This document is a guide on creating a mobile enterprise application business case, emphasizing the importance of developing a robust strategy and understanding costs associated with mobile app development. It discusses challenges organizations face in estimating ROI and outlines a structured approach to building a business case through the analysis of development and operational costs, along with potential benefits. The guide concludes by advising enterprises to prioritize small projects and leverage metrics to support their mobile initiatives.

1. The essential guide to becoming a
Part 2:
Creating a mobile enterprise
application business case.
Mobile Enterprise
Rock Star

2. The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 2)
2
Introduction
Enterprise mobility is one of the most exciting opportunities within
the workplace these days because of all the change management
opportunities it provides organizations. There is a real paradigm shift
occurring in terms of how organizations are looking at their business
processes and how they can change – really CHANGE – them with
mobile enterprise applications.
This 3 part series will guide you and your enterprise through:
1. Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application
strategy
2. Creating a mobile enterprise application business case
3. Choosing the right Mobile Enterprise Application Platform
(MEAP) partner
Source: Symantec 2012
of businesses are
making line-of-business
apps accessible from
mobile devices
Over
Half

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3
Creating a strong mobile enterprise
business case
By 2015, four times as many mobile apps will be developed as
traditional PC apps today. Before they get overwhelmed by
demand, organizations must plan around this.
Gartner (January 2013)
How to Estimate the ROI of Mobile Apps for Employees

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While it might be tempting to dive head-first into mobile app development as you read daily
about how another company that has transformed business processes and reduced costs
with an enterprise app, its important businesses take the time to define a proper business
case to prioritize projects, collect buy in and measure success.
That being said, this is no easy task! Although some costs and revenue models for
application development are well-understood for web apps, the reality is that the
development and operational costs for mobile enterprise apps are very different and
enterprises are faced with added challenges:
• It is often difficult to determine the ROI for employee-facing mobile apps that do not
fall into well-defined categories, such as sales and field force automation.
• Cost savings from mobile projects are associated with process transformations,
making them difficult to assess, especially because most organizations have not
baselined the time and effort required by these processes.
73percent of businesses rated
“increased efficiency”
as very important key benefit
of mobile computing
Source: Symantec 2012

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Inspired by the ancient Project Management proverb - “How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time” – in this post, we will discuss how to create a strong mobile enterprise
business case by breaking down the work into 3 bite-sized pieces:
1. Development Costs
2. Operational Costs
3. Calculating Benefits, Cost Savings and Revenue
After performing this process at your business you will have a better idea of how to determine
appropriate budgets, know where best to direct further investment and how to assess
the potential revenue, cost savings and intangible benefits derived from mobile enterprise
applications.

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7. The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 2)
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Development Costs1 Staffing
• App development per platform?
• User experience design?
• Visual design?
• Backend/middleware development?
• Project management?
If you have some or all of these resources internally and would
prefer to run the project in-house, it is highly recommended to
consult with mobile development specialists to assist in designing
the service concept to minimize the overall risk of the project.
This is likely to raise the cost I the short-term, but due to the
rapid evolution of mobile application development platforms,
technology and capabilities you can ensure your team has the
most up-to-date knowledge/recommendations/ideas from a team
of professionals who live and breathe mobile.
DEVELOPMENT

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Testing
• Do you have the capabilities in-house to test all platforms
or will you need to outsource?
• Estimate approximately 50% of the overall cost of
development for QA
• What about devices? You’ll enhance the overall quality of
the app by testing frequently on actual devices rather than
emulators
Testing is often under prioritized in development projects, but
the reality is that mobile testing remains a complex, multifaceted
activity. Take it seriously because users will not adopt a buggy
app! That being said, we recommend limiting deployment to
certain approved devices to reduce the scale of testing required.
Integration
• What is the cost of integrating with your existing IT
Systems if there are no web services available today?
• Would it be worth investing in middleware exposing the
legacy services to mobile to build a future proof solution
that scales and is cheaper to maintain?
• Do you have cost associated to opening and securing
backend systems that may be amortized as part of a
general move to multichannel delivery?
• Is there a need for containerization or virtual private
network solutions for private connectivity?
The lack of suitable integration points is one of the most common
issues encountered in mobile development, don’t take it lightly.
Allow sufficient lead time or budget to consult with mobile API
specialist to help you design the best architecture for your
applications.

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Operational Costs2 Mobility is driving significant changes in the way organizations
source technology and technology services. In fact, Forrester
states that 71% of IT services executives say that increased
employee use of apps on tablets and smartphones also increases
services spend (in business and in IT), creates more software-as-a-
service (SaaS) deployment on mobile devices, and drives them to
hire more third-party services firms across multiple areas, including
specialized development and security.
However, mobile app operational costs different from those of
traditional enterprise offerings; here are some costs to consider for
your business case.
OPERATIONAL
Source: Forrester (2012)

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Licensing
Infrastructure
Mobile Data
• Are there any volume-based licensing fees to consider for you app (CRM, Document
Repository, MDM, MAM, Enterprise app store, etc)?
• More apps mean more data charges on the device, what would be a fare estimate?
• What should you account for in added roaming costs?
• How will the added number of devices impact the usage of corporate Wi-Fi?
• Will you need to extend coverage to all areas where the apps are to be used?
• Time for a mobile device management (MDM) partner?
Make sure to consider these and any other potential impacts that deploying an app can have on
your existing infrastructure. Consider the costs of upgrading bandwidth and equipment if you
want to ensure quality service for your users.

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Cloud
Support &
Training
Mobile Data
• Will you be using cloud services for your app middleware?
• More apps mean more data charges on the device, what would be a fare estimate?
• What should you account for in added roaming costs?
• Training courses on new systems for internal support staff?
• By how much will you have to increase the head count?
• What is the cost/time associated to onboarding training with new users?
As the range of supported systems and devices expand, so does the need for support staff and
training. There are companies that you can outsource this to, but at the very least you must
consider the cost associated to growing your teams size and knowledge.

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Calculating Benefits, Cost Savings
and Revenue3 Define project benefits metrics based on efficiency, effectiveness
and error reduction.
Some tips:
• Think about how much time people wasted before
• Estimate benefit per employee to generate a more realistic
estimate (don’t just wave the magic wand and assign a
number)
BENEFITS
Cost Savings and Revenue
BENEFITS
Cost Savings and Revenue

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The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 2)
Efficiency
• Can you reduce the load on admin staff and contact centers by equipping your field team
with self-service content?
• Is the impact large enough to lower telecom costs?
• What can people get done with mobile apps during otherwise idle time?
• More sales? Calls? Emails? CRM updates?
• How much less paper will you need by switching to direct data entry into a mobile device or
by eliminating paper catalogs/brochures?
• How does that impact your printing and shipping costs?
• Can a mobile device replace a more expensive piece of equipment?Eliminating hardware
Eliminating paper handling & printing
Cutting internal communications costs
Cutting internal communications costs

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The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 2)
Effectiveness
• What price tag would you assign to the intangible value of increasing the amount of time
spent face-to-face with clients?
• How much less data is consumed by replacing web with native apps?
• How will the app increase traditional sales and field force metrics, such as calls for week
and time to repair?
• How much do you suspect the deployment of other enhancements, such as digital
catalogs, to increase sales by enabling sales staff to help customers understand available
products better and more quickly?
• What is the long-term impact of mobilizing a business process (ex. Enabling
maintenance crews to receive their work orders directly without having to collect a
paper roster from the office)?
Process transformation
Driving revenue
Intangible operational improvements
Mobile Data

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The essential guide to becoming an enterprise app rock star (Part 2)
Error reduction
• How much faster can a service agent detect a fault with mobile workflow automation or
advanced technology such as augmented reality?
• How much time did staff previously spend organizing and filing new content?
• What about time spent destroying old paper copies?
• How much can you reduce return-to-base requirements if your enterprise app provides a
manifest of parts needing replacement in field staff vans before the service agent leaves the
depot?
• How much time did staff previously spend correcting data entry errors?Direct data entry
Automated parts control
Automated process
Always up-to-date reference material

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Conclusion
ROI metrics for mobile app development are not black and white. The metrics described
in this post are a combination of industry research and 8 years of application development
experience. Take this model and work with both the business and end users to uncover
other business process that could be improved and quantified. Find the ones that work best
for your company and your app.
It’s a big task, but the reality is that mobile has the power to move from a cost center to a
driver of business innovation so getting a benefit template in place for each of the typical
enterprise apps you plan to deploy will be an essential planning exercise. Break it down:
1. Identify a small number of tools and vendors to estimate costs
2. Use the metrics derived from the model above can be used to assemble a case
based on specific benefits and values
For more information on how to become an enterprise app rockstar read the other parts of
our series.
• Part 1: Developing an actionable mobile enterprise application strategy
• Part 3: Choosing the right Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) partner

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About Golden Gekko
We transform existing businesses and help create
new industry leaders in the mobile space through
our experience, technology innovation, UX design
and reliable quality solutions.
Our services include service concept design, UX/UI
design, native app, HTML5, mobile web and backend
development, quality assurance and distribution. With
1500+ projects delivered and 150+ clients we provide
solutions for telecom, retail, CPG, media, enterprise,
government, healthcare/pharma, transportation and
travel.
For enterprise clients, we offer solutions such as
Meetr, a mobile productivity and collaboration solution
providing secure access to documents, business
intelligence, meeting planning, data gathering, CRM,
ERP and more by aggregating existing enterprise
platforms.
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