3 Levels & 15 Types of Enterprise Mobile Apps

Mobile industry specialists are confident that soon the business need to develop a mobile application will substitute today’s need to deliver a PowerPoint presentation. Judging from all the possibilities enterprise mobile apps provide now, there're high chances this statement will turn out to be true.

Solving a company’s problems with the help of an enterprise mobile app isn’t just a trend anymore, but a reasonable, hands-on approach. Even though the amount of specific tasks and challenges for every possible job is immense, mobile enterprise apps can assist in solving a good share of them.

With our experience in enterprise mobile app development in mind, we've created the infographic to point out main types of enterprise applications.

As the picture suggests, enterprise mobile apps are already able to target all the three levels of the organization’s needs: from fulfilling the tasks of a certain position to addressing corporate matters that concern each and every employee.

Employee level

The employee level is the narrowest one. It consists of task-oriented applications, useful to people who hold a particular position; these apps help employees solve one particular problem. An example of such apps is a BI and analytics tool that a busy top-manager can use to quickly check important KPIs from their mobile device.

Department level

The richest level of all is the department level: the enterprise mobile apps of this type are used by the employees who perform the tasks of a particular department.

• General field force automation applications are welcomed by any technician who works on customer’s premises. With such a tool, they will be able to remotely access corporate knowledge base, log important equipment parameters, plan and track activity time and book necessary resources.
• Marketing management applications can be used by a trade marketing team, working in the office or in the field. Trade marketing apps enable easy and controlled management of trade promotions and special offers.
• Sales process management apps are, as a rule, connected to the company’s CRM and provide quick mobile access to customer information. In addition, a field sales mobile app can be a substitute for brochures or catalogs that sales managers use to advertise their products.
• Customer service applications often have VoIP or messaging features and allow easy and prompt communication. This makes it simple for managers to always stay in touch with their company’s customers, even while being on business trips.
• Internal financial apps allow people involved in finance and stocks keep a close eye on balances or accounts. Needless to say, with this tool they can also make remote money transactions.
• Supply-chain apps facilitate the work of logistics specialists. Shipped, stored and ordered products can be tracked even while employees are not at their workplaces.
• While general HR apps assist HR managers in gathering employee feedback and tracking onboarding process, recruiting apps give access to CVs or other applicants’ data that is essential for interviewing. Also, via such an enterprise mobile app, recruiters can easily contact a particular candidate from the company’s database.

The last two application types of this level have a larger scope:

• Partner applications are used by, as the name suggests, partner organizations. By letting the company’s staff look through another organization’s activities from mobile devices, this tool contributes to maintenance of trusted relationship.
• Industry specific applications reflect the company’s industry focus and help specialists keep a keen sense on the pulse of a specific branch of trade or production.

Company level

Company level mobile enterprise apps are obviously meant to be used by the entire organization. Communication and collaboration apps allow employees build rapport and stay connected. Corporate training apps are mLearning apps with the necessary company/industry knowledge and a personal learning plan. And lastly, General productivity apps help everyone conveniently plan and monitor their own – or, in case of managers and supervisors, other employees’ – activities.

Summing up

Enterprise mobile apps are already a separate and a mature sector of mobile technology. In the future, as more organizations will be noticing the advantages enterprise mobile software brings to their business, types of such applications will most likely be getting even more diverse and rich in functionality.