Mobile App Development: Solution Providers Get in the Game
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Application-development services are providing the
channel with new reasons to revisit existing clients, add new customers—and reap
more profits. Not surprisingly, this is causing many solution providers and
consulting firms to consider adding this capability to their existing portfolio
of offerings.
In part, the overwhelming success of smartphones has
created a surge of demand for mobile apps that integrate with business
software, that promote an organization or brand, or that can generate income
for solution providers’ customers. In fact, mobile applications are expected to
generate $15 billion in 2011, according to Dice.
Research firm Ovum expects the market be even bigger, hitting $18 billion by
year-end, according to its new report: “Mobile
Application Download and Revenue Forecast: 2011–16.”
“The outlook for the longer term is also positive, with
consumers set to continue to use apps to add new features to their phones and
to access their favorite services on the go,” said Nick Dillon, Ovum devices
analyst, in a statement.
Businesses are using mobile apps to attract consumers:
Banks, retailers, insurers, government agencies --a host of vertical industries
and organizations are tapping this relatively new communications tool. Organizations
also want mobile apps for internal use—to communicate with their customer
relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution,
for example. And because this market is so new, and because internal IT
departments are already strapped with day-to-day operations, many of these
organizations are turning to solution providers, consulting firms, and
outsourcers for their custom app-development needs.
A Developing Force
Now, building a mobile app is relatively easy when
compared with the complexities of writing a complex, enterprise software
solution. But businesses and consumers are demanding proven mobile apps that
offer the same reliability and performance as their networked
applications—especially if they are paying for development services.
Forging a workforce of skilled app developers, mobile or
otherwise, can be challenging—and not inexpensive, according to some channel
executives who have made this investment in their own organizations.
“Each year we spend over £1 million in
research and development into new technology and solutions,” said Jose Castro,
marketing executive at Transputec, a British systems integrator, which was founded by two
software developers, Rickie Sehgal and Sonny Sehgal. “We have always employed a
highly skilled in-house development team. These developers support our
current product line and create custom solutions for our customers. Initially
adding app development to our portfolio of products did not require us to add any
additional staff but as demand grew we had to employ a few more developers,”
Castro told Channel Insider.
In 2010, 35 engineers at Cazoomi, a cloud services and solution provider,
spent about 10,000 hours building its integration framework that enables
companies to unite their financial, human resources, and other corporate data
with their on-premise or Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM platform, Clint Wilson,
CEO, said in an interview.
“The barrier to entry is about 20,000
hours, an offshore team that’s very smart, and a couple million bucks. For most
startups that’s kind of hard to ask investors—which we have not,” he said. “We’re
highly profitable because we have a very distributed workforce, no upfront costs
really.”
