Business Apps: What They Are And How To Use Them To Grow Your Business

The types, advantages, and company apps that can help every entrepreneur in their work

They don’t our mobile devices. They are used to doing just about everything: reservations, entertainment, business communications. We download and install them almost without realizing it anymore; we are so used to their presence and use.

Despite this daily use and the confidence we manage them, we know almost nothing about their nature.

What are apps? And how can they also help us in working life, as well as in private life? Let’s find out some more details.

What Is An App?

The dictionary tells us that an app or application in computer science is “a software program, intended for an end-user, so-called because it has a practical application for those who use it.”

That is to say that an app is a program that, installed on mobile devices, helps to use functions that would otherwise be difficult to use quickly and easily.

An app is software that simplifies and improves hardware functionality to be more technical.

Why Use An App For Your Business?

At the base of each App, there are two concepts, that ease, and that immediacy. Of the benefits that in turn, generate others:

• Simple and intuitive to use
• Faster speed than the site
• Contain pluses that usually the site does not have
• They take up less space in the device memory, thanks to a lower use of megabytes
• Allow an accurate design and an excellent user experience
• Compatibility with different browsers and devices on which they are downloaded.

An app allows direct and fast contact with the company, saving users time and energy. Customers will certainly appreciate it.

What Are The Main Types Of Apps?

Native App

Native apps are the ones you download every day and show off on your mobile devices.

They are apps created for a specific operating system, therefore developed with a particular programming language. What does it mean? That an Android application will not work on iOS. Of course, the opposite is also true.

Find native apps in dedicated stores, such as Google Play Store and Apple Store. Once you have selected the ones, you need, download and install them on your smartphone.

At this point, the App will be able to interact with the different elements on the device, for example, address book, geolocation, and image gallery.

Native app development allows:

• Speed and reliability of the App itself
• Easy access to mobile device features
• An excellent user experience, both for the resolution of the App and the adaptation to the different platforms
• The use of push notifications to update users
• Publication in the store, with a consequent increase in visibility
• Use even without the internet.

Web App

It is difficult to distinguish them from native apps since they behave similarly. They have nothing in common either as a structure or as a cost.

Web apps are born to make different types of content available on mobile. They cannot, however, interact with hardware and software.

As the name itself tells us, they are significantly linked to the web. This aspect entails a difficulty of control due to the rapid changes in online content, the impossibility of publishing them in the stores, and the impossibility of functioning without an internet connection.

Finally, not being designed specifically for a particular operating system, they are less adaptable and slower.

On the other hand, they maintain some relevant merits :

• Store approval is not required
• Shallow development times
• Cost about three times less than a native app.

What Are Progressive Web Apps?

PWAs are apps designed and built as if they were web pages. In practice, they work like native apps, despite being web apps.

The result is exciting: all the features of an app combined with the different possibilities offered by browsers.

In short, positive consequences for everyone. On the one hand, the user can enable specific additional functions. On the other hand, companies will be able to offer an unforgettable user experience for users.

Hybrid App

Midway between native apps and web apps, this type of App is also called cross-platform and collects all the positive aspects of the two types of apps.

An excellent middle ground allows you to create native apps as web apps, so they can also be used on different platforms.

The advantages are therefore considerable:

• Faster than native apps
• More flexibility than web apps
• Offline operation as for native apps
• Has only one version regardless of the number of platforms
• Easy maintenance, thanks to the possibility to update only one version for the different platforms
• Less expensive to develop than native apps.

However, there are some minor contraindications. The less stable performance can characterize an app of this type because it does not adapt perfectly to anyone adjusting to multiple operating systems.

What Is A Company App?

In the technical classification that we have just done, we started from an assumption: that a brand or company has an app for its customers.

In short, whether it wants to offer a more direct and more immediate shopping experience or inform in real-time, the communication is aimed at the outside.

However, there is also another possible use for this tool. Every company can exploit the potential of an app to optimize its work and make internal company processes more streamlined and faster.

In this case, we are talking about business apps. Developed specifically for the management of departments or business processes, a business app:

• Is designed for targeted use
• It is aimed at a specific target and not at a broad audience
• It is not downloadable from a store.

Over the years, this type of App has become increasingly popular. It spread like wildfire, thanks to the transition from desktop to mobile, even for work.

Furthermore, in recent years, the need to work remotely and control specific processes quickly and easily has contributed to a further push to create these apps.

Types Of Business Apps

We have seen that these apps are intended for companies’ organizations and internal management. Their purpose can be to improve communication between departments, speed up processes or simplify the administrative and financial aspects.

The objectives may be different depending on each company and its needs, but let’s see together 5 application examples of these apps:

• Warehouse management, to be used for inventory and organization of incoming and outgoing goods
• Machinery monitoring, useful for remote control of the operation and data of industrial equipment or in assembly lines
• Geolocation, for the coordination and updating of deliveries in real time
• E-commerce helps direct sales, communications with customers, and the control items for sale and returns
• B2B relationships, i.e., apps designed to coordinate and simplify services a company provides to another company or the collaboration between the two.

How Do You Create An App?

It’s time to put the programmers to work. To design and develop an app of any kind, you have to rely on professionals able to handle codes and tools.

They will be the ones to direct you to the most suitable type of App based on the type of activity and goals you want to achieve.

As in many other sectors, also, in this case, we start with an analysis. Creating an app means defining:

• Target: Who is your target audience?
• Goal: What should the App do?
• Requirements: What special features should the App have?
• Contents: Which elements need to be categorized?
• Budget: How much do you want to invest in the project?

This small list allows you to lay down the basics for your App. Do you want to target a vast audience without having operating system limits? The choice will be towards a web app. Instead, is your focus on high quality, maximum reliability, and excellent resolution? Then you can’t help but focus on a native app.

From this first app overview, it is already clear that the sector is as vast as complex.

Every entrepreneur is faced with a series of possibilities to improve internal processes and increase the relationship with customers and, therefore, sales.

The choice of which direction to take depends on the main objectives. And you, which do you think is the most suitable App for your type of business?