What Qualifies an Application as an “Enterprise Application”?

By now, everyone in 2021 understands what an ‘app’ is. Even your grandparents, owing in no small part to the emergence of clever smartphones over the previous decade, presumably know which software they prefer and which ones they find challenging to use. However, regardless of functionality, almost everyone understands what an ‘app’ is.

Considering the significance of these apps in our daily lives and for businesses, more and more companies trend towards them to drive higher corporate productivity. And in this journey, numerous reputable tech partners step forward to assist by adequately handling enterprise software applications through its services like Enterprise Software Development, Integration, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Mobility, and more!

So, in a nutshell, the question is, how many of us understand what an enterprise application is? Let’s have a quick discussion on its functions, types and differentiating factors/features!

Table of Content:

• What Is An Application?
• How Does The Application Qualify As An Enterprise Application?
• Significantly differentiating factors
• Differentiating Features of Enterprise Application
• Concluding Thoughts

What Is An Application?

A mobile application, or app, is a sort of application software that is designed to function on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Mobile applications frequently provide users with similar services to those available via desktop computers. Apps are often small, self-contained software modules with limited functionality.

Apps are broadly classified into two types: native apps and web apps. Native applications are designed specifically for a mobile operating system, typically iOS or Android. Native apps offer superior performance and a more refined user interface (UI) and are typically subjected to a considerably more rigorous development and quality assurance procedure prior to release.

Web apps are written in HTML5 or CSS and consume very little device memory due to the fact that they are run through the web. The user is sent to a custom web page, and all data is stored in a server-based database. Web applications require a reliable connection to function properly.

There are numerous types of apps available at the moment.

1. Gaming applications: These are the mobile equivalents of computer video games and are among the most prominent sorts of applications. They account for approximately one-third of all app downloads and three-quarters of all consumer expenditure.

2. Productivity apps: These are designed to increase corporate efficiency by automating routine processes such as sending emails, tracking job progress, and booking hotels.

3. Lifestyle and entertainment apps: These are becoming increasingly popular and include a wide range of personal lifestyle and socialisation activities, including dating, talking on social media, and sharing (and watching) movies. This category includes some of the most well-known applications, such as Netflix, Facebook, and TikTok.

4. Other app categories include mobile commerce (M-commerce) apps used to purchase goods online through sites like Amazon or eBay, travel apps that assist travellers in a variety of ways (booking tours and tickets, navigating using maps and geolocation, keeping track of their travels, and so on), and utility apps such as health apps and barcode scanners.

How Does The Application Qualify As An Enterprise Application?

• Let’s examine the basic features, engineering, and qualities that define enterprise-grade software. We may begin to comprehend why the technology sector attempts to justify higher prices for specific types of software.

• Open source is a critical pointer. Numerous open-source programmes and data services discussed here are available in two editions: a) Community Edition and b) Enterprise Edition. Frequently, the community edition will be free for non-commercial use, and its fundamental libraries, dependencies, and codebase will be largely dynamic and adaptable.

• Any enterprise edition of the same software will have locked-down (i.e. non-dynamic) code and will require payment for maintenance, service, and support.

• However, the fundamental rationale and justification for enterprise-grade software extend beyond the availability of maintenance and updates; there is a distinction in internal engineering.

Significantly differentiating factors

Between development and operationalization (a condition referred to as ‘production’ in software developer jargon), a business application may provide a much deeper level of architectural analysis. In other words, it will be built for speed, scalability, and for all the messy data flows that it will have to manage in its post-operational state.

Additionally, an enterprise programme may provide a far more detailed and fine-grained level of auditing. This will ensure that the data we put into it can be reviewed more precisely for business reports that may include profit and loss but may also include compliance regulations and so on.

Additionally, a business application will frequently provide higher levels of reliability, more extensive end-to-end encryption and will have likely been subjected to rigorous quality assurance and testing for increased stability. Additionally, it is frequently pre-configured to comply with the security needs of secure production settings.

Corporate software development should be predictable, dependable, auditable, and repeatable. Experts also believe that while we may overlook the occasional glitch in consumer software, commercial software – particularly eCommerce – must function flawlessly.

Also, Enterprise apps must fulfil their mission statement and demonstrate the durability, scalability, and agility that businesses expect.

Lastly, Enterprise software should be able to easily link to the rest of the organisation, its customers, and its ecosystems.

Differentiating Features of Enterprise Application

1. Custom Architecture

Traditionally, the software can be classified into three categories based on the end-user, namely:

Custom – It is tailored to a business’s specific requirements; in other words, this is the enterprise software that has been mentioned thus far.

Consumer – It is geared toward independent users such as yourself. Consumer software or consumer apps include smartphone applications such as iTunes, Google Maps, and others.

Personal — If an individual possesses the necessary skills to write code, they can create software for personal usage. A possible example is calculation-processing automation software.

When the general public discusses software, they believe there is no distinction between corporate and consumer software. You are wiser now! However, to be certain, here is a breakdown of what separates the two.

2. Target Group

The primary differentiator between the groups is the target user. While consumer applications are designed for the general public, corporate apps are designed for corporations. Consumer applications are available through app stores, whereas enterprise applications are offered through third-party vendors on a pay-as-you-go basis.

As of the first quarter of 2020, the Google Play Store alone has over 2.5 million applications – reason enough to choose an Android app for enterprise needs. Enterprise applications are far fewer in number, but it is reasonable to assume that they support the production of consumer apps by ensuring that the company machinery operates efficiently.

3. Performance

You could either have an in-house IT staff dedicated to greasing and oiling your processes or outsourcing the task to an enterprise application development business in Florida or another United States region. Given the expenditure of resources, you might as well do it correctly.

Performance management must be at the top of your priority list. When the software that powers your organisation provides continuity, your spending on maintenance services naturally decreases.

Assuring high uptime has a direct correlation to the quality of the product delivered to consumers. At its core, the software is a collection of programmable codes that do not run autonomously but requires ongoing monitoring. The only point to consider is that there should be few instances of concern as you delegate the operation of such software.

4. Scalability

As you hit new heights and build your business, users will continue to flow into the system. If you are contracting with a software development services company anywhere in the world, whether it is an enterprise application development firm in Florida or the United States of America, keep in mind that the architecture protects you from an ever-growing user base.

Advance reporting methods should be built into the software to enable effective steps to be taken and code shortcomings to be addressed in a timely manner. The enterprise application development company’s mission statement should include the provision of cutting-edge technical upgrades as and when they are required to scale applications.

5. Security

User data is the twenty-first century’s equivalent of oil, and as such, it must be safely preserved. An endemic software flaw could result in a data breach, destroying havoc and wreaking havoc on your brand’s reputation. Simultaneously, the mechanisms you use to safeguard yourself against prospective rogue actors must not breach applicable regulatory rules.

One of the fallacies surrounding enterprise application development is that they are hacker-friendly and thus untrustworthy with sensitive data. If your organisation lacks sufficient in-house digital security specialists, an enterprise app development company can assist you in closing security vulnerabilities.

6. Microservices

In terms of software design, microservices can reduce software delay by dividing the workload among distinct functional regions that operate cooperatively. When demand peaks, you understand the actual value of microservices. It adapts corporate processes to changing conditions and enables them to address performance-related challenges.

However, not all developers are equipped to work with microservices, and some choose monolithic design when comparing monolithic and microservice architectures. If your IT team is lacking in this area, you should definitely consider working with an enterprise mobile application development business.

7. Functionalities

Consumer applications are lifestyle-oriented. With a few notable exceptions, their objective is to simplify the choices people make on a regular basis. They have come to dictate and commercialise every possible element of human life in the digital age, from leisure to health and beyond. Each industry defines a sector in which enterprise mobile application developers can unleash their creativity and create the next big thing.

On the other side, enterprise apps are motivated by optimizations and successful business outcomes. Whichever function they perform, they are expected to hammer down on process inefficiencies and smooth out potential alternatives in order to save stakeholders time, resources, and capital.

Concluding Thoughts

Enterprise software development is not a natural skill for everyone. When this occurs, vendors restrict their service offerings to the macroeconomic B2B sector. However, choosing the right firm for an enterprise development software that believes in all the factors above is a must because its functionality and user experience matters the most.