The Untapped Value of Mobile

Apps in the Enterprise

YOUR GUIDE TO DEVELOPING A STRONG
MOBILE APP FOR YOUR BRAND
Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Overview of enterprise apps

3. Pre-kickoff “Must” Considerations

4. Decisions made during the project

5. Decisions made post launch

6. Key takeaways

1
What are enterprise apps?

Let’s first address a common question: what are

enterprise apps?
Adobe defines enterprise apps as mobile software developed for large
companies to help increase productivity, better perform tasks and equip
employees with tools to connect with customers and stakeholders.

Fundamentally, enterprise apps increase operational efficiency and

improve communications.

There are different approaches to achieve these outcomes. Each

company has a different set of challenges they face, each in need of a
different solution. You may want to optimize your employee training or
recruitment process. What about improving sales enablement for your
field service teams? Do you want to enhance your customer service? An
enterprise app is the tool you need.

Take for example the Contractor app we built for Rheem Manufacturing.
The traditional HVAC and water heater company sought to deepen 3rd-
party contractor’s relationships with the customer to upsell more products.

The solution? A mobile app to equip

contractors with the resources they
need to sell Rheem products: product
videos and information, warranty and
financing information, installation and
troubleshooting checklists, company
news, and order forms to make the
sale. With these resources readily
available within their mobile device,
contractors are empowered to provide
the customer everything they need to
make an informed purchase decision
which results in exceptional customer
service.

2
Where does mobile innovation live?

Companies that invest in enterprise mobile apps see a 35% ROI

according to a recent Adobe report. And the top 3 advantages they gain?
Increased productivity (51%), better communication (47%) and reduced
costs (31%). Enterprises recognize the need to gain a competitive
advantage and the benefits of focusing their mobile strategy on internal
processes.

Not only are these internal apps generating ROI, but company
departments are leveraging more and more apps based on their
outcomes. 67% of businesses now use enterprise apps and of those,
62% have increased the number in the past year alone. So where are
some of the areas enterprise apps are seeing an ROI?

Streamline Reduce costs

Empower
business & boost
Workers
processes profits

Provide
Share
Reduce Better
Business
Errors Customer
Intelligence
Service

3
>25% of enterprises still have not introduced
mobile apps into their operations and work
flows.

Someone in your organization needs to

champion mobile innovation and if you
don’t, someone else will.
Case study: United Natural Foods Inc.

UNFI is the leading distributor of natural, organic and specialty foods in

the United States and Canada, providing more than 60,000 products to
more than 49,000 customers, including national brands Whole Food and
Safeway. UNFI reached a breaking point with its archaic ordering system,
a common problem among many companies with large supply chains. It
was inefficient, time-consuming, cumbersome, and it frustrated customers.
UNFI knew it was at risk of losing business to other distributors if its
customers couldn’t process large quantity orders with ease.

UNFI partnered with stable|kernel to create an enterprise mobile app that

offers direct vendor support and overcomes the pains of the current
operation. Our solution provides users with order tracking, promotions and
pricing totals in real time, product return processing, future order
scheduling, suggested retail pricing across chains, purchase history
tracking, and placement suggestions for retail carriers for each product.
The app also functions without Internet access. iUNFI reduced the
average ordering time by 95% - from 10 minutes to 30 seconds.

We continued to polish the app over multiple

updates that met the needs of UNFI’s
customers. We developed new information
tiers, enhanced search with sorting filters and
redesigned the backend architecture for an
optimized mobile experience. We integrated
planogram tools to give customers research-
based suggestions for placing products on
shelves where they’d sell the most. With this
app, we helped UNFI stay competitive as a
leading food distributor by updating their
ordering system and providing additional
functionality to the product, enhancing their
customer’s experience and ultimately driving
more sales. iUNFI reached 100% adoption by
UNFI’s 49,000 customers, processing more
than $1 billion in transactions annually.

5
Why now?

Mobile is both the present and the future. The challenge has become how
best to leverage this ubiquitous medium. The enterprise sector has
cracked the code and tied the need for mobility to the need to access
business information, showing remarkable results. Mobile information can
be accessed anytime in an instant. Market trends are also driving the
demand for enterprise apps with companies citing the need for improving
communication (55%), an increasingly mobile workforce (54%) and the
increasing importance of user experience (44%) as the top trends.

What about consumer-facing apps?

Many companies, both large and small, have struggled with how to make
apps sticky with consumers. With almost 5 million consumer apps in both
Google Play and Apple app stores, the competition for consumers’
attention is fierce. They offer customer engagement, loyalty and at times
a necessary utility – but only a small percentage of these apps have
endured the test of time by providing value. Most companies have
struggled to create an app that truly serves a purpose and succeeds in
acquisition of users, engagement and retention. While the first
generation of mobile apps was the consumer-facing app, the present is
the enterprise app.

6
Getting Started
Let’s explore the process of app development
Where do we begin?

We make decisions during software design and development that will

determine the success or failure of our apps. That’s a daunting thought.
But many teams like yours look to a team like ours to guide you through
the process. Here are some of the things we suggest you think about
along the way.

Pre-kickoff During the project Post launch

Setting up your Ensuring your Maintaining a

project for success project doesn’t go successful product
from the beginning off the rails post launch

8
Pre-kickoff “Must” Considerations

1
One of the most important decisions you make
upfront is choosing the right development approach
for your product. We’ll explain the differences
between Native, Hybrid and Web and when you
Approach should use them.

Can your legacy system support modern

software development, especially for complex
integrations like Internet of Things systems?
It’s time to find out.
2
Tech Stack

3
Discovery can save your team cycles and budget by
reducing risk. Through user research, we can test
and validate our assumptions, and define a product
roadmap.
Discovery

4
Software design and development costs can
add up. Where do those costs accrue? Let’s
take a look at the many pieces that can impact
your timeline and budget.
Budget

9
Pre-kickoff: Development approach

1
Native applications are built for one platform, usually
Android or iOS, in the native language intended for
that platform. We use Kotlin for Android and Swift for
iOS. Native apps can take full advantage of a device
Approach and operating systems’ features. This development
approach offers a premium user experience and is
best for consumer-facing apps, or for when you want
to use all of a device’s unique features.

Responsive web applications are developed using languages such as

HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and Dart. We build web apps using Dart. Web
apps render in a phone’s browser and can access some of a device’s
native features, but provide a less pleasing user experience. But a web
app is great for reaching non-smartphone or desktop-using customers.
They are also useful for prototyping software before investing a lot of
money into an unproven concept.

Hybrid applications are web-based, but wrapped in a translation layer

that gives access to some native mobile features. PhoneGap and Ionic are
popular hybrid frameworks. They market themselves as a cheaper, faster
way to build software because they can be deployed on multiple
platforms. This is useful for internal products that don’t need a rich UX.

But consumers want a rich user

experience. And they also
expect apps to be fast. Hybrids
can’t deliver on those
expectations. Hybrids also don’t
stand up to native when it
comes to accessing new
developer tools. iOS and
Android developers get access
early, as they are building apps
natively. Hybrid frameworks are
sometimes several months
behind, if they integrate a new
feature at all.

10
Development approach TL;DR

• Better UX
• Immediate and unrestricted access to native APIs
• More secure
• Easier offline capabilities
• Persistent brand presence on screen

• Reaches wider audience

• Cross platform reach
• Relatively quick and inexpensive to develop
• More availability of developers
• Search Engine discoverable
• Some offline capabilities

• Cross platform reach

• Easier for search engines to find
• Access to most native capabilities of the device
• More availability of developers
• Persistent brand presence on screen
• Some offline capabilities

11
Pre-kickoff: Evaluate your tech stack

2
Why is evaluating your tech stack important?
Companies that have been in business for years
already have complex systems in place that power
many of their processes. These systems (or tech
Tech Stack stacks) were not built with modern software or Internet
of Things capabilities in mind. They are often
fragmented and don’t provide enough visibility into a
company’s data that most modern businesses need or
the necessary security measures to protect a company
against malicious attack.

So how do you determine if your stack is ready to support mobile apps?

Modern applications tie into the cloud which is where logic and behavior is
computed. A modern tech stack uses REST APIs (Representational State
Transfer Application Program Interface), a cost-effective solution for
interfacing between apps and web services. REST separates the user
interface from the server and database, improving the scalability of your
apps. REST also can be used with many types of servers as long as
requests are made with XML or JSON. If your stack already supports Rest
APIs, you are in a good place.

REST APIs

12
Case study: Rheem Manufacturing

Rheem Manufacturing is the only company in the world that produces

heating, cooling water heating, pool and spa heating and commercial
refrigeration products. With an eye on global industry trends, Rheem
wanted to position itself at the forefront of the Internet of Things by
transforming its EcoNet™ suite of energy saving products into a innovative
connected platform for home energy management.

We developed a suite of consumer-facing and third-party contractor apps

for Rheem. Due to challenges faced during integration with Rheem’s
backend, we evaluated the legacy system and planned for a multi-faceted
solution. We re-engineered Rheem’s entire stack to improve power and
performance of the EcoNet™ apps, the Contractor app and an integration
with Nest.

Using stable|kernel’s open source, server-side framework Aqueduct, we

designed a distributed system to simplify how information moved through
the system and reduce “latency”, or the time it takes to transfer data. We
also created a direct connection to the HVAC and water heater equipment
with a communication server to ensure data requests and transports
worked in the most efficient way possible. Finally we created a key value
store database to provide “eventual consistency,” delivering the most up-
to-date information available. These technical improvements drastically
improved customer satisfaction and user adoption.

Prior to launch, we load-

tested the system with
600,000 equipment
connections to ensure its
ability to scale to Rheem’s
global customer base.
Our efforts reduced
latency by 1000% and
reduced Rheem’s cloud
hosting costs by 90%.

13
Pre-kickoff: Discovery

3 “The price of light is less than the cost

of darkness.” - Arthur C. Nielsen, Market
Researcher & Founder of ACNielsen
Discovery
Now that you’ve determined what development approach to take, and you
have a good understanding if your existing tech stack will support your app
development efforts, it’s time to go through Discovery.

Discovery allows us to test and

validate assumptions through Impact of Discovery on Cost
user research which helps Without Discovery
define our business case, gives
us a better understanding of
our users, plans for a product
COST

roadmap, breaks the budget

into manageable phases and
ultimately reduces risk.
Discovery usually starts by With Discovery

looking at the problem as a TIMELINE

novice and creating user
personas to test assumptions.

We can make fairly accurate guesses what a user wants, especially if we

know our customers, but without testing our concepts with users, we're
bound to make mistakes with our assumptions that could be easily
avoided.

On the technical side,

discovery allows us to
evaluate existing code,
plan scalability and define
approaches for tackling
development challenges.

14
Pre-kickoff: Budget Considerations

4 The average cost of developing an

app is $200,000 and takes between 3-
4 months to build.
Budget
What impacts cost?

• Number of platforms, backend

• Number/complexity of features
• Third-party integrations
• Available resources
• Phased approach vs. all-in

There are also some things to consider to avoid project pitfalls.

• Moving into development without discovery & research

• Not having the right talent
• Failing to test

15
Decisions Made During the Project

1 At the start of your project, you’ll need to decide what

features will bring you the most ROI immediately.
You’ll also need to determine what tools you will use
during design, development and testing.
Planning

Respect your timeline. This is the most

important thing you can do to make sure you
deliver on time and on budget. The second
most important thing to ensure success is
2
testing, both the code and with users. Execution

16
During: Planning

1
Planning

Feature Prioritization
Need to Have
What’s the most important
thing you can do for your
user? Prioritize features that
High Low
provide the most value and
Cost Cost deliver on your business
objectives.

Nice to Have

Tool Selection

• Issue management
• Automated tests
• Continuous delivery
• Buddy build
• Data Collection &
visualization
• Analytics gathering

17
During: Execution

2
Execution

Respect the timeline

Roadmap will evolve at a

macro level, but don’t make
quick changes during the
PLAN
ATTACK

middle of a sprint. This

PLAN
ATTACK leaves important features
VISUAL DESIGN behind unfinished and
creates technical debt
resulting in damage to your
timeline.

Reflect. Test. Verify.

Reflect, test and verify

decisions made at the end
of each sprint. Get your
product to end users to test
quickly. Automate testing
and save manual activities
for high-value actions. The
more feedback the better.

18
Decisions Made Post Launch

1 Using usability techniques improves

key performance indicators by 83%.
- Nielsen Norman Group
Testing

Companies and designers are

not the user. We can make
assumptions about what users
want, but without usability
testing, we won’t don’t have the
data to confirm our assumptions
are correct.

Once you’ve conducted usability testing, it’s

time to incorporate your user’s feedback.
The more you respond to user requests, the
2
happier your users will be.
Feedback

19
Decisions Made Post Launch

3
With software, nothing is ever finished. There will
always be new operating systems, feature releases
and other feature integrations that need attention of
your development team.
Support

How do you A server is a Ensure you have

manage living, breathing the right
feedback? You entity. Assign developers on
may need a help someone to your team to
line. maintain its handle OS
health. updates, etc.

Ongoing maintenance
and support requires
setting aside budget for
post-launch upkeep.
4
Ongoing Costs

20
Decisions Made Post Launch

5 “A point of view can be a dangerous

luxury when substituted for insight and
understanding.”
Analytics - Marshall McLuhan, University of Toronto

Take a look at your analytics. See how user data

relates to your initial product objectives to make sure
your product is delivering the results you need. Refine
as needed.

Once you’ve pulled the right team together

and pushed out your first release, now isn’t the
time to stop development. Keep momentum
going with the team who has the institutional
6
knowledge of your product. Momentum
21
Key Takeaways

1. Always conduct discovery

2. The right tools make all the difference

3. Respect your timeline: Focus on ROI-producing features

4. Test. Test. Test.

5. Support and maintenance

6. Managing ongoing costs

7. Measure and Refine

8. Maintain momentum: Don’t stop developing between phases

Questions? We’d love to help!

844.673.7225
stablekernel.com

22