ViziApps

If you’ve been thinking about creating a mobile app for your business but haven’t made much progress, consider two approaches that could help you reach your goal.

#1 Make a do-it-yourself mobile app.

New, disruptive technologies are making it possible for business people with basic office software skills to develop effective, visually appealing mobile apps. And with a robust DIY mobile app platform like ViziApps, enterprise business units, as well as small and medium sized businesses, can create mobile applications without skilled engineering resources. This approach does not require a sizable mobile app development budget or the technical expertise of an internal IT group or an outside programmer.

Mobile application development platforms that provide a drag-and-drop process for designing and creating mobile apps offer a way to meet the mobile app gap many businesses are experiencing. In significantly less time that it can take to design and develop an enterprise-quality application, a business can design and build a custom mobile app and publish it in the Apple App Store or in Google Play.

At a time when businesses are looking at ways to provide better customer service, the DIY approach offers significant cost and time savings, putting affordable mobile business apps within reach of organizations of all sizes.

#2 Enlist Expert Services to Build A DIY Mobile App

Producing a sophisticated mobile business app that incorporates business data from a Google Docs spreadsheet or SQL server can be accomplished in days on a platform like ViziApps. But for some people, even a day or two is more than they can spare to build a mobile app.

Those businesses can still take advantage of the cost and time savings the ViziApps “no coding” mobile app platform offers. ViziApps app development professionals work with business owners and enterprise managers to design and create mobile apps for a tenth the cost (or even less) than the cost of a traditional enterprise application. Now, those businesses can get a branded web, native, or hybrid app to meet their functional and aesthetic specifications built for them at very low cost.

Depending on their preferences, we can utilize the features of an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet and provide access to whatever data our customers require. For example, we work on apps designed to expand revenue-generating channels, incorporating features such as geo-location marketing, mobile payments and mobile social media integration, as well as apps for internal use.

Whichever approach a business takes to creating a mobile app, the DIY path or the route leveraging ViziApps professional app design services, the result is an attractive, low-cost mobile app tailored to meet current business needs and be updated easily whenever those needs change.

Much has been written recently about the challenges of creating a mobile app that will get noticed.

In a world where it seems there’s already an app for just about everything, what are some of the ways to make a mobile app stand out, in a way that makes users want to download and use it?

Here are a few ideas. First, potential app creators should go into the different app markets and see what’s already available, taking note of what other comparable apps got right and where there’s room for improvement. That is the type of information that can be used to build a better app with a better user experience.

The large number of available apps shouldn’t discourage anyone who has an idea for a mobile business app. There is still considerable opportunity to create mobile applications that address unmet business needs. Large enterprises are struggling to keep up with the demand for mobile apps for use with customers, partners, employees and others. Small businesses are also looking for ways to leverage mobile apps, to expand their markets, for instance, or retain customers.

With the ViziApps platform, anyone with basic computing skills can create a robust mobile app – without coding – and provide the functionality business users need. Powerful business apps provide data, the type needed for making informed decisions, responding to customer queries, and generally keeping pace with volatile business conditions.

The ViziApps’ drag-and-drop approach enables access to back-end data in a way that can differentiate a mobile business app from less sophisticated ones. That data can be stored in Google Docs spreadsheets or SQL databases, or accessed via web services. This capability gives mobile app creators a way to provide a very rich user experience on an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet.

Have you considered creating a mobile business app that incorporates location-based services (LBS) as a way of gaining new customers? Results of a recent study provide some interesting insight into consumer views on LBS. They reveal that consumers worldwide are becoming increasingly amenable to sharing their location in return for a good, convenient deal.

In its Mobile Life study, global consultancy TNS found that more than 60 percent of respondents who do not yet use location-based services want to begin taking advantage of them.

A summary of the study results makes a strong case for targeting consumers with an LBS mobile app:

“Almost one fifth (19 per cent) of the world’s six billion mobile users are already using LBS, with more than three times this number (62 per cent) aspiring to do so in the future… Savvy LBS users have realized that there is something to be gained from sharing their locations with brands and retailers – with one in eight (12.5 per cent) sharing their location in exchange for a deal or special offer…Beyond current users of LBS, a third of people globally (33 per cent) who already or would like to use mobile voucher coupons, highly rate receiving deals when they are nearby a store that they like. One in five mobile users (21 per cent) stated that they find mobile advertising interesting if it is offering them a deal near their current location.”

James Fergusson, Global Head, Digital & Technology Practice at TNS, believes that mobile users are beginning to appreciate the rewards of disclosing their location. “We are really starting to see location based services ‘come of age’. People are realizing that sharing their location often offers some kind of reward in terms of a discount or deal. It is the combination of time and context – directing people towards a deal when they can easily redeem it – that unlocks a powerful tool for marketers to develop precise targeting approaches.”

Building a mobile app that uses LBS does not have to be a complex project. The ViziApps drag-and-drop visual approach allows business managers, IT professional and anyone with basic computer skills to create a custom locator mobile app for iOS and Android devices.  It’s just one category of mobile apps ViziApps users are building with the online based do-it-yourself mobile app development tool.