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Checklist:
Does your company really need an app



JANUARY, 2021
Hundreds of thousands of mobile apps are not in demand at all. Designing an app, a company has to make sure the amount of invested money pays off. Business analysis and user experience (UX) research have been the important direction of our work for nine years, and here we share a checklist to help you understand if your company needs an app or not.

Smartphones have become an essential part of everyday life. Supposedly, by the year of 2024, smartphones will make up three out of four used phones. According to Screen Resolution Stats Worldwide by Statcounter, desktop PCs popularity has decreased by 45,66%.

It's no surprise that mobile phones generate more than a half of web traffic, considering the fact that an average user spends more than 7 hours on the Internet. This causes the mobile app market growth. As reported by Statista, the figures are impressive: global income from mobile apps in the previous year amounted to $46 billion. By 2023, global revenue from paid apps and in-app advertising is projected to reach more than a staggering $935 billion.

Apps have already become very popular and profitable. Presumably, any business development strategy may include app development.

Yet, before designing an app, a company should give it proper consideration. As a matter of fact, some customers ask for apps overloaded with features, while the analysis of their business processes shows only the need for a website modification or a simple app with minimal number of functions.

When you come to the decision of making an app, the choice is all about investments. The app ought to bring income to your company, otherwise the use of funds would be insufficient. In this case, our specialists would recommend abandoning this idea.

A demand for an app depends on the business development strategy. Here's a list of questions that will help make a decision on app development.

To accurately estimate the need for an app development and invest effectively, answer the following questions:

1. Are you willing to design an app because of the fear to miss out on current trends?

The app market is overfilled. From 2013 on people realized a perspective to earn good money with apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp. These days everyone aspires to create something new, just like in the dot-com bubble era. In fact, some companies need only a pleasant mobile website design, not an app.

2. Will the app be more effective than the optimized website?

The answer depends on the company aim and its way of interaction with clients. An optimized mobile website can be as effective as an app. Besides, maintenance and development of a website requires less time and effort. To choose between an app and a website, answer these questions: Will the mobile app change UX? Will it significantly differ from an optimized website? If the answer is no, then the app is not worth investing.

3. Maybe creating an app for improving internal business processes will be a more effective investment?

There are two types of apps. The first ones help to interact with clients and directly benefit. The apps of the second type help to optimize internal processes and solve internal business problems. They make companies competitive and benefit them indirectly.

For example, an internal business platform can analyse the efficiency of lease payments and the efficiency in the provision of an office space. If an object doesn't profit the company, the app suggests to sell it. This analytical platform was developed by the Omega company for Sberbank.
4. Is there a need to interact with clients through an app?

Grocery shops or massage facilities work with clients directly. These and many other types of companies in most cases do not need mobile apps. For them an optimized website is enough. If your clients need to have access to personal files or other confidential information, for instance, to check an order status, a mobile app will be useful.

5. Who will use your app?

Creating any online platform, developers primarily consider the conditions of its use by clients. If end users are staff, and staff mobility is an important part of business processes, a mobile app is required. In case staff use desktop PCs and analyze complex information on large screens, mobile apps are not vital.

6. Can a mobile app improve the sales process?

In most cases mobile apps help to purchase and sell products, as well as to receive information. Since creating mobile apps became a trend, a company may want to boast of its own app, but its use is not requisite for all industries. Before designing an app, an expert should evaluate innovations and provide a business analysis. In Omega company this expert is a business analyst. When a company sells information or a product without any IT platform, a mobile app can make sales more efficient.

7. Is there a way to solve the issue without an app?

We always ask potential clients what kind of an issue they have and is there any other solution except for a mobile app. Digital platforms of any type and for any industry should have a clear purpose. Sometimes it turns out that a mobile app cannot duly solve the stated issue, but a client has another issue related to the stated one. In this case the idea of the mobile app gets changed.

8. Does your company already offer good UX?

Any company that already provides good UX doesn't need a mobile app. If you have a website with fine UX, app development would be excessive. Apps are useful only in case the company's website does not provide relevant UX.
9. How often do you communicate with clients?

The answer to the question about building an app depends on a business's scope, product, and customers' profile, as well. If a business model implies rare interaction with clients, there is no need for an app. If everyday interaction with clients is crucial for a company's growth, a User Journey should be fully worked out. Omega company's UX designers care about User Journey Mapping most of all. They create a few User Journey versions and prototypes for every project. Conducting app user testing helps to create user-friendly, useful and efficient apps.

10. Would a cheaper Progressive Web App (PWA) be more effective and profitable?

PWA is a technology that allows to build a website with the functionality of an actual mobile app. In fact, PWA transforms a website into a progressive web app. The final result of this transformation is a hybrid of a website and a mobile app.

However, progressive web apps are not perfect. They consume more battery power and cannot get access to all device features, including calendar, camera, contacts, and so on. The ability to cross-log in progressive web apps using Facebook, Instagram, etc. is also lost. The fact that a web app does not require installation from Google Play or App Store may count as an advantage; however, these platforms offer very useful libraries.

11. How to strike the right balance between the quality, price, and efficiency?

Only custom apps can provide maximum quality. The custom solution implies an app development in the programming language, appropriate for the platform: Java or Kotlin for Android, Objective-C or Swift for iOS.

Custom development is deeply focused on the operating system and has its own advantages and disadvantages.

On the one hand, the custom app provides access to all functions of the given operating system, allows unlimited interface configuration and prevents any performance problems. On the other hand, if you want to satisfy two types of users (for example, end users and services vendors), you should better design two different apps, that requires more time, finance, and effort.

In some cases, a cross-platform app can solve the balance issue. A cross-platform app is able to run on multiple platforms.

Cross-platform mobile development allows programmers to cover two operating systems — iOS and Android — by one code. It does not imply writing code in the native programming language, but provides native-like experience through a visualization interface using special controls.
A lot of companies already stick to cross-platform solutions and some are seriously considering doing so in the near future. Among them are not only IT solutions vendors, such as Facebook with its React Native, which runs Facebook and Instagram, but also other major market players that have products using, for example, Flutter — Alibaba, Philips Hue, Hamilton, Tencent, Grab, Groupon.

Time-to-market metrics, or TTM, is an important factor in the success of a business. Any leading company's aim is to be ahead of competitors and introduce new features faster than others on both platforms. Cross-platform frameworks allow companies to achieve it while spending less at each stage. Cross-platform development reduces the total cost of product development by 25-30%.

We hope our article has helped you estimate the need to invest in a mobile app. If you still have an urge to develop an app or another IT solution, we are always ready to discuss new projects in detail with you.
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