The Definitive Guide to Enterprise App Development

Enterprise mobile app development is a practically essential process for a modern business. Though it can be time-consuming, the major optimization it provides is a game changer. Thus, creating custom apps to tackle your company’s unique challenges is a worthwhile investment regardless of the industry you’re in. From automating tasks to simplifying data management, these apps are modern solutions to classic issues.

According to data from Research and Markets, the enterprise app market is expected to reach $403.9 billion by 2027, a clear sign that demand is on the rise. In this guide, we’ll teach you all about enterprise solutions and their creation. This will be based on Exoft’s 10+ years on the market, focused on custom development services.

We’ve created all kinds of enterprise solutions, from an education CRM to a medical information system, a construction ERP , to an AI sales assistant, covering the diverse potential of enterprise software. So, let’s start so you can find out how to build an enterprise app within your budget.

What Makes Enterprise Application Development Different

While the market is crowded with companies offering general development services, enterprise applications require a particular approach. While any company can use common tools like Slack or Excel, a successful business eventually grows past them. You need to be thinking of future efficiency and scaling, as well as the ability to adjust the tools to fit your upcoming needs.

Your company works as one big organism, where a good manager needs to know the inner workings of every department. That is not easy to track and analyze using tools built for everyone. Crafting a refined app that’s tailored to your specifics is a more optimal solution.

An enterprise app is likely to have more intricate features using artificial intelligence, microservices, or big data. However, that’s something you decide for yourself, based on what your company needs.

The one thing that all enterprise apps require is heightened security. Large businesses have threat models that differ from small businesses, affecting the whole development process. From planning stages to choosing tools, security must be at the forefront of your considerations.

Another aspect that tends to be universal for enterprise is hosting. While regular clients may require using AWS or similar solutions, an enterprise is more likely to self-host with its own infrastructure. This expands the list of the necessary team members for the enterprise mobile app development process. It’s not a task that any agency can tackle.

So, to sum up, the three core points that distinguish enterprise apps are:

• a deeper feature set;
• extra security;
• hosting differences.

Ideally, ERP software development needs to be handled by a team that explicitly specializes in it. We will discuss the development process below so you can get a feel for what’s needed.

Common Types of Enterprise Mobile Apps

There are several corporate application types businesses use every day. We’ll list the most common ones, with a bit of explanation on why companies need them.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Helpful for cross-department work, this software integrates all the key processes of your business, regardless of origin. That way, you can coordinate work for all departments, keeping everything transparent. This boosts efficiency and makes collaborating on various projects easier for your employees.

ERP apps are most effective for enterprises that want to streamline internal operations. Also, they can often involve multiple pieces of software running different services, which makes them pricey but worthwhile.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A CRM can be a lifesaver for businesses that want to increase customer satisfaction rates. It consolidates all your client data, letting you keep track of trends and get valuable insights. This can include purchasing habits, potential areas for improvement, and general behavioral data.

CRMs can be quite helpful in upping conversions, as you can use them to track the customer’s journey. This helps pinpoint the moment they decide to make a purchase. Then, you can analyze that example to turn it from a one-time success into a constant trend.

Plus, remember that a customer doesn’t always mean a product buyer. Our medical information system is proof that these apps can adapt to any industry. It’s important to know your audience when developing enterprise applications, and CRMs can be tailored according to your customers.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Designed to make your logistics easier, SCM apps will help keep up with inventory. These can automate necessary purchases, provide information on shipments, and streamline communications. You can also use them to spot potential ways to cut costs and thus tighten up your shipment budget.

SCM apps will also optimize your workforce, as more efficient shipping means faster turnarounds with less stress on the team. Most enterprises tend to order custom-made SCM software to track supply processes unique to their company.

Treasury Management System (TMS)

TMS software typically tracks cash flow, bank accounts, invoices, and taxation. These apps exist specifically to make financial operations easier. Whether this means automating certain transactions or collecting the necessary fiscal data is up to you. If you’d rather not automate financial matters completely, scheduling features can help deal with end-of-month payments.

TMS apps can be integrated with banks and should have full KYC and AML compliance. They are subject to pretty strict regulation, so you can and should expect solid quality. A team that develops one for you needs to be well-acquainted with your region’s standards. That sets it apart from most mobile app development for enterprises, as it requires specific know-how.

Business Intelligence (BI) Applications

As you can tell by the name, these help collect and analyze business data. By unifying and visualizing your company’s results in one spot, you can understand and control trends. From cutting expenses to deciding your next pivot, BI serves to help you grow. The applications just help automate the collection and make it easier to work with the data.

HR Management Systems

This internal software is intended to make your employee management better. Apps can collect feedback, gauge staff satisfaction, track vacations and sick days, and automate important notices. Instead of letting your HR team handle things manually or through third-party software, you can provide a custom solution.

This works best because it’s more secure, can be tailored to your operations, and makes employees feel heard. With an easier way to connect to different teams, your HR staff can find areas to improve upon, as well as coordinate internal events better. These systems exemplify the utility of enterprise application development for internal matters.

Project Management Tools

These apps will help your PMs by centralizing all project data and making it easier to actually manage. That’s facilitated through features like role assignments, budget management, and report collection. Instead of continuously micromanaging, your PMs can rely on custom software to gather data and show them where potential problems can arise.

Marketing Automation

A rather straightforward type of application - marketing is the lifeline of any business and this helps make it faster, sleeker, and cheaper. That can include automating newsletters, the ability to do a scheduled campaign launch, and other ways to reach your user. More importantly, though, this comes with powerful data tracking and analysis to see which methods work.

Importance of an Enterprise App for Your Organization

Let’s consolidate all the benefits different apps can have in one spot. These are mostly universal, meaning you can expect them regardless of company size or specialization. Take a look and determine which of these would be the most relevant to you. With that, you can better plan your enterprise mobile application development strategy, aiming for a particular goal.

Stay Effective

Most of the app types we mentioned have this one purpose - making your teams better at their job. Whether it’s through keeping all the relevant data in the same place, streamlining certain tasks, or just making it easier to do their work. An example would be Exoft-built software that automatically tracks the status of construction projects and schedules tasks.

Maximize Revenue

Enterprise apps help visualize your financial situation and dissect it. Through these processes, you can see which areas you’re spending too much on, as well as determine how to cut those expenses. Moreover, with marketing software, you’ll also be able to increase conversions and, thus, direct revenue from new orders.

Minimize Losses

Nothing can slip past enterprise software’s data analysis capabilities. That means the apps will notice processes and expenses that aren’t essential and guide you toward cutting them. With an easy way to calculate what works and what doesn’t businesses can prevent losses. This is done through logistics optimization, inventory management, and internal process tracking.

Manage Payment Transactions

Handling monthly payments and invoices, both incoming and outgoing, is a huge time sink. With TMS software, this process is expedited completely. Any recurring payments can be set on a schedule, with adjustments done only when absolutely necessary. The same management applies to tax processes, making handling your company’s taxation easier.

Automate Business Processes

A large portion of a company’s work consists of small processes that are highly repetitive and simple. By automating them with software, you save time across various professions, from your HR department to your project managers. From assigning tasks to tracking customer behavior, any minute work can be automated to free up employees.

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of enterprise apps for your corporate structure, let’s talk about the software’s structure. It’s time to address the architecture types and explain which may be right for you.

Enterprise Application Architecture

Must-Have Features for Your Enterprise Application

Having talked about architecture and benefits of enterprise apps, we should also cover their essential features. This will help you decide how to create an enterprise app that works for your goals

Extensive Databases

Having the ability to store all the relevant data, and store it on your own hosting, ideally, is a must for any type of enterprise app. Data determines your decisions and helps automate processes, so it’s perhaps the number one priority. As for choosing the database, it’s best to consult with professionals, stating your plans for it. This will help determine the best fit for the job.

Multiple User Roles

Your app will likely be accessed by employees from all levels. From directors to managers to warehouse workers, anyone needs to be able to work with the software. However, in the interests of security and simplicity, each role needs specific access levels. Make sure that your app is managing different roles and transforming as necessary, depending on the user.

Third-Party App Integrations

An app can only reach its full potential if it is part of an ecosystem. For a TMS, this means bank integration; for logistics software, it’s connection to external trackers, and so on. These integrations mean your app can collect more data and perform more functions. There is no reason not to integrate, mainly as security measures should prevent any unwanted data leaks.

Real-Time Analytics

The sooner you spot problems or important trends, the faster you can address them. This means that having a real-time view of the market, the customer behaviors, or the stats of your operations is imperative. Focus on gathering data and processing it as soon as possible. This way your software will let you avoid potential issues and minimize risks.

Instant Messaging

The ability to provide feedback to employees, respond to customer concerns, or just share updates is essential. While you may be used to doing so through third-party software, it’s possible to build this into your own custom app. That way, you can do everything without switching between processes and guarantee that nothing gets forgotten during busy hours.

We’re highly certain in this one, as our team built messaging capabilities into a medical enterprise app we developed. The ability to instantly connect to patients changes how doctors deal with consultations and care.

Enterprise Application Development Process

Best Practices for Developing Enterprise Apps

Let us offer you some tips using the example of two enterprise apps we created. These should make the enterprise mobile app development process smoother and headache-free. Tested in practice with an education industry CRM and an AI-powered sales assistant.

Both of these enterprise apps included the use of AWS and the integration of third-party services, fitting the optimal design philosophy. We followed the clients’ wishes closely, creating the software only according to their plans. While our team aced the task, the firm control and clear communication from the clients made these particularly fruitful collaborations.

Be Reasonable with Deliverables

Set deadlines and check-in dates that are comfortable for you, and keep a steady pace. However, don’t try to rush the team too much. Depending on how complex your app is, it may take a long while to truly deliver a quality product, and that’s fine. During our work on the education CRM, we made a point of negotiating ambitious deliverables, but ones we could pass.

Differentiate Between Need and Want

You need the app to have automation, you need it to be secure, that’s good. What’s not good is confusing needs with wants and deciding you need AI-powered chatbots, resource-heavy data processing, and other trendy features.

Think about the functionality that benefits you for sure. While Exoft powered up the sales software with an AI forecast method, the education project steered clear of it. The reason? They simply did not need it. When developing an enterprise app, it’s key to understand its value for

Test Always, Then Test Again

There is no such thing as too much quality control. While it’s customary to do extensive QA after the app is formally finished, asking for extra diligence in this matter is expected. An enterprise app failing at a critical moment is a big deal and, in this case, prevention is the best solution.

How Much Does Enterprise App Development Cost?

There isn’t one universal answer to a question like that, but we can estimate the cost based on the relevant factors. So, the price-making factors when creating an enterprise application are these:

• app complexity;
• APIs and platform chosen for the app;
• the development team location;
• scope of the project - features and functionality.

Obviously, the more complex and feature-rich you want to make the app, the higher the price will be. Similarly, choosing developers that come from San Francisco will cost many times more than a team from Eastern Europe or India.

Using average salaries as a reference, here’s the approximate costs, based on app complexity. Simple applications will start around $16,000 and up to $30,000. Market-average ones will run from $32,000 to $48,000. Meanwhile, complex and feature-heavy applications will go from $60,000 and as far as you’re willing to take them.

The price for enterprise application development includes salaries for the developer and design teams, the project management, the fees for any platform and API use. Basically, if you’re working with a vetted partner, you should not expect any hidden fees. Upfront costs are supposed to include all the expenses that you will reasonably need to shoulder.

Now, like we’ve said, these rates aren’t set in stone and can be worked around to fit your budget. For example, cutting out any overly ambitious features and focusing on essential functionality will keep the cost more manageable. However, you already know that high quality comes with a price. The real focus should be on what you get for the money.

Basically, build your enterprise mobile application strategy around both your needs and your means. Having automated documentation and data collection is already a massive boon to the company, without going for some fancier AI technology. Plus, by using a starter custom solution for a while, you can save money in the long run and upgrade when ready.

Build Enterprise Applications with Exoft

You can already see that creating an enterprise app isn’t an easy task. That’s why it’s best to rely on a company that already has expertise in making them. With that in mind, Exoft offers its own enterprise digital transformation services, as well as custom ERP development.

In our time on the market, we’ve mastered the creation of inventory and HR management tools, as well as sprawling ERP systems. We’ve tackled challenges such as automating a large quarry business , with secure logins, data processing, and employee identification. Our development teams have also created AI-enriched sales software to help boost conversions.

Through these projects, our developers have grown and learned, always implementing the most effective technologies. When it comes to mobile app development for enterprise, Exoft focuses on making the app as secure as possible , chasing quality instead of trends, and following the client’s wishes to a tee.

Takeaway

In this in-depth guide, we’ve covered the types of enterprise applications, their architecture options, as well as the must-have features and stages of development. Your journey in enterprise app development may deviate from the standard path, but this is a detailed intro to what you can and should expect.

However, we’ve stressed the importance of planning and consideration, so we wouldn’t fault you for having extra questions. So, if you feel ready to start working on an enterprise app or simply want a consultation to lay the groundwork for that - Exoft is here for you.

Our developers have spent years working on custom products and creating apps for companies. This leaves us with practical expertise that will help you navigate any challenge that you could encounter in the process of enterprise mobile applications development. Get in touch today for a consultation, so your app can be a resounding success.