How many times have you caught yourself asking that same question as you observe your employees at work: A truck arrives and someone enters a handwritten form into a PC. A manager spot checking quality stops to track down a hand-held scanner. An employees digs for receipts in their wallet and enters expenses when back in the office. Why can’t we develop a mobile app to handle that?
The thought of having a thick mobile app polished over the course of months for the iPhone is enough to stop many cold in their tracks. Then what about Android? Then Windows? A pretty expensive employee productivity boost, and do you really need a work of art?
Luckily there is a lean way to develop apps once that can then run across devices -- including the big thing sitting on your desk. It doesn’t carry expensive licensing fees and has been running in your browser for years.
HTML has gone from simple web ‘pages’ to powering full-fledged applications. In fact HTML was the original way developers produced iPhone apps. Even its latest version, HTML5, is supported on all major mobile devices and provides access to prominent mobile device capabilities such as camera and GPS. HTML5 apps can also be designed to work offline when the network is down, just like a native mobile app can. And an HTML5 app can be turned into a full-fledged native mobile app by placing it within a thin native application ‘shell’ when it needs full access to underlying device capabilities.
Imagine a web data entry application that captures GPS coordinates and images of transaction receipts in the field when and where the transaction occur. Imagine it working even where network coverage is spotty. Imagine employees doing all this from the devices they are comfortable with already in their pockets. It’s all possible using open technology that’s been around for years.
Yes, native application development is still there when you need an app optimized for flashy user performance on a specific device. But when lean business productivity is your focus, it’s nice to know you can have a mobile app for that too.
