Just ten years ago a lot of the options that you now have as a business leader just weren’t realistic. The rise of mobile devices is the most obvious place to focus but across the “stack” tools have gotten more powerful and easier to work with. Here are three reasons why you should be considering custom apps and services for your business.
Cloud Platforms
Just a few years ago getting a simple website or data service up and running involved purchasing your own servers, renting space in a data center and hiring someone to maintain them. This was expensive and required a good deal of expertise.
Today you could get a website or service up and running over your lunch break today. The rise of AWS, Azure and other cloud platforms have made getting up and running easier than ever before. And since you are building a tool for only your team to use, the monthly hosting cost will be less than your cable bill.
Powerful Mobile Devices
The same goes for mobile devices. In the past you would spend as much or more on hardware as you would the software you were building. Remember these things? Not only were these devices big and clunky, they were also extremely limited in functionality.
Today over 70% of companies have smartphones deployed to their team that is light years ahead of previous hardware. Heck the iPhone X is more powerful than the Macbook Pro. This greatly decreases the cost of deploying apps and software to your team. Not only are the devices more than capable, there is very little training that needs to be done because of the existing familiarity with the device.
Free Features
Alongside the hardware advances, software has matured equally as much or more. When building an app for iOS or Android you get so many options for free. Features that would cost a fortune to build from scratch, you now get for free in the OS. Here’s a short list: barcode scanning, location tracking, photo management, Bluetooth connectivity and data storage. The same applies for web technologies. You no longer have to buy expensive licensing from Microsoft to get the tools you need to build modern web apps. The open source community has made incredible advances in the tools that are offered for free.
Not Sayin’ It’s Cheap
In fairness, building your own software isn’t cheap. But the cost is much closer in price to many enterprise software suites, probably cheaper. And your likelihood of success is exponentially higher than it was a few years ago.
I bet you that your team is already trying to use their smartphones and tablet to get their work done. What would happen if you were to empower them with a modern software tool that was built specifically to meet their needs?