Whether you use ViziApps to build a native app or web app for your business, it’s important to consider the role of data management as it applies to your mobile business app. Think about it. Your business runs on data: data on your customers, products, services, inventory, pricing, and more. Therefore, any business app should leverage the collective intelligence of your company to efficiently deliver information to your employees and customers.
For a mobile app designed to engage and enhance employee productivity, information can be culled from internal systems such as customer relationship management (CRM), inventory control, pricing, purchasing, and expense control systems. Mobile apps targeting customers commonly include product information, pricing details, coupons, and promotions. An ideal mobile business app should be able to access all this information from corporate databases that store critical business intelligence. We’ve built ViziApps to enable you to do just that — easily and without coding.
Depending on the mobile strategy you’ve developed for your business app (a topic to be covered in a future post), there are different types of data that will need to be accessed to power your app, and different ways to access that data. ViziApps gives you the flexibility to access and update your back-end data with the app in three simple ways: through a web service interface; directly to your database; or by connecting to Google Docs spreadsheets. As always, this integration with ViziApps is done with no coding.
So which data management connection is right for your business app — and why?
It really depends on your mobile strategy, who and what your app is designed for, how much information your app will need to access, how that information is currently stored, and how often that information will change.
To help you determine the right data management interface, we’ve defined how each works within ViziApps, depending on how your data is structured.
Web Service: If your information is already structured to drive your public or intranet web sites, you can access and update it with ViziApps’ web service data interface.
Database: If your data already exists in a database, the ViziApps database interface lets you map the fields of your database directly to data fields in your app.
Google Docs Spreadsheets: If your data is not yet structured in a database or for web service access, or if you want the data to be easily updated by employees through a simple spreadsheet interface, then you can use ViziApps Google Docs spreadsheet data interface. Google Docs spreadsheets provide the capabilities and ease of use of Excel and add powerful but easy-to-use database commands. This way, you can easily build or import information as a flat file database in a Google Docs spreadsheet for use with your ViziApps app.
Need more guidance on choosing the data management interface that’s right for you? Some practical, real-world examples might help. If your app is designed for field sales or service reps, other employees, or channel partners, then you can connect through a web service interface because it provides direct associations to your organization’s critical and securely stored data. It also provides more flexibility in the types of information provided, and in all likelihood, the web-service-accessible databases are already built through internal systems such as CRM. If your app is designed for nimble customer interaction, connecting through Google Docs spreadsheets can give you a quickly customizable solution for data to be changed and updated easily to accommodate frequently changing dynamics, such as coupons and promotions. ViziApps is built with safe and secure direct access to your backend data using any of the three data management options.
If you still aren’t sure what method is best for your business app, sign up for a free account on ViziApps and schedule your complimentary one-hour online training session. A ViziApps representative will be happy to answer your questions.
As you build your business app, consider how best to leverage your business intelligence by utilizing strategic data management to power engaging and efficient mobile apps for your employees and customers.
We’ve talked a lot recently about ViziApps extremely varied capabilities: with ViziApps, users have the option of creating and publishing both native apps and web apps — quickly, inexpensively, and without coding.
So what are some of the major differences between native apps and web apps, and how best to choose between them.
An effective way to break down the key differences is to look at the areas of speed, function, and cost.
When it comes to speed, web apps can be created very quickly and published immediately, either with a URL link or QR code. Unlike with native apps, there is no lengthy app store review process. Someone can scan your QR code and have immediate access to your web app. Native apps for the iPhone simply cannot get to market as quickly as web apps because they must go through Apple’s App Store review process.
On the other hand, when it comes to function, it’s hard to beat a native app, which can use on-device resources such as GPS, calendar, contacts, and camera. These native resources are critical in terms of location-based marketing functions such as pushing coupons to nearby users. That’s a real key differentiator for native that you don’t get with web apps. Also, if you want your brand in the App Store, or you’re targeting a public app user base and you want to say, “Just go to the App Store for our app”, native is the way to go.
As for cost, web apps tend to win here. Web apps are generally less expensive to create and publish because they involve simply repurposing existing HTML or other content that’s already been created for other marketing or business purposes.
Of course, whether you’re creating native or web apps, ViziApps features the lowest cost options available, and even offers free options for certain users. With ViziApps, both web apps and native apps are free to design and test; publishing costs run from $7 to $149 per month for web apps to $10 to $199 monthly for native apps.
ViziApps makes it affordable for small-to-medium sized businesses and business units in larger enterprises to build either native apps or web apps at a fraction of the cost of custom app development. sexmobi.ch
Create a free account on ViziApps and find out for yourself how easy and quickly you can build your own native apps and web apps.
So we’ve already told you that MobiFlex has added web app capabilities to ViziApps 2.0. But what exactly does that mean for you? And for that matter, what exactly is a web app, anyway, and what is its value to a small business?
One of the key benefits of a web app is how quickly and easily it can be created from existing content. With ViziApps, simply cut and paste and you’ve repurposed your web content for delivery to mobile device screens as an app.
Another valuable advantage for small businesses is that you can distribute web apps immediately, either from your own websites or through the use of QR Codes, which are automatically generated by ViziApps when you’re ready to publish your web app. Scan the QR Code with a smartphone and it takes the user directly to your web app. These codes can be printed on marketing materials, flyers, websites, and more to allow your target audience to immediately download your app.
Web apps also avoid the “waiting for approval” cycle in the app stores and markets, or dealing with the delay of taking your app to other outside services. In fact, web apps created with ViziApps are available for immediate use on any of the more than 5,000 mobile devices that support full browser capabilities.
Finally, creating and publishing a web app is generally quite inexpensive – an appealing factor for small businesses and small business units within larger organizations. Играть в онлайн казино https://vulcan-casino-x.com/ здесь. As we announced recently, publishing fees for ViziApps web apps range from $6.95 to $149 per month, depending on the number of web app pages and page views. And to celebrate the launch of ViziApps 2.0, MobiFlex introduced the ViziApps Free plan, which allows users to publish a ViziApps web app with unlimited static-content pages for up to 2 million page views per month. And remember, designing and testing your web app with ViziApps is always free.
To create a free ViziApps App Studio account, click here or visit www.viziapps.com
When it comes to creating a mobile app, you have a number of different kinds of development platforms to choose from. Terrific, right? Well, only if you understand your options.
For starters, there are platforms that allow mobile software engineers to code their apps in a structured and efficient way. These platforms are essentially software development kits — SDKs — for engineers that provide a library of functions, thereby eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel for basic app functions.
One such platform is Titanium Mobile from Appcelerator. Titanium Mobile provides a set of tools for engineers to develop mobile apps using languages and tools such as Javascript, CSS, HTML, and Ruby. Another coding platform solution for mobile software engineers is provided by PhoneGap. This option is an open-source set of tools, based on HTML5, that leverages web technologies HTML and JavaScript in a free, open-source framework to give access to a smartphone’s SDK APIs using standards-based web technologies to bridge web applications and mobile devices.
The second major category is that of non-coding solutions for native apps. Of course, you already know one of the key players here: MobiFlex’s ViziApps, which provides a visual means for building and creating native apps that run native features on iPhones and Android phones; and web apps that run on any mobile device with a full browser. With ViziApps, users can design and test the apps for free; publishing them involves a modest monthly subscription fee or, is even free in some cases.
Another company that offers a non-coding solution — though it may require coding in some cases — is Pyxis Mobile. Pyxis provides a toolkit for creating apps that is downloaded to the user’s server and runs within the user’s site. While a robust solution, it is also very expensive: license fees can start at over $50,000, and the complexity of the system often requires users to take training courses costing thousands of dollars.
The third major category of platforms includes those that enable the user to create web apps, generally without coding. Some web-app solutions require HTML or Javascript, but many web apps can be created without coding, and there are a number of startup companies offering such services. These web app suppliers provide a means for reformatting web pages to fit the mobile form factor. Web apps are typically inexpensive to create and publish; they can also be created and published quickly because they generally use existing content available on the user’s web site or other marketing materials. Web apps can be published directly from the user’s web site, rather than going through the app market and store review and publishing processes.
MobiFlex’s ViziApps recently added web app capabilities, making it the first and only no-coding solution for creating both web apps and native apps for iPhones, iPads, and Android phones in the same integrated ViziApps Studio. Web apps created with ViziApps are available for immediate use on any of the more than 5,000 mobile devices that support full browser capabilities.