All signs point to 2013 being a boom year for software – especially for custom application development. Digital engagement is the force driving increased budgets and staffing for app development, according to a blog post by Forrester’s Kyle McNabb in ComputerWorld UK. Customer expectations are higher than ever and are pushing companies to invest in app development. After all, as McNabb rightly states, a “mobile application isn’t just an app; it is an extension of the company and its brand.”
Growth and customer experience improvement take business priority. Some 70% of business leaders polled said they placed a high or critical priority on revenue growth, customer acquisition and retention, and addressing rising customer experience expectations.
eBusiness is king, but customer service is a close second. Over 40% of software and application delivery decision-makers listed their sales stakeholders, including eBusiness, as the primary drivers of their firms’ software strategy and investments. Customer service is also impacting the strategic software development agenda, underscoring the importance of customer engagement.
Not surprisingly, these trends are driving action in the area of app development, leading to increased investment in software development and staffing. Companies are realizing packaged apps and tools are not enough to accommodate rapidly increasing managerial and customer expectations. When an organization has many competitors, whether or not those companies have apps, points of differentiation are critical to business. A customized app can be just the solution, which accounts for why increasing numbers of companies are choosing to spend more to build a custom application: they want to differentiate themselves by offering a unique mobile experience that represents their brand.
2013 looks to be a prolific year for custom application development. These custom applications are driving key initiatives, like turning big data into actionable insights and increasing customer engagement. In another blog post, we discussed how cloud-based application development is making it easier than ever to experiment with new initiatives. Nearly every business needs to have a response to the mantra, “There’s an app for that.” The quest for creative apps that drive new kinds of customer engagement will continue to keep the app development engine humming.
