Web applications can unite an organization

A good Web app can be a conduit to keep disparate teams in sync.

Today's work environments are not always as clear and simple as the classic office model, wherein all employees report to the same space at the same time. There are several ways to tie together workers who are scattered geographically, including through the use of enterprise applications that all departments have access to. In these cases, it's a best practice to make those apps as simple to deploy and use as possible. If there are complexity or usability problems with software, the programs won't be able to accomplish their goal of creating a coherent office environment out of personnel scattered among various locations.

The through line When one employee is working from home and another in the office, it can be challenging to ensure they have the tools to collaborate. This is where Web applications can prove their worth, as the experience is exactly the same across devices and information is stored and shared centrally. These solutions expand the office environment as far as it needs to reach. If an employee has to log in from a new PC that he or she has never worked from before, that is similarly acceptable. A Web browser is all it takes to gain access, a far cry from the conventional software installation model.

The range of business functions that can be handled with Web apps is considerable and always expanding. These tools can improve decision-making by providing business intelligence insights when connected with corporate data reserves, and they can also be used to log and note every transaction a firm makes. In any case, expanding their use widely can allow diverse and dispersed teams to unite their efforts. It is therefore important to build apps using an optimal platform, one that can grant accessibility without compromising security or losing functionality. Platform-as-a-Service offerings may be the best fit for this need.

Strong development processes Putting a robust framework under business apps can help them live up to their unifying potential. This can mean building the software using a PaaS solution. The best of these platforms contain data connectivity tools to ensure the finished Web apps can work with client information. They also come with governance and encryption features to ensure that while every appropriate user has no trouble logging in and working with the app, unauthorized connections are denied. Some PaaS deployments also make the actual process of software design easy, requiring a minimum of coding and allowing employees from non-IT backgrounds to join development teams.