In enterprise mobile strategy layout, the app has become connected to the business and the main carrier of the user, the same development technology is very mature stage, and to consider from the Angle of technology, many practitioners may not know, the more large enterprises, the more IT budget more companies, most of their mobile app are implemented based on mixed development mode, Especially for B2B, B2C and B2E mobile applications developed by hybrid APP technology, the proportion is far beyond the market expectation and imagination.
At present, leading companies in major banks, insurance companies, tobacco, electric power, aviation, railway, home appliance manufacturing, food, retail and other industries are using a large number of mixed development mode to develop and manage their own APPS. So many people can’t help asking “why do these companies, enterprises and institutions, which have enough budget and development resources, choose mixed mode APP development technology as the support of enterprise Internet?” In the impression of most people in the industry, there is still a gap between hybrid development technology and native development technology in terms of user experience and product capability.
In view of this industry doubt, APICloud founder and CEO Liu Xin analyzed this prominent phenomenon of the industry in a simple way, and the answer is the most direct connection with the Internet and digital needs of enterprises, which also reflects that when Liu Xin founded APICloud platform, Why hybrid development technologies were chosen to serve platform users.
This paper will explain why many enterprises choose hybrid app development technology through the analysis of Four aspects by Mr. Liu Xin. Meanwhile, the conclusion also reveals the fundamental advantages of hybrid APP mode for solutions of different industries and the necessity of enterprise selection.
First, the need for digital speed
The Internet term “trial and error” is not only spreading in Internet companies, but also widely accepted in the process of traditional companies’ internetization.
When talking about their enterprise mobile strategy, more and more CIO will mention “can we make a prototype of an idea of our business department within a week, quickly realize it, throw it out to test the user feedback, and then change it based on the prototype”. This method of rapid initiation, rapid verification and rapid adjustment has become widely popular. The reason why we need to turn the business from idea to reality in a short time, even if it is a little rough, lies in the fact that there may be no precedents for business innovation ideas to follow, and they have a clear corporate personality, so it is difficult to think completely by mere imagination. Instead of spending three or five months honing out the business needs, spend a week or two putting the basic idea in place. Even if what is done in such a short time does not really meet the needs of the business, it can make the business ideas “grounded” and “targeted” in the process, so as to achieve a more complete and feasible business plan.
“An idea from the business department, IT can come out in a week or two”, which is also a very important compliment for the information director of the enterprise. The need for such speed is exactly the most obvious advantage of the mixed development technology of APICloud platform. A set of code synchronously generates iOS and Android apps, and even partially compatible with wechat public accounts and small programs. This set of code does not represent laziness or simplification of engineering technology, but more because it saves not only the time of code writing, but more importantly saves the problem of cross-knowledge structure coordination between multiple technical teams. There is no need for iOS and Android engineers to meet and discuss the difference of implementation. Moreover, it greatly saves the time cost of app and server side joint adjustment and trial. Therefore, if the same function starts from zero, it is impossible to achieve valuable business requirements within one or two weeks using traditional native development technology, and this process may not even solve the fragmentation and differentiation problems of different terminals if using native technology. In order to meet CIO’s requirements for business development and digital efficiency, cross-platform mixed mode APP development is often planned as the supporting basis of mobile strategy.
Second, the need for business flexibility
In the B/S architecture of the PC era, the updating of IT systems does not need to consider the influence of the client side too much. Because as the user entrance of the browser, has been in the state of access to the network, as long as the network unicom, users at any time to visit the site will get the latest functions and business. To the user, there is no real concept of version. As long as you visit the server, any update of the server can be displayed on the user interface at any time. If there is any user problem, it can be basically solved by clearing the browser cookie once.
But in the mobile age, users have become extremely sensitive to the concept of versioning. And THE CIO version management of app has become a headache. Often due to the limitations of software developers, or all engineering problems will have bugs, so that some released apps become difficult to use or even crash. Or some temporary marketing campaign, a few but important features, or a change in product requirements that wasn’t planned, all lead to the same problem: “Users must update a version or even download it again to meet these requirements.” This seemingly daily version release and user update is exactly a new topic in the process of traditional enterprise informatization.
Can users open always-up services and features, like in traditional browsers? “A lot of CIOs ask the same question, and a lot of third-rate software vendors and IT programmers come up with a model of ‘lazy’. Some WebViews are embedded in the APP, and some functions are accessed to the server dynamically in the mode of traditional web pages. On the surface, this solves the problem of version update, but in fact, a lot of junk app experience is generated.
In fact, the essence of enterprise business flexibility is to release some new functions at any time, dynamically add and change some function entry at any time, like “wechat small program”, so that users can use it at will. But the user experience has to be the same as the real app.” Such business flexibility needs to be supported by mixed APP development technology like wechat mini program or APICloud, so as to achieve “incremental update”, “silent update”, “open for new functions and new experiences”, rather than the method of nested Webview and webpage simulation app. Business flexibility at the cost of a crappy experience.
Of course, apps developed in traditional mode, especially Android terminal, also begin to partially support dynamic update, which just shows that business flexibility is a critical requirement in the process of enterprise Internet and digitization. However, due to the limitations of traditional technology and the ability of software development teams or service providers, the real native dynamic update has not been able to be widely used in enterprises. This has led to companies opting for a hybrid development model to support their mobile strategy, becoming a mainstream option for CIOs.
Third, the need for centralized management
The Internet consciousness of business departments has been widely driven by the popularity of mobile Internet. Therefore, the development trend of traditional IT-led enterprise informatization has undergone subtle changes. In the past, the IT department initiated almost all information requirements, but now the IT department is more and more like the “service department”. Because the business team is constantly initiating a variety of “business + Internet” information requirements. This time, a lot of traditional enterprise IT leadership, not to realize their role transformation, and if there is the “delay”, “ignore”, “you yourself” such bureaucratic practices, will lead to a lot of enterprise informationization today appear “various mobile app completely fragmented,” each business department looking for software developers to realize their own needs. This not only overlays the information dominant position of IT department, more troublesome is to make the subsequent centralized management becomes very difficult. Dozens or even hundreds of different standards of service doping in the core system of the enterprise, even business departments in order to quickly meet their own needs from the IT-led traditional PC core system. This is a very dangerous signal.
If the IT department wants to manage how the business department meets the needs of the Internet, IT often finds that IT is unable to meet the needs of all the business departments with limited manpower. If left unchecked, the problem of fragmentation of the “technology stack and developer” mentioned above will arise. At this time, the mobile application platform based on the mixed mode APP development technology solves the contradiction between the two very well.
“Standard” and implement “centralized management”, the enterprise with a set of unified hybrid model app development technology and mobile platforms for the standard, each business unit can independent software developers to find their own, such as many large enterprises of IT information, will be through the APICloud such enterprise service platform, to meet their mobile business building, This has been met in the technology selection and enterprise mobile needs. And as far as possible to give the same platform to bring standardized unity, but it includes “technical standardization”, “development process standardization”, “code management standardization”, “project management standardization”, “acceptance standardization”, “management and operation standardization” and other standardized systems.
Fourth, information security needs
The most fundamental transformation that accompanies enterprise internetization is from Intranet informationization to extranet internetization; Traditional informatization includes Intranet, fixed place, fixed network environment and fixed equipment, while enterprise Internetization under the background of mobile strategy means that the external network will be accessed by employees’ own devices anytime and anywhere. These insignificant changes, bring to the CIO of the enterprise is an earth-shaking adjustment.
At the beginning, mobile device Management (MDM) software was introduced for a while. However, enterprises that bought MDM almost invariably found it difficult to promote MDM because it came with bring Your Own Device (BYOD). No one would support the idea of using corporate management software to manage employees’ own devices. So most MDM ends up managing mobile devices purchased by the enterprise itself.
So how to guarantee the security of enterprise mobile and Internet? This needs to meet three levels of security — device security, traditional security and cloud security.
The hybrid mode app can realize the dynamic permission binding and authorization mode similar to the enterprise app Store (wechat official account), and can support the selection of different sub-apps between specific devices and specific people. And with the adjustment of the user’s work content, new sub-applications can be dynamically allocated in real time according to the device code and user permissions.
This “sub-application” model based on the enterprise mobile app store is also the key for the hybrid mode app development technology to support the enterprise mobile strategy. Therefore, an excellent enterprise app store can play a variety of security requirements and meet that traditional native app development mode cannot give enterprises, and at the same time achieve the management purpose of business flexibility.