Native vs HTML5 apps – The best option to drive your Enterprise Mobile strategy

This blog attempts to throw some light on some of the pros and cons of using native vs HTML5 apps from  technical, functional and business perspectives.  Any app that is directly installed onto a device, normally from its associated app store is called as a native app, though a native app can have HTML5 elements. One of the key disadvantages of native apps is that they are platform dependent, which means any app developed for iPhone can work on an iPhone only and not on an Android device.

On the other hand, a web app delivered through an HTML5 enabled browser may be called as an HTML5 app. This implies instead of downloading your app from the app store, a user would access his/her browser and navigate to a URL to use your app.

HTML5 for web development is mostly liked by the developers, since it leverages familiar programming languages like HTML, Javascript and CSS.

Though it seems enticing to use HTML5 at first instance considering its prime benefits, however, HTML5 lacks maturity in having enough set of web standards to fully deliver on its promises. Some of the key shortcomings include missing APIs and weaker UIs as compared to native apps, apart from having difficulty to route ads into HTML5 sites.

Benefits of native apps

• Superior performance: A native app has full access to a phone’s hardware resources and the app also interacts directly with the phone without the mediation of a web browser. This way native apps provide superior performance, which is more visible when rendering graphics and animation.
• Minimized development efforts: Developers can easily leverage platform SDKs to create native apps, which ensures easier and minimized development efforts – requires talented and experienced professionals who can understand the programming models.
• Better distribution: Native apps provides a better distribution mechanism, wherein they can be distributed directly through relevant app stores. App stores serves as a stupendous distribution channel that not only makes app installation and updates easier, but can also help reduce the marketing costs through app stores’ built in discovery features.
• Superior monetization: Since native apps are associated with app stores, they can take the benefit of store’s built-in monetization features like one-click payments.
• Superior user experience: Native apps offer better execution experience with respect to certain core features like accelerometer, camera, calendar, GPS, microphone, etc., as compared to HTML5 apps on various devices.

Shortcomings of native apps

• Increased development and costs: The overall development time might be considerably greater than an equivalent HTML5 app, as developers need to build separate apps for each platform. This also enhances costs since development efforts for varied platforms needs mastery over different languages and development environments. App developers themselves tend to be on a higher cost range, in contrast to their HTML5/JavaScript counterparts.
• Higher maintenance costs: When development costs are more, it is quite obvious that maintenance costs are also on a higher scale. A business might solicit the services of a separate iOS, Android and Windows phone developers to keep its apps up and running that directly diminishes their profits.
• Restriction on app store content: Every app distributed through app store must comply with strict content guidelines.
• App store fees: High app store fees may eat into your profit margins that is really daunting, in addition to the higher development and maintenance costs of native apps.

Some of the pros and cons of HTML5 apps are outlined as follows:

Pros of HTML5 Apps

• Platform independent: This is a major benefit of using HTML5 apps as compared to native apps. Irrespective of whether your users are on Android, iOS or Windows Phone, all of them can access your app, since they need only a web browser.
• Easier updates: Native apps takes longer time for updates – the user has to download each update individually. On the other hand, HTML5 apps support centralized updates, wherein every time the user accesses the app through his/her browser, he/she views the latest version of your app, eliminating additional download requirements.
• Faster development: As HTML5 apps are developed using the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and server-side languages (such as ASP.NET), it cuts down the development time. This is because there are already vast libraries for these languages (such as jQuery and JavaScript) and a vast group of trained developers.
• Cuts down developer costs: As HTML5 apps are built on comparatively simpler technologies like HTML5 and JavaScript, you can easily hire affordable HTML5 developers, as compared to native app developers.
• No content restrictions: As HTML5 apps need to require approval from a closed app store, they can carry whatever content you need.
• No fees: When you deliver your apps directly through the browser, you can cut down the app store costs, which means you save almost 30% of your store fees.
• Distribution through app store: New frameworks such as Phnegap and Trigger.io have simplified the distribution problem substantially bundling up HTML5 apps as native apps. These bundled apps can then be distributed through the app store.

Cons of HTML5 Apps

• Inferior performance: Since an HTML5 app has limited access to a phone’s hardware, it results in inferior performance, especially when dealing with heavy graphics. Some of the new platforms like Famo.us are trying to solve this problem.
• Device fragmentation: Device fragmentation within browsers is a real thing. Varied devices might render the same app quite differently. This implies your developers might require extensive testing and refining to get the UI right, particularly when working on more complex apps.
• Technical restrictions: HTML5 apps lacks complete access to a device’s features and events. This poses a serious challenge on what you can do with an HTML5 app. Apart from that, the UI options for HTML5 apps are also limited.
• Limited monetisation opportunities: A native app can earn substantial revenue through direct app sales and in-app purchases. This monetization option is not available for HTML5 apps, which is particularly challenging if you want to offer your apps for “free”.

So which is the best option to choose?

It is difficult to decide which one is best, since both native and HTML5 apps have their respective flavors. The type of app you choose is totally dependent on your requirements, core expertise, budget and the type of human resources you can hire.

If you would like to request a demo of Innovapptive’s Native, HTNL5 or Hybrid apps, please click on the link. Alternatively, if you would like to discuss with an Innovapptive solution expert, you can reach out to us by emailing us at sales@innovapptive.com or you can reach a sales representative at (713) 275-1804.

iOS App Development with Swift – Apple’s new programming language

Overview

Swift is an innovative multi-paradigm and compiled programming language developed by Apple for  iOS app development and OS X development. It was introduced by Apple in 2014 at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), designed to work with Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, which are the programming frameworks for Mac OS X and iOS respectively. Writing code in this language is interactive and fun with its syntax being concise and expressive, making the apps run at lightning speed. In other words, Swift is a user friendly version that is designed to make it much easier to program Mac OS X and iOS devices. Though Swift is a new programming language, it is however designed to work concurrently with the existing Objective-C programs (all current Mac OS X and iOS programs support this language). This lets developers to add Swift code to existing apps without the necessity to replace the older Objective-C code. Named parameters that have been brought forward from Objective-C are expressed in a clean syntax, making APIs in Swift even easier to read and maintain. This blog provides an overview of the Swift language, its features and other details.

Advantages of using Swift over Objective-C code

Some of the advantages of Swift over Objective-C are as follows:

CLEAN SYNTAX

Apple Swift is designed to be a simpler programming language to read and code. The syntax of Swift doesn’t require semi-colons at the end of each line and functions are user friendly. Take for instance, the familiar humble-Print command, which in Swift is far more familiar ‘println’. It requires fewer symbols to code and generally speaking, it is much more efficient than Objective-C. Let’s understand this by a simple Hello World program in both Objective-C and Swift. Objective-C: Hello World Here is how the Hello World program appears in Objective-C:

#import
  #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
  int main(void)
  {
  NSLog(@"Hello, world!\n");
  return 0;
  }

Here is how the Hello World program appears in Swift:

println("Hello, world!")

The above code reveals how Swift is much cleaner and simpler code to read and learn. Here are some of the features that Apple lists as vital in ensuring that code is expressive:

• Closures unified with function pointers
• Tuples and multiple return values
• Generics
• Fast and concise iteration over a range or collection
• Structs that support methods, extensions and protocols.
• Functional programming patterns, e.g.: map and filter

MANAGED MEMORY

This is one of the major advantages for developers, since developers need not manage memory allocations. In Swift, variables are initialized before use, arrays and integers are checked for overflow and memory is managed automatically. Moreover, syntax is tuned to make it easy to define your objective – for instance, a simple three character keywords define a variable (var) or constant (let). All this makes Swift the most attractive, appealing and a safer language for developers, who are at the basic level of coding. With Swift’s memory management feature, you can make apps that are reliable, benefitting both developers and non-developers.

INTERACTIVE PLAYGROUNDS

Playgrounds make writing Swift code really simple and fun. You need to just type a line of code and lol! You can view the result instantly. If your code runs over time, say, through a loop, you can track its progress in the timeline assistant. The timeline displays variables in a graph, draws each step when composing a view and can play and animate the scene. After you have perfected your code in the playground, just move that code into your project. Typical uses of playgrounds include:

• Design a new algorithm, tracking its results in a step by step fashion
• Create new tests to verify they work properly before you migrate into your test suite
• Experiment with new APIs to brush up your Swift coding skills

READ-EVAL-PRINT-LOOP (REPL)

The debugging console in Xcode includes a built-in interactive version of the Swift programming language that you can use to evaluate and interact with your running app. You can even use this Swift syntax to write a new code to check how it works in a script-like environment. This is available within the Xcode console or in a Terminal.

FAST AND POWERFUL

Swift was built to be fast. This is accomplished by the high performance LLVM compiler, which transforms the Swift code into an optimized native code. The syntax and standard library have also been tuned to ensure the code you write performs the best. Swift is the successor of the C and Objective-C languages. It includes several low level primitives like types, flow control and operations and also includes object oriented features such as classes, protocols and generics, enabling Cocoa and Cocoa Touch developers the performance and power they need.

What does it mean for an iOS Developer?

Considering the several advantages that Swift offers over Objective-C, it makes sense for novice developers to learn Swift or even existing developers to switch over to Swift. Swift is similar to Python, another highly regarded programming language and is much simpler to Objective-C. However, one major disadvantage is the migration aspect – you cannot easily migrate the Swift code from Mac OS X and iOS to other platforms, such as Android. As of now, Apple is supporting both Objective-C and Swift code for building Cocoa and Cocoa Touch apps, but may eventually make everyone to switch over to the Swift code. After reading this blog, as a developer, you may be interested to kick start the process of learning the Swift programming language. You can pick up the Xcode 6 beta from the Apple Developer connection, for which you need to be a registered iOS or Mac OS X developer, which costs £69 per year. Apart from that, Apple has already released a book on Swift programming language on the iBooks Store. Anybody can download the book. Incidentally, you don’t need to be a registered Apple Developer.

Go Green and Get Rid of Expense Receipts Clutter with a Mobile SAP Travel and Expense Solution

Challenges in the Travel and Expense Management Process

COLLECTING PAPER RECEIPTS, SCANNING, ATTACHING

Desktop and Manual processes for Travel and Expense management involving collecting piles of receipts, scanning, attaching requisitions, invoices and poorly managed travel expenses   provides little or no ability for spend policy enforcement. The inefficiency in manual and desktop processes leads to many more challenges like employees over spending, lack of spend visibility creating difficulty in consolidating and negotiating better pricing with vendors and too much time in approvals. Delayed desktop expense report processing and approvals making it difficult to accrue liability and report on a multitude of performance indicators.

 ISSUES WITH ENFORCING TRAVEL POLICIES

Card issuer compliance is often high on the agenda, non-compliance could result in fines and damage to both bottom line and the reputation of the company. Companies are finding innovative ways to ensure expense reports are filed in a timely manner and adhere to travel policy compliances. However, most employees make travel and expense decisions without having the most up to date and accurate information available to them in real-time to make in-policy and out of policy travel expense decisions.

DELAYED SUBMISSION OF EXPENSE REPORTS

Travel and expense staff and managers have to often chase down employees and ask for the timely submission of their travel and expense reports. Delayed Submission of a travel and expense report, along with attaching scanned copies of the receipts after finishing their business travel delays the final approval of travel expenses incurred. The increase in overall processing time for expense report increases your cost per employee for managing travel and expenses and decreases productivity of your accounts payable teams, resulting in increased cost per travel and expense report processed.

    

EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY LOSS

Desktop expense management system slows down business processes and creates elongated approval process and reimbursement timeline. Regular late submission of expense reports, sometimes weeks or even months late, due to unavailability of mobile tools decreases employee productivity.

GO MOBILE AND GET RID OF PAPER RECEIPTS AND ENTER SAP TRAVEL AND EXPENSE REPORTS ON THE FLY, AS YOU FLY

A mobile  travel and expense management solution can dramatically improve employee productivity with features such as on the go expense receipt capture, timely submission of expense reports and ensuring travel and expense purchases are made within policy by verifying the expense against company policy in real time. Mobile Travel and Expense management is the key for controlling and reducing operating expenses, eliminating untimely submissions of expense reports and reduces overall cost per travel and expense report. Using Mobile solution like mTravel from Innovapptive, employees in businesses in every sector can now avoid all of those tasks.

Features and Functionality  of the mTravel Solution.

Innovapptive’s mTravel mobile solution for managing Travel expenses, brings a level of flexibility for employees to easily capture, track, and manage travel expense reports on-the-go. Recent Aberdeen Group research shows that mobile-enabled expense programs:

• Increase compliance by 10%
• Reduce time to submit and approve reports by 28%
• Reduce processing costs by 40%

mTravel makes it easy to achieve the same results. Users can capture transaction data at the time they incur an expense. Cash expenses (such as tips or taxi fares) can be added quickly to an expense report, receipt images can be captured with the phone’s camera and credit card charges are automatically available in the mobile application for reporting.

With the mTravel Mobile Solution, businesses can:

• Keep control – travel content is determined by your policies
• Save time – convenient access speeds up submissions and approvals
• Improve accuracy – with receipt images and on-the-spot reporting
• Satisfy travelers – mobile access makes travel much easier

Are SAP Fiori Apps the right mobile solution for your Enterprise?

SAP Fiori is a collection of apps with consumer grade user experience (UX) for SAP software for multiple platforms like ABAP, HANA, SAP Portal and Cloud Portal. It supports a variety of roles in lines of business that include HR, Sales, Procurement, Finance and Manufacturing. The 300+ collection of apps from Fiori are light-weight and designed for routine tasks to improve productivity.

Understanding the User Experience (UX) needs is critical in selecting the right mobile solution

MOSTLY DESKTOP USERS	Expect to have consumer-grade applications on their desktop. Accustomed to having speedy network and excellent application performance. Know applications are secured by company network. SAP Fiori Apps or Personas are great SAP UX transformation tools that can be deployed to meet the needs of “Mostly Desktop Users”
DESKTOP AND MOBILE USERS	Alternate between desktop and mobile device. Need a consistent UX across all devices. Expect great performance for both mobile and desktop. Require mobile security. SAP Fiori Apps within a hybrid containerized mobile app is a great option to cater for desktop and mobile users.
MOSTLY MOBILE USERS	Accustomed to working with consumer grade apps on their mobile device. Expect to have native phone/tablet capabilities integrated with their mobile apps. Demand high performance from apps. Need strong security for apps. Pre-packaged or Custom Native Mobile Apps

If SAP Fiori addresses all the business needs why consider Native apps?

Native applications meet the need for users that predominantly spend most of their time on a mobile device, as opposed to a desktop. These users require a native mobile user experience as a native solutions are designed, compiled, installed, and executed on Mobile devices to deliver necessary performance and user experience.

For use cases that are “mostly mobile users”, a native mobile app with SAP Mobile Platform would be the ideal mobile solution for an enterprise. A native mobile app with an SAP Mobile Platform provides the following superior features for the end user to better run their business and achieve the highest level of productivity:

• Native features such as GPS, camera and bar code reader
• Advanced security and authentication
• Superior user experience
• Offline Access
• Improved data transfer speed
• Improved performance
• Third party integration
• Application usage analytics
• Push notifications
• Badges

In the future SAP is also releasing support for SAP Fiori Apps with the SAP Mobile Platform to create hybrid containerized native apps to support the above features.

Innovapptive provides pre-packaged SAP certified native mobile apps with a customization and extension cockpit to empower IT teams to tailor the app to meet their specific business needs. In addition, Innovapptive offers SAP Fiori implementation services along with custom native mobile app development. Depending on customer priorities, customers can use these facts to choose between Innovapptive’s SP certified native mobile apps, SAP Fiori Apps or custom build a native mobile app.

Does a Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution secure your Mobile Enterprise?

Bring-your-own-device or BYOD continues to gain traction, as employees want to use their personal tech gadgets, such as tablets and smartphones, for work. The exponential rise in demand to use personal devices has pressured CIO’s and IT to support them. Gaining popularity of BYOD as a business enabler for enterprise mobility initiatives has increased the demand for more policies, making more flexible yet secure solutions mandatory. The situation started pushing aside enterprise mobile device management (MDM), in favor of  more user-centric mobile application management (MAM).

Importance of a Mobile Application Management (MAM) within an enterprise mobile strategy

MDM as a tool to set up a strong mobile device management is being more reserved for corporate-liable devices.  MDM functionality   distributes  applications, data and configuration settings for all types of mobile devices over-the-air. This applies to both company-owned and employee-owned (BYOD) devices. IT can secure access to the device by authenticating the use of a passcode and by remotely wiping lost or stolen devices to keep sensitive data out of reach of wrong hands.

The full-device approach is not acceptable by employees looking to use personal devices within an enterprise BYOD programs. To compliment your corporate owned device policy, it is imperative that enterprises start recognizing the need to evaluate comprehensive mobile application management (MAM) solutions that can work cohesively with your enterprise MDM system. Mobile application management (MAM) offers more granular controls giving IT the ability to access and secure only the enterprise apps that were specifically installed on employee devices. MAM is becoming more important for enterprises with increased focus on app security along with usability and scalability.

According to ABI report, MDM currently has 60 percent of users in “enterprise mobility management solution users”. The gaining momentum of MAM estimated to surpass MDM by 2019, will drop to 30 percent, with MAM accounting for more than 60 percent.

To meet this growing demand and trend of enterprises supporting BYOD policies, Innovapptive offers a cloud based mobile application management (MAM) solution that provides a best in class MAM Solution to support the following functions:

• A private enterprise branded app store
• Administrator portal to manage groups, users and security policies
• Integrated app wrapper security features
• Basic mobile device management
• Mobile remote control functionality

Innovapptive’s MAM solution enhances any managed app, without requiring code changes. The functionality provides remote interaction and troubleshooting to company apps, leaving employee personal apps untouched. For more information regarding our cloud based mobile application management (MAM) solution, or to schedule a demo, please email us atsales@innovapptive.com or click here to complete our contact form.