Mobile Applications and Business

Mobile applications (apps) have fundamentally transformed the landscape of business operations by serving as essential tools for communication, marketing, and internal efficiency. Designed for portable devices like smartphones and tablets, these apps facilitate real-time access to services and information, enabling businesses to connect with a global market that has rapidly embraced mobile technology. As smartphone ownership reached a global median of 59% in 2018, organizations realized the importance of leveraging mobile apps to engage customers directly and efficiently.

Mobile apps can deliver targeted promotions through push notifications, allowing businesses to respond quickly to consumer behavior. Beyond marketing, they enhance operational logistics by enabling employees to work remotely and collaborate effectively, making traditionally wasted time productive. Businesses can customize in-house applications to address specific operational needs, improving workflow and decision-making processes.

While the adoption of mobile apps offers numerous advantages, it also raises concerns regarding privacy and security, as these platforms often collect sensitive user data. Companies must prioritize robust security measures to protect customer information while navigating the challenges of integrating mobile technology into their operations. Overall, mobile applications are becoming indispensable in modern business, reshaping how companies interact with consumers and manage internal processes.

Published in: 2021

By: Dewey, Joseph

Subject Terms

Mobile Applications and Business

Abstract

Few computer devices introduced over the last generation represent the potential to impact how business operates more than mobile applications (apps)—software programs designed to be a part of portable computer systems, particularly smartphones and tablets. Internet access has substantially moved from personal computers to mobile computer devices. The introduction of innovative and original apps is termed in the field of business growth a "hard trend." The mobile app has become a significant mode of exchange of information and services in and among businesses worldwide.

Overview

In 2018, the Pew Research Center reported a global median of 59 percent regarding smartphone ownership (Poushter, Bishop, & Chwe, 2018). That is an unprecedented saturation of a worldwide market. It is a potential market reach that businesses cannot afford to ignore. Smartphone technology significantly altered the perception of phones as mere communication tools, and indeed, the introduction of smartphones and tablets represented a crucial close to an era in which hardware development was primary. Technology correspondent Daniel Burrus (2014) suggested that twin revolutions—one in which an individual's mobile device was becoming the primary personal computer and the other in the development of software to serve mobile users—were underway.

As the smartphone evolved, desktops appeared more and more cumbersome. The phone itself was repurposed into a portable computer system, able to offer a structured variety of messaging functions. Messaging apps were the initial appeal of smartphones. The user could send text messages, photos, and email, and could even register appointments on digital calendars. The number of applications were quickly expanded as many businesses recognized the potential for portable internet access. Advertising and marketing campaigns could be delivered by providing phone users with programs directly customized to the business itself. A business could suddenly use digital communication to deliver its message in real time and in response to user activity. Unlike radio spots, television commercials, or billboards, a person's portable computer system itself could be used as a reception platform to facilitate engagement (Entrepreneur, 2012).

Mobile apps use "push notification," an advertising concept that involves sending advertising messages unsolicited to users' devices, as opposed to "pull messaging," in which users first solicit information about goods or services through the company's app. For example, a restaurant in Atlanta having a slow Tuesday could, through its mobile app, send out a coupon offer for lunch to thousands of people within walking distance of its front door. That sort of immediacy and real-time application is simply impossible in traditional advertising, and smartphones were suddenly perceived as critical, even indispensable platforms for advertising. In addition to offering a system for promoting goods and services, mobile apps also provide critical feedback data for marketing operations as mobile apps can relay to a company information about what attracts customers, where they are lingering, where they are buying, and where they are not buying. That reciprocal information system helps guide not only service improvements but also potential new directions for the development of goods and services.

New products, new services, promotional events, employment openings, and any changes and/or expansions in company operations can be quickly and easily promoted through the mobile app system. Indeed, mobile apps are becoming a standard operating feature of start-up companies as a way to actually create a market niche. Product development and the development of a new service range are frequently synced with the development of promotional apps to secure the publicity necessary to guarantee a successful roll-out.

Although the advertising and marketing use of mobile apps is perhaps the system's most notable impact, that is not the only function of mobile apps in a business. There are two other operations in which a mobile application can assist a business apart from customer or client outreach. Mobile applications can extend significantly the reach and operations of a traditional brick and mortar business by making the workforce essentially mobile and agile. Workers are no longer contained by their cubicles and can make traditionally wasted time—time in commutes, time waiting in lines, time in airports, time in restaurants, and time before and after meetings—productive time. Documents can be shared; appointments and meetings can be set up; problems and potential crises can be relayed and managed; brainstorming sessions can be choreographed among multiple locations; expenses and budgetary forms can be easily filed and stored; health records can be archived and retrieved.

With an IT team to write code for original programs, a business can create a generation of mobile apps designed specifically for that company's internal operations. Termed logistics, these avenues of communication and work are crucial to efficient operations—and they can be monitored, directed, sustained, and developed through mobile apps provided on employees' phones. A company, whatever its goods or services, runs on information. The information exchange between and among workers and divisions within a network can be both directed and secured with these original or customized in-house mobile apps.

Applications

Business Apps. In addition to offering pipelines between project managers and workers, mobile apps provide critical platforms for information and questions between supervisors and project managers as well as among those delegated to specific functions within a network and in the field. These apps must maintain the integrity of their own architecture in relationship to the core systems of a network through "secure, stable integration" (Gruman, 2014). In addition, mobile apps make more efficient the processes of working with inventory, invoicing needed supplies and/or raw materials, and ensuring the appropriate distribution of those materials through a business's network of retailers and associate firms. Business operations can be tailored to the mobile app system, making virtually every phase of a network operation management and work flow cost-effective and efficient. Many businesses, such as the Boston Globe, have increasingly begun to see the value in soliciting ideas for mobile apps to make processes more efficient from the employees who engage in the daily tasks themselves, such as production and advertising; one app in development for the Globe in 2016 included one to aid advertisers in sorting inserts for Sunday editions (Weiss, 2016).

Although a business can rely on what are essentially over-the-counter generic apps developed by big-name software firms and made available for purchase, businesses have begun to see the wisdom in developing their own IT staff capable of creating not only internal software apps that address their individual network needs and organizational structure but also original apps to attract the market of younger tech savvy consumers who demand the convenience and efficiency of mobile apps. The revolution in mobile apps has opened a wide hiring gap between the number of available computer science engineers capable of designing the code for these mobile apps and the significant need for such skilled workers. In-house IT managers, whose job has long been system maintenance rather than development (Kosner, 2013), are frequently not up to the expertise of writing original code.

Promotional Apps. Mobile apps can also provide helpful, non-commercial information accessibly and conveniently—world and local news, traffic information, weather updates, and so on—but the introduction of mobile apps has most immediately registered in the marketplace. For example, a canned soup producer can promote its products in entirely new ways by introducing a customer-friendly app that offers hundreds of tested recipes using the company's canned soup products. Once the program is accessed, the company can provide discount incentives on the purchase of canned soup and even provide directions to distributors within shopping range—information directly marketed to a consumer who is likely looking for an idea for that night's dinner (Williams, 2013). Virtually any kind of department store, restaurant, or specialty shop can provide similar service through mobile apps—consumers can order dinner, buy shoes, order movie tickets, and download music or movies.

Information on a product, where it can be purchased, discount offers, and all basic consumer info needs to be designed to fit mobile screens to make the flow of information logical and user-friendly. So-called content strategy uses elements of psychology as well as cutting-edge communication theories on how the eye manages and ingests large amounts of information to create visually enticing small screens as a way to secure the consumer and then to make the linked steps within the app easy and friendly. By contrast, traditional websites, although they often provide the same information, do not fit easily in the smaller frame of mobile technology screens—and customers are more likely to use mobile information systems than have access to desktops.

Any cluster of business sites—malls, plazas, cineplexes, renovated business districts, theme parks, and even downtown areas—develops apps to provide customers with up to date information about services, operating hours, special discount offers, available products, and features of products and services. As ScienceDirect outlined in its review of mobile commerce in 2007, "Advanced and mature wireless and mobile technologies facilitate e-commerce conducted from a wired network to a wireless network." And this wealth of information is available for consumers in what was before essentially non-opportunistic time gaps: while customers are held up in traffic, waiting in a line, walking to their car, commuting, or dining. Mobile apps, from a business standpoint, thereby repurposed time itself—twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a business is now open and available for orders.

Positive Customer Experience. Because there is no exchange between customer and service representative that can negatively impact the customer's experience (the so-called bounce effect in which a customer comes into a store, then sizes up the prices and the available goods, but completes the transaction in a different store because of price or some other negative element of the experience), sales are most often concluded successfully. The transaction itself is far less likely to be abandoned. The consumer feels that time spent on the purchase is usefully spent, efficient, and direct. That sense of precision has given the mobile app the potential to make obsolete the brick-and-mortar business establishment with showrooms and window dressing and a team of highly driven sales staff. The customer engages the information without pressure to purchase, on their own schedule, and stays, therefore, in control of the purchase dynamic.

Although customers and clients can arrange for products and services, far more substantial business transactions can be conducted through mobile apps on phones and tablets—performing banking functions, soliciting legal services, working with insurance claims, filing government paperwork, tracking stock market activity, and even booking travel arrangements and accommodation reservations can be done through the convenience and the ease of mobile apps. Because they are app-centered and targeted by the software to link the customer and the business specifically for that single coded purchase or transaction, these exchanges are secure and protected and far less subject to hacking and identity fraud than traditional e-tailer online exchanges.

Viewpoints

Developers are given the responsibility of improving software accessibility and the formatting of the app as a way to attract potential customers who are inundated with offers to add apps to their phone. Programmers are asked to think like their customers, to create apps that cater to those seeking to save time, effort, and money. Many businesses devote a significant amount of resources to app innovation and make sure to foster creativity around this development with open support of ideas. Additionally, businesses must work with programmers to determine the best format for the app due to the wide range of mobile devices available that come in a variety of sizes and shapes (Mortleman, 2017). Initially, mobile apps were viewed as a convenience, even a luxury. Now they are considered non-optional and, in fact, a solution to many traditional problems within a network from clogged information arteries, inefficient work flow, and records management and outward from a network into its ever-developing client base. Computer programming analysts caution that networks can quickly create a surfeit of apps and that very accumulation of such programs can in the end overwhelm consumers and negate the information potential of apps—advertising, marketing gimmicks, sales information, and customer specials would inundate consumers and might potentially cause a backlash against such services.

Industry analysts see only a continuation of the steady proliferation of mobile apps and a growing reliance on their efficiency and ease of use. Paul Hamerman predicted in 2011 that by 2016 most of the existing limitations such as available bandwidth, size, and battery life would "evaporate." This may have been overly optimistic as devices continued to be bedevilled by battery life and bandwidth, but by 2015, the line between smartphones and tablets was certainly blurring and typical users had even less reason to boot up a full-featured desktop or laptop computer.

Security Issues. Mobile app technology is really too new to have generated a significant body of feedback data to measure its impact on network operations and customer outreach. The initial impact, however, has been significant. Mobile apps have created a virtually unstoppable process exchange not only within a network but also extending outward into the community of available consumers. The ability of apps to collect end user data, such as contacts and location, is useful for enabling the sharing of information with other mobile devices and delivering push notifications. Millennials, especially, have a high level of comfort with sharing personal information in exchange for powerful app features. This data, however, is extremely valuable and gives rise to troubling privacy issues. It is important for companies to provide strong privacy policies and robust security for their mobile customers.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provides guidelines to mitigate concerns. Because mobile devices often rely on public or unsecured WiFi, even well-designed apps can unintentionally compromise customer or employee data. The FTC urges developers to build into their organizational plan the deliberate delegation of ensuring security. This requires a comprehensive understanding of the various mobile platforms—including the security issues for each; having strong password protections and transit encryptions for usernames/passwords and never storing passwords in plain text; using https rather than the older, less secure http protocol; employing due diligence on third-party code, which can come with its own security vulnerabilities; and securing in-house and cloud servers against vulnerabilities. Collected data should be encrypted and unnecessary data dumped. The FTC also urges developers to monitor apps for vulnerabilities after release and update as necessary. Finally, developers are cautioned to stay current with the laws governing financial, health, and children's data. (Hale, 2013) Applications are required to seek permission before obtaining access to certain kinds of information stored on mobile devices. Nevertheless, there is a lucrative black market in end user data and ample opportunity for "leakage" (Jianhua, Kuk, Terrell & Su, 2014).

Hardware Issues. Accuracy and efficiency is greatly enhanced in companies that usefully exploit mobile apps. There is, however, a significant expense associated with integrating mobile apps into business operations. Software requires hardware, and mobile devices are both expensive and short-lived. If a company provides tablets and smartphones to employees for company use, these devices must be secured, updated, maintained, and eventually replaced. Policies must be developed and implemented regarding personal use and responsibility. The alternative is to allow employees to use their personal devices, a policy widely known as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Although this can be the most cost-effective approach, by far, for the company, extensive or required use of company apps may place an undue burden on employees to purchase compliant devices.

Terms & Concepts

Applications (Apps): A self-contained program specially customized to perform a specific set of purposes for a business or service

Bounce: In economics, the phenomena of a consumer gaining insight and information about a potential purchase in one location but concluding that purchase at another location, most often because of problems with service, price, or product offered, a phenomenon largely eliminated by mobile app shopping

Content strategy: The outlining by a computer software engineer/ programmer of a particular set of purposes and functions to be conducted by a mobile app, designed with user/consumer in mind

Logistics: The network-wide system of coordinated operations, including the flow of information, human resources data, plant facility information, work flow, management systems, and in-house and field operations; the sum total of how a network functions both internally and within the dynamics of other networks

Pull messaging: The exchange of solicited information between a mobile app user and the service/business supplying the information

Push notification: The exchange of unsolicited information between a mobile app user and the service/business supplying the information

Bibliography

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Gruman, G. (2014, March 14). Create mobile apps that are actually part of your business. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610309 /mobile-development/create-mobile-apps-that-are-actually-part-of-your-business.html.

Hale, R. V., II. (2013). Recent developments in mobile privacy law and regulation. Business Lawyer, 69, 237–243. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=93639845&site=ehost-live

Hamerman, P. (2011). Mobile applications will empower enterprise business processes. Computer Weekly, 16. Retrieved March 22, 2015 from EBSCO Online Database Business Source Complete. http://search.ebscohost.comlogin.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=59193094&site=ehost-live

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Kosner, A. W. (2013, August 11). Does your business need a mobile app? Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/08/11 /does-your-business-need-a-mobile-app/

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Varshneya, R. (2012, September 9). 4 reasons your business needs a mobile app. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228240

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Wheatley, O. (2016). Why BYOD programs face limitations. CIO Insight, 2. Retrieved December 28, 2016, from EBSCO online database Business Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=115257435&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Williams, D. K. (2013, January 4). 10 mobile apps to make your business more productive in 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2014 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ davidkwilliams/2013/01/04/10-mobile-apps-to-make-your-business-more-productive-in-2013/

Mobile Applications and Business

On this Page

Subject Terms

Mobile Applications and Business

Abstract

Overview

Applications

Viewpoints

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

Suggested Reading