Businesses want to automate their processes using mobile apps – but they think there are many challenges involved like costs, complexity, data security, user resistance, etc. Surprisingly they are all wrong about it. Read this blog to find out what are the perceived challenges, and unveil the solutions to automation. Building Mobile Apps for Automation could be everyone’s cup of tea!
Your business will have certain processes and activities that are in a certain sequence and are repetitive in nature. Do you agree? When these processes are automated using technology – it’s called workflow automation. When the workflow automation is achieved through a mobile app – it’s called mobile workflow automation
An inspector from a facility management company is conducting a routine inspection at one of the sites with a mobile form app
When he finds an issue in the restroom, he clicks a photograph through his mobile app and raises a ticket as a ‘plumbing issue.’
The plumber now receives details about his job to be done. When he completes his task, the inspector and manager receive the report saying the issue has been resolved
This is workflow automation enabled with mobile applications
The simple answer is businesses want to increase the productivity of employees, lower the turnaround time for jobs, make work easier and efficient, scale business operations, gain competitive advantage, tap more revenue opportunities, etc
Since most employees can carry mobile devices – mobile workflow automation seems to be an attractive solution for businesses who are eyeing better productivity, reducing overheads, eliminating paper-based processes, etc
When the benefits of mobile workflow automation are so obvious – why is it not being deployed by some companies even now?
There are certain factors that are seen as challenges by enterprises when deploying mobile solutions
This blog will uncover various such challenges and also unveil a series of solutions that can enable building a mobile app to implement workflow automation
Developing a mobile app that can help you build workflows is not as easy as it seems. Since the app requires different functionalities to be present, technical expertise and resources are needed for the app development. When the enterprises lack resources and expertise, they either stop considering building a mobile app or seeking services of a mobile app development company. Finding a development company who has the right experience and technical know-how is another challenge – it can take really long, after all, you want a mobile app that can help you automate your processes. But when you find the right match, a new set of problems arise. Most of the times the app development company and your enterprise aren’t on the same page despite several hours spent in different meetings. Each release date gets delayed with new features coming up, and you finally get a half-cooked app several months later that has cost you a lot of dollars. Time and Cost are two critical factors that every business would have in mind. Let’s find out how these factors are challenges:
Most of the enterprises are interested in seeing the digital transformation in their company, but what deters them is budget.Do you have enough budget for getting an app developed which is robust enough to enable automation? The complexity and the capabilities that you want to offer with the mobile app will determine the costs – but you can get a fair idea from the numbers mentioned below. According to the VDC survey, the cost of developing an enterprise app is around $140,000. Well, other surveys gave different figures. Kinvey Survey stated that the average cost of each app is around $270,000. According to an EMM survey, around 25% of the enterprises allocated a budget of $1.5 million. The question is if you don’t have that kind of budget and are not sure whether you are game for enterprise mobility management, chances are that you will stay away from mobile solutions. In the end, it’s an investment decision that you want to make. As far as time is concerned, it will depend on what kind of app you are looking at. Enterprise app will definitely need longer to be built. Consider anything around 6-8 months to get a final version of the app that is fully functional. Note that, this is just an average time, it could really take long. Well, there are alternatives – you’ll find that out in the later section of this blog
So many companies have got it wrong about this. They have this notion that automation is something suited for companies of a large scale, and smaller companies cannot really benefit out of automation
Most enterprises believe that automation is a very complex technology to be deployed through mobile apps. They think it’s not their forte. Another wide misconception is that they will have to change a lot of their processes in order to accommodate mobility and automation
You might not really have a budget or resource constraints, but there’s resistance from the employees and teams who will be the end users of the mobile app. Your teams will be the end users – if they aren’t convinced enough about the mobile app for their routine jobs, chances are that they won’t really use it. It will be a huge challenge to deploy mobile solutions in that case. In the majority of the situations, people don’t want to change or adopt new technology and are comfortable with whatever traditional approach they are using. The management here needs to intervene and change the mindset and show the real bigger picture – rather than simply forcing it upon teams. But what if the management is also unsure about the new technology?
Sometimes, the management is also sceptical about deploying mobile solutions – they usually think their current processes will have to be disturbed to accommodate new changes. Another important concern of management is whether the mobile app will have a good ROI and how sooner will that be. It could also be a case where the management must have tried to introduce technology in the past to solve a certain problem but it failed to deliver. Such bad experiences can also keep companies away from experimenting with even tried and tested solution. The concerns are valid enough but are there are certainly solutions available to these concerns
Data security is one of the prime concerns that businesses have. In traditional approaches, paper forms and documents are kept in secure storage rooms. But how safe is the data when an enterprise goes digital transformation? Will the mobile application be vulnerable to data thefts? Is there any possibility of hacking? Around 67% of enterprises have data security concerns in their mind when they are considering enterprise mobility. Data is obviously crucial to any enterprise, and any kind of data breach can prove very costly. Therefore, it’s a natural choice for enterprises to stay away from digital transformation and automation
The challenges mentioned above don’t really hold true. Not that they are completely invalid, they are just partially true. True that hiring a software development company can be problematic and comes along with too many risks. But, what if you had mobile apps in the market that could allow automation? There are mobile apps like Axonator that can allow you to build solid workflows, which allow you to automate your processes. Will the mobile app suit your industry type or processes? Well, apps like Axonator have different pre-built templates suiting different industries like HVAC, facility management, professional services, construction, Oil & Gas, Energy, field services management, inspection cos, mining, etc. For different processes, Axonator has inbuilt templates that can be used for inspection, auditing, routine checkups, maintenance visits, data collection, delivery & dispatch, etc. If you are thinking how can these apps fit your industry so well, then here is the answer: you can further customize the apps to suit your needs perfectly. Enterprises using Axonator have been able to customize the apps according to their requirements. An app can be built on this platform just by dragging and dropping – it requires no technical expertise or coding to build an app on Axonator. Many companies use Axonator workflow software to build workflows and automate their processes. They have been able to assign tasks directly, send notifications, set up appointments, generate reports, send emails, etc. using simple mobile apps. End users who have been using Axonator for over a year have liked the mobile app. One reason why Axonator mobile app is liked because although the app offers complex features, it’s not difficult to use. It’s an easy-to-use app and has a great UI design that teams love to interact with! Worried about the agility part? Changes in the workflow can be made at any point in time using Axonator workflow builder. This allows great agility in the mobile app. Data security is too taken care of – Axonator uses AWS cloud technology to store the data – which is one of the most secure cloud technologies available. Businesses use Axonator because they know their data has been secured with measures like SSO, SAML, O Auth 2.0, data encryption (data at rest & data in transit), etc. Regardless of the size the business, enterprises ranging from 10 employees to 1000+ employees are using Axonator mobile app. They have created automation for a range of their processes. The mobile app for your entire workforce can be built within weeks using Axonator. You can make it functional in a week and automate your processes. What is more interesting is that you can integrate Axonator with other platforms that you are currently using to import/export data. Be it CRM, Google Drive, SAP Salesforce, People Soft, Excel Sheets, etc. The cost is nowhere around million dollars – it’s just affordable to any enterprise looking out for digital transformation
You can get in touch for more information at [email protected]
BY 2020, THERE WILL BE MORE THAN 20 BILLION DEVICES CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER
Enterprises using Axonator have seen growth in their productivity, customer satisfaction levels, and eventually business revenues in the long term
What is your automation strategy?
How about starting it by building a simple app?
Get in touch with us to know more about building workflows through mobile apps to introduce automation in your business: [email protected]
1. What is Axonator’s MicroApp Strategy?
Get a free consultation from the best!
