Tag Archive for: enterprise

Garnering and Implementing Feedback From Remote Teams

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Developing Stronger Remote Teams Through Feedback

Feedback is an important element in any cycle. Especially in the context of business. Whether that feedback be between an employee and manager, between two colleagues, or from a company to a consultant; feedback is both necessary and valuable. In the last year, remote teams and remote staff quickly became the norm. This was, partially, due to the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and an economy already moving toward a digital age. Regardless of how we got here, though, here we are. By embracing newly established normals and the transition to a more remote workforce; it remains important to foster a comfortable, welcoming, and productive company culture.

One tactic managers and business leaders can use to nurture a functional culture, even remotely, is employee feedback. Employee feedback from remote teams is will highlight issues and problem areas in operations that could be easily overlooked by other staff with less intimate knowledge of that specific task or business activity. By encouraging employee feedback from your remote staff, however, your team opens the channel of communication allowing management and remote teams to address persistent issues together.

Build Feedback Forms Into Your Custom Enterprise App for Remote Teams

With the entire economy embracing the digital era; many companies have invested in custom enterprise applications. These applications serve a variety of functions depending on the company and their specific needs, but many of them contain a strong focus on internal and external communication. However, these custom enterprise applications also offer a rich opportunity to further cement the lines of feedback between the company and its personnel. For instance, companies can build feedback forms directly into their enterprise applications. The forms can provide anonymity to users who submit, and can be a platform for feedback of any kind.

By presenting your staff and remote teams with conveniently provided feedback forms, there’s a much higher chance that those forms be utilized. This is also the case with anonymity. Often-times, employees and staff (humans in general really), are nervous or timid about bringing forward issues in the workplace. Whether those issues are strictly operational, or deal with colleagues and co-workers; regardless, remote teams need a clear and concise way to deliver feedback to their employers, managers, and organizational leaders.

Listen, Implement, Benefit

By taking the time to listen to your remote teams and remote staff; problems within operations, innovations, and other workplace conflicts will be more evident. While airing dirty laundry, so to speak, is never exactly fun; letting it fester is much worse. By hearing your remote staff and actually implementing solutions to the feedback provided, your organization will develop longer-lasting relationships with more loyal employees.

Right now, building a reliable and dedicated staff of remote employees and remote teams will bring long-term sustainability and long-term value to your organization. The era of remote work is far from over, by creating a superb remote company culture now; your team will attract higher-tier-talent down the line.

Wrapping Up

Feedback from managers to employees is vital. Feedback, also, from employees to managers and organizational leaders is vital. Show your remote teams and remote workers that you truly are dedicated to creating a culture around them by cultivating, hearing, and implementing solutions to feedback provided.

For more information on custom enterprise application development, or anything else related to app development, keep browsing NS804’s content library.

Top Reasons To Consider Enterprise App Development

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Reasons To Consider Developing a Custom Enterprise App

Organizations and businesses are constantly advancing and evolving. As are the industries in which they operate. That means in order to stay competitive and relevant, management and leadership also need to evolve. This often means embracing new technology. Although new technology is an important aspect of running an organization, it isn’t always easy or intuitive. However, the more practice we get, the easier it becomes. Therefore, having an in-house custom enterprise app that evolves and scales with your company will keep your firm modern and offer you an edge against the competition; no matter what that may look like.

There are many reasons to consider developing a custom enterprise app that will benefit your firm and help create a comprehensive strategy for your organization. Not to mention, each and every organization is slightly different. There’s truly no one-size-fits-all solution.

The Differences Between an Enterprise App and Other Apps

Before getting into the various functions and capabilities that a custom enterprise app brings to your firm, it’s integral to understand what exactly an enterprise application is. In the wide world of app development, there are three main categories of applications. Firstly, there are mobile apps. These are arguably the most well-known and popular, at least among users. Think of any game that you can play on your phone, and that’s a mobile application.

Next, however, are web apps. Web applications have technically been along quite a bit longer than mobile applications, as they were born along with the internet come the turn of the century. Yet, they’ve evolved right alongside the internet, and are still widely used today in a huge spectrum of ways. Finally, there are enterprise applications.

Mid to large-sized organizations commonly have a need for a custom enterprise application. This is because a custom enterprise application brings so much utility to an organization. Companies use enterprise applications to streamline operations, create efficiency within their organization, and better facilitate inter-company communications.

The Current Standard

While larger organizations were the main customers for enterprise applications, they’ve become more accessible as technology has advanced. This is creating a more diverse and colorful marketplace as smaller organizations are joining the game and finding ways to make use of custom enterprise applications themselves.

This rising trend doesn’t seem to be going away, especially as the world becomes more and more digital. In fact, it’s quite the opposite in that many companies have embraced enterprise applications as an industry standard. This results in more and more companies reaching out to developers and firms with custom enterprise application needs, ultimately elevating the floor of the entire marketplace.

A Brief Overview

A custom enterprise application can build an enormous amount of value into an organization. From creating robust communication channels that are reliable and efficient, to streamlining business operations entirely custom enterprise applications offer a wide variety of solutions.

For more information on the value of enterprise applications, or when is the right time to develop one for your organization, continue browsing NS804. NS804 is the proud application developer of the everyday appreneur.

What’s Involved In Maintaining A Mobile App?

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Input cost is always a primary consideration when embarking on the app development journey. That makes sense when a simple mobile app costs about $37,500 while a complex app is north of $500,000. Undoubtedly, designing and developing an app is a substantial investment that company leaders need to comprehend. But they also need to understand the importance of maintaining their applications after releasing them.

User expectations have risen considerably, and they seldom put up with buggy, obtrusive, and unengaging apps. That’s why it’s vital to listen to user feedback and roll out the necessary bug fixes and content updates. However, this is an ongoing process that increases the likelihood of — keeping users hooked — when done correctly. Below, we’ll take a deeper look at what’s involved in maintaining a mobile app.

1. App Development Is Ongoing

 

Pushing an application out the door is only part of the app development process. And the reason for this is that an app is never truly finished if it’s going to enjoy long-term success. There’s no shortage of applications in the App Store and Google Play, which means that users have an almost endless amount of options. Therefore, they’ll quickly delete lackluster apps to make space for those that seem more promising.

Many users have no qualms about removing applications that have intrusive in-app purchases, poor UX, security vulnerabilities, technical issues, unnecessary features, and when they lack content or violate user privacy. However, you can avoid or reduce the frequency of these issues by regularly rolling out updates for your apps.

2. Hidden Mobile App Costs

 

Developing applications comes with its fair share of hidden mobile app costs. Back-end hosting, gathering user feedback, keeping up with OS updates, maintaining a developer account, supporting new devices, and providing maintenance and support, all cost time and money. Since an app requires regular updates during its life cycle, the costs of maintaining and supporting it may exceed its initial development costs.

3. Listening To User Feedback And Requests

 

The apps that succeed are those made by developers that take user feedback seriously. That’s why you should always be listening to user feedback and responding to their requests timeously. Look out for reviews left by experts and regular users in the app stores, and always make sure to respond with the necessary bug fixes, updates, or replies.

Their feedback will also help shape your app since you’ll gradually implement features and improvements that users want. Furthermore, by understanding user behavior you won’t waste resources on unnecessary content and features.

4. Pushing New Content

 

It’s vital to keep users engaged so that they don’t lose interest in your app. A good way to achieve this is by pushing new content at regular intervals. And one of the most efficient ways to notify your users about these changes is with push notifications. But there’s a push notification cost that you’ll need to consider. While several analytics platforms and vendors offer a free tier to help you get started, eventually, you’ll need to invest in a paid service to increase your reach.

The Bottom Line

 

Maintaining a mobile app is an essential part of the app development process. And doing it right means that you’re ascertaining all the hidden mobile app costs and listening to user feedback. Furthermore, you’re taking advantage of push notifications and applying the right strategies to keep your push notification cost as low as possible. Contact us today to learn how NS804 can help you develop and maintain engaging mobile apps.

You’re Ready to Develop a Mobile App. Now What?

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As a forward-thinking business leader, you may have considered developing a mobile app. You could also be one of those visionaries that have a well-defined end goal in mind and planning on creating an app, which will allow you to achieve certain milestones and improve vital business processes.

However, you might not be up to speed with the latest trends in mobile app design or mobile app development in general. So what do you do now? Well, you’ve come to the right place, as we understand how intimidating it can be to forge ahead with app development. Below, we provide several handy tips that will put you on the right track.

1. Recap the basics of research, target market, and solutions

Before developing a mobile app, you’ll need to do your homework. You may already have brainstormed a couple of ideas, which you believe will result in a compelling app. But you won’t know for sure without doing market research and understanding your target audience. 

Prepare a Product Market Fit (PMF) checklist and utilize App Store Optimization (ASO) to research digital marketplaces. Find out what types of apps are succeeding and what kind of users are downloading these. Learn as much as possible about these users, such as their age, gender, education, income, location, and occupation. Furthermore, determine if these apps are effectively solving problems or if there’s room in the marketplace for an improved or more innovative solution.

2. Determine which type of app will work best for your goals

It’s important to figure out early what platforms your app should target. Perhaps you need to take advantage of the Metal API for its low-level 3D rendering capabilities. In that case, you should develop a native app that specifically utilizes Apple’s unique hardware and APIs for the best results.

Nowadays, mobile app development frameworks and tools make it easy to publish on multiple platforms, such as Android, iOS, and the web. With only a single codebase, it’s possible to target all platforms that your target audience use. While this hybrid solution is more cost-effective than developing native apps, there’s usually a performance penalty. 

Finally, you can develop a web application that runs on any platform connected to the internet. It’s also possible to make your web app conform to the latest trends in mobile app design, making it look and feel almost as good as a native or hybrid app. But do keep in mind that web apps are usually more limited in scope.

3. Determine monetization points & carve out project budgets

The cost of developing a mobile app varies wildly. We recommend you use a mobile application cost calculator while taking into account several factors. These should include the duration of development, back-end development, front-end development, marketing, number of target platforms, UI & UX design, and any additional app features. To ensure profitability, you’ll need to consider how you’ll monetize your app. Will you integrate In-App Purchases (IAP), mobile ads, or a combination of both? 

4. Marketing for pre-launch enthusiasm

The success of your app largely depends on your marketing efforts. Press relations (PR), media outreach, and a user acquisition strategy are all equally important. Ideally, you want to build a buzz before launch, which can be achieved through content marketing, leveraging BETA testing and focus groups, and holding an exciting launch party.

5. Security & Optimization efforts

Developing a mobile app is an involved process due to the best practices that every competent developer should follow. These practices include locking down the security of an app by encrypting its data, employing high-level authentication, inserting tamper detection, using authorized APIs, utilizing the principle of least privilege, and writing secure code. It’s also vital to test the app regularly and optimize it so that it performs adequately on various devices.  

6. Partners & Support

It’s always a good idea to find the right partners when embarking on mobile app development. Partners, such as NS804, can help develop, market, and support your app throughout its lifecycle. The right partner will help craft your Call to Action (CTA), which will drive the downloads you need while not straying from the latest trends in mobile app design.

In Conclusion

Mobile app development doesn’t have to be intimidating if you understand the process and partner with the right developer. With years of experience in delivering amazing results for our clients, NS804 can turn your app ideas into reality.

Key Features of Enterprise Productivity Apps

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The Key Features of Enterprise Apps Focused On Productivity

Competitive companies constantly search for new avenues through which to conduct business activities. Additionally, executives, business owners, and decision-makers are always looking for new ways to save time in their days and weeks. The age old adage that time is money is still very true today. One of the main ways to go about saving time is through implementing business tech. Countless corporations today rely on the assistance of enterprise productivity apps, and other sophisticated tech, to operate their organizations.

Before going much further, let’s look at what enterprise productivity apps are. Firstly, it’s crucial to recognize that there is a huge spectrum of enterprise productivity applications. On top of that, different organizations simply have different needs. Therefore, many enterprise productivity applications are unique to the organizations that build them.

Another reason the individuality of enterprise productivity apps is important to note is because it speaks to a truth across all industries and markets. The idea that every organization will face slightly unique struggles, roadblocks, and set-backs. As such, this leads to the development of unique solutions and company-specific workflows or operations.

Enterprise Productivity Apps

The marketplace for enterprise productivity applications is roaring right now. With the current state of the world as it is, and many organizations transitioning to a work-from-home environment, the application market has been booming. While organizations continue shifting into fully remote-operations, companies are facing issues that they never have before.

In fact, this trend extends well beyond the business-application-segment, and is indicative of the entire mobile and web application market. As the regional shut-downs rolled out domestically and globally, more and more people were spending the majority of their days inside, isolated with their families or by themselves, and suddenly separated from the rest of the world.

From supply-chains collapsing all around the world, to major companies shutting their doors, and skyrocketing unemployment rates, the world-economy is in a state of disarray unlike we’ve ever seen it. As such, the companies that managed to keep their doors open and have already successfully transitioned into a work-from-home model have, in most cases, made use of a enterprise productivity application.

Enterprise productivity applications fall into a wide variety of categories. One of the most popular types of enterprise productivity applications, however, is project management software such as Asana, Basecamp, or Monday.com. These applications help companies, and managers, gain a more comprehensive picture of any ongoing project within the organization. This includes information on the initial timeline, the actual timeline, missed deadlines, current tasks, upcoming meetings, and much more.

Additionally, these softwares allow managers to track and record their employee progress. This additional oversight that enterprise productivity applications brings to your organization enables your management team to lead more effectively and drive impactful business metrics.

Addressing Employee Needs

When assessing your company and its need for enterprise productivity applications there are a few questions to start with. One of the most influential determinants in creating your enterprise productivity solution are the daily struggles that challenge your staff. Understanding what obstacles your employees are facing on a daily basis provides invaluable insight. This insight helps lead the direction of the enterprise application solutions, and should inform decision makers within your organization.

The logic behind gaining insight into employee obstacles is rather simple. Without this understanding, managers and business leaders would essentially be completely guessing at what solutions will benefit the company. On top of conducting their due diligence in order to invest in creating comprehensive and successful solutions, the information garnered from employees will prevent managers from investing in poorly-thought-out solutions that don’t address employee needs.

In addition, a poor investment in the wrong type of enterprise productivity application can actually have the opposite impact that choosing wisely does. In other words, the wrong enterprise productivity application will add bulky and inefficient redundancy into your operations. Ultimately, this makes it more difficult for the employees to conduct their daily activities. On top of that, it also drives unnecessary costs upward, and dismantles cost-saving techniques. Avoid a poor investment in the wrong enterprise solution. Conduct employee interviews to get to the root of the obstacles your staff faces on a daily basis.

An enterprise productivity application should aim to ease the daily burden of every employee in the company.

Automation In Enterprise Applications

As was just mentioned, the purpose of an enterprise productivity application is to ease the collective burden of operations on the business. One of the core functionalities in many enterprise productivity applications is the ability to automate menial tasks. Delegating daily activities to the software that would normally fall to a member of the staff, frees up additional labor and time that can then be reallocated.

For example, there are many instances in which an employee will spend their first hour of work scheduling their day. They’ll make adjustments to their plan based on shifting priorities and any new information gathered. However, with a sophisticated enterprise solution, all of this information is instantly available to the user. Since the platform offers anyone with the proper credentials to make updates on the project, tasks, deadlines, or anything else, all of that data is streamlined directly to the user who needs it most. Not only is the data accessible by the employees that need it, but it’s also available when they need it.

This is just one of many examples of how enterprise productivity applications can facilitate a streamlined workflow through automation.

Integration

Arguably one of the most important aspects of the enterprise productivity application is it’s integration capability. Pairing your enterprise productivity application with your enterprise software solutions leads to a robust and comprehensive solution. However, in the instance that your software and your productivity applications are incompatible, then we run into the same issue as outlined above; higher costs, lower savings, and a lower rate of operational efficiency.

In successfully pairing an enterprise productivity application with your additional enterprise software, the entire organization is improved throughout the entirety of the vertical. In other words, everyone should see the benefit; from executive management to the c-suite employees, down to the frontline workers and even the manual laborers.

Communication

Communication is one of the keys to a successful relationship. No matter the context of that relationship. This is true when it comes to business partnerships, intimate relationships, friendships, and everything in between. As such, enterprise productivity applications emphasize streamlined and widely accessible communication channels. This ties back into automation, as some internal team communications can be automated by the enterprise solution.

Additionally, however, most enterprise productivity applications include some level of communication platform. Whether this is in the form of an instant messenger or an email-substitute; it keeps team members looped in, and offers a single platform for project work and team-communication.

A Final Word

In our new world, communication and team collaboration has become absolutely invaluable. With the majority of businesses and organizations transitioning into a work-from-home and remote-work environment, our ability to maintain open and clear channels of communication is more vital than ever before.

Keep your teams on track, measure project progress, and open up the lines of communication by investing in a enterprise productivity solution that meets the unique challenges of your business. Visit NS804 today for more information on where to start.