to these apps and can complete them on their own with the requirements of their choice. This might also require a certain amount of development expertise, however, it is definitely what you need to get yourself in the mobile app development world.

There have been talks about the future of mobile app development and how they will be tailored to customize and add features to existing mobile apps through a process called containerization. Even though containerization is a process of adding technology for adding new technology and security features to apps, there are software developers who are looking at expanding its capabilities.

There are several options available that can make building a mobile application a relatively less complicated affair. It is about exercising the right choices and doing a thorough research of the technologies available along with knowing the extent of your resources at your disposal.