Top 10 Enterprise Mobile Application Development Challenges & Solutions

The third quarter of 2021 alone accounted for 27.6 bn app downloads from Google Play and 8.1 bn downloads in the Apple App Store. 

Further, with the global mobile app users hitting the 3.2 bn mark, all the hype around getting an enterprise mobile app is more than justified. 

However, the process of getting a relevant, efficient, and high-performing mobile app is not without its challenges. 

Enterprise mobile app development challenges range from mistakes in choosing the right developer to lack of insights into the product requirements and much more. 

While some of these challenges don’t have any direct impact on the app delivery and monetary losses, some might land you with a faulty app that becomes a beacon or easy target for hackers and can turn out to be a nightmare for your business!

Here, we discuss the top Enterprise app development challenges and how business owners can overcome them and bypass them altogether by taking certain precautions right from the start!

What Is Enterprise Mobile Application Development?

The process of creating and deploying scalable, portable, and trusted mobile apps for enterprise business organizations to help them engage better with customers, employees, and clients is called enterprise mobile application development.

The enterprise apps resolve multiple problems, such as collaboration, communication, resource planning, and employee and customer management, and enable business organizations to streamline their operations. 

The enterprise mobile apps allow the employees to collaborate better via smart escalation routines for customer queries and empower the clients with real-time insights into ongoing projects, reports, etc. 

While the capabilities and functionalities of enterprise apps are not limited to the ones mentioned above, some of the common goals of an enterprise mobile app are:

• Cost-cutting 
• Improving workplace productivity
• Increase employee efficiency
• Employee tracking and monitoring
• Improved security 
• Greater visibility 
• Micro-service management 

Before we dive into the subject matter and explore the major challenges in mobile app development for enterprise organizations, take a quick look at the following visual that shows the various types of enterprise apps:

Source

As every enterprise is a unique ecosystem with different development requirements and organizational challenges, there can be as many apps with as many different features as one wants!

Now, we move on to discuss the top enterprise mobile application development challenges and how to curb them and overcome them.

Top 10 Enterprise Application Development Challenges and Their Solutions

1. Lack of Appropriate Resources and Expertise

When it comes to app failures or poor app development results, the developers play the biggest role. A lack of expertise and appropriate resources can lead to a huge blunder during app development and can technically derail the entire timeline or stretch the cost like nothing else. 

Apart from not having expertise in the platform or particular language or app itself, the developers can suffer from a lot of other issues about expertise, such as:

• Poor or no understanding of user demands and expectations
• Lack of understanding of the target audience
• Lack of internal communication between the developers
• Poor resource availability in terms of software or hardware infrastructure required for mobile app development

Further, it is highly likely for the app developers to switch workplaces in the middle of app development which can have a huge impact on the entire development cycle.

Risks and Results

• App performance is affected
• Poor user experience leading to app failure
• App delivery is affected
• You get an app that is entirely different from your expectations
• Budget gets derailed

Solutions

• Developers must follow the process-oriented approach to make bug tracking easier and to make app personalization easier for the end-users.
• Developers must survey the end-users and do proper market research to keep the app development aligned with the market.
• Enterprises must opt for app development companies with expertise and reputation.
• Checking the certifications, and app development methodologies before choosing the developer

2. App Security

Maintaining a strong security posture at all ends is one of the most crucial enterprise mobile app development challenges, as the stats report that more than 800 thousand mobile malware installation packages were detected in Q2 of 2021 alone!

Further, studies reveal that 77% of mobile finance apps house at least one serious vulnerability that can lead to data breaches and incur unprecedented business losses. 

Below, we share some more compelling stats and figures that show how challenging mobile app security is:

Source

These vulnerabilities and security loopholes can creep during any phase of app development, and can lay undetected for years until one fine day a hacker spots them and wreaks havoc!

While the majority of the security-related burden is on the shoulders of the developer, enterprise security management also has a crucial say in the matter.

Take a look at another eye-opening visual showing the different types of mobile app vulnerabilities:

Source

Hence, we recommend choosing an enterprise mobile app development company that offers proper app testing and also involves security in every development phase. 

Risks and Results

• Increased vulnerability to data breaches, phishing, and malicious activity
• Poor authentication and authorization
• Weak server-side controls
• Incorrect data storage and encryption
• Third-party APIs
• Data leakage
• Poor data protection 

Solutions

• Transfer the critical code and libraries of your app to the server
• Keep the mobile app code secure
• Invest in security professionals, or opt for reputed security providers
• Opt for innovative and more exhaustive encryption techniques

Finally, always ensure that the enterprise mobile app development company considers security as important as the app development itself.

3. Integration With Back-End Resource

Integrating the enterprise mobile apps also comes with its peculiarities and challenges. Even after getting a fully functional app from the developer, enterprises might still require some custom coding to add mobile functionality and required integration capabilities. 

Some applications are so tightly coupled that they offer limited or extremely brittle integrations and are too costly to modify. These apps also suffer from selective integration where they deliver the best performance only when coupled with specific third-party apps. 

Such integration challenges can be a result of:

• Poor expertise of app developer
• Lack of vision and future goals on the part of the developer
• Sudden scalability or integration demands at the enterprise\’s end

Risks and Results

• Redundancy and poor user experience
• Poor app performance 
• Lack of customer satisfaction and app failures

Solutions

• Discuss and convey the integration requirements right from the start
• Discuss the scaling and expansion goals keeping the future integration requirements in mind
• Opt for flexible platforms that offer effortless and seamless integration with multiple popular APIs

4. Scalability

Enterprise-grade business organizations have diverse and critical scaling requirements and require apps that can scale well with industry disruptions and accommodate emerging technologies with less effort and resource investment. 

For example, AI and ML are revolutionizing business organizations all across the globe, and digitization is trending at a matching pace. However, keeping all these requirements well in alignment with the app development goals is one of the major enterprise mobile development problems. 

The developers wish to deliver the apps as fast as possible, and the enterprises are looking to keep the apps relevant in light of all the emerging technologies. 

Even if we don’t talk about the technologies, enterprises can scale overnight with collaboration, a merger, or an acquisition that can trigger a huge requirement of merging the data, information resources, and management resources.

Take a look at the following visual to understand the importance of having scalable apps:

Source

Risks and Results

• Collapsed app hardware infrastructure
• App failure because of failure to accommodate the increased usage or users
• Less window for growth
• Poor user experience 
• App monetization gets hit

Solution

• While keeping pace with these scaling situations is not feasible for the developers, they can minimize the effort by opting for popular platforms, flexible technologies, and app functionalities keeping the future expansion goals in mind.
• Facilitating horizontal scalability for future expansion is another effective solution.

5. Poor User Experience

UI and UX are the key differentiators when it comes to enterprise mobile apps that are a success or a failure. Both of them are extremely crucial for deciding the app’s usability and can make or break the brand’s reputation as well. 

The fact is proved by the success of apps like Netflix and Amazon, which offer a sterling user experience and are absolute favorites of their users.

However, if we have to choose the more crucial one between the two, the answer would be UX. The user experience is the key engagement driver and plays a big role in converting customers into loyal clients. An enterprise app that addresses the pain points of the users and offers a seamless experience converts better.

However, it is also one of the major challenges in mobile app development for enterprises. 

There are many reasons behind it, such as:

• A large number of end-users with a different set of preferences 
• Inability to capture a comprehensive set of requirements
• Poor expertise of app developers
• Results are collected over a long period as people use the app and might take even longer to get resolved by the developer

Risks and Results

• Poor reception by the audience
• Brand reputation gets harmed
• Customer satisfaction takes a trip down South
• Might require creating another app from scratch leading to resource wastage

Solutions

• Aim for simplicity and usability
• Opt for appealing themes and high-resolution graphics 
• Make the interface interactive
• Do proper research and gather insights about the pain points of the users and ask the developer to make sure that the app resolves them

6. API Strategy

Choosing the right and robust API strategy is one of the most daunting enterprise mobile app development challenges as you have to choose specific APIs for getting specific functionalities in your enterprise app. While one might think that nothing is challenging in it as you can add as many APIs as you want, making one wrong choice can leave you with a poor app.

Also, mindlessly integrating the APIs leaves you with many security concerns and loopholes that hackers can leverage for their benefit. Hence, it is also one of the major issues of inter-enterprise mobile application development. 

You must begin by taking an in-depth look at your existing APIs and confirming whether they can address your pain points or not. You might require modification or development of new APIs altogether as well. 

Hence, you need to consult the business analysts as well, while creating an API strategy for your enterprise.

Risks and Results

• Poor customer experience because of bad API interoperability
• Poor B2B collaboration because of wrong choices of APIs
• Security issues with business data and resources because of using multiple third-party APIs
• Opting for APIs violating or in conflict with the enterprise regulatory compliance requirements

Solutions

• Set business goals that can guide the technical decisions about API creation, deployment, and design
• Start with small API projects and gather experiential learning from it
• Consider the enterprise infrastructure and resources available and compare them against the other resources the API would require

Detailed stepwise information is given in the following visual:

Source

7. Encryption of Data

Keeping the sensitive data stored on the smartphones of the app users “encrypted and safe” is also one of the enterprise app development challenges with serious repercussions. 

With an immense rise in the number of privacy and app data usage concerns among app users, the apps that are seeking access to private data are already taking one wrong step!

Take a look at the following visual that shows the general sentiment about app data security:

Source

Further, 81% of Americans feel that the potential risks of app data collection outweigh the personalization benefits, and 97% of companies recognize that their privacy investments incurred significant competitive advantages. 

Hence, the enterprise stakeholders need to manage the APO data security and must invest in the latest and safest encryption techniques.

Always remember, if you wish to economize on app development expenses, app security and UX are non-negotiable!

Risks and Results

• Hackers can get hold of sensitive customer data and ask for ransom in exchange
• Poor encryption can lead to multiple malicious activities 
• Not complying with the security regulations can land the enterprise in legal trouble

Solutions

• Even if you are allowing BYOD (Bring Your Device) at the workplace, you must have a secure container that requires extra authentication
• Use innovative and latest encryption techniques
• Invest in data privacy techniques and security providers to add an extra layer of app user data protection

8. UI Design

A good UI is a major selling point and can turn your visitors into buyers by facilitating interactions between you and your customers. UI design also makes it easier for the app users to browse and use your apps as well as find the relevant features and content effortlessly. 

Your app interface is the first thing a user interacts with and it must be neat, organized, appealing to the eyes, and usability-oriented. Further, you must take care that the load speed and app performance don’t get sluggish just because you aim to have a great UI. 

Risks and Results 

• Poor UI leads to poor app reception that, in turn, affects the brand’s reputation
• Users get bored confused or tired and exit the app or uninstall it 
• Prospects that are about to make a purchase might fail to find the relevant information and exit without doing it

Solutions

• Keep the UI business-centric
• The UI must be appealing, without affecting the app performance and performance metrics
• Opt for a UI that is scalable, future-proof, and requires as low maintenance as possible.

9. Device Fragmentation

The legacy apps were designed for enterprises with fewer devices and platforms. However, the BYOD culture is spurring a large number of devices to be attached to and from the enterprise network. 

Now, all these devices have different operating systems, hardware configurations, and platforms. Hence, the apps must be relevant, responsive, and compatible with a wide range of devices. This is called device fragmentation!

To achieve this high degree of compatibility, mobile apps must consider all the platforms and devices, and developers need to conduct aggressive testing for the app on multiple platforms and devices.

Risks and Results

• Improper testing can lead to poor app performance and distorted UI on certain devices
• Specific device users might have a poor UX
• Specific platform users might not be able to use the app altogether

Solutions

• Aggressive testing of the app on all the popular devices, platforms and OS
• Use real devices for app testing

10. Big Data

Enterprise-grade organizations are storehouses of immense heaps of data and to leverage the true power of this data, Big Data is the key. However, Big Data implementation is a challenge in itself as it involves colossal data operations, management, storage, and network costs. Further, it slows down the response rates for the end-users and that, in turn, is a major turn-off!

While big data implementation might not be one of the major issues of enterprise mobile applications on the cloud, because of the obvious cloud benefits, management and security of data become a daunting task.

Risks and Results

• App response rates decrease
• Data security might become questionable
• Additional overheads of cloud and security 

Solutions

• Use tools and technologies to ensure data safety in on-premise and cloud data stores
• Keep the most crucial data separate from the cloud
• Move the inactive data to third-party big data solution providers

Enterprise Mobile App Development Challenges: Long-Term Strategy for Enterprise App Development

At first look, the list of enterprise app development challenges might look scary and tiresome, but with proper management and strategizing, you can overcome all these challenges like a pro! 

Below, we share a stepwise strategy for enterprise app development that you can follow:

• Conceptualize the app with brainstorming sessions with your teams
• Find the right enterprise mobile app development company
• Get the buy-in from the leadership
• Conduct surveys to dig out the end-user pain points and gather insights about these pain points
• Stay involved in the app development from start to end
• Educate the staff about app usage and security of data

By now, you might have realized that having a reliable and expert enterprise app development company is a must for getting a flawless app. 

Parangat, with its team of brilliant professionals, and decades of experience offers unparalleled app development services for businesses of all scales and a wide range of industries. 

For more information, or to get in touch with our team, please visit the official site.