App development demands a business rethink

Application development skills are important for internal business operations due to the wide variety of niches that the resulting products can fill. If you have a team capable of producing reliable Web applications, many functions can become easier and better unified. Within the most advanced organizations, the business teams themselves may be able to create these apps, aided by intervention from IT. In any case, it is becoming clear that if you don't currently have plans in place for the creation and maintenance of business applications, launching a program as soon as possible is in your best interests, regardless of your company's industry.

State of the app
The recent far-reaching Accenture Technology Vision 2014 report contained ample references to applications and their place in the IT world. The researchers referred to the process of creating these tools as a "core competency," explaining that IT is now a crucial language for business professionals to comprehend. The proliferation of strong functional interfaces in everyday life has created the expectation of similar services in business, according to Accenture. If workers' experiences on their corporate computers and mobile devices are restrictive or weak compared to the ones they enjoy at home, they will wonder why and demand better performance.

Disparate departments within companies are coming together in this new world. The Accenture report noted that there is now more overlap than ever before between the teams responsible for the hands-on IT hardware and software and the sections responsible for generating value and getting ahead in the marketplace.

Emergence of the cloud
One trend closely tied to today's app development procedures is the emergence and maturation of cloud computing. As Business 2 Community recently reported, the movement toward this technology is now a foregone conclusion. Contributor Simon Withers suggested that applications sent to users through Software-as-a-Service models are useful for internal productivity as well as for extending connections with clients. He connected the value of SaaS to the desire to have "always-on" connectivity, another carryover from everyday living.

Being unable to develop strong applications may have been tolerable as recently as a few years ago. Even today, firms without this capability may not be seeing their standing in their industries slipping. But unless they acquire this power soon, the future may look very different. Connectivity is the key, and firms that cannot develop and distribute applications that connect them internally and externally may fall out of step with the rest of the evolving, modernizing business world.

Continue reading...