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Applications such as Service Cloud, Salesforce Chatter and Salesforce Communities are changing the nature of customer engagement. For years, businesses have talked about real-time engagement, responsiveness and immediacy. Now, finally, it's here. After all, how much more real-time or immediate can you be than engaging with someone on their mobile 24/7?

This represents a massive challenge for any organisation's processes and IT infrastructure. Companies are under pressure to quickly mobile-enable their applications. However, a robust mobile strategy is essential, if you want to drive maximum business value from these applications. Learning from the experiences of others can also make the difference between project success and failure. Following are five lessons drawn from our experiences with customers that have embarked on the mobility journey.

  1. Start by understanding your environment - The first requirement is to define the environment you want to create. Which devices will your users have? Will you use iOS, Android, Blackberry or Windows? Some of this information may already be spelled out in staff mobility or BYOD (bring your own device) policies. If not, talk to staff to gauge what they require and expect. 
  2. Make it simple - Don't try to replicate the enterprise software system in a mobile app. It will become too complex to use and to maintain. Instead, think about ways to enhance workflows then focus on the functionality that will deliver maximum efficiency and simplicity for users.
  3. Design for clarity  - Remember mobile users will be looking at your app through a very small screen, so layout, colours, navigation, and button and font sizes play a major role in the user experience. Make the design intuitive so that the app is easy to use – and don't forget its primary goal, which is to support the business. 
  4. Test and refine  - As you build, get users to roadtest the app at every milestone, because if they don't like what you are creating, you're wasting your time. Continually seek feedback and consider using an application like TestFlight to manage builds, and collect key metrics about usage. 
  5. Put it in the hands of users - Even before an app is built, you need to know how you plan to deploy it to all those separate mobile devices. Among other things, you'll need to decide how to package the app, where and how it will be hosted, how updates will be distributed, and how users will be directed to the app. 

Ultimately, the best advice is to avoid knee-jerk developments. Mobile-enabled applications work best when their purpose is clearly understood, their functionalities are planned, and they support user and business requirements.