Overcoming Top 10 Challenges in Enterprise Application Development

Let’s be frank.

Development of an Enterprise Application is a tough job. Enterprise Applications are complex systems. They require delicate planning and expertise for the right type of development. Lack of awareness in the development phase can be costly and frustrating.  

Enterprise Applications are the instruments of administration, management, and planning for an enterprise. The expectations are sky-high. An Enterprise Application should function smoothly, cater to each need of a company, integrate multiple systems of the company, be secure and give back a considerable return on investment (ROI).

Easier said than done, right?

As complex as building a top-of-the-line Football Team

An Enterprise Application is like a leading football team. Every player knows and performs his specific role. Similarly, every requirement should be met with expertise in an Enterprise Application. But, does having star players on board win all the matches for a top team? No. There should be a perfect synergy between them. Moreover, players from the same team blocking each other is somewhat embarrassing.

Same goes for an Enterprise Application. All the component systems within an Enterprise Application like supply chain management, customer information management, sales, etc. should be combined with a synergy. But sub-systems blocking each other might not be so rare in an Enterprise Application, unlike a football team.

Now, a high-ranking football team is also flexible. It can play under any conditions, at any venue. An Enterprise Application should have similar traits. It should be flexible and scalable. Only then can it adapt to changing paradigms of a business.

A company can change gears with time. The requirements can change and new ideas may have to be implemented. The Enterprise Application must be adaptive in accommodating these changes. Also, just like the substitution on the football team, any new requirement replacing the older one must not affect the overall coordination of the system.

While an enterprise application working in perfect harmony is ideal, there are several challenges that you will need to overcome when building these applications.

Challenges on the road of Enterprise Application Development

Developing an Enterprise Application is a scrupulous job. It requires precision, vision, and expertise. The challenges can be many but it’s important to be aware of them to get the right product.

Here is a list of probable challenges in the way of Enterprise Application Development-

#1 Changing Business Requirements and Environments

• The landscape of a business might change, sometimes completely. There can be technological transformation taking place. Or there can be economic disruptions.
• The path that a company follows might change owing to feedback and analysis. This simply means new workflows and requirements have to be implemented.
• Or in special cases, there can be a merger or acquisition. In that case, it all becomes a mammoth task integrating the two systems into a common Enterprise Application.

Enterprise Applications are complicated and changing one requirement might unexpectedly affect some other requirement. It’s not possible to predict many such changes, nevertheless having a flexible and scalable architecture becomes more of a necessity.

#2 Shifting to the mobile platform

• More Enterprise Applications are wanting to go mobile. The global market for enterprise mobility is projected to reach US$218 billion this year. 
• Mobility and cloud-computing accelerate faster than the desktop counterparts and your company might lose relevance if you aren’t going mobile with your applications.
• Mobility increases productivity and leads to faster decision-making. This is because information can be captured fast using mobile and can be shared instantaneously.

Employees and customers enjoy mobility and it’s surely more of a necessity now than empowerment. Such a requirement will most definitely reach your business, if not already. The challenge is to make the transition to mobile easy by including the essential functions on the mobile platform, without creating a heavy mobile-application. A lot of testing is required to get the layouts and fields right so that everything fits the mobile format easily.

#3 Security

Security for your Enterprise Application begins with controlling user access and securing the resources of the application. There are various services in an Enterprise Application like user-interface services, Operating System services, Business Process Services, etc. Controlling user access simply means restricting the usage of these services to authorized users.

• A strong defense system is a primary requirement that includes encryptions and firewalls at application, host and network level.
• Enterprise Data is of utmost importance to a company. Use a competent security software to install and maintain security. Make sure the privacy of sensitive user information is protected.
• Web applications like a mobile application or cloud-based software are prone to cyber attacks and breaches. This is because an increased number of networks lead to more vulnerabilities like unknown users, cookies, etc. Make sure your security software is competent to protect all aspects of the web application.
• The software must be updated with the latest security patches. The same security levels must be implemented across all platforms.

#4 Big Data

 Data is growing at a tremendous pace. The total amount of data in the world will increase to 44 zettabytes in 2020 from 4.4 zettabytes of today’s total data. (1 zettabyte = 1 trillion GBs). For an enterprise, the challenge is to manage the vast data intelligently. The high volume of data increases the storage costs, data centre costs, network costs, etc. For the end user, the experience might see a bad U-turn due to slow loading speeds of web pages and applications.

• The process of making sense of Big Data starts by correctly locating and rationalizing this data from various sub-systems of Enterprise Application. It’s essential to narrow down the sources of data that can otherwise create a lot of repetitiveness.
• Enterprise data can be used to implement Big Data projects once the data is curated, organized and centralized. These projects can, in turn, provide useful insights that can increase the productivity of the organization.
• It’s recommended to move the inactive data to Big Data platforms like Hadoop that offer affordable storage, maintenance, and security. The active data can continue to exist on the Tier-I infrastructure of your company. Using Hadoop like platforms are 50 times cheaper than Tier-I infrastructure costs.

#5 Changing Technology

 We have seen how cloud computing changed the whole landscape of Enterprise Application and how Software as a Service (SaaS) replaced the traditional delivery models. Technology has a way of changing forms with so much innovation and research going on. What is relevant now might become obsolete tomorrow. An Enterprise Application should be ‘future-proof’ so that there is no need of reinventing the wheel.

• Artificial Intelligence, for example, is being deployed commercially in almost all industries. According to Adobe, 15% of enterprises are using AI as of today, and 31% of enterprises will be using it in the next 12 months.
• An Enterprise Application particularly can greatly benefit from Artificial Intelligence due to data-driven tasks used in an Enterprise Application.
• Modular Architecture can help greatly to make quick changes with respect to changing technologies.

#6 Interoperability

It is required that systems in an Enterprise are well-linked with each other. For example, Leave Management System and Payroll System must be linked for consistency across all functions. Similarly, a Customer Management System will be using data from the Sales System.

• Enterprise Applications is a web of neatly linked functions across different sub-systems.
• There should be a smart link between applications that use the same set of data to achieve optimization in an Enterprise Application.
• Interoperability standards should be followed to achieve effortless sharing and usage of data.
• Careful design is necessary especially for heterogeneous environments that involve disparate systems.

#7 User Interface and Experience

Is functionality everything? No. If an Enterprise Application has a basic user interface, employees might not enjoy using the software. If consumer apps can have sleek interfaces, why not an Enterprise Application?!

• The importance of beautifully designed, comfortable user-interface should not be underestimated as it can result in greater and impactful engagement, ultimately extracting more value from the same software.
• Adding small details to the application to make navigation and accessibility easier can have big results in terms of employee satisfaction and productivity.

#8 Low ROI

Enterprise Application Development, as mentioned before, needs expertise and detailed planning. It’s a costly affair and the expenses don’t stop there. There are high maintenance costs and expenditures like in creating and sending regular updates. But, a feeling of disdain comes when the costly development and maintenance doesn’t bring in the expected results.

• The aim of an Enterprise Application can be to improve the sales cycle, increase the productivity of the employees or to smoothen and optimize internal processes.
• The goal should be clear and it should be reflected in the design and development of the Enterprise Application.
• Regular measurements and comparisons need to be done to know the real value of your Enterprise Application.

#9 Time and Cost

Enterprise Application Development can be a time taking process if the approach isn’t clear. It can take months to develop an Enterprise Application, sometimes 5-6 months.

Incorporating and integrating various systems of a company takes time. Half-a-year, on an average, is a long time period, especially when you want to get started with an Enterprise Application quickly. But, is the solution?

• A Modular architecture is an answer to this problem. Modular Architecture uses pre-made blocks of code (ready-made functionalities) that are customized according to the needs of an organization and linked together accordingly. This can cut short time by one-third, thereby you can save a lot of time and thus money.

#10 Maintainability

Maintainability is as crucial as developing an Enterprise Application. It is not just limited to operating the product but also detecting defects and correcting them quickly.

• Maintainability should not be a cumbersome job. The adaptability to new environments and future-requirement should not be a stressful process.
• Also, maintenance should be a fast process. You don’t want to be in a situation where you are spending US$ 3000 per year on maintenance and yet it is a time-taking process.
• Modular architecture again makes life much easier. For example, if you wish to make changes or correct a fault in ERP system, Modular Architecture makes sure that the Content Management System, that is independent of the ERP system, is not at all affected. This all leads to easy maintainability.

If there was a single underlying technique that would make enterprise application development easier, it would be to adopt a modular, scalable design. The use of existing, tried-and-tested frameworks that offer such a design makes the job a whole lot easier.

And that’s where WisdmTREAD comes into the picture.

Exploring WisdmTREAD– a technique for Rapid Application Development

WisdmTREAD or Wisdm Tailored Robust Enterprise Application Development is a smart technique to help develop best-in-class Enterprise Applications much faster. Its crucial importance lies in the ideology it is based on– [marker-highight]simpler and easier development of Enterprise Applications. [/marker-highight]

WisdmTREAD uses Modular Architecture for the development of Enterprise Application. The reservoir of pre-made modules helps in quickly setting up the framework for the application. The exact requirements of the business are carefully acknowledged and implemented. The use of Modular Architecture [marker-highight]ensures easy integration between constituent systems and also effortless maintenance.[/marker-highight]. The framework assists in developing products that are robust, scalable, highly secure, fast and easy to maintain. Also, a lot of time and money is saved as development is done quickly without compromising on the quality of development.

Coming back to the analogy of building up a football team, WisdmTREAD acts as the coach of the team, that helps build winning applications. It helps in overcoming general and specific challenges related to Enterprise Application Development.

Endnote

The expectations from an Enterprise Application are many, from the smooth integration of constituent systems to adaptability to changing business and technology environments. Having a framework as a guide is always recommended. It helps you save numerous hours from getting wasted on untangling malfunctioned cross-links between various sub-systems. At all point in time, it’s advised to check how efficient is the Enterprise Application (or going to be) in achieving the main goal.

Please feel free to reach out to us with any queries you might have. You can also download this 36-page guide that explains the characteristics of an Enterprise Application and various aspects of WisdmTREAD in detail!

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