Feb 8, 2017 No Comment

Custom Mobile Apps: Answering the Burning Questions for Salesforce Consultancies

As more and more organisations place a strong emphasis on mobilising processes which are ‘business critical’, Salesforce consultancies tasked with delivering custom mobile apps capable of achieving that are facing a wave of entirely new and unfamiliar challenges. But in order to take advantage of this growing opportunity, consultancies must first be able to meet each of their clients’ mobile-specific requirements. From our experience working closely with the Salesforce partner community, here we address the burning questions which must first be answered in order to successfully provide the class of mobile apps so many businesses are currently demanding.  

 

burning2Some Salesforce partners and consultancies will inevitably feel the only question that really matters is whether the mobile app that will satisfy their client’s specification can be built or not. While this is generally the bottom line when taking on a project, there are a number finer, more intricate details which need to be considered, due to the complexity of the apps which the market is now in desperate need of.

Those details become even more important when a client’s goal is to introduce a mobile app into a workflow or process critical to its business, which is when a new, more advanced, more powerful solution is required to eliminate the possibility of failure once deployed.

This is where an evaluation of the available technology, compared to the necessary features and characteristics of the app, should take place. Within this decision making process, once you reach, and realise you need to go beyond, the limitations of an app built with Salesforce1, it will become abundantly clear that these preliminary considerations are essential to the success of your delivery.

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Jan 31, 2017 No Comment

Hidden Salesforce Spring ’17 Security Update Could Prove Fatal for Android Apps

Android-AppsThe upcoming Salesforce Spring ‘17 release will include restrictions to its security policy for mobile applications that are submitted to the Google Play Store, something which will affect anyone running Salesforce mobile apps on Android. Read on to learn what has changed, how it may affect your apps, and how it can be fixed.

Pre-release testing uncovers unwelcome updates

An interesting discovery was made last week during a routine pre-release test for Salesforce’s Spring ‘17 update, made by our Salesforce Pre-Release QA Administrator when testing MobileCaddy in the pre-release testing box on an Android device.

This advanced testing, designed to preemptively rectify any potential challenges or unexpected errors well ahead of time, surfaced a problem where MobileCaddy apps within the Google Play Store were failing. From our position as a Salesforce Partner, we use 10 full enterprise pre-release orgs, in varying configurations, to ensure all of our apps continue to function (this includes the Apple App Store, the Google Play store, and the Salesforce App Exchange).

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Dec 19, 2016 No Comment

Mobile Apps in the Workplace: The Top 10 Stats of 2016

Mobile-apps-in-the-workplaceWhen looking at the growth and acceptance of mobile apps in the workplace over the past 12 months, it’s clear to see that while priorities are moving in the right direction, some efforts are still lacking to fully accommodate what is an enormous opportunity for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Considering how these apps are delivered, when focusing on the enterprise SaaS market, there was reportedly growth of almost 40% in 2015, and analysts Synergy Group forecasted that it will more than triple in size over the next five years. Within that market, Microsoft, among others, is now challenging for leadership, but is still a way behind long-time leader Salesforce, according to Synergy.

Thanks to this growth, throughout 2016 mobile apps built on the Salesforce platform have become exponentially more capable, affordable, and reliable, and have consequently become critical to the daily running of organisations in many cases.

However, there’s still a large gap in the understanding of what’s required to deliver this more advanced class of apps successfully, which is something we’ve witnessed as a prominent challenge for the wider Salesforce ecosystem this year. Right alongside that is a lack of confidence among decision makers to place mobile apps into such important supporting roles within the core responsibilities of their employees.

Still, there are plenty of positive signs when looking ahead into 2017, as more and more businesses are acknowledging the potential of mobility as more than just a driver of productivity, but as a key competitive differentiator as well.

To highlight this, we’ve pulled together 10 notable statistics from the past 12 months which tell the story of the current state of mobile apps in the workplace, and which also shed some light on what the future may hold for businesses embracing them as a means for success.

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Nov 3, 2016 No Comment

Salesforce Mobile Apps Make Telecoms A Truly Dynamic Sector

Salesforce-mobile-apps-telecomsTelecoms: A mature mobile industry?

When we recently took a look at the opportunities available to financial services organisations investing in Salesforce mobile apps for enterprise purposes, we reported that the sector was named second only to telecoms regarding the verticals most likely to embrace mobility in 2016.

As we approach the end of the year, it seems like an appropriate time to turn attention to the telecoms industry’s mobile maturity, and provide some insights for those businesses feeling the pressure of the fast-moving, ever-changing market place.

Neglecting mobility is a mistake too costly to make

These days it seems silly to suggest there aren’t huge opportunities being presented to virtually every sector when it comes to leveraging mobile technology. Around 80% of work is now reportedly ‘deskless’, so the concept of a traditional office employee working in a fixed location and spending all their time in that position is extremely dated. But statistics can be misleading, and trends often move a lot faster than the majority of the businesses they’re supposedly affecting can keep up with.

So what does this actually mean? Well, firstly, it means that while the demand for being able to work in a deskless environment – whether that’s at home, on a train, in a partner company’s office, or on the beach during a family vacation – is growing exponentially, it will be rendered ineffective unless businesses are able to provide tools capable of allowing employees to take full advantage.

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Aug 9, 2016 No Comment

A Customer Perspective: Delivering Outstanding Salesforce Mobile Apps with MobileCaddy

salesforce-mobile-appsThere are many complex technical and commercial decisions to be made by enterprises when searching for a solution to build effective Salesforce mobile apps in the current market. But when an organisation is able to find the right technology, which can deliver exactly what they need, how does the process then continue, and how should the relationship develop?

Following the successful completion of a mobile app project for a customer named The Travel Corporation, Ltd. (TTC), alongside our strategic partners Appirio, we recently sat down to speak with Calvin Goodenough, the Subject Matter Expert from the project, to ask him about his experience working with MobileCaddy.

What was your first impression of working with MobileCaddy? 

Calvin Goodenough: A previous attempt had been made at getting the Tour Operations Portal (TOPS) mobile app project off the ground in September 2015, but this was ultimately abandoned. As a consultant, I wasn’t involved in the selection of the partners, so had no knowledge of them prior to our first kick-off meeting in mid-December.

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Jun 20, 2016 No Comment

What are the 15 Steps to Success with Salesforce Mobile Apps?

Salesforce-Mobile-App-SuccessMobile apps are currently one of the most powerful ways in which a business can differentiate itself from competitors, increase revenue, and achieve transformational gains in areas such as productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction.

With today’s current mobile technology, organisations are able to build apps customised to their employees’ most specific requirements, and take the ability to work quickly and accurately far beyond the restrictions of a traditional office.

But if an enterprise mobile app is so effective, then why aren’t more businesses investing in these solutions? Well, there are significant challenges, potential pitfalls, and certain risks which are still holding them back. As a result, we’ve put together 15 useful tips to help businesses leverage the Salesforce platform to build successful mobile applications.

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