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This Client is a start-up in the recruiting industry in the U.S., and wished to promote a new, more efficient recruiting process, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to source, screen, engage and hire candidates more quickly and with better results. The Elegant MicroWeb worked closely with the Client team to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and to design, develop, and implement a web interface and an AI enabled engine to analyze job descriptions and the required skills for positions and to search LinkedIn and other recruitment platforms and databases to shortlist applicants. This automated AI-enabled sourcing process is designed to reduce the expense and sourcing resources required to find candidates and can generate personalized letters using generative AI to present the opportunity and benefits of the job to an applicant. The system improves and automates the sourcing workflow and thereby reduces the cost and number of hours required to complete a recruiting and hiring process, ensuring the start-up business can offer a unique and comprehensive approach to recruiting and sourcing to improve its business results.

The post Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – AI-Enabled Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and App Product Development for U.S. Recruitment industry Start-Up Sourcing Platform appeared first on .

This U.S.-based start-up business wished to create a one-of-a-kind, cutting edge environment with a holistic health, fitness and wellness approach. The Elegant MicroWeb team worked closely with the Client team to plan and create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for proof of concept and to design, develop and implement a web and mobile app to support the Client staff in managing registration and subscriptions and to enable end users to gather and analyze results from various fitness and health apps to understand, monitor and track nutrition, exercise routines, health and fitness goals, sleep and stress management. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) further supports the Client goals to create a solution and product that will advance its business and improve end user results and satisfaction.

The post Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and AI Integrated Web and Mobile App Development for U.S. Start-Up Holistic Healthcare Business appeared first on .

The Elegant MicroWeb team worked with the Client to design and develop a scalable, multi-tenant SaaS product for an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and to deliver the solution and services within the specified budget and time frame. The Client rolled out the product internally and then to its clients, with the continuous support and development services of the Elegant MicroWeb offshore team in India, thereby expanding its services and enhancing its visibility and market reputation with valuable tools, features and functionality that ensure customer satisfaction and seamless workflow.

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Elegant MicroWeb worked with the Client to refine its vision for a mobile app and to translate its requirements into a functional mobile app for use by its clients. This new solution provides mobile accessibility to end users and streamlines services and business to ensure the safety and compliance of fire assets, and to simplify equipment monitoring and maintenance, insurance reporting and other services provided by the Client, as well as the tasks required in the day-to-day and periodic reporting schedule.

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The Client is India’s largest omni-channel jewelry brand, and is recognized and renowned by India consumers. The Client has 165 retail stores in 66+ cities across India, as well as a thriving jewelry eCommerce presence online. Its product line includes rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, chains, bangles, bracelets, mangalsutra, and nose pins, as well as 22k (916) and 24k (995) gold coins with certification and BIS Hallmark stamp guarantee. The Client customer base is growing rapidly, and to attract and retain customers, the business provides new designs and uses a mobile application to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar stores and the virtual world. The mobile app provides a Virtual Try-On feature that allows customers to ‘try on’ jewelry and designs using a virtual reflection and image.

This Client required a comprehensive, easy-to-use augmented analytics solution with simple reporting capability, integrated with its system to provide easy-to-use dashboards for use by all of its end users. The integration of augmented analytics gave the Client a competitive advantage, and enabled the business to better leverage its data and to operate more efficiently, thereby increasing revenue and allowing the client to monitor their data and sales trends. Smarten Augmented Analytics provided an extensive set of reporting and analytics tools, and the features and functionality to meet the business, end-user and Client team needs with Business Funnel Reports, City Funnel Reports, Customer Reports, Dynamic Inventory, Impressions, and Indus Reports. This integrated analytics approach guarantees a fact-based, data-driven business environment and improves decision-making and results.

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Nearly every person on the planet has a smartphone or mobile device, and each of those people uses at least one mobile application as part of their daily routine. The world is more connected today than ever before, and businesses recognize the importance and value of this connection.

Whether your business is a start-up, a small or medium enterprise, or a large corporation, your senior executive team, IT staff, and marketing and sales professionals recognize the importance of expanding into the online market with mobile apps that will support existing and new products and services and increase market, customer, and product reach.

Here, we will focus on the importance of mobile application development to your business and on the crucial advantage of engaging with skilled mobile app programmers and developers to plan and execute that all-important mobile app for business users or consumers and to support your needs as your mobile application grows and evolves. 

We’ll look at the technology, frameworks, and programs used to develop mobile applications and the steps to develop a mobile application to give you a complete picture of the process and the most important considerations.

First, let’s answer the most basic question: What is mobile application development? Mobile application development involves the design and programming of software for smartphones, smart watches, tablets, and other mobile devices. Typically, mobile apps are designed for either the Android or iOS operating systems, or they are designed in a cross-platform environment. These hybrid mobile applications can operate in both iOS and Android environments.

Sometimes the software is installed on new devices and can be used immediately after purchase. Sometimes, the software is developed for a business user or enterprise team to support a work process or information gathering. Sometimes, mobile software development supports a consumer need, and the app is downloaded from a mobile app store. Whatever the case, if executed properly, mobile software and mobile application development can, among other things, satisfy the need to stay connected, perform research, complete a task or a purchase, or get information.

‘For most enterprises, it is nearly impossible to interview, hire and train resources with the specific skills to develop, support and upgrade mobile applications.’

Grand View Research reports that the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of the global mobile application market will grow by nearly 14% over the next seven (7) years.

If your business is considering mobile application development, it is important to undertake this initiative with a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, markets, technologies, and skills that factor into success.

Key Reasons Why You Should Build Mobile Apps

If you are still on the fence about the importance of mobile apps and the benefits of using mobile apps for business, let’s spend a few minutes talking about why mobile apps are good for business.

Here are just a few reasons to build mobile apps:

Increased Market Share

Whether your business is local, regional, or global, it is always fighting for market share. Customer buying behavior is changing rapidly, but one thing has not changed, and that is the importance of access. In the old days, consumers went to the mall to try on clothes or shoes and to shop for sheets, dishes, and shower curtains. Today, all of those items and more are at their fingertips in the form of online stores, and many businesses are taking it one step further by creating a mobile application that can take the consumer into the very heart of their product portfolio and construct virtual walls by keeping the shopper confined to their app while they search for what they want.

If you are struggling for market share or trying to sustain your market share, you have to be creative and expand your reach. You have to build your brand and your visibility. The purpose of mobile apps is to invite and hold a customer with content, products, and services. Whether you are selling auto parts, providing curated news for special interests, or selling sneakers and high heels, your market share depends on your ability to constantly remind your customers of your products and services and to offer them an easy way to navigate and complete tasks.

Today, more than 50% of retail sales take place online, and it isn’t just the big retailers that are creating mobile apps to attract and retain customers. Boutiques and small businesses have the opportunity to design and create interesting, valuable mobile apps that are innovative and encourage prospects and customers to log in and stay awhile!

Improved Competitive Advantage

You may be concerned about the cost of mobile application development, and you may ask why I need a mobile app if my competitors are not going in that direction. If you take the time to research what your competitors are doing, you are likely to find that they are, in fact, designing and releasing mobile apps for business. And, even if they aren’t quite there yet, that is all the more reason for you to gain a competitive advantage by getting ahead of the competition. It takes time to design, develop, and release a mobile application. So don’t wait until you are already behind the curve.

Even if your competitors are already using a mobile app to sell to customers and attract new business, you can create buzz and engender loyalty with interesting, value-added features. Take, for example, a retailer who went beyond selling its line of make-up to add machine learning features that helped clients personalize make-up choices by skin type and color, thereby building a competitive advantage in the market.

In an article, Forbes outlined some considerations to improve customer loyalty using mobile apps, concluding that existing customers provide stable cash flow and are more willing to embrace innovation. A Marketing Metrics survey finds that the probability of selling to an existing customer is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. Do not discount the value of retaining your existing customers by providing new and/or improved access to products and services.

Even the oldest institutions can leverage mobile apps to modernize their software and solutions. Instead of starting from scratch to build a mobile banking application, a well-renowned banking institution looked at its existing technology and investments and built a mobile application that integrated features and functions in an easy-to-use environment to support its customers, simplify online banking for less tech-savvy clients, and gain a competitive edge over its competition.

Enhanced Productivity

Whether you are planning a business mobile app or a consumer mobile application, productivity is a factor. Business users today are doing more with less, and consumers are always trying to make the most of their time. The bottom line is that no technology user wants to waste time trying to complete a task or get the information they need. Creating a mobile application that allows business users or consumers to perform tasks or queries from anywhere is an important benefit to users and your business. The one caveat you must consider here is the ease of use and access. To improve productivity, your mobile app must be responsive and accessible, and it must be intuitive in its navigation and functionality.

Better Portability

By its nature, mobile application development supports the portability of tools and information. Whether a user is carrying a smartphone, a tablet, or an iPad or wearing a smartwatch, access to information is crucial. Every moment your business user or customer is away from a desktop, a landline, or a retail store, you are losing the opportunity to sell information or promote your products. Portability and access are mandatory today.

Mobile Application Use Cases

In this section, we will briefly focus on use cases to further illustrate why mobile app development is important to a particular business function or type of enterprise.

Business to Business (B2B)

Business to Business or B2B is a type of business that focuses on transactions between companies and might involve an exchange of products and services between a manufacturer and wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retail enterprise.

Mobile App Use Cases for B2B:

• Order, Shipment, and Tracking
• New Product and Service Promotion

Business to Consumer (B2C)

Business to Consumer or B2C, involves the sale of products and services from a business directly to a consumer or end-user of a product or service.

Mobile App Use Cases for B2C:

• Gaming
• Social Networking
• Retail Sales
• Music and Media
• Health and Fitness
• Lodging and Travel

Business to Government (B2G)

Business to Government or B2G, companies provide products and/or services to federal, state, and local government agencies.

Mobile App Use Cases for B2G:

• Contract Management
• Order and Logistics Management
• Project and Schedule Management
• Secured Communication Platforms
• Citizen Services

Business to Employee (B2E)

Business to Employee or B2E, provides products and services directly from an employer to a team member. A Forbes article concluded that ‘Every company is being forced to become a software company to compete, and companies are building hundreds of internal apps to increase competitiveness.’

Mobile App Use Cases for B2E:

• Augmented Analytics and Business Intelligence
• Benefits management, including 401K, Vacation, Insurance, etc.
• Supply and Purchasing Management
• Loan Services
• Project Management
• Expense and Travel Management
• Intranet

Before we leave this section, let’s take a brief look at some of the risks and limitations of developing a mobile application for your business:

Drawbacks of Developing a Mobile App

Before you do anything else, be sure that a mobile app is right for your business. Is there another way to achieve your goals? Is another type of software application a better solution? Does your customer or user really need this mobile app? In a Forbes article, the respected publication noted that ’Often, mobile apps are made needlessly for the sake of having a mobile app that an organization can brag about. Instead, these digital products must always serve a clear and distinct purpose.’ 

Security and Privacy: If a mobile application is not designed well or if the selected platform does not provide adequate security, user and customer data may be at risk, and the enterprise may be held liable.

Compatibility: Since mobile applications are meant to leverage mobile operating systems, a particular mobile app may not be compatible with all devices. Hybrid mobile application development allows for compatibility with both iOS and Android, but may not be ideal for your particular mobile app concept.

Product Updates: Depending on the platform and design approach you choose, a mobile app may be more difficult to update. In some instances, users or customers may be required to download a new version of the mobile application to enjoy new features and even patches and bug fixes.

Functionality: Mobile apps fulfill a specific need, function, or service but may not have the same depth and breadth as a desktop application. Depending on the complexity of your product or service offering, a mobile app may or may not suit your users or clients.

In this section, we briefly answered the question, ‘Why build a mobile app?’, and we discussed a few of the concerns and considerations you will want to include when deciding whether to design and develop a mobile application for your business. It is important to note that the benefits of mobile application development are many and that the advantages to your organization will be as unique as the business itself.

Mobile App Development Platforms

In this section, we will discuss the most popular mobile application development platforms. Keep in mind that the choice of Android mobile app development, iOS mobile application development, or hybrid mobile application development for your project will ultimately be driven by your requirements, and those considerations will include your target market, your customers or business users, your technology landscape, and other factors. The investment your organization makes in mobile application development is significant, and the best way to protect that investment is to work with a team that is expert in all popular frameworks, tools, and platforms.

So, what are the different types of mobile apps? First, let’s talk about the two dominant development platforms.

Apple iOS Mobile App Development

Pros of iOS Mobile Application Development

The Apple iOS operating system is designed with strict guidelines and standards, and it has integrated security features and biometrics that create a more hack-resistant environment.

iOS developers enjoy a wide range of tools, including Xcode, which allows fast, easy development and compatibility.

The iOS mobile app developer has the benefit of working in a less fragmented development environment, so it is easier to navigate screen size guidelines and hardware specs, making Apple mobile apps faster and easier to develop.

Cons of iOS Mobile Application Development

There are a few challenges to the iOS ecosystem. To create an iOS mobile app, Apple mobile app developers must work within a closed ecosystem, which places significant controls on what the developer can do with the app and restricts access to device and hardware functionality.

iOS can and does limit third-party platform integration, including some eCommerce payment gateways and other platforms that businesses may require to complete a feature set for their mobile app.

Finally, there is the testing and release process. To release an iOS mobile app, developers must submit it for App Store review. The review team processes more than 1.5 million apps per year, so the process is slow, and Apple rejects more than 30% of the apps submitted annually.

Stats, Market Share, and Ecosystem of iOS Mobile App Development

The Apple iOS operating system ecosystem is not open-source. Rather, it is a closed, tightly controlled environment. By some estimates, its global market share is approximately 25%, and its U.S. market share is about 58%.

Over the past few years, iOS users have spent an average of approximately $25 billion on paid downloads and in-app purchases. Less than 25% of iOS apps use monetization and ads as a strategy.

Android Mobile App Development

Pros of Android Mobile Application Development

The Android mobile app development environment is open-source, so it is easy to customize a mobile app user interface (UI) and its features and functionality.

The open-source environment enables easy integration of third-party applications and libraries within Android mobile apps and gives Android developers free access to device and hardware functionality.

Android distribution includes the Google Play Store and the Samsung Galaxy Store, so businesses can expand the reach of mobile applications.

Cons of Android Mobile Application Development

We are including the open-source environment as a ‘pro’ and a ‘con,’ because there are a few issues inherent in this approach.

First, the myriad of screen sizes and device types creates an issue of fragmentation, making the design, development, and testing of mobile apps a more complex and costly endeavor.

Secondly, this open-source fragmentation issue results in significant security issues. Because the Google Play Store submission process is so accessible, it is possible that users will upload apps that have significant security and privacy issues and/or malware or suspicious code.

Although there is an Android device and software update process for bug fixes and patches, these fixes are spotty and are not released at the same time for all Android versions, models, and devices. Users cannot depend on the manufacturers of inexpensive smartphones to release updates on time (or at all, in some instances).

Stats, Market Share, and Ecosystem of Android Mobile App Development

The Android operating system is open-source. By some estimates, its global market share is approximately 72%, and its U.S. market share is about 40%.

Over the past few years, Android users have spent an average of approximately $7 billion on paid downloads and in-app purchases. Nearly 65% of Android apps use monetization and ads as a strategy.

‘As with any software application or software product development project, your team must begin the project by laying the groundwork.’

Now that we have reviewed the two development platforms, let’s talk about some related considerations. Businesses might choose to develop a mobile application on Android or Apple iOS, or it might be more appropriate for them to develop a hybrid solution. In the section entitled ‘How to Build a Mobile Application,’ we will talk about the considerations that will be involved in making the decision about the platform and development tools. For now, let’s focus on the definitions and descriptions of the various approaches.

Hybrid and Cross-Platform Mobile App Development

Pros of Hybrid Mobile Application Development

The hybrid mobile application development approach produces a mobile application that will be compliant with the Apple iOS and Android operating systems. Assuming you have the right expertise and knowledge of the mobile application development environment, your business can produce a cross-platform (hybrid) mobile application that is seamless and indecipherable from a native application, with a responsive, easy-to-use navigation and user interface.

Developing a cross-platform mobile app is faster and less expensive because hybrid mobile application developers are working with one code for both types of devices and can easily deploy the app to both platforms. This approach reduces the time to market.

Hybrid mobile application technology allows for easy maintenance and upgrades and requires developers to make changes to only one code base.

The cross-platform mobile application development approach makes it easy to integrate mobile apps with cloud data storage and enables simple distribution to release patches and upgrade the mobile app. Users have the added advantage of working with hybrid apps offline, with updates delivered when the user connects to the internet.

Cons of Hybrid Mobile Application Development

Because a native mobile app—one developed only for iOS or Android—engages all the native features and builds on them to create the user experience (UX), the native approach can produce a more user-friendly user interface (UI) than the hybrid mobile application approach.

The mobile application development approach utilizes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to access and control native iOS and Android features, which require third-party tools and functionality.

In leveraging both operating systems, the hybrid approach often slows performance. Hybrid mobile applications require more processing power and memory because they rely on web technologies to serve and comply with both iOS and Android. This can decrease performance.

Stats, Market Share, and Ecosystem of Hybrid Mobile App Development

The hybrid mobile application development environment employs HTML, CSS, and JavaScript web technologies and provides access to device features, e.g., contacts, geolocators, cameras, and device buttons and functions. The cross-platform mobile application development cycle leverages numerous tools and frameworks to build mobile applications.

In the past several years, Flutter has emerged in the top position for hybrid app development tools, with 42% of the hybrid development market. This open-source platform allows developers to leverage and customize widgets and provides a significant advantage in performance and responsiveness.

While every industry is different, we can glean the importance and growth of the hybrid mobile application development market by looking at the retail sector. According to a recent article in Forbes, 74% of retail apps are hybrid. Navigating the crowded market of hybrid and cross-platform mobile application frameworks can be difficult if your team has not worked within this competitive landscape. The market includes Flutter, React Native, Cordova, Ionic, Xamarin, Unity, NativeScript, PhoneCap, Katlin Multiplatform, Apache Flex, Kando UI, Kivy, and others. There are pros and cons to each, and the choice of an approach must be driven by your requirements, including technology, customer and user, security, and other considerations. Engaging an IT consulting partner to help you through the process is an important advantage in ensuring project success.

Before we leave this section, let us look briefly at two market segments of mobile application development, namely, smartwatches and tablets and iPads.

Smart Watch Mobile Application Development

Smart watches provide convenient, portable functionality to millions of global users. The wearable market (as it is called) includes smartwatch mobile apps for fitness, gaming, navigation, and more. Over the past several years, the smartwatch market has grown exponentially. Manufacturers and resellers include Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Imoo, Amazfit, Garmin, Fitbit, Mi, Noise, Fossil, Fire-Boltt, boAt, and others, with Apple holding about 30% of the global market, followed by Samsung at 10%, Huawei at 7%, and Noise at 6%. By some estimates, the smartwatch market will generate nearly $55 billion within the next several years, with more than a quarter of a billion units shipped.

Smart Watch Use Cases:

• Find Parking
• Workout, Running and Fitness Tracking
• Sleep Tracking
• Note Taking
• Weather Tracking
• Public Transit
• Podcasts
• Shopping Lists
• Gaming
• Diet, Nutrition, and Hydration

iPads and Tablets

When businesses plan for mobile applications, they often include tablets and iPads in the list of devices they wish to target. That’s because many users have multiple devices, and a wise business manager wants to have as much flexibility and market reach as possible.

The list of development expertise includes iPad app programmers, Fire tablet programming, and programming on Android tablets. The global market for tablet use has grown by nearly 40% over the past several years and now represents more than one billion users.

iPad and Tablet Use Cases:

• Gaming
• Illustration and Graphics
• Video, Streaming, and Movies
• Translation and Education
• Recipes
• News
• Productivity and Work
• Reading Apps (Books/Magazines/Publications/Libraries)
• Social Media

With a better understanding of the operating systems and platforms available for mobile application development, we will now move on to discuss how to build a mobile application.

How to Build a Mobile Application

According to some estimates, the global annual revenue for mobile applications is expected to exceed $190 billion. That’s an impressive number. But there is a caveat. If a business is too quick to jump in, wishing to get a piece of the pie, that revenue can be elusive, and the process, if mismanaged, can result in significant expenses and even failure. The cost of building a mobile app should be a cause for caution. But with the right planning and resources, you can succeed!

Let’s talk about the best way to build a mobile app to ensure business success.

Best Practices to Build a Mobile App

As with any software application or software product development project, your team must begin the project by laying the groundwork. The standards and quality metrics for design and development will lead the team and set the stage for success.

Strategy: Start with a strategy to take a concept or idea forward. That strategy must include information about your target audience (customers or business users), your competitors and the market, the metrics you will use to measure success, and the goal and purpose of the mobile application. This foundational strategy will allow you to choose the best-suited mobile platform. An IT consulting partner will be instrumental in this phase. If your strategy includes a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to prove your concept or to use customer feedback to incorporate into the final product, you can find more information on this process in our article, entitled ‘MVP Software Development: Everything You Need to Know (The What, Why and How ).’

Requirements:  Here, you will define your business requirements for revenue, budget, schedule, etc., and what technology you will need to support the mobile application and the users, as well as the kind of training you will need to provide, if any. You will decide what you need for a return on investment (ROI).

You must also include customer or business user requirements, i.e., what will the mobile application do? This detailed requirement information will be a critical component of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for prospective IT partners. Be sure to include key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure progress and completion, and plan for user feedback.

Competition: Whether your business is local or global, you have competitors. Depending on the size of the market, you will want to choose 3-4 competitors. Try to focus on those who are innovating in the market. It is easy to compare your business to the old, stale competition and find yourself winning.

But if you want to take your business to the next level, you must create a mobile application that will serve current and future needs in the market. Look for the most challenging competitors and see what they are doing. Then, decide how you want to approach this competitive positioning.

Metrics: Be sure to measure the right things. Don’t just measure for the sake of measuring. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will truly tell the tale of success or failure? Focus on what matters. Most mobile applications fail because they a) do not solve any real user problem or market need, b) provide a poor user experience, c) do not have a clear strategy for monetization and revenue, or d) do not clearly illustrate a value. Your metrics should not just be about budget and schedule. They should also provide real measurements of value and market success.

Purpose of Mobile App: This factor does not talk about ‘what’ the mobile application will do, but rather ‘why’ you are building it, and it is one of the most important factors in developing mobile applications. If you don’t have a clear picture of the ‘why’, you are not likely to succeed. Ask yourself if the planned mobile application will have an impact on your customers or users and whether your enterprise can support the application now and in the future. Does the mobile app environment provide the right channel and method to deliver your products or services?

Here’s another way to think about the ‘why.’

• What Will the Mobile App Do for My Business?

Perhaps you want to achieve additional sales, reduce the cost and/or time to deliver products or services, reduce marketing costs, increase market and customer visibility, or maybe you want to do all of those things. For each of the enterprise goals, be sure to provide metrics to demonstrate measurable results.

• What Will the Mobile App Do for My Customers or Business Users?

The business user or customer purpose is paramount. If your users don’t want or need the app, your mobile app is simply a vanity project that will cost you time and money. Maybe you are already delivering products online, but you want to create a mobile app because your customers have asked for more convenience or access. Maybe you are creating a new product based on your market research and your understanding of what the customer wants. Perhaps your business users need more productive, collaborative tools that integrate functionality and allow for faster, more accurate completion of tasks and planning activities. What is the ‘why’ and how can you prove its validity?

Mobile App Platform: In the section above, entitled ‘Mobile Application Development Platforms,’ we discussed the iOS and Android platforms and the various approaches to native and hybrid smartphone development, as well as smartwatch, tablet, and iPad development. When we consider mobile application development best practices, we must include the choice of mobile application platform.

 If the selected platform, frameworks, and tools are not appropriate to achieve the enterprise and/or customer or user requirements, or if the platform cannot be supported by the current or planned technology and resource availability, the project will fail. You might have the best mobile app idea of the decade, but if you choose the wrong platform, you will not achieve your goals. Your IT consulting partner will consider many factors before recommending a mobile application platform. These factors will include all the information you have gathered and presented for requirements, the purpose and goals of the mobile app, and more. The platform you choose must be able to meet your long-term needs for future innovations and upgrades and to deliver patches, fixes, etc. It must be secure enough to address your needs and the standards with which your enterprise must comply to mitigate risk for the company, its customers, and its users.

Concluding Remarks: Developing a Mobile App

Here is a quick overview that will help you stay on track and address the challenges in developing mobile applications.

Know Your Target Audience: What does your user need, and what does your customer want? Where do they live? Is Android or iOS more popular in your target demographic? Maybe you want to go with Android to ensure expanded market reach and visibility? Does your user often need access while they are offline? What, if any, considerations are there surrounding income, special interests, etc.? Know your users!

Plan Your Features: Understand what the mobile application must do to meet user expectations. Look at technology and current hardware capabilities. Will your mobile application include third-party integration? Consider performance issues, security, data governance, and features and functionality, and include all of those things in your requirements. Make sure your mobile app will work!

Consider Time to Market: What budget and timeline factors will impact your success? Will you need a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test your concept and get feedback before you start final development? How will this impact your release? While iOS can ensure a short development cycle, the platform may or may not be best for your project. Time and funding are finite!

Match Revenue Goals to Monetization: How will your mobile app generate revenue? Is your pricing and monetization plan sufficient to a) attract users or customers and b) generate the revenue you have planned? Customers using the iOS operating system typically spend more than Android owners, which may generate more revenue. But you will have to balance that fact against the requirements and purpose of the app to decide which platform is right for your requirements and your revenue goals. Does the platform you choose allow you to efficiently process and use funds acquired from the mobile app? Not all monetization processes are created equal. Be sure you understand how and when you will receive your funds. Get busy making money!

Before we leave this section, we should take a pause and highlight the importance of adequate planning. Creating a comprehensive roadmap before you start the process will keep you on track. In a recent article, Forbes noted that ‘…many businesses are launching new apps as fast as their teams can work. They jump onto the app bandwagon with the assumption that it’s just about identifying the kind of app they need and briefing the app development team to get it done. However, there are certain aspects of the process that are easily overlooked, leaving businesses with apps that don’t bring in the expected results.’

Hire the Best Mobile App Developers

As businesses consider the development of a software application or software product, there is often a need to employ the services of an IT consulting partner. When one considers the complexities of mobile application development, it is wise to engage a skilled, experienced team of mobile app developers.

Companies that build mobile apps have up-to-date training and knowledge of the market, the domain, the platforms, frameworks, tools, and their experience. They can save your organization time and money with cost-effective services and rapid project completion that will mitigate risk and improve your competitive position.

For most enterprises, it is nearly impossible to interview, hire, and train resources with the specific skills to develop, support, and upgrade mobile applications. In-house resources require that the business provide benefits and training and house the team, thereby incurring facility costs.

Many organizations are employing companies that create mobile apps in India. The best mobile application developers offshore can provide a suitable, cost-effective option with technical and leadership skills, quality, and development methodologies that will guide your enterprise through the complex mobile application development process. To illustrate the cost savings, one need only consider the cost of development for India vs. selected global markets.

On average, the cost of mobile application development services in India is:

• 25% of the cost of development in the U.S.
• 28% of the cost of development in Western Europe,
• 65% of the cost of development in Central Europe
• 32% of the development costs in Australia

Consider the offshore Android developers India has to offer to save money and time and ensure project success, and the iOS developers India can provide as experienced resources to work closely with your team. The right IT consulting partner can go beyond hiring mobile app developers to build a team that will ensure that the project investment is affordable. With the support of a skilled team, your business will get the feedback it needs to create the best mobile application development software.

India-based development services include flexible delivery models for onsite, offsite, and hybrid resources and a full suite of design, development, testing, project management, and other resources with timely communication and reporting and effective Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This White Paper will help your business establish a detailed process to select an offshore development partner.

‘If your business is considering mobile application development, it is important to undertake this initiative with a comprehensive understanding of the concepts, markets, technologies, and skills that factor into success.’

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Find out how Mobile Application Development can address your unique business needs. Hire iOS and iPhone programmers, Hire Mobile Application Programmers, Hire Android Programmers, and Build Your Software Team with dedicated resources. Explore the concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to app development, the Flutter Development environment, and the Laravel Development Framework, with these complementary articles: ‘MVP Software Development: Everything You Need to Know (The What, Why and How),’ ‘What are the Pros and Cons of Flutter Programming?,’ and ‘What is Laravel Programming; What Are Its Benefits and Challenges?’ and ‘Hybrid Mobile Application Development: The What, Why and How.’

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Have you heard of the term Minimum Viable Product, otherwise known simply as MVP? If yours is a start-up or small business, you probably have heard about minimum viable product development, and, in fact, you may be considering this approach as a way to leverage your limited budget and resources to explore the opportunities provided by a new software product or application and ensure that you don’t make a misstep in the market.

“Gartner research analysts report that new product failure rates in the software industry are between 40% and 80%.”

Think of an MVP in this way: A Minimum Viable Product is a version of a new product or a new feature set that provides customers and users with core features in a usable environment so that these users can offer feedback to incorporate into a final product. Businesses often ask how long it might take to develop an MVP. The answer is, ‘it depends.’ Like everything else, the time and budget for an MVP depend on the depth and breadth of the feature set, the complexity of the design, the resources you use to complete the project (in-house, consultants, or offshore experts), and the accuracy of your planning and team experience.

When your business contemplates minimum viable product software development, there is a lot to consider. In this article, we explain the meaning of MVP in software development, why MVP is important, how to build an MVP, the steps to develop an MVP, and the crucial considerations you will need to include when selecting MVP software development services.

This article provides the basics and identifies the various phases of MVP software development and the considerations your business must include in each phase. It includes an overview of each phase and how the information gathered and processed throughout the project should be used to continuously refine the MVP product and build a foundation for the final product design.

MVP Software Development: What Is It?

Before you can proceed with your project, you first need to understand Minimum Viable Product Meaning. Here is a Minimum Viable Product definition that will help you understand the concept:

An MVP is a product that has just enough features and will be functional enough for beta or early customers to use. These early users will provide feedback that will be used in comprehensive product development. Businesses can leverage MVP product development to quickly and cost-effectively gather feedback on a product. In so doing, the business can avoid a lengthy, costly product development process that may fail, may include features or functionality customers do not want, or may leave gaps in functionality that are important to customers and clients.

When we consider MVP software development, the concept must include a framework and environment to create an approach for information management, queries and/or data analysis, task completion, sales, or other business focus.

The Gartner technology research glossary refines the definition to answer the question, ‘What is MVP in Software Development.’ So, what is the practical application of MVP development? It can be applied to support a start-up, small technology, software business, web agency, a technology consulting company, or a business or entrepreneur looking for an investor and beta users to pursue a concept or idea.

Let’s dive in a little deeper.

An MVP in software engineering, or an MVP in custom software development, is meant to serve a particular purpose. For example, it might be designed to provide feedback to:

• Transform an idea into an early-stage, functional product
• Validate a concept or idea through user feedback to address a use case
• Validate product-market fit
• Illustrate a concept in tangible form to attract investors or stakeholders
• Refine the scope, requirements, and use cases for a product or feature set to improve product and market success

Remember, you are only building a product with minimum capabilities. Think of this approach as comparable to building a movie set. All the audience needs to see is the outside of the building, so the construction will not include a full build-out of rooms. But the MVP must be convincing enough to engage the customer, so they will use the features and provide the feedback you need to take the next step.

It is critical to balance ‘minimum’ with ‘viable’ in order to avoid failure. In other words, you want to develop the minimum functionality to demonstrate what your product will do or improve upon while, at the same time, ensuring that the product is dependable, user-friendly, and meets the stated needs of the customers and/or a particular use case. You can’t overpromise. If you can’t deliver what you are showing the customer, then don’t promise that product or those features. The concept must be viable!

What MVP Product Development Isn’t

Before we leave this part of the discussion, let’s talk about one more thing. Namely, what MVP product development is NOT!

Building a Minimum Viable Product is not the same as building a fully functional product. Later in this article, we will talk about how to build an MVP, but for now, it is important to highlight the definition so as to avoid any misunderstanding. When businesses start the process, the ‘minimum’ concept may be clearly defined. But as the process evolves, companies and individuals involved in the project are often tempted to add features or functionality. ‘As long as we are working on this, we might as well add…’

Resist the temptation. Define the MVP, and when there is a question about adding layers or deeper functionality, revisit your definition and be sure you stay within those boundaries.

Now that you have a grasp on the Minimum Viable Product concept, let’s look at why this concept is important for your business to consider.

Why MVP Software Development is Important

Gartner research analysts report that new product failure rates in the software industry are between 40% and 80%. Take a moment to let that sink in. One of the primary benefits of building an MVP for a potential software app or a new set of features in a software product is to reduce the failure rate for your product.

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach is ideal for a start-up business. Why? Because most start-ups don’t have a lot of capital, and even if you do, you’ll want to improve your return on investment (ROI) and your total cost of ownership (TCO) by carefully and comprehensively planning the product and its features and functionality.

Here are just a few of the reasons the minimum viable product approach can help your business achieve its goals:

• Build trust with customers by confirming what is important to them and how a product will best serve them
• Test the business understanding of requirements and competitive advantages
• Avoid costly missteps in the market
• Reduce time to market for final product design
• Evaluate product plans while limiting resources
• Accelerate customer feedback and incorporate it into the final product plan
• Understand customer and user behavior and implement user experience (Ux) concepts
• Reduce development time
• Mitigate risk
• Discover gaps in product and/or market fit
• Find hidden opportunities
• Create a tangible working version of a concept, product, or idea to attract investors and educate stakeholders
• Design a final product roadmap that is cost-effective and based on feedback rather than guesswork
• Attracting investors and/or improving the budget approval process with fact-based feedback and proof of concept
• Discover new markets and create new demand

When one considers the final point in this list, it is worth noting today’s competitive business environment. Now, more than ever, a start-up or small business is pressed for funds and must build its reputation in the market as quickly as possible.

A respected Entrepreneur Business Publication recently noted that developing an MVP and creating an environment that is agile enough to test a concept and pivot quickly can mean the difference between success and failure, and suggesting that the business create a team to experiment and identify new opportunities while, at the same time, maintaining a stable product portfolio.

Start-up MVP development allows your business to reduce costs, mitigate risk, and test new ideas, and it can provide crucial proof of economic viability and customer satisfaction. With a rapid development strategy and a feedback loop in place, the business can gain valuable insight into its projected product plans.

When you consider the importance of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach, please remember the reason you are taking this approach. Positive results are only possible if you leverage MVP software development as it was intended to function.

With the right focus, MVP development can provide a solid foundation for results. Just remember this:

• MVP is meant to avoid product missteps and the creation of products or features that do not serve your bottom line or your customers; it is not meant to represent a fully functional product or to be a shortcut to full product design.

• MVP is meant to uncover the 20% of functionality that 80% of your customers will use, so you can build a sustainable product foundation.

• MVP can be a test of viability for a new product or a new feature set to test business assumptions before making a major financial and resource commitment.

When the MVP process is used appropriately, it can help businesses achieve solid success. Start-up businesses that successfully used MVP to test assumptions and garner customer feedback and interest include Uber, Snapchat, Dropbox, Foursquare, and Airbnb.

As important and beneficial as the MVP process is, your business would be wise to avoid the pitfalls of those who came before you by maintaining a clear understanding of Minimum Viable Product development goals and how and when to use the concept.

The MVP process is not for every company and is not suitable for every situation.

How to Construct an MVP

If you have decided to build an MVP, it is important to understand the minimum viable product process. MVP product development must be planned carefully if a business is to achieve the results it needs from this process.

Let’s take a look at the steps to developing an MVP:

• Market Research to Define Scope
• Document and Prioritize Requirements
• Define Metrics to Determine Success
• Create a Plan for the Customer Feedback Process
• Create MVP Roadmap, Including Iteration Process
• Design and Develop MVP
• Launch MVP
• Incorporate Into Product Iteration
• Refine and Detail Product Features for the Final Design

Market Research for MVP to Define Scope

If yours is an existing product, you probably already have a lot of information about, and from, your customers. In order to accurately plan your MVP development process, you will need to use this information. If this is a new product, your team will have to perform market research to understand your target market and how your customers will use the product. Include information about your market, your user demographics, how and when your users will engage with the product, your competitive position and advantage, and any customer feedback or need assessment you have already performed.

• What market or user need will this new product or feature set solve or address?
• Which competitive products or features will inform your decisions about what to include in the product and how to position pricing and/or marketing?
• What are the obstacles to releasing a successful product or feature set?
• What business needs and goals will this product or feature set address?

For each business, the list of questions and answers to these questions will vary. Be sure you have a real understanding of a) what you want to accomplish, b) why you want to undertake this project, c) how this project will help you achieve your goals, and d) what value this product will add to the market or to your customers or target customers.

One of the primary reasons a start-up business fails is that the market does not perceive a need for its products or services. Be sure the product you are contemplating serves an actual need in the market or among your customers.

“MVP is meant to uncover the 20% of functionality that 80% of your customers will use, so you can build a sustainable product foundation.”

After your market research is complete, you can put pen to paper to develop an overall scope. We will talk about developing requirements and specific features later. For this exercise, you are creating an overall scope. Think of it as a high-level statement of purpose with a bulleted list that describes what the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will do. Starting with a broad scope is a good way to get all parties on board and brainstorm the purpose and function of the product you want to test.

Document and Prioritize Requirements for the MVP

With your market research and scope statements in hand, you can now dive in to document your requirements. Make sure your requirements include consideration of how the user(s) will engage with and leverage the product or new features. Not every user is the same.

In one wholesale Minimum Viable Product example, there might be a segment of customers who use your application to find products, review product options, choose, buy, and ship products to stock the shelves of their store, while others within the same organization will focus on reporting to track how much money was spent on your wholesale products in a quarter or a year, check the status of outstanding orders, or pay the invoices you send. In order to decide on a feature set and requirements for your MVP, you need to understand the needs of both types of users and decide how deep and wide your feature set must be to give them an idea of the final product and engage them in using the application so you can get feedback.

Remember to focus on ‘minimum’ and ‘viable’. You want to create a list of requirements that represents the minimum to give users an understanding of what the product will do, and you want to be sure that the list of requirements and the product functionality you are planning are viable!

Your requirements must be clear and detailed enough to instruct the team. Here is a brief snapshot of the requirements that will help you test your assumptions:

Now that you have created a list of requirements, resources, and schedules, sit down with your team and prioritize the requirements to choose those that are crucial, important, or just nice to have. By its nature, an MVP is not meant to be a fully formed product.

Look at the market research you have and the feedback you have available from customers or prospective customers. What are their pain points? What specific things do they really want? Use this as a guide to keep you on track. Assess the impact of a particular feature on the customer and their overall satisfaction.

Define Metrics to Determine the Success of Your MVP

How will you know if your MVP project is successful and whether the process has given you what you need to take the next step and develop a final application or product?

Because the MVP process is based on hypotheses and experimentation, it is easy to fall back on the idea that you will just see how it goes—that you will somehow know whether you got it right. But, as with anything else, it is important to have metrics. Before your management team, board of directors, or senior executives agree to go forward and invest in a fully functional product or feature set, they will want proof that you have based your assumptions on facts.

The customer feedback you obtain from the use of the MVP will give you some information, but you will want to ask specific questions and avoid subjective feedback. These customer metrics should measure what is important. Don’t just measure for the sake of measuring. Choose metrics that actually tell you whether a concept has been proven, whether a feature is important, etc.

For example:

• How often was a particular feature used?
• How often did a particular feature fail?
• What is the ranked value of a particular feature?
• Does the user experience (UX) behavior measurement meet or exceed expectations?

In addition to this information, you should include metrics for:

• Revenue (based on number of users, licenses, etc.)
• Lifetime Customer Value
• Acquisition Cost
• Churn Rate
• …etc.

As the results of the MVP test process evolve, you can make assumptions about the price points, estimated revenue, etc., but only if you are asking customers for feedback on how often they did (and might) use the product, what they will specifically use the product to accomplish, etc. For more information on incorporating customer feedback into product design and metrics, see the section below.

Plan the Customer Feedback Process

The Minimum Viable Product you design is meant to provide customers with an idea of what the final product will be and to make them excited about the value it will add. As we have discussed, customers will use the product in different ways. Getting the right feedback from your customers will help you develop a set of metrics to determine the success of the MVP and to forecast the success of the final product.

There are two types of customer feedback: Quantitative and Qualitative.

The business will need a process to gather and capture customer feedback, both through the system as customers use the application and through direct and indirect customer feedback.

The team should develop an interview process, surveys, and questions that elicit information regarding the use of the app, the issues the users encountered, the value of the solution or features, etc. Click Maps and other techniques can be used to elicit indirect feedback and will be valuable in identifying issues the customers may not wish to discuss or may not consider important to mention but which may be of significant importance to the business.

Customer feedback will help inform your marketing messages and your Call to Action (CTA), as it will identify what is important to customers and how they define and describe those features or issues.

Other feedback can include:

• The number of downloads or sign-ups
• The number of active users

Create MVP Roadmap, Including the Iteration Process

Create your MVP roadmap, schedule, and budget, and assign resources. If you plan to engage a consultant or offshore resources, you will want to bring the team in to review requirements and plan for what comes next.

The roadmap should include product iterations to refine your product based on customer feedback, the use of features, etc. How will you incorporate customer feedback into future versions? How many future versions of the MVP will you create (if any)?

Your team will have to decide whether to refine features and fix issues as you begin to see the feedback and if you plan to do so, what types of issues or features will you address and which will wait? You will need a plan for this, and that plan should be clear to customers as well.

Your plan should also include a fail-safe for significant failure. When and how will you stop the project if there is a critical issue? 

Be sure to include a review and re-prioritization of features so that you can handle the product evolution based on metrics and real feedback.

Design and Development

This step in the process has the most potential to devour time and money. You may have gathered a lot of great information, but if you are not using the right, skilled resources, you can encounter significant obstacles and risk damaging your reputation among your customers or potential customers.

In this stage, you (or your consultant or offshore expert) will use a standard, dependable software development technique like Agile, Scrum, Kanban, etc., and begin the design process. The choice of a development language, platform, or framework will be made based on the complexity of the MVP, the features, the devices, the environment into which the product will be introduced, etc. Your MVP software development partner will recommend methods of process management and tools to support this process, e.g., JIRA, as well as reporting and meeting frequencies, backlog management, springs planning, testing feedback loops, the number of iterations required to support the project and feature complexity.

The testing phase can include an introduction to a limited number of customers or testers, followed by beta testing. During this phase, the developers collect feedback and assess issues. Based on this information, the MVP product is refined and tested again until a suitable solution is created for introduction to potential customers or to a limited customer base for feedback.

Launch the MVP

The MVP launch strategy must include a process for managing the use of the MVP, answering customer questions, and providing support. If your customers are frustrated during this MVP test phase, they will not use the product, and you will not get the feedback you need.

The launch strategy must be well-conceived. Will your team provide a free download from your website, or will the MVP be released in some other manner? How will you provide access to users? Do they have to sign up? Is each user given a specific profile? What security measures are in place to ensure that information entered by customers is protected? How long will the MVP test period last? Will the download ‘expire’ so that access is no longer possible?

You will have to manage all of these questions and more in order to ensure a successful launch.

Again, if you engage an expert, you will be working with a team of people who have launched MVP products and understand how the process should work and all of the complexities of the process that must be addressed in order to assure success.

Incorporate MVP Feedback and Metrics Results Into the Iteration Phase

Now that the MVP product is out in the world, your team will focus on reviewing the feedback and metrics as they are available. Some MVP products are refined on an ongoing basis to address small bugs and make the user experience easier.

What if the worst happens and the project is seen as a failure? Your metrics must reflect what is considered a viable product and when to keep moving forward. If you have minor issues, you will simply refine your metrics and your hypotheses and move forward with those refinements using an established product iteration process. One of the most important aspects of the MVP development process is to be flexible and agile enough to pivot as necessary. If the product is viable, make the changes and move forward. If it is not, or if the concept requires fundamental changes that cannot be made in this version of an MVP, the business must adapt. Do not stubbornly continue if all metrics, feedback, and signs are telling you to drop back and come up with another plan!

Be sure to revisit your priorities and focus on those issues that are most important to your business and your customers. Don’t try to fix everything at once!

The team should continuously review the results to gain insight into features and priorities. Were there things the business considered important that were seen as less important by customers? Are there gaps in the features or functionality?

Refine and Detail Product Features for the Final Design

After the MVP cycle is complete (including any iterations you deem appropriate), the process of requirement refinement and detailed feature design begins. All the information gathered during the market research, initial and subsequent requirements iterations, and customer feedback phases is incorporated to finalize the product design.

If you are working with an MVP partner, you will budget and schedule the final product design in concert with that team.

Find the Best MVP Development Company to Support Your Endeavors

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) process is not to be taken lightly. Done right, it can provide crucial information for product development and test your theory of market success. It can help the business to avoid the cost of product development for a product that the market does not want or need. It can help you identify competitive advantages and customer needs and build trust among prospective and current customers.

But if you are to achieve your MVP goals, you must have the right MVP development company. It is unlikely that a start-up or small business will have the resources or the knowledge to undertake an MVP project alone. By engaging an MVP development company for Minimum Viable Product app development, you can leverage the skills of a team that has experience in planning and launching an MVP.

When a start-up or small business considers this cost, it is easy to see how even the best application or software product idea can be set aside. However, a start-up cannot grow without products or investment. The key is to get the most value for the investment.

In-house resources will, by their nature, include a benefits package, ongoing training, the facilities costs to house the staff, etc. U.S. and Western European software development fees are skyrocketing.

MVP software development agencies in India are a good option. Consider the average cost of development for India vs. selected global markets.

On average, the cost of MVP development services in India is:

• 25% of the cost of development in the U.S
• 28% of the cost of development in Western Europe,
• 65% of the cost of development in Central Europe
• 32% of the development costs in Australia

Consider offshore MVP development to save money and time and ensure project success. These cost-effective, experienced MVP development agencies can work closely with your team to ensure that the MVP project investment will be affordable, and, with the help of a skilled team, your business will get the feedback it needs to make a decision on a final product.

India-based MVP development services include flexible delivery models for onsite, offsite, and hybrid resources and a full suite of design, development, testing, project management, and other resources with timely communication and reporting and effective Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

This White Paper will help your business establish a detailed process to select an offshore development partner.

Minimum viable product development consulting is crucial to a start-up and the right services can mean the difference between success and failure.

“If you engage an expert, you will be working with a team of people who have launched MVP products and understand how the process should work and all of the complexities of the process that must be addressed in order to assure success.”

Click on these links for more information about services to Support Start-ups, and crucial considerations for Choosing a Partner for a Start-up Business.

No matter the size of your business, when the enterprise is considering MVP product development consulting, it is important to get the best skills and the most responsive services.  

As you consider the project phases and information provided in this article, think about adding an appropriate partner to your team to help you through these phases and ensure that your MVP project will be a success.

Take your start-up, small, or medium (SME) business to new heights with a software product that will put you head and shoulders above your competition. Let us help you get your MVP software product out into the world!

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Explore the benefits and components of mobile application development, the Flutter development environment, and the Laravel Development Framework, with these complementary articles: ‘Mobile App Development is Important to Business, So Are Mobile App Programmers,’ ‘What are the Pros and Cons of Flutter Programming?,’ and ‘What is Laravel Programming; What Are Its Benefits and Challenges?’

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If you have not heard of Laravel development, you may wish to find out more about this web development framework before you choose your own project approach to development.

In this article, we explore Laravel as a foundation for development option, and we discuss the benefits of Laravel for your business and clients, as well as some of the challenges of Laravel development. We have also provided some development considerations for your business team to include in its Laravel project planning.

‘As with any software development project, you will want to assess your needs, the needs of the market and your customers before you choose a development environment and start working on your web application.’

What is Laravel?

The Laravel development framework uses the PHP general-purpose scripting language as the foundation for its Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework. It is available as an open-source product. Its ecosystem includes nearly twenty-five (25) tools and options to simplify coding,  testing, scaffolding, deployment, monitoring, server management, authentication, and more. Its Laravel Vapor product is a serverless deployment platform that is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and its Forge solution provides provision and deployment for PHP applications on DigitalOcean, Vultr, Amazon, Akamai, Hetzner, and other platforms. Its Envoyer product is designed to simplify deployment.

TechJury reports that there are nearly 45,000 businesses currently using Laravel for development projects. Laravel is the foundation for nearly 750,000 global websites, and that number is rapidly increasing in the computer, electronics, and technology vertical industries, in eCommerce and digital marketing, and in the science and education, government and law, and arts and entertainment industries. Most of its global focus is in the United States, with the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and Brazil following the U.S. in Laravel’s popularity.

The initial success of Laravel was driven by its PHP-based framework. PHP is a well-known development approach with a twenty-five year reputation and nearly 50% of global development. The fact that Laravel has chosen PHP as its underpinning gives it an advantage as it grows its own market, and as its popularity grows in the technology sector, it has gained recognition among developers.

As Laravel expands its targeted toolkit and features to support simple, rapid development, it gains more popularity among PHP developers and in the market in general, and today it is used by many world-renowned businesses, including:

Pfizer: Pfizer is a pharmaceutical company with a large research component, an extensive pharmaceutical product line, and manufacturing facilities. The Pfizer brand is well-known around the world, most especially because of its recent involvement in creating and distributing vaccines to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

BBC: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcasting business established in 1922. It focuses on sports, news, and world coverage via broadcast TV, radio, and online media outlets.

Publishers Clearing House: Publishers Clearing House (aka PCH FrontPage) reaches the public via a website and advertising to promote its sweepstakes business. It uses its website to provide news and information about music, movies, television, and world news topics, including politics, science, and technology. Site visitors can earn ‘tokens’ by searching and clicking through videos and articles and apply those tokens to win prizes. The site also allows visitors to register for sweepstakes and lotteries.

Invoice Ninja: Invoice Ninja provides software apps to help businesses invoice clients and track and monitor expenses, tasks, and projects.

TourRadar: TourRadar is a travel site that allows site visitors to find and register for tours of sites of interest and destinations around the world.

Development with Laravel: Benefits

There are many reasons to choose Laravel and its PHP underpinnings for your software application and web development needs.

Business Benefits

Time-to-Market, Project Savings: Because Laravel has designed its tools and development solutions to be easy to use and loaded numerous features and functions into pre-programmed bundles, the business can save time on custom coding, thereby cutting costs by approximately 35%.

Multi-Language Support: You can design and develop your product or solution in multiple languages. So, if yours is a global business, you can satisfy clients, customers, and stakeholders around the world with a web application to suit your needs.

Security and Privacy: No matter your market or business focus, site security is paramount to protecting your business and mitigating risk, both for your own confidential information and for the information you gather and protect on behalf of your customers, partners, stakeholders, suppliers, and employees. Laravel security tools and techniques ensure that your business will not risk its reputation, its brand, or financial ruin.

Upgrades and Bug Fixes: The Laravel approach to solution development includes many built-in tools and bundles with robust documentation and simple code maintenance for bug fixes and upgrades. As your solution grows and changes, your business can easily upgrade features and leverage bundles, programs, and packages to complete upgrades and bug fixes quickly and easily and get to market with these new features to generate more revenue.

Flexibility and Scalability: As you move data from legacy and existing systems to the new Laravel system, you can migrate data easily and quickly, making project completion easier, faster, and less expensive, and Laravel can support your business as it grows with a scalable architecture to add more locations, more users, and more data volume.

Developer Benefits

Laravel has bundled and programmed numerous functions and tools so that developers can save time and effort.

One of the reasons Laravel is popular among developers is its multi-layered security features, which guard against request forgery, cross-site scripting, and other issues, as well as its multiple file systems and packaging capabilities.

Because Laravel leverages PHP, developers will find it easy to get up to speed on this framework, and, when compared to JavaScript, PHP is easy to learn and use. Laravel blends the framework with PHP commands to make quick work of development. A little more than 25% of Laravel developers report five or fewer years of professional development experience, while 30% have five to ten years of experience.

Developers report that the Laravel approach of separating the backend code from the frontend code is a benefit and supports simple bug fixes and upgrades.

Here are a few other reasons developers like Laravel:

Messaging and Mail Integration: Laravel has a mail API service that supports text and email via cloud and local servers.

User Authentication and Access Authorization: The Laravel authentication process is fast and easy to use.

URL Routing: Laravel developers can create and publish a package simply by adding two lines of code and plugging the package in, thereby saving time, resources, and effort.

Security and Privacy: Laravel provides a built-in system to defend against cross-site request forgery and scripting and against SQL injection.

Automated Testing: Laravel includes out-of-the-box testing capability with PHP unit testing from within the application. Developers can test by function or an entire site.

In-App Smart Scheduling: The Laravel command scheduler allows the team to schedule command forms with one server entry.

End-User Benefits

• Site visitors and end-users will enjoy the benefits of Laravel, starting with the fact that a customer can easily communicate with the business no matter what messaging platform the business is using.
• Laravel offers robust support for user messaging to receive emails, acknowledge orders, provide receipts, provide tracking information, and remind users of subscriptions and renewals.
• Laravel provides seamless messaging and design templates that are designed to be responsive on desktops, tablets, and smartphones, so customers will enjoy a high-performance experience, no matter what device they are using.
• If your site requires users to complete a form, you can ensure a positive customer experience by providing Laravel capabilities to handle exceptions. When a user enters the wrong information in a form field, the system is designed to handle the error so the user is not frustrated and the transaction can continue.
• Laravel provides many options for templates, so the business can offer the site visitor the right branding, navigation, and flow to complete a task, find information, and quickly move on. These templates are well-tested and proven, so your users do not have to worry about errors, misdirection, or poor navigation.

Challenges of Laravel Application Development

When it comes to development frameworks, tools, and techniques, no one option is perfect for everyone. Knowing your own requirements and working with developers who can advise you and recommend the best solution for your project will go a long way toward a successful project outcome.

That said, no article on Laravel (or any other development framework) would be complete without looking at some of the challenges and drawbacks of working with a particular approach. When it comes to Laravel, there are a few we will mention here.

Laravel Experience and Skill: While Laravel developers will typically tell you that Laravel is easy to learn and use (especially if you are familiar with PHP), it is easy for less experienced developers to overestimate their expertise, and if your project requires extensive knowledge of the packages, tools, extensions, and techniques, you may find it hard to get the results you want. Later in this article, we will talk about the considerations you should include when planning a Laravel project, and we will include some skillsets and information you can use to address this issue.

Laravel Support: There is an active development community, so design and development teams can access advice and discuss issues, but the support function for Laravel is limited. So, if your team is looking for technical support and advice, you will find a lot of documentation but less robust support access. This limited access to support may cause downtime if your development team is not highly skilled and experienced in navigating the Laravel environment.

Laravel Features and Framework: Laravel has an extensive suite of features, tools, and bundles to streamline the development process and save you time and money. But when it is compared to other web development frameworks, its feature set is slimmer. If yours is a complex, heavy-weight web application, Laravel can accommodate the development process, but it will take some time to configure and coordinate the feature set and environment.

Laravel Updates: The Laravel team provides a lot of updates, but this can become an issue for a project team that must constantly review updates and decide on when, where, and how (or if) to apply these updates to existing projects. Updates may also require that programmers and developers stay abreast of new skills and information about the latest features, functionality, and approaches within a package, a program, an extension, or a tool.

Laravel Speed: When compared to other web frameworks, Laravel is not particularly fast. Depending on your requirements and needs, this may be a consideration for your business and your users. 

Laravel Cost: While Laravel development can be very cost-effective if you have the right development resources and team, it is not the least expensive web framework. It is open-source, but some of its tools, like Forge and Vapor, are products for sale. If you choose to engage a partner to develop your solution, your development team should have existing knowledge, skills, and experience in the Laravel environment. If you are considering your own team, you will have to invest in the time and training to get your team up to speed and deal with a significant learning curve.

‘There are nearly 45,000 businesses currently using Laravel for development projects. Laravel is the foundation for nearly 750,000 global websites.’

Development Considerations for Laravel Projects

As with any software development project, you will want to assess your needs, the needs of the market, and your customers before you choose a development environment and start working on your web application.

Requirements

Your requirements must include your technology landscape, hardware, network, and support systems, as well as any integration of data sources. The more detailed your requirements for features and functionality, the more likely your Laravel Consulting Partner can meet your needs without rework.

If you are struggling to decide how much to add to your web application in the way of features and functionality, you may wish to design a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with basic features that your test audience can leverage to give you feedback on what is mandatory to have, what is missing, and how users might want to change navigation or features to meet their needs. If you need detailed information on the MVP process, please refer to our article, ‘MVP Software Development: Everything You Need to Know (The What, Why and How).’

Target Audience

The ability to pinpoint your target audience will drive a lot of development decisions. You will need to know what types of devices they use (see the section below for further detail), the target demographic, languages, what kinds of features they expect, how you will fill the gaps of competitive products to attract these customers, etc. Knowing your target audience will help you develop the product, the roadmap for future upgrades, and the marketing and advertising messages.

Product Expectations

As you develop your product expectations, you will fold in the information you have from your technology requirements, your target audience, your initial set of features (perhaps culled from an MVP launch), and when and how you will upgrade. You will want to address the expected speed of development and launch and manage your expectations accordingly. If you are creating a complex mobile application, your schedule and budget must be adjusted accordingly.

Device Types

Your product plans must incorporate the type of devices or a list of devices or access points you want for your mobile application. Will you design your Laravel product, app, or solution to run on desktops, via the web, on tablets, or smartphones (or all of those)? All of these devices have different issues, resolution concerns, navigation considerations, screen sizes, and data access and integration concerns.

Budget, Schedule, and Resources

Based on all of your requirements and the research you have done, you must now put together a budget, a schedule, and the resources to develop your Laravel solution. Because most businesses (big and small) want a cost-effective method to develop a customer product or an internal business user solution, you will want to seriously consider engaging an expert, skilled IT consulting partner—one with the resources to provide Laravel skills and extensive knowledge of PHP, of the market, development tools, the framework, platforms, etc. While you can consider services like Laracasts for developers to educate and train a team, this process will take time, and the resulting team will not be flexible enough to adapt to changes during the project if you add features or run into a snag. Once you have a budget and a schedule, you will want to stick to the timeline and mitigate additional expenses. Engaging a skilled consulting partner will help you stay on track.

Engage an IT Consulting Partner

You can build your software team with dedicated resources to work on your project and guide you to project completion, and through upgrades and maintenance, without the need for your business to hire, train, and house a development team. Hire Laravel programmers who are dedicated to your project for a one-time project or ongoing maintenance, support, and upgrades.

What Skills, Experience, and Knowledge Will Your Business Need to Complete a Laravel Project?

Whether you want to develop a technology solution, a content management system (CMS), an eCommerce product, or an educational outreach site, you will need the right skills and experience to complete a Laravel project.

Laravel leverages PHP and integrates technologies, including MySQL for database management, HTML5 to structure and present your content, JQuery for the user interface, and Angular to build the web app. Be sure that your prospective IT consulting partner has these skills and the numerous others required to address any and all of your requirements.

• Technical Feasibility
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Design and Deployment
• Tool and Package Integration
• Device, Platform, and Third-Party Integration
• Project Management
• Architectural Design
• Product Design and Development
• Laravel and PHP Development
• Laravel and PHP Support
• Back-end API Development with Laravel Lumen Microservices
• Application Design, Development, Maintenance and Support
• Application Re-Engineering
• User Interface Design
• Deployment, Maintenance, and Support
• Upgrades
• Testing
• Security, Privacy, Standards and Compliance
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Quality Management Methodologies and Certification
• Migration Services
• Product Roadmaps
• PHP, MySQL, HTML5, JQuery and Angular Skills
• Content Management Systems (CMS) and Portals (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.)
• eCommerce Development

There are many reasons to like Laravel as a web application development environment. Not the least of these is that Laravel is built on a secure, dependable PHP foundation and that it can accommodate all types of devices to allow user access from anywhere, so your target demographic can be satisfied. It satisfies multiple languages and is suitable for global web apps and simple apps alike. While there are some challenges to the Laravel development environment, they are easily overcome with expert skills and experience and a team that can assess your requirements and be sure you are choosing the right environment, then get you where you want to go with design, development, and deployment that will leverage all the potential of the Laravel framework.

Laravel allows your development team to work quickly with bundles and integrated functionality, and it offers developers robust documentation for reference and workflow, so the programmers are free to create, code, test, and deploy. It has a strong, secured foundation and is scalable, so your business can grow and adapt to the market with additional features, adding users and functionality as required.

If your business selects Laravel to complete a web application, be sure to choose an IT consulting partner that has a trained, skilled team at your disposal with dedicated resources and experience to satisfy your industry or vertical market needs.

Get in touch with us!

Find out if Laravel Application Design and Development and the PHP development approach are the right choices for your team. Hire Laravel Programmers, and Build Your Software Team with dedicated resources. Explore the benefits and components of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach to product design with these complementary articles: ‘What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? and Why Should My Business Care?.’ Discover the benefits and components of mobile application development and the Flutter development environment with these complementary articles: ‘Mobile App Development is Important to Business, So Are Mobile App Programmers,’ ‘What are the Pros and Cons of Flutter Programming?’ and ‘Hybrid Mobile Application Development: The What, Why and How.’

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