To Selecting a Rapid Buyer's Application Development Guide Platform
ES Executive Summary
I Democratizing App Development with RAD
7 Capabilities to Test When Evaluating RAD II Platforms.
Evaluating RAD Platforms – One Develo- III per’s Journey
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ABOUT Platforms. Platforms. Development (RAD) App Rapid with apps web mobile and to build users business of by line explosion app empowering themobile amid succeeding are Here’s how companies at it? does look one Or your organization. live in currently doesn’t and the talent hire, and to find hard developers are demand. Mobile to meet is IT and strapped updates is skyrocketing, existing needing or apps of new apps backlog The user outstanding experiences. with apps mobile-first targeted, demand -- B2C apps edge to cutting used -- end-uses Mobile-savvy Democratizing App DevelopmentDemocratizing App RAD with An Interesting Analogy: Big Data and the Rise of Business Analysts
To understand if democratization of app development is hype or the real thing, let’s look at an example from the Business Intelligence market. Early in its hype cycle, analytics was handled by highly-skilled statisticians in a particular domain area by IT employees who ran queries against corporate databases at the request of business groups. The big data era was just beginning, and more and more data was arriving in the hands of business users at a faster and faster rate. As these employees become hungry to benefit from data-driven decision-making, they quickly outgrew these traditional methods. Marketing and sales managers couldn’t wait weeks for IT to analyze last month’s sales and marketing figures, and pharma research directors watched expenses grow as they waited for statisticians to analyze the latest clinical trial data to see if a drug trial should be killed. These business users wanted a way to analyze the data and make data-driven decisions daily.
While statisticians were highly valued, they were hard to find and expensive to hire. Also, the statistical software they used was cost-prohibitive and required extensive training. Alternately, IT could run data queries cost-effectively, but the backlog of BI report requests or database queries was frustrating the business units and paralyzing IT from doing value-added work. And once the query was done, the business user likely had a follow-up question to ask: “Ok – sales were down, but in what regions and due to what factors?”
Amid their frustration, business users started taking matters into their own hands. They began pulling website traffic, sales figures or customer service data out of the corporate database and into Excel to try to run their own reports and answer their own questions. While in the short-term this provided some critical answers, it caused another set of problems. IT had no control over corporate data. These reports and information lived outside corporate systems and findings were hard to act on or track. The workflow around these analyses was out of daily business processes and largely unseen. Data parameters were set in Excel spreadsheets instead of in corporate systems. And the list goes on...
Soon data visualization and analytics vendors arrived on the scene. These solutions offered the best of both worlds: guided analyses were available so that business users could visualize their own data quickly. SaaS-savvy business users could login, find their data sources and start building visualizations or analytics applications that identified insights and outliers in their data. At the same time, IT was in control of the data integration and security. And all these analysis efforts were captured as workflows so employees could share practices and track future findings to power better, faster analyses. This gave rise to one of the most demanded hires in business today: business analysts. What About Mobile App Development?
The current situation with business app demand in organizations is similar to the situation organizations faced with the onslaught of analytic app demands at the start of the big data boom. There are too many apps that need to be built and too few skilled developers to build them. Plus, as soon as one app is built, users ask for additional functionality or a mobile operating system update is required – virtually the same – virtually the same situation IT faced when it sent out a BI report and immediately received a request with an additional query to run.
If Gartner’s prediction that organizations will need to build approximately 1,000 apps is correct, companies face a serious problem.6 We already know that organizations cannot afford to outsource hundreds of routine business apps to mobile development firms. Outsourcing an app can cost upwards of $100,000. Multiply that by 150 and it’s a nonstarter for most organizations. And a talented iOS or Android developer can only build and update so many apps at a time. And what if the CEO works on a Surface tablet?
More importantly, the true measure of success isn’t simply making more apps, but rather making high-quality, strategic apps that stand to directly impact business performance in some way. CIOs who only measure enterprise mobility based on the number of app deployed are missing the true power of enterprise mobility. And who in the business is better qualitied to optimize business processes than the line of business users who use them every day?
Solving the Problem: Marrying Citizen Developers and Rapid App Development Technology
So how are IT organizations going to get hundreds of B2B and B2E apps built get these built while they do their regular day job around systems and security? They’re not. There’s only one way companies will get hundreds – or even thousands -- of B2B and B2E apps built by 2017 or 2018 and have them continually improved and updated. They must democratize the building of web and mobile apps. How? By enabling hundreds of web developers, working in IT or other parts of the organization, and line of business employees already within their organizations to build business apps .
The First Half of the Equation: Empowering Citizen Developers
Gartner calls line of business developers “citizen developers” and defines them as:
A user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.” 7
In fact, speak to many business users and they already consider themselves app builders already. Gartner predicts:
By 2020, at least 70% of large enterprises will have established “ successful citizen development policies, up from 20% in 2010.” 8 Line of business developers, or citizen developers, already live in your organization. They can be business analysts already familiar with SaaS solutions and how to put data and workflow together. They can be web developers or employees with some basic JavaScript or HTML5 experience. But success depends on providing proper training, guidance and ongoing assistance to citizen developers. Putting LOB users in the developer’s chair -- are we sure this will work? Of course -- history is a wise teacher. Business analysts rose from within the line of business ranks to build thousands of analytics applications that drive data-driven business decisions and processes today. Smart people within organizations won’t wait for IT to catch up – they’re going to go out and find ways to get the business objectives met.All IT needs to do is find a way to harness their expertise and hunger for solutions and give them the right technology to succeed.
Here’s two examples of line of business users succeeding at citizen development:
Case Study 1: DAIKIN/Goodman Case Study 2: Oxford Instruments Territory Sales Manager Daniel Santucci In the case of Oxford Instruments, the needed to help contractors selling heating, Company tasked Superconducting Technology ventilation and air conditioning products for the Business Analyst Sagrika Mehta with Goodman Manufacturing unit of DAIKIN better developing a solution that would let the track leads and sales. Using Alpha Anywhere, company’s semiconductor shop floor workers Daniel Santucci built a mobile app in a month’s reliably manage preventive action efforts time to help his contractors better track in the manufacturing process directly from and fulfill sales. He also built a web app so their tablets. Using the Alpha Anywhere web Goodman executives could tap into enterprise and mobile application development and sales information. Goodman provides the deployment environment, she prototyped three mobile app for free to its partner contractors mission critical forms in just 2 days. Only 30 in the field who fix or install HVAC systems. days later Mehta had built, tested and deployed The app helped Goodman generate and the full preventative action app, beating the retain business tenfold, because it provided business deadline. The app is now helping independent contractors with a free solution workers to identify and correct manufacturing that helps them grow and manage their own issues faster than ever before. businesses. Santucci was promoted to Division Pricing Director for Goodman, in part due to his success mobilizing the sales organization.
With little or no help from IT the average business user or business analyst can become an effective web or mobile app developer building solid business apps. The Second Half of the Equation: Ending the Mobile App Backlog with Rapid App Development
Going back to the analogy referenced earlier in this paper, technology is the other part of the solution. In the case of business analytics, statistical tools were too complex and BI tools were too static and inflexible. Data visualization tools (aka, analytics platforms) arose to easily connect dashboards to data and offer business analysts some built-in visualizations and training to help them quickly produce their first analytic applications. Simultaneously, IT retained control over data integration and security, while statisticians retained flexibility to add complex algorithms in the applications. In the mobile world, coding-optional rapid app development platforms have emerged to enable web developers and line of business employees in a similar way.
Rapid app development platforms are an excellent solution for many companies looking to enable a wide range of employees across the business to develop web and mobile apps. Rapid app development platforms do much of the heavy lifting – connecting to data, enabling offline capability, offering style templates, etc. – around business app development. Coding-optional tools speed development for both seasoned developers and those with less experience. They allow line of business users to get involved in creating mobile and web apps and allow businesses to turn out business apps at a rapid pace. Coding-optional tools speed development for both seasoned developers and those with less experience. At the same time, because coding is optional, experienced developers can dive in at any time to add code for complex requirements, such as security authentication or integrating corporate data sources.
While this opportunity to save time and costs are compelling, companies must be careful to set up appropriate policies, ensure the right resources and select the proper technology to succeed at citizen development. Gartner warns:
Among enterprises without formalized control and management of citizen development policies, at least 50% will encounter substantial data, process integrity and security vulnerabilities by 2020.” 9
As you“ explore these environments, note these cautions:
• Make sure the rapid app development platform is truly coding-optional. A no-code solution may speed development, but will no doubt fall short in the long run when app requirements become more complex. IT needs the flexibility to dive into the app and add code at any point, without limitations.The goal is to empower citizen developers to build business apps without having to go to IT, but if IT is ever needed to customize the app or add security, they cannot succeed if the platform virtually handcuffs them.
• Do not downplay the importance of training, onboarding, mentoring and sample templates in the citizen development effort. Business users have the knowledge to build high value business apps, but most will not have built an app before. Help them develop minimal viable apps as part of their training effort. For example, Alpha Software offers sample templates and 1:1 Mentoring to give citizen developers a “dial-a-friend” resource as they learn the ropes. • Double and triple-check that the rapid app development platform has wider capabilities to create the full-feature, mobile-first apps that citizen developers need.They should have the ability to build mashups and new workflows, access mobile device features like the camera or audio recorder, leverage digital ink/ annotation and wearable device or IoT sensors. That’s the future of business and the future of business apps – and mobile app development evolves significantly faster than traditional desktop application development.
• Do your homework to confirm that the rapid app development platform has a healthy and active user community. One of the best resources for building apps is to learn from other people building apps. They often chime in with help, shortcuts, ideas, code or even apps. Other platform users can also be a source of development help if you’re in a pinch. If a platform doesn’t have a large, active and relatively happy user community, steer clear!
Unchaining the Organization
Organizations should not try to hold back line of business users from building mobile apps – instead, they should encourage them. Domain experts close to critical business processes and the data they run on are in an ideal position to solve the mobile app backlog. They are best equipped to understand what pressures front-line mobile workers face, what a business app must achieve and how a workflow can be streamlined with a mobile device. Add some IT expertise on top of that – to check that the apps are secure and the data integration is done correctly -- and you’ve got a recipe for fast and effective app development and an end to the mobile app backlog at your organization.
Read Parts II, III and IV of our Buyers Guide for Rapid App Development Platforms.
Contact Alpha Software to learn how Alpha Anywhere democratizes the development of business apps by empowering line of business employees.
Sources: 1. Gartner report, “The Enterprise App Explosion: Scaling One to 100 Mobile Apps,” Adrian Leow, 7 May 2015 2. Gartner report, “The Enterprise App Explosion: Scaling One to 100 Mobile Apps,” Adrian Leow, 7 May 2015 3. Gartner press release, “Gartner Says Demand for Enterprise Mobile Apps Will Outstrip Available Development Capacity Five to One,” June 16, 2015 4. Forrester report, “The State Of Mobile App Development: Few eBusiness Teams Keep Pace With Customer App Expectations,” Julie A. Ask, Jeffrey S. Hammond, Carrie Johnson, Laura Naparstek, 23 March 2015 5. Gartner report, “Market Guide for Rapid Mobile App Development Tools,” Jason Wong, Van L. Baker, Adrian Leow, Marty Resnick, Mark Driver, 6 September 2016 6. Solutions Review, “RMAD Predictions with Gartner and Alpha Software,” Elizabeth O’Dowd, 11 February 2016 7. Gartner report, “Citizen Development is Fundamental to the Digital Workplace,” Mark Driver, Chris Howard, Jason Wong, Mike West, 17 August 2015 8. Gartner report, “Citizen Development is Fundamental to the Digital Workplace,” Mark Driver, Chris Howard, Jason Wong, Mike West, 17 August 2015 9. Gartner report, “Citizen Development is Fundamental to the Digital Workplace,” Mark Driver, Chris Howard, Jason Wong, Mike West, 17 August 2015 To Selecting a Rapid Buyer's Application Development Guide Platform
ES Executive Summary
I Democratizing App Development with RAD
7 Capabilities to Test When Evaluating RAD II Platforms
Evaluating RAD Platforms – One Develo- III per’s Journey
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Rapid App Development Can Make the Job Easier – If You Know What to Look For
Rapid app development platforms can help combat many of these user complaints. These platforms use cross-compatible web technologies such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to dramatically improve mobile user experiences by delivering business apps with a native-like experience on any mobile device. They do most of the routine coding for developers, yet also frequently allow developers to add code to allow wider functionality of the device while delivering a more tailored user experience.
Business apps built using rapid app development platforms much faster and more affordable to produce than native development and can solve many of these end-user complaints. Yet, it’s important to note that all rapid app development platforms are not equal. The best rapid app development platforms allow experienced developers and citizen developers to do what they do best – with no limits for either.
7 Critical Business App Capabilities to Examine in Any Rapid App Development Platform You Evaluate
While many rapid app development platforms have similar capabilities, there are several that put a platform far above the others. These are more sophisticated capabilities that solve the types of concerns that mobile business app users frequently complain about. To produce valuable mobile business apps that are widely adopted and consistently used (and loved!) by end- users (the true measure of success of a mobile app) you must examine the following functionality in any rapid app development platform you evaluate. While every app may not require each capability, if you don’t have a rapid app development platform that can easily handle these types of business app requirements, your mobile approach will likely be unsuccessful.
Make sure the rapid app development platform you choose can: 1. Utilize device-specific hardware capabilities. Platforms must support the use of: a scanner, camera, specialized detectors, GPS, or local file system storage - which expands the amount of data an app can handle. These are data entry capabilities that are impossible to deliver through a browser-only experience.
2. Support offline work. A mobile app isn’t truly a mobile app if it can’t work when a user is without a WiFi or cell connection. Apps should be able to automatically synchronize stored information (even large media files) and intelligently handles data conflicts (beyond “last-in wins”) when reconnected with the backend system. There should also be data persistence when the app is closed or the battery dies, including data not saved to the server. Offline capabilities that only allow you to add records versus reading data from a database for editing or deleting is of limited value.
3. Manage the various rich media types available on mobile devices. Field workers can take pictures, video or record audio notes on their phones and tablets, so your apps should have these capabilities as well. If the user captures images or audio while offline, the app should be able to save these larger data files without any difficulty.
4. Deliver digital ink as a data type, and support stylus annotation. Users in the field may be doing inspections, taking notes on repairs or editing diagrams. Touch-sensitive drawing experiences are important in all types of field apps.
5. Run cross-platform. A good rapid app development platform will run like a native app on tablets, smartphones, and the desktop, regardless of operating system or screen size. The software will have careful consideration of how – and how often – an end user will interact with the app on the device.
6. Be location-, time-, and mobile-context-aware. With powerful mapping in their B2C apps, users in the field don’t want to waste time opening maps to find an address or inputting a time or location into a data file. Solid business apps should automatically capture important field-level data as part of the experience.
7. Optimize experiences for devices and specific tasks. This includes capabilities to dynamically produce custom keyboards (such as a digit-only keyboard for numeric entry fields), and apps that require only one hand or a single finger to operate. Ergonomics can be directly designed into the app.
Business users rely on these types of features in the B2C mobile apps they use every day, and expect their B2B and B2E apps to allow the same types of streamlined, optimized mobile experiences. In addition, it’s critical that enterprise developers realize that mobile apps and forms are very different from desktop applications or traditional paper forms. Business app builders will only disappoint end-users and see lower adoption rates if they fail to incorporate these types of sophisticated mobile capabilities into their development projects. Gartner’s 6 Criteria for Selecting a Rapid Mobile Application Development Tool
Richard Marshall and Van Baker – two of the leading MADP and RMAD category analysts at Gartner -- outlined Gartner’s top criteria for selecting rapid mobile app development tools at the Gartner Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit. They identified 6 key criteria that enterprises must address when selecting a Mobile App Development product, or they risk falling short of business app development needs:
1. Can this product connect to my back-end systems? 2. Do I have or can I find development talent that can use this product? 3. Do the apps this product produces work offline? 4. What is the licensing model? 5. Does this product connect to my development infrastructure? 6. Does this product support my mobile devices?
(Source: “Picking the Best New Mobile AD Tech: MBaaS and RMAD” presented by Richard Marshall and Van Baker of Gartner at Gartner Application Architecture, Development and Integration (AADI) Summit)
Summary
Considering all the rapid application development platforms on the market, it’s important to select one that not only promises more productivity, but also delivers the sophisticated user experiences and productivity enables that end-users have come to expect in mobile experiences. Buyers must consider these 7 critical business app capabilities in their rapid app development evaluation checklists. They also must always ensure that the platform will never limit or slow down experienced application developers or citizen developers.
Read Parts I, III and IV of our Buyers Guide for Rapid App Development Platforms.
Contact Alpha Software to learn how Alpha Anywhere meets and goes beyond these 7 critical requirements. To Selecting a Rapid Buyer's Application Development Guide Platform
ES Executive Summary
I Democratizing App Development with RAD
7 Capabilities to Test When Evaluating RAD II Platforms.
Evaluating RAD Platforms – One III Developer’s Journey
RAD Platform Licensing Models and How IV They Affect TCO apps fast. To benchmark my effort, I formulated 8 criteria as my method for evaluating these platforms: for as these evaluating method my criteria 8 Iformulated To fast. apps my effort, benchmark web and amobile to build development many listed platforms one rapid each and several analyst reports development market –Ihad application rapid November 2016,In review code low of to afull the do Idecided market. the on one best the finding and development app platforms rapid 2016 evaluating was about all low-code, mission development technology.My application rapid code low of development the speed from benefit and skills my to build ever than apps before, Idecided mobile web and more for 2016,In clamoring my with clients market. the on one best the finding and development app platforms rapid 2016 My evaluating was about all low-code, mission software. application building from satisfaction great recently, Iderive –most apps. web mobile and applications enterprise-class renovating. home For or me, it’s building knitting planes, model asbuilding such have who hobbies those are play golf, there and others love sports, watching people Some many in forms. come activities time Leisure Development App Mobile Code Platforms” Evaluating Experience App Mobile Low“One Developer’s 90-Minute 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
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As Christmas approached, I fully immersed myself in the final platform: Alpha Anywhere. After I downloaded a trial and installed it on a Windows machine, I watched a few videos to become familiar with the overall platform. I soon progressed The Photo App Tutorial video by Alpha Software CTO Dan Bricklin on the Alpha Software website. This tutorial — which I followed step-by-step, and took 90 minutes in total from start to finish — enabled me to build a mobile application that was running on my desktop machine, my iPad, my iPhone and my HTC android phone. The app I built was fully responsive, used the device camera from within the application to take a photo, and stored that photo in a relational database that had also been setup as part of that tutorial. 90 minutes was all it took – and the app looked and performed exactly like a native app, even though it was a hybrid app.
NOT ONE of the other platforms offered a tutorial that could have led me to create such a sophisticated and powerful mobile app in anything like the time that I could do it in Alpha Anywhere. For example, Outsystems has a 30-hour tutorial and it takes until the 20th hour to build an application – and even then, it has much less functionality than the Alpha Anywhere tutorial app. Frankly, Alpha Anywhere was able to deliver an outstanding and unique result.
Alpha Anywhere was the only platform that I found that scored highly on each one of my 8 evaluation criteria, making it the overall winner. Apart from Alpha Anywhere, none of the 7 other platforms that I had “short-listed” scored high on all the 8 criteria — only scoring well on 4 or 5 criteria, at most. I was very impressed with how strongly Alpha Anywhere “stacked up” against every other platform that I evaluated, making it an absolute stand-out choice for rapid development of enterprise-level mobile and web apps.
Based on my evaluation, I am not at all surprised that Alpha Anywhere was the ONLY low code rapid mobile app development (RMAD) technology recognized with an IDG/InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award. Editors recognized Alpha Anywhere for its database and data integration capabilities, robust offline capability, and media and image handling.
If you are a developer or an organization looking to build full-featured, enterprise class mobile and web apps quickly, If you want to feel confident that the platform will not run out of power and be scalable, and if it is important to be able to write once for all devices, and deliver powerful and robust offline apps, do yourself a favor and check out Alpha Anywhere. About the author: Alan Singer
Since the early 1980′s, Alan Singer has been working as an IT consultant, assisting large and medium size organizations create key business outcomes that have been enabled and accelerated by the strategic implementation of innovative Information Technology solutions. As an application developer, business leader and IT consultant, Alan has devoted himself to researching, testing and evaluating the latest software trends and software solutions that accelerate business outcomes which empower organizations to weather the “digital storm” that has hit the world of business. Alan consults to organizations who are keen to innovate and take advantage of enterprise software solutions such as low-code, rapid app development platforms and enterprise content management (ECM), to rapidly deliver the essential solutions needed for today’s corporate, government, and education organizations.
Read Parts I, II and IV of our Buyers Guide for Rapid App Development Platforms.
Contact Alpha Software to learn how Alpha Anywhere can power faster, better app development at your organization. To Selecting a Rapid Buyer's Application Development Guide Platform
ES Executive Summary
I Democratizing App Development with RAD
7 Capabilities to Test When Evaluating RAD II Platforms
Evaluating RAD Platforms – One Develo- III per’s Journey
RAD Platform Licensing Models and How IV They Affect TCO scaling your app development to be very painful and costly. and painful You your development app very to be scaling to ask need find you could training, and services hosting, of licensing, combination not have does right the platform the If you: when affected be performance and price will How over time. scale will development any how app platform rapid to consider it’s critical place, evolution taking this to moving many are and With apps. smaller, to everything, do task-oriented try that apps monolithic away moving are from app. organizations Also, afollow-on request users or iteration, requires it complete, is app an Once updated.and maintained be to need Apps effort. aone-and-done development rarely is App The Final Mile: Pricing Negotiating services and licensing package that will work best for you – now and in the future. the you in and for –now best work will that package licensing and services the about decisions make critical and you need some answers you to get help the tips some are Here • • • • • • 4. 3. 2. 1.
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Enterprises are used to buying training and professional services when purchasing platforms. But in a buyer’s market, demand more of your vendors. Let’s look at training first.
Training
Training can come in a range of forms:
1. Classroom or on-site training 2. Online training 3. Extended bootcamp courses 4. Product Certification
Often vendors claim that you can become proficient on their platform quickly, but buyer beware. In speaking with real platform customers, we discovered that some of these bullish claims turn out to be 12-month onboarding programs. Do you have this type of time to waste?
In this case, doing some extra homework during the evaluation could pay off big. Before you decide which of these packages is best for your organization, talk to current users of the product. If the software vendor won’t direct you to any reference accounts, then you can always find users on 3rd-party product review sites like Capterra or TrustPilot or on the vendor’s user forum/community message board. Ask current customers:
• How long does it take to build a basic first app on the platform? • How long does it take to become fully proficient on the platform? • Is bootcamp training necessary or is online training sufficient? • Are sample templates available to kick-start learning? • What type of free online tutorials or learning videos/webinars are available? • What training/services offerings did they find most helpful? • Which offerings did they wish they’d known about/taken advantage of earlier in the onboarding process?
Make sure you work with a vendor that has shown long-term success at turning new users into successful platform developers in weeks, not months or years. Ask for case studies or to speak to their customers who have been using the product for under a year. Look at what rapid app development customers had to say on unbiased product review websites like Gartner Peer Reviews, Capterra, TrustPilot or Clutch. Services Professional services engagements are of increasing importance to organizations purchasing Rapid Application Development Platforms. There are several reasons for the growing popularity of these professional services:
• There is a lack of experienced developers in the organization to build the first set of new apps • The current team has challenges prioritizing the time necessary to build the apps • A proof-of-concept approach is desirable for the organization to “walk before they run” in developing applications • There is a time crunch requiring even more rapid timeframes for the apps to be built • Professional training is desired by the organization to accelerate the adoption of the Rapid Application Development Platform • The development team has an interest in “learning by example” by coding alongside the professional services team
A Novel Idea: The Power of “Mentoring”
Some forward-thinking vendors recognize that today’s fast-paced, cost-conscious organizations need solutions beyond “build it for me” or “train me for weeks.” These vendors have launched innovative programs like “mentoring” that can offer 1:1 guidance or troubleshooting help just when a user needs it. In the case of mentoring, a product expert (think: personal trainer) is assigned to the customer on a “beck and call” basis. The mentor understands the account, the difference between what an experienced developer and citizen developer might encounter, and common challenges users run into. business user new to mobile app development might encounter. Mentoring is usually sold in blocks of time – for example, Alpha Software offers 5- or 10-hour blocks – and can be used as the customer needs it. Mentoring is very customized and allows customers to work at their pace and save significant costs than if they engaged a professional services team. Some uses of mentoring include: • Speeding onboarding • Focused training on a new version or new feature of the product • Troubleshooting an app project • Adding a particularly complex feature to an app • Finishing an app to meet a critical deadline
Don’t simply settle for traditional training and professional service offerings. Work with a vendor with creative, flexible offerings that get users proficient quickly, at a very cost-effective price.
Don’t simply settle for traditional training and professional service offerings. If you’re going to democratize app development, you’ll have many users with a range of skill levels that will need customized onboarding and training. Work with a vendor with creative, flexible offerings to help you get a wide range of users proficient on the platform quickly, at a very cost-effective price. Understanding Different Licensing Models and Their Impact
With the move to the cloud and SaaS-based offerings, companies have moved from traditional licensing models to software subscription models. Subscription models offer several benefits to enterprises: • More Hosting Options – Subscriptions enable a hybrid cloud/on-premises model, which has become the deployment model of choice • Faster Time-to-Market - Subscriptions offer faster time to market and more agile deployment. • Latest Software Versions – Subscriptions give all licensed users access to the latest versions of the software, ensuring consistency and latest capabilities in all development. • Scalability – Customers can negotiate their subscription to scale up or down according to use, transactions or storage for less risk and expense • Affordability – Subscriptions give businesses more control over expected costs and more predictability. Within subscription-based models, software vendors typically offer one of two licensing models: By 2020, more than 80 percent of software vendors will change their business model from traditional license and maintenance to subscription”. – Gartner, Smarter with Gartner, Moving to a “ Software Subscription Model
1. A “user-based” or “named user” pricing model. 2. A “server-based” or “concurrent user” pricing model.
Let’s look at both of these models and the long-term impacts each can have on total cost of ownership (TCO).
A Look at User-Based Licensing With user-based licensing, once your app is built, there is a monthly, or yearly, charge for each user on the platform, regardless of how often or infrequently they use it.
With user-based licensing, each end-user of the app needs a license. This means that as you add on new users – or new apps -- the costs tend to add up quickly, even if the monthly charge per user is low. If you build a few department focused apps in the beginning, then hope to build enterprise-wide or channel based apps in the future, your prices could soar as you scale your apps to serve larger sets of users.
With user-based licensing, you are effectively charged simply for providing users with the right to use the app, independent of how often they use the app or what load they put on the app For example, let’s say you build an app for an alumni association of a university. There could be tens of thousands of people who will use the app, but most of these people will not be using the app (or more precisely hitting the server) at the same time. In a user based pricing model, it does not matter that most users will not be putting load on the server at any given time. In this model, you are effectively charged simply for providing users with the right to use the app, independent of how often they use the app or what load they put on the app.
User-based licensing models tend to work well for internal apps in a company or organization where users can be authenticated, they break down. The model breaks down for external or public-facing mobile or web apps when you can’t easily predict how many people will access the app or where counting and authenticating could be problematic. The reason per user pricing exists is because it’s a legacy of the old license model for perpetual seats. The problem with most per user pricing is the experience for anyone who logs into the product is actually pretty similar and the value that’s being given is not “ on a per user basis. If you can get the exact same experience no matter what log in you use it’s a good litmus test that you probably shouldn’t be using per user pricing.” – Patrick Campbell, CEO of Price Intelligently in OpenView,”Why Do SaaS Companies Still Charger by the User”October 25, 2016
A Look at Usage-based Licensing
While many vendors still rely on per user pricing, it’s clear that the market is slowly evolving towards usage-based licensing. Usage-based pricing allows enterprises to start at an affordable price, then pay more as their needs grow or the product sees wider adoption across the business. In the case of web and mobile apps, it also better reflects the actual usage of apps over time vs. everyone who has permission to use apps. In usage-based licensing models, vendors may calculate usage based on the number of servers deployed, the number of transactions run, or number of visitors to your website.
In a usage-based model it does not matter how many people in total use the app at some point in time. All that matters are how many users are on the app at exactly the same time (i.e. concurrent users). When the number of concurrent users exceeds a certain threshold, only then will an enterprise want to add additional servers to handle the increased server load and optimize performance. This model is increasingly attractive to customers who are scaling their business for two reasons: First, these customers pay only for actual usage of the system. Therefore, they are not bound by a fixed number of licensed users. This allows the business to scale at a much more reasonable cost (assuming the server license is reasonable).
Second, if the mobile or web app is also intended for use by persons who are external to the company, then this model is the only practical model because it easily scales in either direction with the normal ebb and flow of load on the system at an affordable rate.
More vendors are moving to usage-based (or server-based) pricing to appeal to enterprises who see the long-term feasibility of this model. A 2016 survey by Pacific Crest witnessed a surge in user based pricing, as 29% of SaaS startups reported incorporating usage into their pricing in 2016, up 5% from 2015.
Summary
When evaluating application development platforms, be sure to look carefully at the services offerings as well as the licensing model to see which vendor will offer your organization the bestTCO and ROI in short-term and the long-term. Don’t settle for traditional professional services packages or user-based pricing. Think outside the box and find a vendor that better understands the challenges of democratizing app development across IT and lines of business and how the platform needs to scale in the future.
Read Parts I, II and III of our Buyers Guide for Rapid App Development Platforms.
Contact Alpha Software to learn how Alpha Anywhere pricing packages can meet your objectives with creative solutions like mentoring and usage-based pricing.