What management, organization, and technology issues need to be addressed when building mobile applications?
- Management: With no doubt, we cannot just port a Web site or desktop application to a smartphone or tablet. It is a different systems development process. Managers need to understand and support the idea that each Web site or process requires a different set of processes. It may sound more expensive to develop apps and Web sites that way, but in the long run it will pay off with greater customer satisfaction.
- Organization: A mobile strategy involves more than selecting mobile devices, operating systems, and applications. It also involves changes to business processes, changing the way people work and the way a firm interacts with its customers.
- Technology: Developing mobile apps or a mobile Web site has some special challenges. The user experience on a mobile device is fundamentally different from that on a PC. There are special features on mobile devices such as location-based services that give firms the potential to interact with customers in meaningful new ways. Mobile technology can streamline processes, make them more portable, and enhance them with capabilities such as touch interfaces, location and mapping features, alerts, texting, cameras, and video functionality. The technology can also create less efficient processes or fail to deliver benefits if the mobile application is not properly designed.
How does user requirement definition for mobile applications differ from that in traditional systems analysis?
- Mobile apps should not be built for the sake of going mobile but for genuinely helping the company become more successful. The mobile app will need to be connected in a meaningful way to the systems that power the business. It is crucial to understand how, why, and where customers use mobile devices and how these mobile experiences change business interactions and behavior. We are not only just porting a Web site or desktop application to a smartphone or tablet. We need to know what the user need and we develop the application that fit their need and requirement.
- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) developed a mobile application that guests use to book rooms at any of the company’s 4,800 hotels. The application available for eight different mobile platforms, includes customer reviews, photos of the hotel and surrounding neighborhood, maps, and directions to nearby locales, push notifications, access to special corporate rates, and the ability to manage points for the IHG Rewards program. Maintaining this app requires constant teamwork between marketing and mobile application developers.
Describe the business processes changed by USAA’s mobile applications before and after the applications were deployed.
- Auto Insurance App: Customers are able to snap a photo and submit a claim directly from the site. They are also able to send geographic information system (GIS) data to a towing service and display nearby car.
- Banking Application: Customer can capture an image of a check and submit to the bank then money will be instantly deposited to accounts. It eliminates labor and processing expense and time to mail the check.
- Display Features: Display loan and credit card balances, shopping services, homeowners and auto insurance policy information and many more instead of need to go to the physical bank or shops to check.
