The mobile workplace has arrived

Enabling a business through mobile app access can be a powerful differentiator.

Businesses that are not taking advantage of the increased mobile device presence in the workplace are only hurting themselves. The persistent use of smartphones and tablets means functions that were once confined to the office can now go on the road. Freeing up employees to complete their work anywhere through the use of Web applications could be a promising development for firms receptive to it.

Quick switch to mobile

Enabling mobile functionality is a strong move for a business due to the possible positive productivity effects. Opening the office and turning tablets and smartphones into fully-featured work devices could represent an advantage over competitors still constrained to using PCs. It might also be the minimum requirement to catch up with industry leaders that have already made the switch. Being left behind while a field transforms could set a company's efforts to build market share back considerably.

Of course, going through a long and painful development process to gain access to mobile applications is not ideal. Businesses today want to stay focused and on-task at all times. This is why it is important to select an application development infrastructure that supports mobile functionality by default and is easy to use. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions can grant this capability, empowering developers and helping them add platforms to their repertoires without forcing additional long development cycles.

Seizing the mobile browser advantage

Going mobile is not something organizations should do blindly or without the proper planning. After all, there is more than one way to deploy mobile apps to the employee base, and some methods are more efficient than others.

Desktop PC and smartphone Web browser interfaces are marked by their different interfaces. However, with the right PaaS environment, developers can quickly set up their tools to work through either. This is far removed from creating one app for the PC and others for various mobile devices, in terms of efficiency, user familiarity and later maintenance, patching and upkeep.

The mobile world is largely carved up between Google Android and Apple iOS. With Web apps, developers do not have to take sides in this conflict and insist employees only use one type of device, nor do they have to craft their mobile business apps twice. With an optimal PaaS interface, these professionals only have to change a few settings to ensure their desktop software now works with devices running either of the leading mobile operating systems. Rather than digging into the code, they can create highly functional mobile browser versions easily.