There’s an App for That: 8 Innovative Apps to Inspire Building Yours

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There are millions of apps listed on both the Apple Store and Google Play. Chances are that if you come up with an idea for an app, it already exists in some form. Interestingly though, less than 1% of all apps created end up achieving their intended success levels in terms of downloads, user retention, and monetization. It is therefore safe to assume that ideation is not a problem for most applications. However, there are other underlying issues, which if well addressed could significantly improve the chances of success for a new mobile application.

Researching the Competition

If businesses are offering an app similar to what you are building, take time to understand their model. What core problem are they solving and what features have they built for that? Read reviews and where possible, collect data from users to find out if the competitors do well and where they miss the mark. Your app should be geared towards delivering a better experience for users. The competitors’ scorecard is likely to include pillars such as security, speed and reliability, and UI and UX.

A Marketing Strategy

Building a great product is one part of the equation, getting people’s attention is a different ball game altogether. It is important to put together a comprehensive strategy to funnel people so they can download your app. This might include organizing or participating in physical and virtual events where you meet potential customers and present the app to them. It is important to have a website or a landing page from where you redirect traffic to your app’s listing on official app stores. Using reviewers, influencers, and news publications will also amplify the buzz around your app.   

 

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Leveraging social media and Content Marketing

Creating quality content consistently is never easy and may require you to invest in a team to help you leverage that as part of your growth strategy. Search engine snippets, blogs, and video content can elevate your brand’s position but it doesn’t come cheap. Fortunately, such content is timeless and can be repurposed across multiple platforms. It will keep funneling people to your app.

Your team must understand how to best interact with users and potential new users on social media. Find out which type of posts will maximize your reach, engagement, and conversion. In most cases, it will be a combination of different types of posts.

In case you decide to run paid ads for your app, you will need to invest in getting the best copy, graphics, and video to maximize your ROI. Use A/B testing tools to see how different options perform. Have a sizeable enough budget to ensure the ads run long enough to achieve tangible and sustainable results.

Innovative Ideas to Inspire Your App in 2023

Now that you understand that novel ideas are not the only thing that matters when estimating the chances of an app’s success, we can agree that you can draw inspiration from already existing apps. Here is a list of applications in different industries that could help inspire your next app idea.

TrueBill

TrueBill is a subscription-tracking application in the personal finance management space. The app has both free and premium tiers. The app allows users to set preferred cancellation dates for services such as Netflix and Spotify. The app partners with thousands of banking institutions to make this possible and even has the option to provide a user’s monthly credit report. However, users will need to grant TrueBill various permissions for the soft credit check. The company offers additional services such as bill negotiation on behalf of users.

Headspace

Headspace is a mindfulness and meditation app that has received very good reviews from people in the online wellness community. The app provides tools such as guided meditation, dance tutorials, and focus exercises. The app offers a 7–14-day trial where users can test out all premium features. They do offer discounted prices for students and for family subscriptions.

Creating an app that can compete with Headspace is an enormous task requiring a deep dive to gather resources, market the app, and offer a UI better than what the Headspace team offers.

HiveBrite

HiveBrite is a SaaS application geared towards helping founders of social impact communities manage their workflow. Community founders can easily create landing pages, have a managed news feed, and create guided paths to help onboard new members and stimulate participation by existing members. The platform allows for branding customization through fonts, color palettes, and typography all within the platform and without any coding being needed. HiveBrite also allows founders to manage subscriptions through safe payment handling.

But perhaps the biggest advantage it offers is discoverability for organizations. Volunteers constantly seek to join communities and causes that resonate with their values. Through HiveBrite, founders can make their organizations easier to find.

Focus Booster

With the amount of distractions people have to deal with today, it is not a surprise that there are so many productivity apps in the market. However, you may want to narrow down on creating an app that helps people concentrate on single tasks much better. Focus Booster is one such app that allows users to block out short bursts of time for work and frequent breaks throughout the day. So for instance, a user may schedule 10 half-hour tasks with 5-minute breaks between each. Focus Booster also gives insights into how users have utilized their days (goal tracking).

You could create a similar app with a better implementation of the UI, analytics, as well as additional features such as reminders for scheduled tasks.

LifeAt Communities

This is an app in the online self-study space. It provides a platform where people can join communities to power through tasks such as coursework or projects together. With different study rooms, people get to choose one that suits them. They can block out time for studying, have the camera on or off, attend and even create their events, and much more.

Another popular app in the same space is called Gather. It allows people to create avatars, design virtual working spaces with aesthetics they like, and even share personal wins with people in the community. The app also has a room for online games such as Tetris, just to keep people within the app during study breaks.

Developing an app in this space would require a lot of research to add features that significantly improve the experience for users beyond what is currently available. Integration with document editing solutions, storage, and meeting rooms are just examples of what could be possible. Study resources for students could be included as part of the subscription package being offered to them.

Strava

Strava is one of the best-built apps in the fitness space. It is geared towards helping people find communities and outdoor fitness challenges around them. Based on location, Strava users can find new running or hiking trails and challenges around them. People can share their achievements both on the platform and externally. They can also take part in group activities. Strava uses GPS data to ensure the accuracy of the data or results from a user’s activity.

To build a successful app in the fitness space, you would need to invest heavily in the product features as well as in marketing to ensure you reach a critical mass in audience numbers. Social apps need to be people-driven. Once enough people join, the numbers can quickly snowball to tens of millions of users thus unlocking profitability.

Fitbob

There are numerous ways that you can integrate artificial intelligence into the fitness market today. Fitbod is an application that provides customized workouts based on personal goals, available equipment, past workout history, and muscle recovery data. Over time, the app increases the difficulty level of the challenges to help users elevate their fitness levels. For a trainer, the app is useful in helping design workouts for clients who have different equipment at their disposal.

Other apps combine fitness goals with nutrition guidance. They provide custom recipes based on what ingredients a user has available. Apps in this space need to have a simple UI so that users do not feel too overwhelmed especially when inputting data. An extensive food database is necessary to accommodate a wide enough audience of users. Additional resources such as information on nutritional deficiencies of ingredients and possible alternatives would add to the utility of a fitness and nutritional app guide.

 

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Viator

Viator is a travel app that acts as a booking guide for people going to new places. The app has curated over 300,000 experiences across the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. This means that users can get suggestions of things to do depending on their budget and time in their itinerary. The app allows users to book activities within the app. The app has robust customer-support systems, which have built user confidence over time.

When building such an app, you need resources to curate enough activities for people. You could invite service providers to make a listing on your platform. However, checks are necessary to ensure customer expectations are met after making an online booking.

Actualizing Your Idea

As we have seen, there are multiple opportunities across different industries where you can build a mobile app today. However, actualizing your idea will take loads of work. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Research- You must study the market to identify a gap. Do not attempt to do too many things in one app. Surveys, interviews, and other forms of data-gathering techniques are useful in narrowing down to a particular problem that your app seeks to address.

MVP- Once you have a problem to solve, it is then important to list down the features to be included in the app. You need to build a minimum viable product first, with only the core features first. Test it in the market and continually iterate, adding new features while improving the primary ones.

UI and UX- Customers want an easy experience when using your app. Dedicate enough resources in developing a user interface that is empathetic to your user’s needs. Make the customer journey as easy as possible else the app will have a low user retention rate.

The Right Tech Stack- With the help of your development team, decide on whether to go with a cross-platform application or a native app for iOS and one for Android.

Marketing- Creating a buzz around your market will take up a significant amount of resources. Have enough set aside to run a marketing campaign before, during, and after the launch of your app.

Continuous Development- Your team should take into account that the app should keep evolving in response to customer feedback and changing needs. Innovation will improve revenue generation for your app too.

Mobile Application Development Services at NS804

Our team at NS804 has the right mix of tech skills and experience to bring your next mobile application idea to life. We have built tens of mobile apps for businesses across multiple industries. No matter what stage your idea is currently at, our team will work with you to deliver it to completion. You are welcome to book a call with a member of our team through our website. 

6 Internal Company Solutions A Mobile App Can Provide

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Internal company solutions often include communication, team collaboration, and project management tools. In most cases, these will be desktop or web-based applications and paper-oriented in more extreme cases. But, increasingly, more companies are shifting to mobile apps due to their versatility and widespread use of mobile devices. Below, we’ll look at what company solutions mobile apps facilitate in greater detail.

Bring Your Line-Of-Business (LOB) Apps To Mobile

Regardless of your organization structure, you likely use a suite of desktop LOB apps for most internal tasks. Also, you’re probably heavily invested in the Windows ecosystem due to its business-centric approach. And while many company solutions may run on Windows, this is not always the case. 

 

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It’s not uncommon for businesses to use macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, FreeBSD, or some other esoteric operating system (OS). There are cases when companies inevitably cling to legacy operating systems such as Windows 95 or DOS since these will only run on their older equipment and computer systems.

But what does this all mean for you, and how can your business benefit by porting your existing LOB apps to mobile? While desktops are great and allow for high productivity, they’re not the only feasible solution for your business. After all, most, if not all, your employees carry smartphones on them during the workday and after hours. And given the considerable computing power of most current smartphones, they’re also excellent productivity devices. 

So, it’s a wasted opportunity not to port several mission-critical apps to mobile, as this will allow employees to complete essential tasks when out of the office or late in the evening when necessary. Furthermore, most employees don’t like using a PC after hours, especially after staring at a computer screen all day at the office. 

But they’ll feel more comfortable with a smartphone or tablet, as these devices feel more personal and intuitive for use inside or outside the office. Thus, your employees won’t mind catching up on work at home or on the go, provided your mobile LOB apps have an intuitive and snappy user interface (UI).

How To Bring Your Internal Company Solutions To Mobile

Unless you have an internal development team, you should partner with a reputable mobile studio, such as NS804, to port your existing LOB apps. Founded in 2012, we have worked on over 100 mobile apps for Android and iOS and received acclaim for our hard work and commitment to excellence. We work with organizations of different sizes and industries, such as CarLotz, Dominion Energy, and Wells Fargo Advisors, to name a few.

But even if you don’t have any desktop or web-based LOB apps but need us to create mobile-first or mobile-only company solutions, we’re happy to assist. We have developed several notable business and productivity apps that you might have used or heard about, like the following:

  • Béné
  • CFO Sidekick
  • EntreConnect
  • Paxis Pro
  • Referral Buddy
  • Substation App
  • Text Surge
  • Transsporter
  • True Home Review
  • Yards4Yeardley

As a native mobile app developer, we use the best-in-class programming languages, tooling, and methodologies for Android and iOS. Ultimately, this guarantees we create apps that offer optimal performance, look, and feel on both mobile platforms. 

But what if you only need to release on one platform due to budget constraints? Which platform should you choose and why? Preferably, opt for the platform that enjoys the most use in your organization. For example, if most of your employees use iPhones, go with iOS. However, if there isn’t a dominant platform, Android is preferable due to its more open nature and ability to sideload apps easily. Android smartphones and tablets are also cheaper to acquire if you plan to equip all your employees with a device.

1. Automating Employee Onboarding And Training

As your business grows, you have little choice but to hire additional staff. But you’ll need to offer a comprehensive onboarding and training program. The only problem with this is that it can become an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. 

That’s because you’ll need training staff to teach newcomers the skills and methods to function effectively in your organization. And every time you hire someone new, you’ll need to repeat this process, which will inevitably increase your costs. It makes little sense to keep training staff around if you only require their services occasionally and at irregular intervals.

One solution is to outsource to a third-party training provider. But that’s not always a good idea, as their pricing may be higher than expected, or you may not want to share methodologies that reveal trade secrets. Instead, you should build a custom training platform that automates these processes continuously.

You’ll only need to hire training staff once to write documentation, film videos, and record audio training courses. Once you’ve assembled all this training media, it’s time to put it to work for you within the framework of a training app. The app will commence with the onboarding process consisting of a welcome video, your company’s mission statement, achievements, goals, and what you expect from new hires. 

Once they complete onboarding, the app will launch a training module specific to each new staff member’s position in the company. They will gain access only to the documentation and media suitable for their roles, then tested via questionnaires and multiple-choice questions (MCQs). The app will also send you progress reports and test results for each candidate so that you can better assess their suitability for their assigned roles.

2. Improve Staff Efficiency With A Team Collaboration Mobile App 

Internal company solutions often revolve around powerful collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Trello. And while all these are great, you may want a more custom solution geared toward the workflows and methodologies of your company.

Furthermore, you may want that extra peace of mind of having complete control of the privacy and security of your collaboration app instead of relying on a third party. After all, it’s not uncommon for popular apps to suffer security breaches and for hackers to steal user credentials.

A side benefit of having your own team collaboration app is that you’re not subject to the end-user license agreement (EULA) set by a third-party software vendor. And that’s because you may not like some terms within the EULA, or updated terms and conditions may pose potential legal risks to your business. It’s also common for vendors to introduce app updates that disrupt staff workflow and business operations. 

With your custom team collaboration platform, you’ll have a level of control to keep undesirable elements blocked off. But you’ll also have complete control over how, when, and where staff may use your app.

Perhaps, you want staff to communicate via text to save on data costs, or you want them to use the app during office hours only. Ideally, you’ll want to make use of what the best team collaboration apps bring to the table, such as video conferencing and the ability to share all types of files. 

3. Accelerate Digitization In Your Organization

Whether you create a communication, project management, or team collaboration app, these will boost digitization within your organization. These apps require you to convert all your physical-based data and media into digital form. All paper documents within your file cabinets are ripe for digitization, and there are many tangible benefits in taking this path. 

Having documents in a digital format will make it easier to archive, share, and update your organization’s files. And you can follow through with other media, such as 3D models, draft plans, illustrations, photos, videos, and audio recordings.

It’s also more cost-effective to store all these on your servers or the cloud instead of allocating significant office space for this purpose. You can also easily backup digital files within and outside the physical confines of your organization, ensuring you never lose this valuable data due to a fire or any other mishap.  

However, one of the reasons why you want to implement digitization for company solutions is to give your business a competitive edge. And that’s only possible if your staff has access to the correct information all the time. You want staff to access the information they need rapidly. Moreover, you want this data to be accurate and up-to-date. 

4. Enhance Supply Management With A Mobile Solution

Even if you already have supply management software for your business, do you have a mobile version? This is a crucial question because a mobile app can radically improve all supply management tasks.

If you’re relying exclusively on a desktop app, your staff is probably wasting valuable time moving back and forth between the office and the storeroom. They’re probably back checking on the inventory in stock and what appears on the computer screen or print out. 

Also, there’s no guarantee that they processed inventory information correctly the first time, as they probably ticked off or filled out a paper document before entering this information into the computer. That’s an additional step that wastes time and increases the probability of error.

With a mobile app, an employee can log all incoming inventory directly on the storeroom floor without needing to be near a desktop. The app will store all recent entries on the mobile app’s backend, and your desktop supply management app can query this data in real-time if necessary.

You probably want internal company solutions to handle your distribution and logistics pipelines. The mobile app can play a vital role here, as you can connect and monitor your drivers and third-party freight carriers and shipping companies to successfully fulfill all delivery obligations. You’ll also reduce the duration of delivery trips, paperwork, and the probability of items going missing in transit.

 

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5. Engage Employees With Social And Gamification Features

The last thing you want is for your employees to lose interest in their work and your company’s goals. Ideally, you want to keep them engaged and excited about coming to work so that they perform at their best. While you can offer them incentives like bonuses and paid company trips, you can achieve much more with the right type of company solutions.    

One good solution is to build a dedicated employee engagement app that functions similarly to a social media platform. It can act as a central hub where staff can gather, complete their profiles, connect with others, hold discussions, make announcements, read company news, and receive acclaim for meeting milestones. 

Furthermore, the app can facilitate your company’s emergency preparedness and response plans by providing staff with all relevant emergency numbers and a floor plan showing fire escapes inside company premises. You can further boost app engagement by including gamification features that reward staff with points and unique icons or emojis once they complete specific tasks within the app, such as completing their entire profile. 

And if you decide not to build such an app, you can still implement social and gamification features in your training, communications, and team collaboration apps. You may also share company news via your other apps and urgent announcements via push notifications. 

6. Take Charge With A Project Management Mobile App

Your organization needs a good project management app to plan and monitor projects from A to Z. If you already have one, that’s great, but you can achieve more with a mobile app. And that’s because you want staff to collaborate in real-time regardless if they’re in the office or out in the field.

You may also integrate with your existing team collaboration and communication tools to facilitate team project management. And depending on how you plan and execute your projects, you can optimize the app for Agile or Waterfall methodologies. You can take things further by including a Kanban board that allows you to schedule projects visually, making it easier for staff to follow all steps of the process.

The Bottom Line

Businesses are increasingly using mobile apps to fulfill many crucial internal roles. These often work in tandem with existing desktop or web-based company solutions or replacing them entirely. If you’re currently sitting on the fence, there’s never been a better time to enhance or augment your internal company solutions with a mobile app. Contact https://www.ns804.com/ today to learn how we’ll help you develop a custom app to boost your business!

Android Mobile App Development Questions, Answered

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Android app development is the process of developing applications designed to run exclusively on Android devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers, and smart TVs. Android operating system, developed by Google in 2008, is the most widely used OS globally, making it crucial for developers, tech enthusiasts, and business owners. Since its release in 2008, the Android operating system has received worldwide acclaim powering millions of devices across the world.

Android mobile app development involves writing code from scratch using reputable programming languages such as Kotlin and Java, designing attractive interfaces, managing data handling and retrieval, integrating various applications and APIs, and ensuring overall app performance and efficiency. The success of Android applications can be attributed to factors such as the availability of many devices at various price points and an open-source nature that encourages innovation.

This article explores some questions on Android mobile app development and their answers. In this post, we will look at various aspects of Android mobile app development, including architectural patterns, choice of programming language, testing, network, design considerations, and data management.

 

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By examining these concepts, readers will obtain valuable insights, empowering them to build robust, efficient, and feature-rich Android applications.

1. What’s the most frequently used programming language for Android applications?

The answer is Java. However, Kotlin has gained popularity and is now the most preferred language over Java. Developers prefer Kotlin to Java for a wide range of reasons: Kotlin is intuitive to use, easy to learn, and Kotlin code is considered safer and more concise than Java.

2. Do I need to learn Java to develop Android applications?

While Java used to be the primary programming language for Android applications, it is no longer an option. Kotlin is more modern, concise, and accurate, and is preferred for modern projects. However, understanding Java can still be beneficial, especially when you encounter legacy codes or libraries written by Java.

3. What’s the advantage of Kotlin over Java?

Understanding the nuance discrepancies between Java and Kotlin is crucial to making an informed decision about your programming language.

Here are the key advantages of Kotlin:

  • Concise syntax. Kotlin’s expressive syntax allows developers to write more concise code, reducing the chances of introducing errors.
  • Null safety. Kotlin type system introduces null safety, reducing the possibility of null pointer exceptions, a common source of bugs.
  • Interoperability. Kotlin can integrate or interoperate with Java, allowing developers to leverage Java-based libraries and legacy codes.
  • Readability. Kotlin’s type inference and expressive nature make the code maintainable and readable.

4. What is Android Studio, and do I need it in Android app development?

Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE). By integrated development environment, it provides the tools, resources, and machinery required to simplify your code. The Android Studio has diverse programming languages, APIs, and other tools needed for beginners to excel.

5. What’s Google Android SDK?

A Google Android SDK is a toolset for developers to write codes in Android-enabled devices. The SDK contains a graphical interface that acts as an Android-driven handheld environment, allowing developers to test and debug their codes.

6. What are the main components of the Android architecture?

The main components of the Android architecture include:

  • Android applications
  • Android framework
  • Libraries
  • Linux Kernel

7. What are the minimum system requirements for Android app development?

To run Android Studio and design Android apps, you need a powerful computer with 8GB RAM, a recent operating system (Windows, Linux, MacOS), a quad-core CPU, and the relevant tools and technologies.

8. What is the Android API level, and why is it important to consider?

The Android API level refers to the version of the Android operating system that your app targets or supports. When developing an app, you will need to narrow down on special versions of Android available out there. We should consider the Android API level because different versions have different capabilities and features. Selecting the right API level ensures your device operates on as many Android devices as possible while taking advantage of new app features.

9. What’s the difference between fragments and activities?

Activities are represented as a single screen with a user interface. Fragments, on the other hand, are modular components within an activity that can be reused or combined in different activities and are especially useful for multi-pane and adaptable layouts.

10. How can I test my app on multiple devices?

The Android Studio provides tools, including an emulator, for simulating various Android devices. In addition, you can use normal Android devices by setting ‘developer mode’ and USB debugging them. You can connect the Android devices on your computer, and test or debug your app.

11. How can I publish my app in the Google Play store?

To publish your app in Google Play, you will first need to set up a development account. Then you will check your app’s store listings and graphics, set up your distribution options, and show compliance with Google Play Store’s policies. Once your app is ready, you can submit it to the Google Console and upload it for review.

12. Can you develop Android applications on platforms other than Windows, Linux, and MacOS?

Yes, you can use cloud-based environments and virtual machines to develop Android-based applications on environments not supported by Android Studio. However, the app’s experience and performance may vary. That’s why it’s advisable to create applications with supported operating systems.

13. How do you select the appropriate architecture pattern in Android app development?

Selecting an appropriate architecture pattern is crucial for maintaining a well-structured codebase. The common types of architectural patterns include:

  • Model-View-Controller (MVC). The model-view presenter is the oldest and most straightforward. It structures data into three main components: view (user interface), model (business and data logic), and controller, which mediates between the model and the view.
  • Model-View-Presenter (MVP). The model view presenter amplifies the performance of the model-view-controller by adding a component known as a ‘presenter’ that acts as an intermediary between the model and the view. The presenter handles user input and updates the view on a need-to-need basis.
  • Model-View-View-Model (MVVM). The model-view-view-model (MVVM) further simplifies the separation of concerns, introducing a view model that holds the application state and business logic, thus separating it from the view.

The choice of architectural pattern depends on the project’s complexity, the team’s expertise, and the app’s long-term maintainability.

14. How do I ensure my app handles multiple screen sizes and resolutions?

In the diverse Android ecosystem, supporting multiple resolutions and screen sizes is important in ensuring a consistent user experience across different devices. To ensure apps handle multiple screen sizes and resolutions, developers can implement the following strategies:

  • Responsive layouts. Use modern layouts (GridLayout, LinearLayout, Relative Layout) to ensure that screen sizes adjust to screens of various sizes and resolutions.
  • Density Independent Pixels (dp). Use density pixels as a unit for defining dimensions instead of pixels. Selecting dp ensures that elements scale appropriately across different screen densities.
  • Resource directories. Ensure you provide alternative resources like layouts and images in separate folders for different screen size densities and resolutions.
  • Vector graphics. Use scalable vector graphics (SVG) for images and icons as they can scale without losing quality.

15. How do I ensure that my app supports older versions?

Supporting older versions is crucial to ensure that you reach a broader audience.

Here’s how you can ensure that your newly developed Android app works even in older versions of the Android operating system.

  • Set the minimum SDK version. You should specify the minimum SDK version your app supports in the AndroidManifest.XML file.
  • Compatibility libraries. Use AndroidX libraries that offer backward compatibility in case of newer features.
  • Feature detection. Use the Build.VERSION.SDK_INT constant to detect a device’s API levels and apply the appropriate code paths.
  • Test. Test on various devices with varying Android versions to identify and fix compatibility issues.

It’s crucial to ensure that your app can access a broader audience by extending support for older versions of the Android operating system.

 

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16. What are the basic components of an Android app?

Android apps are built with basic components such as activities, content providers, services, and broadcast receivers. Activities represent the user interface. Services represent background tasks. broadcast receivers respond to system-wide announcements and content providers manage data-sharing between the app and different endpoint devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart TVs.

17. What’s an Android Emulator?

Android emulator is a tool by Android Studio simulating Android devices. Through this simulation, it allows the developer to test an app with different configurations and Android versions.

18. How can I optimize my app for better performance?

Performance optimization is crucial for a good user experience. Some tips include: minimizing network requests, efficient data structures, optimizing images, and using background threads for heavy, time-consuming tasks. Most importantly, it’s advisable to properly manage memory to prevent memory leaks.

19. How can I make my app more compatible with other devices?

Use the latest SDK version and select the minimum API target level. Test your app on different virtual devices with varying hardware specifications and different screen sizes.

20. Can you develop IOS apps using Kotlin or Android Studio?

No, Android Studio is exclusively designed for Android mobile applications. If you want to develop IOS mobile apps, you will need Apple’s development tools like Objective-C and XCode.

21. What are some popular libraries and frameworks in Android App Development?

Some popular libraries for Android app development include OkHttp for networking, Hilt for dependency injection, Room for database management, and Gson for parsing. However, it’s important to remember Android app development is an evolving frontier, therefore, it’s advisable to remain updated with the latest trends and technologies.

22. How do you select the best Android app developer?

Selecting the best Android developer depends on several factors such as cost, expertise, and reputation. Most developers offer a defined budget for mobile app development but this cost may differ depending on the diversity of features, operating environments (Android or IOS), and the complexity of the project.

Here’s how you select the best Android developer:

  • Define project requirements. Define the scope of your project, highlighting app features, app capabilities, operating requirements, and security considerations.
  •  Check experience and portfolio. Look for developers with a proven track record of developing superior mobile applications. Review their portfolio to see the quality and range of their work.
  • Technical expertise. Ensure that your expert or developer has sufficient technical expertise in areas like Java, and Kotlin, and understands Android SDK and other development toolkits and libraries.
  • Reviews and references. Request reviews from previous clients and check their portfolios for any reference materials. Online ratings and reviews on platforms such as LinkedIn or Upwork can provide valuable insight into the developer’s expertise.

Finding the right developer depends on project requirements and overall expectations as a client.

23. How do I know if I am ready for an Android app?

Whether running a small business or managing a large corporation, having an Android app is the best way to simplify those monotonous, mundane tasks such as invoicing, communicating, marketing, branding, and personnel management. An Android app streamlines tasks, enhancing the efficiency, scalability, and productivity of operations.

So, if you’re struggling with managing employees, managing your brand, or growing your revenue streams, it’s high time to consider an Android mobile app. An Android mobile app can provide valuable insights needed to reinforce your decision-making in areas like sales, marketing, advertising, and outreach. And if you’re experiencing HR planning and management issues, an HR app can do the job.

Turbocharge Your Digital Presence with Android App Development

NS804 empowers individuals and enterprises to do more with the power of a mobile app. With a robust, efficient, and feature-rich application, you can reach more customers, communicate with a broader audience, and build lasting brand partnerships and customer relationships.

Most importantly, we allow NS804 customers to experience our MVP product, allowing them to know what solutions they are getting by investing in our digital solutions.

Contact NS804 for superior Android app development solutions.

B2B App Features Your Mobile App Needs

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The high rate of internet connectivity combined with high rates of smartphone ownership have led to the adoption of mobile apps by businesses and consumers across different industries and sectors – retail, manufacturing, service, finance, and insurance.

B2B mobile apps have become indispensable in today’s fast-paced business environment for enterprises seeking to streamline business operations, improve performance and productivity. B2B apps cater to the evolving needs of enterprises, enabling efficient workflows, enhanced collaboration, and increased customer satisfaction.

However, the key to unlocking the full potential of a B2B app lies in its underlying features. A feature-rich application has immense capabilities to deliver value and streamline complicated processes or operations. From navigation, superior customer service, analytics, reporting, security, and seamless integrations, we look at different aspects that make a great B2B app.

 

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1. User Interface and Navigation

User interface and navigation are critical features that influence an app’s performance and adoption. A well-designed user experience and user interface are important in ensuring successful navigation by users.

A streamlined and visually appealing interface contributes to the intuitive design and enhanced user experience. For instance, research shows that 32% of your users will stop engaging with your website if it has a poor design. A well-designed website with clear layouts engages the readers, enhancing readability and retention.

Another component that contributes to the intuitive design and user experience is intuitive controls. Intuitive controls yield easy navigation, allowing site visitors to navigate the site seamlessly. According to documented statistics, 88% of site visitors will depart from a website after a poor customer experience.

2. Security and Authentication

Today, more than ever, organizations should be more secure in collecting, processing, presenting, and reporting data, especially consumer data. Poor security controls may compromise sensitive information leading to devastating financial, political, and reputational consequences.

Of special significance for any B2B app is protecting the security of sensitive information and personal data. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires organizations to protect consumer data against unauthorized access. Enterprises violating consumer privacy regulations may face jail terms, fines, concessions, and possible termination.

So, your mobile app must accommodate the emerging needs of consumers without compromising their information or privacy. Most importantly, your B2B app must consolidate consumer information and integrate the appropriate safeguards against cyberattacks.

Some ways to create secure and authentic apps include:

Creating secure mobile apps requires the technical knowledge of attack vectors and the emerging sophistication of cyber-attacks. Use the following best practices to develop authentic and highly secure B2B mobile applications:

  • Secure login methods. Leverage two-factor authentication (2FA) or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to add a layer of security to your devices, accounts, or networks. A 2FA or MFA requires additional verification to access a secured account or system. For instance, you may need to input your password and a code sent to your phone to access an email with a two-factor authentication.
  • Strong encryption. Strong encryption algorithms such as SSL and TLS protect against unauthorized access to stored or in-transit data. So, whether you’re sharing fiscal information with your stakeholders or storing your customer information in a CRM database, strong encryption will protect your sensitive information, whether transmitted over large networks or at rest.
  • Role-based access control. Role-based access control provides access privileges based on roles and responsibilities. For instance, if you’re the head of finance, you’ll access devices, systems, and networks with financial information and not any other network. Your roles will define your access privileges and permissions.

A secure app ensures trust and confidentiality, driving brand loyalty and customer retention.

3. Integration

A B2B app must seamlessly integrate with all the other applications used by a business. For instance, if you have enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, your mobile app must seamlessly integrate, exchange information, and communicate with the ERP suite.

The same case applies to your procurement automation software. Your mobile app must communicate with your procurement software to maximize efficiency and productivity. The ability to communicate and integrate seamlessly with other business apps ensures B2B mobile apps can optimize the existing infrastructure and workflows. Seamless integration with ERP, CRM, project management, and other industry-specific applications ensures maximum performance and productivity.

An important part of integration is integration with cloud services for easy accessibility and data backup. Cloud-based services, whether on-premise or outsourced, provide a safety net in case of hardware failures or storage issues, ensuring disaster recovery and business continuity during attack.

4. Communication and Collaboration

Perhaps one of the most overlooked features of a B2B mobile app is communication and collaboration. Mobile apps must ensure effective communication, information exchange, and collaboration.

Business owners use mobile apps to understand consumer purchase habits, client preferences, and customers’ shared values. On the other hand, customers use mobile apps to identify unique value proportions, pricing structure and evaluate competitive advantages. Customers use the app to assess and evaluate their purchase decisions.

The key components of collaboration and communication in mobile apps:

  • Document storage and sharing. The B2B app should ensure that users can securely download, store, and share files and other resources within the app’s ecosystem.
  • Version control. Version control tracks documents, allowing different team members to work on a single document while tracking changes. It allows different users to collaborate on a single document while maintaining a clear audit trail.
  • Task management. Workflow automation helps with task management because tasks can be scheduled to occur in given scenarios. The automation of repetitive tasks improves efficiency and reduces manual efforts. The B2B app should be able to automate task assignments, approval workflows, and notifications, thus minimizing delays and ensuring seamless progress.

A B2B app becomes a central hub for efficient communication and profitable collaboration by providing robust communication and collaboration features.

5. Analytics and Reporting

Analytics and reporting capabilities help businesses obtain invaluable insights and information like customer feedback, track performance, and make data-driven decisions. Analytics provide the business with a clear picture of the market and industry.

Analytics and reporting capabilities provide customer purchase trends, changing perception, product positioning, and brand positioning, allowing organizations to make actionable decisions. Analytics save organizations resources by allowing them to predict problems and their solutions.

The main components of analytics and reporting include:

  • Data visualization. The B2B app must have data visualization boards to present information in a visually-appealing manner. The B2B app must provide data visualization components such as graphs and charts that present complex information simply and clearly.
  • Customizable dashboards. The B2B mobile app must provide customizable dashboards for real-time insights. Customization helps users to personalize their data views and helps them to monitor important metrics in real time.
  • Generation of reports. The B2B app must be able to generate reports of key performance and industry metrics. The app must crunch the data and provide detailed reports that highlight the key trends for decision-making.
  • Data exports. The B2B must allow users to export data in Excel, Word, CSV, and other formats to do an in-depth analysis with other tools or share with other stakeholders. Data exports enhance the accessibility and sharing of data, improving its usability and application.

B2B apps must analyze trends and communicate emerging trajectories with accuracy. This way, organizations can adjust their systems, resources, and networks to respond to evolving market and industry changes.

6. Predictive Maintenance

Beyond data visualization lies data mining for advanced analysis. Your B2B app can have advanced analytic techniques to read and analyze AI, ML, and natural language processing (NLP) with ease. The app can be designed with predictive analytics capabilities to identify trends and propose the best actions. In addition, data analytics can provide intelligent recommendations based on historical data and user behavior.

7. Customer Support

The evolving nature of customer service demands organizations to be more proactive in resolving issues. Today, B2B mobile apps bridge the gap between efficient communication and poor feedback, allowing organizations to be more agile in their outreach and customer communications.

Any successful B2B mobile app must provide efficient communication and gather feedback. By integrating robust customer support features, B2B mobile apps can detect issues, address issues, and ensure continuous improvement.

These are the main components of superior customer service in B2B apps.

  • Ticket creation and tracking. Every B2B app must create, initiate, schedule, and track tickets seamlessly. The app must offer a helpdesk or ticketing system that allows users to create support tickets for any issues they face.
  • Customer feedback collection. Customer feedback collection and analysis is indispensable in any superior customer service. Organizations that provide excellent customer service understand their customers’ sentiments better. The B2B app must offer a mechanism for users to report issues and express disgruntlement.
  • Ratings and reviews. In addition, allowing users to rate and review app features allows B2B apps to understand their performance. Ratings help with continuous improvement because organizations prioritize improvements based on customer feedback.

Customer support is an indispensable part of customer attraction and retention; apps with superior customer support features enjoy better visibility and usability than those without.

8. Offline Data Security and Backup

Offline data security and backup are emerging trends in mobile app development. Today, apps with cloud-based accessibility are in more demand as organizations and employers seek to encourage more remote workforces. The emergence of cloud computing as a model for remote data storage, transmission, and processing, allows mobile apps to secure user data, regardless of location or size.

It’s important to note that specific components facilitate offline data security and backup.

  • Encryption of offline data. Offline data security involves encrypting offline data to ensure it cannot be read or accessed by unauthorized third parties.
  • Data back-up. Data backup ensures business continuity by providing critical operational data during a breach or incident attack. B2B apps use automated data back-up to ensure seamless collection of information.
  • Secure cloud storage. The B2B app provides secure cloud storage for offline data backups, protecting offline data against unauthorized access.

Data security is a critical component of any business, ensuring that organizations adhere to the principles of data integrity, confidentiality, privacy, and accountability.

 

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9. Scalability and Performance Optimization

Scalability is an important factor for any B2B mobile app. The ability to scale up and down depending on changes in operational demands is a critical component of B2B applications. Your mobile app must handle excessive traffic. It must be able to process a growing list of requests and provide efficient feedback and resolution.

To do this, it must be designed with scalability in mind. Expert developers use cloud offline storage capabilities to improve the scalability of their applications in case of excessive traffic or loads.

Here’s what you need to create a scalable mobile app architecture.

  • Your app must handle increasing user loads and data volumes.
  • Scalable architecture that supports a high user reoccurrence.
  • Efficient database optimization for faster response time.
  • Caching mechanism to reduce server load.

Scalable B2B apps can accommodate changes in user requests, ensuring efficient load and data processing and faster response times.

10. Multi-language and Localization

Multi-language and localization support refers to your app’s ability to provide more than one language for your users. For instance, if you’re in the United States, you may be tempted to create an app for English speakers. However, when venturing into foreign markets, you may be forced to include multi-language capabilities and location support in your app.

Multi-language and location support provide numerous benefits. First, it’s easy to switch between different languages in the app. The location of labels and texts suits audiences in different regions. Localization must take care of dates, time zones, and regional differences. Localization ensures that you communicate with clients regardless of their geographical differences.

NS804 – Building Robust and Scalable Mobile Apps

Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, a B2B mobile app empowers you to do more with less. Your mobile app can be optimized to communicate with customers, collect analytics, and report sensitive activities. In addition, the B2B app can be optimized to provide automated reporting of issues through predictive maintenance.

And if you have offices inside or across the country, you can always rely on your app to provide accurate and timely reporting, whether dealing with employee performance or experiencing order delays. Your B2B app must incorporate powerful features that allow you to solve emerging problems. For instance, your app must completely secure user information and sensitive data.

Partnering with a B2B mobile app specialist enables you to optimize their market knowledge of different products and industry expertise of the best practices. NS804 works with experts and professional programmers with a vast understanding of new trends. And with our minimum viable product MVP option, you can seek a replica version before you develop the end product.

Contact NS804 if you’re searching for a B2B mobile app specialist.

7 Reasons To Find A Mobile App Developer In Charlotte

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As a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, or the surrounding regions, you may have attempted to find a mobile app developer in the area. And you may have become overwhelmed by the sheer number of developers available to tackle your project. Now, having options is always good, and we’d always recommend you explore these options.

But you may have also wondered if any of these mobile developers in Charlotte are any good. We don’t doubt that there are many competent developers in Charlotte, given the enormous talent pool of the city. With a population of almost 900,000 inhabitants, a bustling commercial hub, and home to banking giants, it’s a city that means business. That means developers must bring their ‘A’ game to stay relevant.

While all this seems great, it doesn’t mean every developer in Charlotte can help you achieve your app development goals. A freelancer or even a startup may not have the experience, funding, or staff to tackle your app project, especially if it’s ambitious. Freelancers, in particular, may not be available or willing to roll out bug fixes and updates after shipping your app. You don’t want to deal with such a scenario if you expect your app to have a long lifecycle. 

Thus, we recommend that you focus on established and reputable mobile app development studios in Charlotte. Whether you’re an appreneur, business owner, or executive, you want to work with a developer that will help you achieve your goals while meeting your high standards. And given the complexity and demands of modern app development, there’s no room for half-measures. Below, we’ve compiled a handy list pinpointing the reasons to find a mobile app developer in Charlotte.

 

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1. Find A Mobile App Developer With A Proven Track Record

What is one of the easiest ways to determine whether an app developer can deliver quality apps on time? Start by looking at the developer’s portfolio of completed apps. You should find these on the developer’s website, and the list of completed apps should be reasonably long since this shows the developer ships apps at a regular cadence. Be wary of developers that don’t have a portfolio or only showcase a few apps. These developers probably haven’t released enough apps to garner enough experience to tackle more complex projects.

As a leading app development studio in Charlotte, NS804 has tremendous pride in the apps we’ve released since 2012. We build 10-15 apps for our clients annually, targeting several categories and demographics. We’ve released apps for branding, business, communication, dating, entertainment, productivity, and web design, making our output well-rounded. Our portfolio speaks for itself since it consists of a compelling list of apps, such as follows:

  • Bat Flaps
  • Béné
  • Brew Trader
  • C5G
  • EntreConnect
  • Horse Logics
  • Impower
  • KnowUs
  • Live Bet Boss
  • Paxis Pro
  • PreVue
  • Simpatico
  • Social Auto Transport
  • Text Surge
  • Trivia Monsters
  • Virginia Beer
  • Watermelon Festival
  • Wine Swap
  • Yards for Yeardley
  • Zoomerang

2. Partner With An Award-Winning Developer

Most established studios can push out many apps in a short space of time, so it’s not always a reassuring sign. After all, it’s common for some studios to focus exclusively on reskinning mobile apps and games. In most cases, their primary focus is to make a quick buck without caring about the quality or originality of their apps. If you want to develop an app for your business, these are the worst kinds of studios to partner with. 

Instead, you want to work with a studio that’s meticulous and passionate about the app development process. The kind of studio that takes app development seriously yet continuously raises the quality bar. At NS804, we think of ourselves as such a studio, and we’ve received the acclaim and awards to prove it! 

We’ve appeared regularly in media outlets like DC Inno, Fox 5, NBC 4, Sun Herald, Technical.ly, and Washington Business Journal. And we’ve regularly been featured and awarded by Clutch in the following categories:

  • Top App Developers – Washington D.C. 2018
  • Top Mobile App – Developers 2019
  • Top Mobile App – Developers 2020
  • Top Developers – 2021
  • Top B2B Companies – Global 2022
  • Top 1000 Companies – Global 2022
  • Top App Development Company – Richmond 2023
  • Top Software Developers – Virginia 2023
  • Top AR/VR Development Company – Richmond 2023
  • Top AR/VR Development Company – United States 2023

Receiving accolades feels good, and it reassures our existing and future clients that they’re dealing with a development partner focused on quality. Moving forward, we plan on winning many more awards, but above all, meeting and surpassing client expectations.

3. Prioritize Native Mobile App Development 

It’s always better to find a mobile app developer in Charlotte that specializes in native development. But what is native app development, and why should you care? Think of native apps as those created using a manufacturer’s recommended programming languages, development tools, and methodologies. In the mobile space, Apple and Google set the guidelines and provide the tooling for iOS and Android development, respectively. 

Apple provides the Xcode integrated development environment (IDE) and the Swift programming language for creating apps for iOS devices. Similarly, Google provides the Android Studio IDE and the Kotlin programming language for creating apps for Android devices. A native app developer will use these tools and languages instead of third-party tools that facilitate cross-platform development. 

While cross-platform tools make it easier, cheaper, and quicker to develop for Android and iOS, there are several disadvantages that we need to discuss. One of the main issues with cross-platform development is that it always introduces a performance cost. In most cases, natively developed apps load faster, perform better, and drain the battery far less than cross-platform apps. 

Another issue that will impact the quality of an app is its user interface (UI). Many cross-platform tools offer non-standard UI components that don’t always comply with Apple’s and Google’s standards. While several cross-platform tools have improved their UI in recent years, they’re still not as good or consistent as native UI tools.

Ideally, you want your app to look and feel identical on both Android and iOS. And that’s only possible if you partner with a developer specializing in native app development. It may cost more and take a bit longer to ship, but your users will appreciate the slicker and smoother experience your native app will provide.

 

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4. Find A Mobile App Developer In Charlotte That Pushes The Envelope

The mobile app market has matured, meaning it’s harder to attract, engage, and retain users. As an appreneur or business leader, you’ll want to bring your best ideas forward to make an impact. If you’re a trailblazer or often come up with unique ideas, you’re in a better position to succeed in an environment with hard-to-please users. 

But coming up with ideas is only one small aspect of the app development process. You’ll want to find a mobile app developer in Charlotte to present your ideas and receive feedback on whether or not it’s realistic to turn these into an app. And if your ideas seem unconventional or difficult to conceive, an experienced developer will help to ground these. The developer’s experience with multiple app releases will inform further brainstorming and ideation processes based on what works and doesn’t.

While we can’t speak about other developers, NS804 has often embraced ideas that drive mobile apps forward. We’ve worked closely and built fruitful relationships with clients that have come up with ideas that truly help users. Our close collaboration with 3ADVANCE, LLC and Red Canopy Holdings, LLC helped birth the Béné app. 

Béné is a digital tipping application for the hospitality industry that allows guests to tip hotel staff. Guests scan QR codes printed on cards inside their rooms and other hotel areas to send cashless tips without needing to download any apps. The simplicity and reliability of this system have made Béné a winner and a testament to how good ideas help shape industries.

5. Work With A Developer That Builds Next-Generation Apps

We’ve already mentioned that users have become harder to please nowadays. It’s no longer easy or even possible to draw these users with apps that they’ve experienced a hundred times before. Moreover, a growing number of users, especially younger users, expect more from apps. Old and outdated-looking apps just won’t do, and it’s up to you to look at new ways to engage these users. 

Fortunately, mobile app technology keeps moving forward, which presents savvy appreneurs and developers with plenty of opportunities to create the types of apps that weren’t possible in the past. We’ve reached a point where there’s greater demand for more immersive apps that utilize video or contain an augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) component. 

Recently, NS804 worked on the innovative next-generation PreVue dating app that smartly uses video. Our client wanted to make the online dating process more honest and authentic, and that was only possible with video. PreVue users must upload a short video of themselves showing their body language, personality, and overall vibe. It’s now easier to build trust with potential matches since users can no longer hide behind fake bios like in other popular dating apps.

The short-form video format popularized by Snapchat and TikTok served as inspiration. We were willing to put in the extra time and effort to create a next-generation app that would resonate with today’s users. PreVue is gradually growing in popularity and delighting users disillusioned with how apps have approached the online dating experience thus far. This has shown us that implementing the latest technologies is essential for app success moving forward.

6. Collaborate With A Developer For App Store Submissions

If you haven’t released an app on the app stores to date, you may not understand how these work. You may even believe that it’s a relatively simple process to release apps on the App Store and Google Play. And while there’s some truth to this, it’s probably more involved and challenging than you’d expect. That’s because Apple and Google have strict guidelines that developers and publishers must follow when submitting apps. 

While there’s nothing wrong with learning and tackling the entire submission process yourself — it will take time and may cause much frustration — especially if your app fails approval one or more times. If you’re running a business, there’s probably a significant opportunity cost involved in spending your valuable time trying to go through the submission process. It’s wiser to partner with a studio, such as NS804, to handle this for you instead. 

NS804 will ensure that your app meets all the criteria set by Apple and Google. We’ll look at your app content, quality, uniqueness, hardware compatibility, performance, security, stability, and styling, to ensure it passes submission. While Apple has the reputation of having stricter guidelines, it’s not uncommon to face significant challenges when submitting an Android build on Google Play. That’s because Android apps need to run on a wide range of hardware specs from multiple manufacturers.

7. Find A Mobile App Developer That Will Help You Scale

Perhaps your app’s meant to serve a crucial part of your business strategy. Or you’re planning on building an innovative music streaming service that will grow and grow. Therefore, your app’s never truly finished and will receive new features and updates regularly. But rolling these out requires that you team up with a reliable partner.

Ideally, you want to work with a studio that stays committed to your current goals but will also closely follow future roadmaps of your app. At NS804, we understand how important it’s to scale your app when reaching certain milestones and are willing to provide the necessary guidance to help you grow. We prefer to build a long-lasting relationship to ensure we always have a role to play during each phase of your app’s evolution. 

In Conclusion

If you’ve been trying to find a mobile app developer in Charlotte, you may have come across several studios. It’s likely that we’re one of these studios that have appeared during your searches or recommended by business associates. Whatever the case is, contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you create the phenomenal apps that will engage and delight your users. 

Fintech App Development: 9 Must-Have Features

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Fintech app development has become increasingly popular over the past decade. After all, many startups and development teams are working on innovative fintech apps, especially in the mobile space. It’s a rapidly growing global industry estimated at a whopping $110 billion in 2020 and will likely hit $700 billion by 2030.

But why the interest in fintech worldwide? There’s not a single reason for the meteoric rise of fintech, but several developments have helped to transform this industry. The proliferation of e-commerce entities with the mass adoption of smartphones has led to the widespread use of secure payment processors. These payment platforms and other solution providers have forged ahead with various cashless digital payments and mobile wallets. 

Furthermore, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, data analytics, and favorable government regulations have helped grease the wheels of the fintech industry. And the traditional banking sector isn’t sitting on the sidelines either, with many notable financial institutions investing heavily in mobile banking apps.

The banking sector must also replace and upgrade aging systems designed for an era when customers had to visit bank branches or automated teller machines (ATMs) to complete most financial transactions. Also, many banks are reducing their physical footprint and offering more financial services directly on their banking apps. These apps have become so compelling because they provide an A-to-Z approach for customers to manage their finances.

And that’s why fintech app development is so crucial. It empowers users when they have access to essential features. Now, let’s delve deeper into what must-have features today’s fintech apps should include!  

 

What Should You Know About Fintech App Development?

Fintech app development is a multi-disciplinary process that often requires expertise in several key areas: 

  • Mobile app development
  • Back-end development
  • Software engineering
  • User experience (UX) design
  • User interface (UI) design
  • Application and network security
  • Cloud computing
  • Financial software systems
  • Payment processing APIs
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Machine learning
  • Blockchain

Since fintech apps handle large amounts of financial transactions and sensitive user data, security must come first. Therefore, every competent fintech app development studio must have one or more security experts available on the team. These security experts must deal with all present and future vulnerabilities that may occur within the app, the network layer, the back-end server, and the payment processing APIs. 

As for the latter, it’s unlikely that the studio’s security experts can seal off all security holes in third-party APIs. But they should keep tabs on all known and new vulnerabilities and ensure they provide enough security features and defenses within the app to counter these. However, when dealing with open-source APIs with permissive licenses, they can rewrite parts of the compromised APIs or contribute additional code that will harden security.

What Is A Fintech Application?

As a broad description, a fintech app may include any application that simplifies and automates financial services. The majority of fintech apps are almost always the products of the fintech industry, which is in itself a broad term. In the fintech industry, it’s not uncommon for app developers, venture capitalists, and financial institutions to collaborate closely on products, such as banking apps, digital wallets, and money lending apps.

Several technologies that make up a fintech app may include AI, IoT, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and data analytics. In some countries, cryptocurrencies remain in a grey zone legally. Thus, fintech app development studios must comply with regulations in these countries and apply certain restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions. But most mainstream users will use fintech apps to manage their finances instead of trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.

Generally, fintech apps fit into the following four segments: Business-to-Business (B2B) within the banking industry, B2B bank clients, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) within the small business sector, and wholly consumer based. If you want to develop a fintech mobile app, you’ll need to focus on one of these segments before forging ahead. And that’s because trying to create an app that serves multiple business models seldom works when starting out.

Consider how PayPal began as a digital wallet for electronic payments back in 1999. And soon after this startup launched its initial public offering (IPO), it was rapidly snapped up by eBay — subsequently becoming the preferred payment option for users on the famous auction site. Over the past two decades, PayPal has grown by adapting to the needs of its users. Today, the company effectively runs a two-sided business model in handling financial transactions for merchants and consumers. 

 

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What Are The Most Popular Types Of Fintech Apps? 

One of the neat things about fintech app development is that appreneurs and developers can flex their creative muscles. That’s because there are already many types of fintech applications in the marketplace, and the list of categories will only grow in the foreseeable future. But if you’re new to fintech and wondering what type of app you should develop, then consider the following: 

  • Mobile banking app: You’re probably already using one or more banking apps right now. And you’re likely benefiting from the ease and convenience of handling many financial transactions through these. A side benefit of mobile banking apps is that they provide an indispensable service to formerly unbanked individuals, particularly in developing countries.
  • Investment app: People that don’t have access to large sums of money or a broker will use investment apps to generate some wealth. Several of the best investment apps provide tutorials and simulated stock markets to train new users.
  • Insurance app: Most people will experience at least one major mishap during their lifetimes. It may involve a car accident, a health issue, or lost luggage during travel. But even if insured, these are all stressful scenarios that cause people to hastily look for their insurance policies, wondering if they’re fully covered. Fortunately, today’s mobile insurance apps make it easy for customers to review their policies, make claims, and receive quotes.
  • Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending app: Financial institutions may not always provide loans at favorable interest rates or to individuals with a bad credit score. That’s where loan apps conveniently fill a gap in the market by bringing P2P lending to the masses. But to mitigate risk, these P2P platforms seldom loan out large amounts like the big financial institutions.  

Is Developing A Fintech Application Easy? 

No, fintech app development ranks as one of the more challenging categories in software engineering. Don’t be fooled by the plethora of fintech apps in the marketplace and the many freelance developers making bold claims about quick turnarounds on fintech projects. While the abundance of projects in this domain may make it seem easy, much can go awry by overlooking certain scenarios. 

The hard reality is that not all fintech products offer robust security or comply with mandatory financial regulations. Furthermore, freelancers don’t have the best reputation for tightening up app security or closely following the rules and guidelines set by regulatory bodies worldwide.

Since fintech apps deal with money, no developer should play fast and loose, especially with the law. Any security breaches that result in monetary losses may lead to jail time for the responsible parties, including the publisher or developer, for not following the necessary protocols. So, never place your trust in a freelance developer or a studio that doesn’t have a track record for quality apps and following best practices. Instead, partner with a multi-award-winning and reputable mobile app developer like NS804, which has already released over 100 applications.

Which Steps Must Every Fintech App Development Studio Follow?

We’ve already stressed how important it’s to closely follow best practices, government regulations, and security protocols. But what does that actually mean when developing a fintech application? Before adding innovative new features to your app, you should first ensure that your app adheres to several fundamentals. Be sure to include the following steps in your development process:

  • Legal requirements: Even during your early planning stage, you must know what shape your legal compliance framework will take. Moreover, you must comply with various privacy laws for different territories, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for the European Union (EU) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Consult a trusted legal advisor during every phase of your fintech app development process to ensure compliance with all regulations, regardless of how obscure or complex these may seem.
  • App security: Security will play a central role every step of the way during your fintech app development process. Toughen security with mandatory biometrics, one-time password (OTP), and two-factor authentication features. Ensure that your team rolls out updates immediately to patch up any security vulnerabilities that may occur.
  • API administration: Your fintech app must communicate with other apps and portals for smooth functionality. Thus, you’ll use APIs to connect these disparate applications. But you must ensure these APIs comply with the most stringent security protocols since this will impact your app’s risk factor.
  • User support functionality: Sooner or later, users will experience issues with your app. Create an intuitive user journey to smoothen the onboarding process. Include built-in training tutorials to help users learn how to use your app and an AI-powered chatbot to respond quickly to their questions.

Before Implementing The Latest Must-Have Features

Fintech apps have evolved considerably over the past decade. Even the most rudimentary applications come with impressive features meant to engage users. While that may seem like a smart move, it’s never a good idea to flood a fintech app with unnecessary features. Instead, it’s better to offer basic functionality that does actually meet users’ needs. You can always add additional features when you roll out updates and when you scale. 

Before commencing on expensive and risky projects, we always advise our clients to build a minimum viable product (MVP). An MVP is ideal for fintech app development because the focus is strictly on basic functionality. Moreover, it’s the perfect vehicle to test an app idea by bringing it to the market cheaply and quickly. 

If users resonate with the MVP, that’s a good sign that it has the potential to become successful as a full-fledged app. And by monitoring and analyzing user data and feedback, it becomes easier to pinpoint the additional features users want. Below, we’ll discuss in detail the various must-have features you should consider for your upcoming fintech project.

 

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1. Gamification

Until now, gamification was more of a nice-to-have feature instead of a must-have feature. But user expectations have changed due to the interactive experiences they’ve had with gaming. There’s hardly a user that doesn’t become incentivized by leveling up their character, achieving a high score on the leaderboard, or unlocking an additional skill on the skill tree. 

Gamification includes all these game-like activities and many more. And these have found their way into all kinds of apps, from productivity to fintech apps. But the real draw of gamification is that it helps to increase engagement by offering users a more fun and rewarding experience. For example, an investment app could award cool-looking badges when users meet specific investment milestones. 

2. Push notifications

Push notifications are not new and are standard in just about every category of mobile app. But it’s not only a matter of having push notifications but how you’ll use them to engage users. The core principles of fintech app development require that you provide users with security and keep them informed of any app changes at all times. 

Consider how users will want their banking apps to remind them of outgoing and incoming payments. And remind them about upcoming bills and alert them of any unusual logins or activity on their accounts. Push notifications are the quickest, easiest, and most reliable way to alert users. Emails and SMS messages sometimes go undelivered, and users may not always check these timeously or regularly. This may put them in a situation where they can’t respond to a potential security risk in time.

3. User Profiles

It’s crucial to let users customize your fintech app to make it more personal and accessible. Users love using apps that feel comfortable and will continue using those that seem designed specifically for them. 

You can do this with user profiles, which will contain each user’s individual preferences. Of course, you may also provide presets so that users can get up and running with a predefined UI, font style, and theme that they’ll find appealing. But customization doesn’t only need to affect the appearance of the app but also how it functions. Users may set their budget and spending preferences and save these in their user profiles. 

4. Blockchain

While not every fintech app benefits from a blockchain implementation, it’s worth considering if your app meets certain criteria. If your app must handle cryptocurrency transactions, you’ll inevitably use a blockchain. But it’s also necessary if your users demand a transparent and secure system to record all transactions without a central entity, such as a large financial institution.  

Where blockchain technology truly comes into its own is with any P2P network. So, if you’re creating a P2P lending application, your users will want to have the surety that there’s a record of all transactions on a distributed database. This way, lenders and borrowers will trust all transactions on your P2P lending app. And if there’s ever any discrepancy, the database will always reveal what happened with any funds after a transaction query.

5. Smart contracts

If you move ahead with a blockchain implementation, you should also consider smart contracts. The best way to think of smart contracts is that of smaller programs that run on the blockchain and automate tasks based on an agreement. And in their more advanced form, they may work with a central securities depository (CSD) to handle fungible assets like stocks, options, and bonds. Also, note that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) operate as smart contracts or under such a paradigm. 

Therefore, if you’re developing a platform to trade NFTs, smart contracts will become central to your fintech app development process. You’ll also need to integrate various digital wallets, crypto exchanges, and NFT marketplaces with your app.

6. Chatbots

We’ve already discussed why you should implement user support functionality in your fintech app. And we even mentioned the need for an AI-powered chatbot that will respond to user queries. Obviously, these kinds of chatbots are not new and are not only meant for fintech apps. But they’re essential to fulfill customer support roles, especially if you don’t have the budget and staff to provide support 24/7. 

Users will want to know how to set up and manage their accounts, get answers to technical issues, and learn more about new and specific features. And while they can find out this information by perusing your app’s docs or support forums, it’s better not to inconvenience them. Ideally, you want to keep users glued to your app and not look elsewhere, even your website, for information. 

An AI-powered chatbot can answer most user questions in seconds and in their native language. Users will feel more confident using your app, even its more advanced features, knowing that help is only a screen tap away.

7. Big Data Analytics

Financial applications live or die based on how well they handle large amounts of data. For example, the more data a banking app has about a customer’s spending habits, assets, and credit rating, the better it can assess risk for a requested loan. When an app feeds from the bank’s Big Data pipeline combined with analytics, it will know if the customer is trustworthy and may also detect potential fraud or malicious intent.  

Once everything is clear, the app can push through the loan request to the loan approval agent and notify the customer. And once the agent approves the loan, the customer will receive the fund in their account. This quick and frictionless way of applying for a loan without needing to call or visit a bank branch is only possible due to Big Data analytics. 

8. Machine Learning

It’s hard to think of fintech app development without becoming proficient at implementing machine learning. And that’s because there’s hardly a fintech application that doesn’t have a ML component in one form or another. Moreover, there are many ways that ML algorithms can aid various functions, even within a single fintech app. 

These algorithms can enhance an app’s fraud detection capabilities, predict market risks, and implement trading strategies. Bots powered by ML algorithms can also advise users on trades, upcoming investment trends, and market opportunities. However, it’s important to note that the quality and accuracy of the data these algorithms use will determine overall efficacy.

9. Multiple Digital Payment Options

No fintech app can function correctly without having at least one digital payment option. But users expect multiple digital payment options, so design your app for such a scenario. While it’s perfectly okay for your MVP or initial versions of your app to have one payment option, you’ll need to diversify payment options as your app matures. 

But what payment options should your fintech app have initially? Offer wire transfer, debit, and credit card payments from the get-go. Then, closely follow with PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Play, and Samsung Pay. 

However, some digital payment processors prohibit risky speculative trading and investment products from accessing their services. Ensure that your fintech app complies with the terms of service (ToS) of any payment processor you plan on integrating. You may also add cryptocurrency payment options if your app’s meant for the crypto market.

In Conclusion

Fintech app development has come a long way yet still offers many opportunities for forward-looking appreneurs, developers, and financial institutions. Users have become accustomed to handling all their finances on their mobile devices. They seldom visit a physical location or call an agent to do their banking, submit an insurance claim, or invest in stocks. Furthermore, fintech apps make most transactions easy, convenient, and quick. Contact NS804 today to learn how we’ll help you build your next fintech app for a growing and promising market! 

What is Rapid Application Deployment?

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Today’s digital landscape is ever-changing, and with innovation and speed being at the forefront of most digital developments, organizations are seeking innovative ways to boost their software development and deployment processes. The ever-changing digital landscape has seen software developers being more creative in accelerating their software and deployment processes. One area that has gained significant traction in propelling organizations to be steadfast in application development is rapid application deployment.

Essentially, rapid application deployment refers to a set of processes, practices, and techniques intended to increase the speed at which applications are designed, developed, tested, and deployed in marketplaces. Rapid application development harnesses proven techniques and sure-fire practices to propel the software development processes, from conception to completion.

This blog post explores the concept of rapid application deployment to provide business stakeholders, development teams, and potential clients with insights needed to adopt and master rapid application deployment. Adopting these practices and principles will help organizations upscale their application development while enjoying quality software solutions.

 

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Understanding Rapid Application Deployment

Rapid application development is a streamlined approach to software development. Rapid application development emphasizes speed and responsiveness. Development teams who leverage rapid application deployment will be more adaptable to disruptive technological trends. Likewise, they’re better suited to providing quality software solutions to their clients and end users. Therefore, by adopting the principles and practices of rapid application development, you stand to provide scalable, adaptable, and flexible software solutions while remaining within the boundaries of budget and timeline.

Key Features of Rapid Application Deployment

  • Speed. Rapid application deployment provides faster and more timely software solutions. This concept ensures that development teams reduce time-to-market timeframes, enabling businesses to respond faster to market opportunities.
  • Scalability. The rapid application deployment framework embraces an agile mindset. It fosters adaptability and flexibility. Agile principles such as customer collaboration and continuous improvement are central to rapid application deployment.
  • Iterative development. Rapid application deployment takes advantage of iteration. It divides tasks into smaller but more manageable increments. A large and complex configuration or programming task can be segmented into smaller workloads less prone to risk and more cost-efficient.
  • Continuous integration and deployments. Continuous integration and deployment cannot be disentangled from the entire concept of rapid application development. Continuous integration ensures the continuous integration of codes into a shared repository. Continuously integrating code changes to a shared repository prevents recurring mistakes or errors in codes and enhances the quality and adaptability of software development processes. On the other hand, continuous deployment refers to automating the deployment process so that software updates are deployed rapidly and more reliably.

Evolution and Significance of Rapid Application Development

Rapid application development has emerged as a response to key changes to the software development environment. Traditional processes and approaches like the waterfall model resulted in lengthy development processes and late launch dates. Rapid application deployment has emerged as a solution to overcome the demand for faster software deployment.

 

The Benefits of Rapid Application Deployment

Rapid application deployment holds several benefits in the software development environment.

1. Market responsiveness

Companies must constantly evolve and adapt to shifting consumer and market demand in today’s competitive market landscape. Customers need innovative solutions that are paired with cost-cutting measures. Markets demand more responsiveness, agility, and scalability. Rapid application deployment enables organizations to be more agile in their technology uptake. Companies leveraging this concept are more innovative and adaptive, providing less-to-market time for new software solutions.

2. Iterative improvement

Iterative improvement creates room for collecting feedback, validating, assumptions, and integrating suggestions into consequent parts of the project. In software development, feedback must be taken into consideration for quality and reliable outcomes. Interactive improvement leads to continuous learning and adaptability to evolving requirements. Development teams who adopt rapid application development can continuously integrate improvements into their processes. This eventually leads to quality and reliable software solutions.

3. Risk mitigation

The rapid application deployment approach takes into account the risk-mitigation factor. RAD approach continuously tests applications early enough to identify and mitigate unprecedented risks. Early and continuous testing ensures that errors are detected and mitigated early on in the development lifecycle. One technology used in risk mitigation is predictive maintenance. In predictive maintenance, detection bots are used to detect errors in every development cycle, providing insight into small technical issues before escalating to costly problems later on.

4. Enhanced collaboration

Rapid application deployment encourages cross-functional teams to deliberate on issues. Most importantly, this approach is anchored on frequent communication, ensuring that stakeholders can clearly define their project expectations. Frequent communication and cross-functional teams yield the integration required to develop applications that respond to existing problems. In addition, this collaboration leads to a shared understanding of project goals, facilitating knowledge-sharing in different stakeholder groups.

5. Customer-centricity

Rapid application deployment is feedback-driven, placing a central emphasis on customer satisfaction. Its iterative approach to design, development, and testing ensures that feedback is collected and shared. This iterative approach further prevents errors or mistakes from reaching the consequent stages of the project, leading to quality and reliable project outcomes. By integrating customer feedback, software development teams can build reliable software that responds to the needs of markets and customers.

Steps for Successful Rapid Application Deployment

1. Project planning and gathering requirements

A successful first-step approach for rapid application deployment is conducting project planning. The first step of conducting the project planning is defining your project goals.

  • Define your project goals. You must set out your project goals and objectives. Clearly defining your vision and goals helps you to align your development efforts with defined business goals. For instance, if you want to increase your client base by 30% in two years, your application deployment must guarantee this outcome.
  •  Identify your project requirements. You must meet with different stakeholders to identify any prevailing requirements. Prioritize all requirements based on their value and feasibility. Your plan must focus on core functionality and project outcomes in early iterations.

Successful project planning ensures that the consequent stages of the project proceed as planned.

2. Iterative development and release management

The rapid application deployment uses iterative development. This type of deployment delivers iterative deployment cycles. Each cycle leads to a deployable and manageable software increment. This process involves the following two steps.

  • Breaking down the development into smaller sprints. Typically, break down the project into smaller, manageable cycles that run between two to four weeks. Each iteration involves developing a testable and almost deployable software increment.
  • Prioritizing features and release plan. This step involves collaborating with stakeholders to comprehensively understand the project. Reiterate goals and project expectations. Reiteration ensures that the application or software developed meets the client’s needs.

Iterative development provides room for collaboration and information-sharing. This ensures that the project meets the needs of both the developers and the clients.

3. Test automation and continuous testing

Test automation ensures that any deployable increments are tested for quality outcomes. Each code that’s continuously integrated must be tested before deployment. Test automation is critical in rapid application deployment because it provides timely and accurate feedback on software quality.

Test automation involves the following two steps;

  • Identifying test cases. This step involves identifying test cases for automation. Test cases involve selecting areas that are critical for validating the security, performance, and functionality of an application. After identifying areas critical for a software’s performance and functionality, you can automate the test of these areas in a repeatable manner.
  • Deploy continuous testing. Now it’s time to implement continuous testing. Three types of tests must be deployed regularly to ensure that errors and mistakes in codes and executable or deployable increments are detected early in the software lifecycle development stages. These tests include automated tests, acceptance tests, and integration tests.

Test automation ensures reliable and accurate reporting of software quality, ensuring that teams proceed with information on the development lifecycle.

4. Continuous monitoring

Feedback loops and continuous monitoring are important in ensuring customer satisfaction, reliability, and performance of the application. Achieving continuous monitoring and feedback loops involves the following steps.

  • Application monitoring. Development teams use applications that track and evaluate key performance indicators. Monitoring tools are used to track KPIs such as response time, resource utilization, and error rates. Monitoring tools collect user feedback, identify improvement areas, and prioritize developments.
  •  Integrating feedback into development cycles. Collaboration with stakeholders helps to gather feedback. This feedback is injected into the development pipeline, ensuring that every iterative cycle captures the intended needs of customers and clients alike. In addition, this iterative feedback is shared in the development pipeline to ensure continuous improvement.

Providing continuous monitoring is a critical element of rapid application development. Continuously monitoring ensures that every deployable increment meets and exceeds the needs of the application development project.

Challenges of Rapid Application Deployment

Although rapid application deployment provides numerous benefits, there are various challenges that you must overcome to ensure successful implementation. Overcoming these glaring challenges is critical to meeting the needs of reliability, flexibility, and quality related to rapid application deployment.

1. Managing technical debt

Technical debt refers to the costs or losses incurred while taking suboptimal solutions in software development. Technical debt can impair future development. So, it’s crucial to take measures to mitigate technical debt. Some of the steps taken to manage technical debts include;

  • Regular refactoring. Regular refactoring is allocating sufficient time and resources to a code to improve its structure. This approach helps reduce technical debt, by ensuring that the code base is always clean and adaptable.
  • Prioritize technical debt reduction. Integrate efforts to reduce technical debt at every development lifecycle. Integrate efforts, systems, and processes that detect and mitigate costly risks. In addition, reconcile differences between new feature development and technical debt to ensure that you do not create more but less-likable features against the backdrop of rising debt.

Debt must be mitigated because it represents a risk to future application development.

2. Ensuring quality assurance

Ensuring quality assurance is important in application deployment because the design speed must not inhibit the quality of the end output. In rapid application deployment, experts believe that all steps, although proceeding at a significant pace, must take into account quality requisites. Deployable software increments churned at every iterative cycle must respond to quality requirements set out in that specific developmental cycle or stage. There is a wide range of strategies set to ensure quality assurance.

  • Automated testing. This step involves implementing a comprehensive suite of deployable tests. These tests may include end-to-end tests, integration tests, and unit tests. Automated testing ensures quick and reliable feedback, thus providing opportunities to improve the correctness and stability of an application.
  • Code reviews. Continuous code reviews detect, mitigate, and manage costly errors emanating from flawed code integrations and code deployments. By emphasizing code reviews, organizations can identify potential technical problems early in the development cycle. Peer reviews in code design and deployment ensure adherence to coding stands. Code reviews further help to catch bugs and promote knowledge sharing among peer groups.

Quality assurance is an instrumental challenge in rapid application deployment. Luckily, mitigation steps set to ensure the successful implementation of RAD provide immense solutions.

3. Security considerations

Rapid application deployment doesn’t overlook the vulnerability of attacks. Applications are one of the most targeted platforms, with hackers and attackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities. If financial software is infiltrated by unauthorized users; they will steal millions of credit card numbers. And using bots and iterative software, criminals can match credit card numbers with other user credentials like names, SSNs, and street addresses to gain access to protected information.

  •  Incorporating security practices. The first step taken to ensure maximum security is adherence to coding standards. Vulnerability testing is also incorporated early in the development stages to identify loopholes.
  • Secure deployment practices. The developer must follow established code standards, code configurations, and encryption of sensitive data. Following these secure protocols in code development and design enhances application security, increasing customer trust.

Development teams must provide secure applications prioritizing the customer’s safety, accountability, and security.

4. Continuous monitoring

Continuous monitoring and collecting feedback are critical for ensuring scalable and quality applications. Strategies deployed for effective monitoring and collecting of customer feedback include:

  • Application performance monitoring. The development teams deploy application performance monitoring tools and techniques to track an application’s real-time performance. Application tools report critical metrics on performance like response rate, overall responsiveness, functionality, application, and usability. Application
    performance monitoring helps monitor indicators such as error rates, response time, and resource use. These measures monitor and solve performance bottlenecks.
  • Engagement and user feedback. You must actively solicit user feedback using surveys, direct communication channels, and user testing. In your user engagement journey, prioritize user behavior, preferences, and pain points. Analyzing these trends is crucial in making important decisions about future improvements.

Continuous monitoring is critical for determining what works and what doesn’t. Evaluating feedback provides room for information-sharing, leading to informed decision-making across every stage of the development cycle.

 

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The Outcomes of Successfully Adopting Rapid Application Deployment

Although expensive and time-consuming in some quotas, rapid application deployment provides numerous benefits to enterprises and marketplaces.

  • Reduced time-to-market. Traditional development methods were time-consuming. Rapid application development provides a cohesive model with proven techniques to escalate an application’s development and deployment. Escalating the development process reduces the time-to-market, allowing customers and enterprises to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
  • Customer satisfaction. Customers are satisfied when the products and services meet their immediate needs. To meet your customers’ varied satisfaction levels, you must understand the perceived usefulness of your product. An application’s ‘perceived usefulness’ refers to the collective value of the product. Rapid application deployment provides quality assurance, developing products that meet and exceed expectations.
  • Efficiency and collaboration. Rapid application deployment leverages collaborations among stakeholders. Development teams, customers, and respondents all participate in different iterative stages. Each stage carries the collective feedback of every stakeholder. Iterative development helps deliver a holistic perspective and version of software to everyone.
  • Flexibility and adaptability. Rapid application development underscores the values of flexibility and adaptability. A large and immensely complex project disintegrates into smaller, more manageable deliverables. Each deliverable can be quantified, tested, and even deployed independently. Thus, the end outcome of rapid application deployment is a flexible and adaptable application that can respond, configure and detect changes based on changing user needs and demands.

Ensuring that you leverage the capabilities of rapid application deployment will ensure that you take advantage of emerging changes in the technology landscape.

NS804 – Scaling Heights With Rapid Application Deployment

NS804 works with a multidisciplinary team of professionals to deliver actionable software solutions. NS804 software solutions are scalable, adaptable, secure, and quality. The company has leveraged rapid application development mechanisms to accelerate application design, development, and deployment.

So, whether you’re a medium-sized e-commerce enterprise seeking rapid software solutions, or a large hospice seeking leverage in emerging e-health technologies, we are here to power your dream. We help all enterprises, small and large, simple or complex, reach the apex of transformative technology.

Reach out to NS804 for quality and reliable solutions in rapid application development.

11 Ways an HR App Improves the Employee Life-Cycle

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Mobile applications and cloud-based applications and services are gradually transforming today’s workplace, processes, and culture. Companies are starting to integrate employee applications into their work culture and processes. These apps improve communication, efficiency, and overall employee productivity.

HR apps are applications and technologies that help to automate and streamline the usual human resources processes. These applications range from mobile applications to cloud-based platforms. HR applications offer great flexibility and reliability in the employee lifecycle; from recruitment to employee performance and wellness management.

HR apps can support and streamline all the stages of the employee lifecycle. Here are some ways in which HR apps improve employee lifecycle:

1. Recruitment

Recruitment is the first stage of the employee lifecycle. And, definitely the most critical one. Every company’s success is heavily reliant on having the right employees. The only way to get employees that fit into the skills, talent, and culture of your company is to ensure you hire the right people. HR apps can help to attract and recruit the best.

First, HR apps make the recruitment process easier by attracting the desired talent. All you have to do is put out your HR app on public application stores such as App Store and Play Store. Job seekers interested in working for your company will most likely download the app.

The app can also help to post vacancies on different job boards and social media platforms such as LinkedIn. So, the app should have vacancies, employee experiences, benefits, and answers to frequently asked questions. This will attract people who fit with your company culture.

Another stage of the recruitment process is the pre-onboarding process. You can use the HR app to track and screen applicants. HR doesn’t have to go through every application which can be hectic. AI and machine learning technologies will help to automatically select the right matches for the advertised positions.

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2. Onboarding

HR apps can help to streamline the onboarding process by automating some functions and processes. These include; sending welcome emails, tracking the progress of applicants, and filing paperwork. You can also use portals on the app to orient recruits to the company, hierarchy, and work culture.

Paperwork can also be hectic for the recruits hence the HR app can make the process easier. This app can offer a stepwise system of filing the necessary paperwork. It can offer great flexibility as the recruits can file the paperwork online and at their own pace.

3. Training and Education

Learning is a lifelong process. There is always something new to learn to keep abreast with new information. So, it is crucial to incorporate training and educational materials relevant to your work on the HR app.

Having training resources on the HR app will give employees the flexibility of learning at their own pace. It will also save the company the time and financial resources involved in providing on-site training. The HR team can also monitor the learning and career development progress of the employees.

4. Bridging Communication Gaps

Proper and clear communication is a paramount element in the success of any business. Companies can use the HR app as an internal communication tool to share news. It might even prove to be a better communication channel than emails which often go unread.

Many companies adopted remote and hybrid workplaces post the COVID pandemic. With these models, effective communication can be challenging. Hence, you can use HR apps to share important reports, new projects, new strategies, and goals/milestones.

Employee apps can help to eliminate miscommunication and other communication challenges faced by companies. These apps encourage employee engagement hence open communication in the workplace.

HR apps can also be configured to enforce collaboration. Team meetings and social virtual events can be set up on the HR app.

5. Employee Recognition and Rewarding

Feeling recognized and valued is a great motivation for your employees. Well, working with Gen Zs and millennials will teach you the importance of appreciation and recognition. Even simply thanking your employees for their commitment and effort is a good start.

You can use the HR app to award employees for hitting set milestones and their work in general. Use some regard systems such as badges, an employee of the week, additional vacation days, and shopping vouchers.

Employee demotivation can be detrimental to any organization. So, it is important to recognize and reward your employees.

6. Processes Automation

Most HR tasks are repetitive and involve a lot of paperwork. Using an HR app to automate most of these processes can save time to do other things that require in-person intervention. HR apps can automate employee attendance and time when employees check in and out on their own.

Other processes include; payslips, payrolls and, booking and approving time off and vacation requests. Automation of these tasks and operations can save time and prevent many human errors.

7. Performance Management

HR apps can help in performance management by providing platforms and metrics for setting milestones. These apps can also help HR in automating employee appraisal and performance review. The same platform can also be used to give feedback on various projects.

8. Benefits Management

HR apps can help in managing employee benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans. The app will allow employees to enter their respective benefit program information without having to go to HR. This will reduce errors and save time.

Integrating the benefits information and program on the HR app can automate the notification process. To remind employees to update their details accordingly. It also allows HR to check compliance with the respective bodies.

9. Sharing Opportunities

The HR department can use the HR app to share any vacancies internally. Your employees have the opportunity for career growth instead of looking for new talent. Continuous training and education of your team ensure that you have qualified professionals who can take over the existing ones.

The HR app can also share other career and personal development programs with the employees. These opportunities range from special training programs, career growth programs, scholarships, and partnerships.

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10. Feedback Channel

Employee experience and satisfaction are critical in today’s business world. It directly affects retention and engagement in company activities. HR apps can be customized to have feedback surveys for employees.

The response from these surveys and pools will give great insight into what to improve and also employee satisfaction. It is also a way to encourage engagement and openness in the workplace. The employees can review the workplace and culture using the HR app.

11. Referral Programs

The HR app can be customized with tools that allow your employees to refer professionals to open positions in your organization. This will make the recruitment process easier because you don’t have to go headhunting.

In conclusion, HR apps can improve the employee lifecycle by providing tools and platforms for automation and streamlining of hr tasks and processes. HR apps facilitate easier and more effective recruitment, onboarding, time management, performance management, training, and education.

Get a Custom HR App

If your company is looking to improve the employee lifecycle and streamline HR processes, then a custom HR app is what you need. HR apps are an investment that every visionary company must have.

NS804 is a renowned mobile application development company with experienced developers. Reach out to NS804 for consultation and development of the best HR app for your business. NS804 will be your partner throughout the development to implementation of your HR app.

How Béné Developed By NS804 Has Simplified Digital Tipping

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We’re gradually moving towards a cashless society thanks to the help of several cashless tipping app solutions. Enter Béné, an app developed by NS804 that helps hotels compensate their staff as efficiently as possible. And there’s never been a better time for such a solution than now, with many traveling again after the grueling Covid-19 pandemic period.

As an acclaimed development studio with offices in Richmond, Denver, and Charlotte, NS804 worked closely with 3ADVANCE, LLC and Red Canopy Holdings, LLC — to bring Béné to fruition. The first version of this digital tipping app hit the App Store on June 30, 2020, and Google Play on July 1, 2020.

And almost three years later, Béné has received regular updates and has grown in popularity with many favorable reviews. It currently stands with a rating of 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, making it one of the most highly rated apps in the finance category. Also, Asian Hospitality, Bloomberg Radio, Lodging, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and several other publications featured Béné.

Having made headway in such a short time has us beaming with pride. But how did this cashless tipping app find its place in a crowded market? After all, the finance category has its fair share of digital tipping apps, even from big players. Read on as we’re about to reveal why Béné is one of the best solutions for the hospitality industry!

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But What Is Digital Tipping?

The core principle of digital tipping is the remuneration of staff, particularly hotel employees, via electronic payment platforms. Thus, customers may offer cashless tips with credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, and digital tipping apps. Since most customers seldom carry cash on them due to safety and practicality issues, these alternative payment options have become commonplace.

However, credit and debit cards are also gradually falling out of favor, with digital wallets leading the digital tipping revolution. Popular digital wallets include the likes of Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay, Venmo, Zelle, etc. And they all work remarkably well as digital payment solutions in the general sense. 

Thus, there’s a need for more niche solutions that address issues faced by specific industries. For example, the hospitality industry hires people from around the world and from different demographics. Not all staff own smartphones or have access to the same digital wallets as customers. And they would prefer to receive any tips directly to their bank accounts with as little hassle as possible. 

Moreover, many digital wallets aren’t available in all territories and may not allow customers to transfer funds directly to an employee’s bank account. More often than not, this is due to business and finance legislation in many territories. But a cashless tipping app such as Béné solves these issues by ensuring that tips go straight into an employee’s bank account or payslip.

Why Is Béné The Ideal Cashless Tipping App For Hotel Owners And Customers?

To date, Béné works with over 79 brands, serves over 300 properties, tips over 1,800 employees, and supports five languages. And given the satisfactory experience it offers hotel owners, guests, and staff, it’s bound to expand its reach in years to come. Thus far, Béné has carved its path by simplifying digital tipping as follows:

  • Hotel owners set cards with Béné QR codes in guest rooms or any other area where staff members work. 
  • Customers can scan the QR codes to send digital tips without downloading any apps. 
  • Digital tips will reach the hotel’s bank account (for the payroll) or the employee’s bank account within seconds.  
  • Hotel management will receive reports regarding all digital tips. 
  • Hotels don’t need to pay any transaction, monthly, or licensing fees.

Understanding The Company Registration Process

If you’re a hotel owner, download the Béné app (search ‘Bene tipping’) from the App Store or Google Play. Once installed, click “Sign Up,” select “Company,” and submit company information. Then, choose whether to distribute the tips through the company payroll or directly to employee bank accounts. 

If tip distribution goes through the company payroll, you must connect your Stripe account to the app for secure payments. It’s necessary to provide a mobile number and email for the verification code. And, also provide personal details, such as name, email, date of birth, address, administrator social security number, or tax ID (required by the US Government). 

Required business details include your company’s industry, website or product description, bank routing number, and account number. Finally, it’s necessary to provide primary contact details and accept the “Terms and Conditions” to complete the registration process.

Understanding The Staff Registration Process

Ask all your hotel staff that’s most likely to receive tips to download and install the Béné app. They must click “Sign Up,” choose “Service Provider,” and then add their photo to the profile. A staff member’s photo will appear on the customer’s device once they scan the Béné card with the QR code. Staff must ensure that they look friendly and professional in their photos to make a good impression.

Furthermore, staff will need to provide their full names, emails, physical addresses, mobile numbers, passwords, and company IDs to proceed with registration. To locate the company ID, access the main menu of the company profile. Then, choose the team member position and accept the “Terms and Conditions” to create the account.

Each staff member must check their emails for the Béné verification. If it seems that they haven’t received it yet, they should check their spam filter just to make sure. After the verification process, staff members will have to designate a bank account or a prepaid card to receive tips.

Ordering Cards Featuring The Béné QR Codes

After the staff registration process, it’s time to order the Béné cards that guests will scan. All that’s required is to confirm all available team members and click “Initiate Order” in the “Order Cards” screen. Then, select the card size and quantity, and confirm by submitting the order. Once done, the Béné team will ship the cards to your premises.

Do keep in mind that this order will exclude card stands since most hotels use different kinds of stands. You’ll have to use your existing stands if available or purchase these from another vendor. Furthermore, you’ll have access to a secure portal to view detailed live tip reports for payroll distribution purposes.

How Safe Is The Béné Digital Tipping App?

Having to submit sensitive company and staff data may cause concern. We understand that, as a hotel owner, you require peace of mind regarding your data safety. That’s why we’ve addressed this matter by putting data safety at the forefront. We’ve ensured that the Béné app doesn’t collect user data or share data with third parties. Moreover, all data is encrypted when transmitted over secure networks.

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In Conclusion

Hardly any industry benefits more from a cashless tipping app than the hospitality space. However, Béné successfully streamlines and secures digital tipping, especially for hotel brands of all kinds. And since it allows guests to tip so easily, hotel staff will receive more tips for their efforts and feel more appreciated. Thus, hotel owners will retain their most valuable staff members that maintain high service standards. Contact NS804 to learn how we can help you create a digital tipping solution for your business or target audience. 

How Clients Benefit From Android Mobile App Developers In Denver

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The bustling capital of Colorado, Denver, has so much to offer out-of-town visitors and those looking for Android mobile app developers. Owing much to its phenomenal museums and historical landmarks, it’s a city that showcases its rich culture and heritage with panache. And it’s also home to some incredibly talented app development studios.

One of these studios is NS804, which also ranks as one of the most reviewed developers in Denver, according to the Manifest. Furthermore, we’re renowned for developing quality apps for our clients and have earned several accolades over the years. We’re Gold Verified on Clutch and have a comprehensive portfolio and many happy clients that back up the quality of our work.

But what makes us better than our peers, and what can you expect from NS804? We’re a full-service mobile app developer specializing in native Android and iOS development. That means we’ve amassed a team of specialists in all areas of app creation. 

We have designers, project managers, programmers, testers, writers, and even app store optimizers. So, our clients benefit immensely by having access to a ‘one-stop-shop’ instead of dealing with disparate entities, which only complicates the app development journey. But clients can enjoy further benefits, which we’ll explain in more detail below.

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A Team Of Android Mobile App Developers Utilizing Design

Design plays a fundamental role in the app development process. We start by designing a wireframe of the user interface (UI) and may even create a prototype. And we do this to show clients how their app will look, feel, and function. 

If they’re happy with the results, we’ll proceed with a minimum viable product (MVP) or a full-fledged product. But if they’re not, we’ll listen to their concerns, feedback, and suggestions before going back to the drawing board. And once we return with satisfying results, our clients will be eager to move forward. 

Since we’re one of the leading native Android mobile app developers in Denver, we’re inclined to use the latest best-in-class tools. And that means we’ll use Jetpack Compose to create beautiful and modern native UIs. These UIs will delight Android users and keep them engaged, especially those that have purchased the latest smartphones and tablets.

Android Mobile App Developers Demystify The Development Process 

Many clients are new to app development and have many questions. We’re always available to answer their questions and demystify the development process as best we can. After all, it’s not uncommon for clients to have questions about the following:

  • Notable similarities and differences between Android and iOS
  • Required tools for Android app development
  • Game engines and tools required for making Android mobile games
  • Ways to optimize an Android app or game
  • How to succeed on Google Play and other Android app stores
  • How to build a backend and implement analytics

Building Android Apps That Succeed

App projects are always risky, even on popular platforms such as Android. That’s why we always strive to keep clients informed about the progress of their projects and any issues or upcoming roadblocks that may hinder progression.   

And since we know the Android landscape so well, we’re aware of the various factors that could sink even the most promising projects. These may include a lack of a clear objective, an unintuitive UI, failure to iterate, poor marketing, or a disappointing user experience. However, we work closely with clients to ensure none of these materialize.

The Bottom Line

As one of the leading Android mobile app developers in Denver, we use our vast experience to create phenomenal apps according to spec. And since we know all of the ins and outs of the Android platform, we’re well-positioned to tackle the most demanding projects and to support these in the long term. Contact NS804 to learn how we’ll help you create the most engaging Android apps today! 

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