Enterprise Application Development: Features, Types, Benefits and Cost
Organizations in today’s digital world are entering the connected customer age. The connection of an enterprise with its customers and employees is critical for acquiring massive value from real-time data streams. Statista has estimated that IT will spend around $672B on enterprise application development by the end of 2022. As the growth of the enterprise application market is exceeding 10% every year, it is considered the fastest-growing element in the ambient IT industry.
So let’s get started with the basics and then move on to the critical parts of enterprise application development.
What is Enterprise Application?
Enterprise application is designed to integrate computer systems that run all the operation phases of an enterprise to offer coordination and cooperation of work throughout the enterprise. Enterprise applications aim to integrate core processes of business like accounting, finance, sales, inventory, human resources, and services.
Read: How to make a web application step by step?
The ideal enterprise application system can overlook and control all processes in real-time through a software architecture on a client/server platform. Enterprise applications can help businesses in expanding their scope by linking them with business partners, suppliers, and customers.
What is Enterprise Application Development?
Enterprise application development is the process of building and deploying a scalable application for large organizations to help facilitate their business needs. The purpose of enterprise application is to eliminate pain points and allow clients, employees, and partners to engage in the most effective way possible.
Enterprise application automates functionality and workflow to empower users to complete their desired tasks in less time. While developing the enterprise application, agility, speed and scalability are crucial. That is primarily enabled by the adoption of cloud technologies.
Cloud Platforms for Enterprise Application Development
Cloud enables developers to work on services and programs without worrying about the installation and configuration of expensive or time-consuming hardware. Users can achieve real-time collaboration and communication between teams with cloud platforms.
APIs, built-in tools, security, user management, reusable UI components, data integration, and templates available on cloud platforms helps to resolve challenges in the development of enterprise applications. Now, small to medium-sized businesses can also enjoy customized applications for maintaining and managing their teams, thanks to software development tool providers.
Read: Web App Development Process
Moreover, the cloud services models, i.e, SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS help businesses to move their applications faster.
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SaaS (Software as a Service) is a way of delivering apps over the internet so that the app can be accessed from any device.
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PaaS (Platform as a Service) is a development and deployment cloud environment that enables developers to deliver simple and sophisticated cloud-based apps to complex enterprise applications.
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IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is on-demand access to virtual storage, networking and servers to run applications and workloads in the cloud.
Now the next question is, “what should you consider before choosing the cloud platform for developing your enterprise application?”
Factors to Consider While Opting for the Cloud Platform
To find an ideal cloud platform for your application strategy, you need to consider the following factors:
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Security
Custom applications depend on sensitive customer and company data that needs to be protected at all times. Reliable password policies, permissions, row-level security, secure firewalls, multiple-factor authentication, HTTPS encryption, penetration testing, secure data centres, IP login restrictions, advanced threat detection, secure firewalls, backup and disaster recovery options can help ensure the security of the data.
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Scalability
Application development tools need to be capable of scaling according to your business requirements so that you can benefit from them in the future as you do today. Development tools that support massive data streams including IoT data will be better for your business growth.
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Sift Application Development Tools
Speed has always been a concern when it comes to developing enterprise applications, that’s why the tools being used for development should be able to generate faster outcomes. Some of the features that the development tools must have are easy testing and analytics capabilities, easy visual prototyping, the ability to use code, low code or no code for development, direct deployments, and model-driven business-logic development.
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An ecosystem that Expedites Innovation
Even if you have the right tools, developing an application from the ground up can be tedious and time-consuming. However, an application development environment with pre-built apps and components developed by third parties can make a positive impact on product development, deployment and delivery.
Types of Enterprise Applications
Enterprise applications can be divided by their business functions. Each enterprise application type can be considered a “system” as they integrate with the organization’s business processes.
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - which covers Accounting, Customer Services, Procurement, Human Resource, Corporate performance and governance, Sales, Production, Distribution
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Low-code Development Platforms (LCDP)
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Business Process Management (BPM)
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Database Management System (DBMS) - like Data Warehousing (DW, DWH or EDW) and Master Data Management (MDM)
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Human Resource Management (HRM)
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Knowledge Management (KM)
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Networking and Information Security:
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Intrusion Detection Prevention (IDS)
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Software-Defined Networking (SDN) - consisting of SD-WAN
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Security Information Event Management (SIEM)
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Product Data Management (PDM)
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Product Information Management (PIM)
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Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
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Supply Chain Management (SCM)
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Software Configuration Management (SCM) like Version Control System (VCS)
Benefits of Enterprise Applications For Your Business
Using enterprise applications has several advantages for a business, some of them are listed below:
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Easier Business Planning
With enterprise applications, making business plans and tracking the performance of your organization becomes easier. You can not only check the progress of production but also monitor customer satisfaction results and business expenses. The dashboard on the homepage groups all the information into tables and charts making data easy to comprehend.
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Better Productivity and Flexibility
Enterprise applications make the tasks of managers and employees easier by automating repetitive tasks and processes involved in one’s business. For instance, these applications can automate employee pay processing, emails, etc.
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Improved sharing and management of data
Enterprise applications increase interoperability between different departments of a company. An agile enterprise application has access to all the information gathered by business applications which eliminate the data processing responsibilities.
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Better Record Keeping and Compliance
Using enterprise applications also helps your business in record-keeping and compliance. The built-in security system in the application also reduces the risk of data loss or data theft.
Points to Consider Before Developing Enterprise Application
Before you develop and integrate an enterprise application, these are the factors that you need to consider:
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Business Objectives
Before hiring developers for building your enterprise application, it’s important to figure out the goals you want to achieve, what problems it will resolve, and what benefits it will provide to your company.
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Security
Once you have decided to develop your enterprise application, you need to pay attention to critical problems such as storage, data transfer, data usage and so on. You need to secure the data using different authentication methods to make sure there are minimum chances of data theft.
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Administration and Control
Another important thing to consider is the administration and legal work that will be performed in the organization. Simply put, you need to decide who will be responsible for the management of the app and train them for that.
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Edge Technology
To keep up with the fast-paced world of technology, it is important to have an enterprise application that will perform adequately even after a few years. This can be achieved if you choose the right technology for your app with the help of experienced enterprise application developers.
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Agile Development Method
The development approach for your application should be agile as it provides an iterative and step-by-step method for enterprise application development. It will help in determining the design, development and testing methods beforehand and allow you to return to the previous stages of development, fix issues and continue the development process.
Must-Have Features of Enterprise Application
Some of the features that are must-have in the enterprise application for your business are:
An effective enterprise application should be able to manage and automate repetitive tasks so that employees can complete workflows with greater efficiency.
Strong user authentication such as two-factor and multi-factor authentications are the basic yet must-have features needed in enterprise applications for securing sensitive data.
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Real-Time Analytics
As enterprises need to manage several processes, services, and interact with hundreds of stakeholders, a real-time analysis will help in efficient data processing and better decision-making.
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Data Sharing
Businesses have to process a vast amount of data regularly. If the enterprise application will have real-time data sharing, it will make it easier for clients, managers, and investors to send or receive relevant data in any format.
If you want your enterprise application to offer smooth and easy data access from anywhere, then storing data in the cloud will be an ideal choice.
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Push notifications
Including a push notification feature in the enterprise application will remind your employees regarding important business tasks, upcoming events, and other updates even when they aren’t using the application.
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Instant Messaging
Instant messaging features in the application will help your employees and every person associated with the organization to stay connected and communicate seamlessly.
Enterprise App Development Cost
To develop a high-performing, error-free application for your internal operations, you need to hire a development team including a project manager/team lead, front-end developers, back-end developers, UI/UX designers, and QA tester. Although the accurate cost of enterprise app development depends on your business requirements, the average cost can range anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000.
Read: Why Web Applications Are Becoming Popular Than Standalone Apps?
If you’ve an idea for enterprise app development, you can get in touch with us to get quotes and hire developers with years of expertise to transform your business.
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