Consumers and businesses are using a widening array of mobile devices to complete countless tasks. As tablets and smartphones continue to gain popularity and cannibalize an increasing portion of the PC market, software providers face the challenge of adapting their products to sustain in a mobile-dominated society. While mobilizing software may seem daunting for many software providers, there are solutions to help ease the burden of building applications for the plethora of mobile devices in use today.
As mobile devices continue to increase in popularity and technical ability, it will be imperative for companies who sell software, or offer a software component as part of their solution, to mobilize their offering and take advantage of all that apps have to offer. By mobilizing your software, you can reach a wider customer base or possibly a more tech savvy demographic, add an additional revenue stream to your core offering and allow for easy and convenient use. The benefits of building a native mobile app version of your software are clear, but actually building the app may not be as simple.
It seems like every few weeks new devices and OS updates are announced, leaving the programmers who build mobile apps scrambling to support and write code for multiple versions of a mobile app. Mobile enterprise application platforms (MEAPs) simplify the process of providing cross-device support by giving companies the ability to mobilize their software in-house without having to hire a team of programmers specialized in coding applications for each mobile OS. Choosing to use a MEAP to build native mobile software allows companies to focus on developing their core solution rather than spending time, money, and resources on trying to support all of the devices people are using to access mobile applications.
One company that has had success using a MEAP to mobilize their solution is Pyxis Mobile’s customer, Healthrageous, a personalized connected health technology startup based in Boston, Massachusetts. Healthrageous has taken advantage of the widespread use of smartphones by building a mobile application, h!GO, to extend their product offering. They help people live healthier lives by measuring various aspects of a person’s health, such as blood pressure, blood glucose, and physical activity, using a biometric device that sends data to their Personal Health Intelligence Platform. They then use this data, along with a person’s input on their health habits, to develop a personalized health plan aimed to continually help make health a priority. Users can access their data and health plan information through the web, email, or a mobile device.
Check out a customer Case Study video featuring Healthrageous!
Healthrageous knew that including a mobile app version of their core platform would allow users anywhere, anytime access to all of their critical health information and enable them to stay on track with their health plan by keeping them connected while on-the-go. Smartphones are self-sufficient,
encompassing many of the tools and access to the information we need in our day-to-day lives, and are (almost) always with a user. h!GO allows easy access to all of the information that Healthrageous’ customers need, and is designed to be easy and fun for non-technical users. Deciding to build a mobile version of their software platform was a no-brainer for Healthrageous.
Rather than building a native mobile application for each of the leading operating systems (OS) one-by-one, Healthrageous decided to use a mobile application development platform to build one app that could be optimized for each device type. This method of building one app that runs natively across OSs greatly reduces the amount of time and number of employees needed to support each of the leading devices and allows for you to focus your efforts on daily business functions rather than writing code. There are a few mobile OSs that have a steady hold of the market, and software companies that are looking to mobilize their applications should look for a solution that provides cross-platform support to allow for the greatest potential app audience. Companies don’t want to waste any time or money when they decide to build mobile apps, and using a mobile application platform to build apps allows for the fastest speed-to-market, cutting the time needed to support iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, along with the leading tablet devices, down from a year or more to just months, or even weeks depending on the scope of your application. The best MEAPs are agile and allow for changes to be made at anytime, in real-time. So if you decide to update your software, you can easily update your mobile app without any code generation and minimal regression testing.
Are you ready to take your software into the mobile era? To learn more about how Healthrageous used a MEAP to quickly and easily mobilize their software and integrate mobility into their core business, attend an upcoming webinar hosted by Pyxis Mobile, view the Healthrageous video, or download a copy of the Healthrageous Case Study.
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