Mobilizing asset management applications doesn’t only add a level of convenience, it increases the productivity and efficiency of everyone involved. Having a real-time asset management app with you in the field means the information you need is there when you need it. It also means you can complete tasks while on location rather than waiting until you’re back at the office to enter in vital information.
The Benefits of Mobile Asset Management Apps
If an employee is taking stock of a particular asset at a remote location, he can operate 100% while on-site, inspecting the product or equipment in person. He can gather feedback and enter it directly into the app, and he can retrieve any information he needs to complete his objectives.
At the same time, anyone in the company who requires access to that information get it instantly, regardless of where they are. Lead time is reduced to virtually zero and the system is up-to-date with the most accurate information in real time.
Another benefit of extending asset management apps to mobile is the ability to take advantage of device capability in the workflows. You can use the device’s camera for inventory reviews, scan barcodes, and much more. You can utilize GPS to ensure the employee was at the right location, inspecting the correct assets.
With mobile device functionality you can implement the features of modern devices, allowing your mobile app to be as thorough as possible while still being easy to use without the need for manual data entry. And you can perform any transaction no matter where you are, in the office or on location.
The Best Way to Extend Asset Management Apps to Mobile Devices
There are many different ways to extend your current enterprise apps to mobile. The best way really depends on the systems you’re currently using, and the resources you have at your disposal.
One option, if you’re an SAP user, is to use SAP Fiori and choose from one of their pre-built mobile apps to mobilize your asset management applications. There’s a lot of limitations you run into with Fiori, which we’ve written about here, and it doesn’t really help non-SAP customers.
The best option for most companies is to build mobile apps using a Platform-as-a-Service provider. Utilizing a platform allows you to build apps faster without the need for ground-up construction. But there is a wide-ranging spectrum of PaaS providers. Finding the one that works best for your company can be a difficult task.
While appsFreedom is a platform, we realize every customer is not necessarily going to be a perfect fit to do business with us. However, we’ve found the following 4 features to be essential for an efficient app development and should be considered when evaluating which platform to build your asset management apps.
The Features You Need in a Development Platform
After talking to many different clients, we’ve found there are some must-haves for enterprises that are looking to build asset management apps. Whichever tools or platform you choose to use, making sure it fits these requirements will put you on the right road to getting it done quickly.
1. It Needs to Be Simple
The first requirement is to find a platform that is easy to use. In building enterprise mobile apps, it’s easy to overcomplicate the process. Choosing a platform that is difficult to use, or that has a poor user experience will only frustrate the process and lengthen the time-to-value.
The best platforms should be simple enough that you don’t have to write millions of lines of code to develop an app. At appsFreedom, we call this Model-Driven. A model-driven platform should be a drag and drop environment with the code being generated by the platform, behind the scenes. At the same time, it should give the developer the flexibility to custom code by hand if they prefer writing code rather than relying on a complete model-driven solution.
The best platforms are powerful enough not to put any limitations into the apps you can build, but simple enough that anyone with technical expertise can build the apps, not just programmers. The rise of citizen developers is due to model-driven platforms enabling full-featured app production with little to no coding required.
2. It Needs to Be System-Friendly
It needs to be simple and flexible enough to integrate any existing asset management applications. For some enterprise applications, integration has historically been the biggest obstacle to overcome in developing mobile apps. The platform you choose needs to be able to handle complex integrations easily.
It needs to be friendly on mobile platforms as well. You don’t want to limit yourself to only iOS or Android. You need a development platform that can cater to any and all mobile platforms without being restricted to one over the other.
This is vital to user adoption rates, allowing users to choose preferred devices. It’s also vital to the life expectancy of the app as well. As devices change extremely rapidly, developing an app that can work across mobile platforms is essential to maintaining a higher ROI per app.
3. It Needs to Easily Include Business Users
We’ve found one of the major problems with traditional app development is the communication gap between end-users, stakeholders, and the developers. There is notoriously bad miscommunications in the specifications causing apps to go through several versions before they meet even the basic user requirements.
The platform you choose should enable end-users to be involved in testing and feedback in the very early stages, as the app is actually being built. This will cut down on wasted time developing processes users don’t need or features that won’t work, allowing developers to spend time building the features end-users actually need or want.
Getting the business users involved in the app development stage is paramount to quick time-to-value. Whatever platform you use, we strongly suggest making sure it has the functionality to allow business users to collaborate and be involved alongside the developers.
4. It Needs to Be Flexible
The platform should have a toolset that’s able to take advantage of all the features and capabilities of mobile devices, allowing you to include that functionality into the app. Choosing a platform that is rigid in its capabilities will only limit your solution as technology advances.
The best platforms are completely flexible, allowing you to build what you need with the functionality you want without a lot of restrictions.
5. It Needs to Be Manageable
Once the app is deployed, it should be managed easily through whatever platform you choose to go with. When it’s time for updates, it should allow you to incorporate changes to the app with a quick turnaround time.
Your development platform should support app management through the various life stages of the app. It should support from inception, to creation, to integration, to development, to QA, to production, through analysis, iteration, and on until retirement.
In short, the best way to stay on top of the mobile apps you build on a platform, is to choose a platform that features simple management through the complete lifecycle of the apps you build.
Which Platform is Best for Asset Management Apps?
The best way to build an asset management app, in our opinion, is through a stable platform. You need one that is simple, flexible, innovative and powerful. However, choosing which platform is best depends on which platform can best match up to your unique needs.
At appsFreedom, we’re obviously biased toward our own platform. We think it’s better than any of our competitors. But the truth is, we have people come to us all the time who just aren’t a good fit for our platform.
The best way to decide which platform is the best for you is to, first, make sure the platforms you’re considering have the flexibility and features you need to successfully, and quickly, build asset management apps. Secondly, you need to try them out and see which one you trust the most.
If you’re interested in discovering how appsFreedom can help you build enterprise asset management apps quickly, you’re in luck! We can offer you a free test drive of our platform that will allow you to see it in action.
No matter which platform you choose to go with, deciding on which one is best can only be determined by you and your success. Choose the one you’re most comfortable with, and let us know if we can help.