The Invisible Gorilla of Business Apps

The world of business apps has grown exponentially with clever companies solving small problems with task focused applications.

According to International Data Corporation, there were 156 billion app downloads in 2015 and from 2016 to 2020 there will be approximately 210 billion installs annually.

That is a staggering trillion app downloads over five years.

One trillion is a massive number to get your head around. For example, if you were to line up one trillion iPhones end on end, you could go the moon and back over 200 times!

But what is the invisible gorilla of Business Apps?

The “Invisible Gorilla experiment” showed how humans can unintentionally block out extraordinary things that are right in front of their eyes. This is called perceptual blindness, where you’ve zoomed in on one thing in your line of sight and as a result have not noticed all the other opportunities right in front of you.

The same thing can be said for business apps.

At the moment when you read about business apps it’s all about task related consumer services, apps that solve one thing for the consumer. The apps range from business card readers to social media apps, to map apps, travel apps, calendar apps, task reminder apps, instant messaging apps and the list goes on and on. The apps are unconnected and work to solve one task.

So here is the invisible gorilla in business apps.

You can create your own mobile app and tailor it to your business processes. What are the benefit?

• You can have all your processes connected to one data base and that talks to each other
• Eliminate all the dead time associated with multiple data entry
• Share it with who you like and control what they see
• Send emails, take photos, read barcodes and create pdf on the go
• Access your business information via your web browser, iPhone, iPad, tablet Mac or windows.
• Develop Dashboards and live reports specifically for your needs

How much does it cost?

Here is what you do. You choose a small process that will save you known number of hours a week. A simple example, may be the time it takes to punch hand written invoices or delivery dockets into the system, or update project notes of customer requests.

Let’s say processing this information takes a staff member 3 hours a day. That is 15 hours per week.

If we assume the cost of the staff member is $30 per hour once you’ve included super, taxes and leave entitlements. That is $450 per week.

What if you could eliminate that task?

Well, you can and that would save you approximately $23,400 and year every year from that point forward. The question then becomes, how much is the additional $23,400 a year worth to you?

Over 5 years you would save $117,000.

Note as your business grows that becomes an even bigger saving and you would be saving more time!

The reality is the cost of a simple solution is likely to be a small fraction of the saving over 5 years.

No-where near the $50,000 or $100,000 that some app development groups throw around.

As an investment in your business processes, custom business apps will become a key part of your strategic advantage.

Don’t get distracted by the one solution apps catching your eye.

The functional apps out there are great, but if you don’t see the Gorilla others will. You may be left wondering why you can’t compete and why your cost base is too high and your margins are squeezed.

Seeing the Gorilla, that is your own custom business app, provides a great opportunity but if you don’t see it, it will become a massive threat.

Get ahead of the curve and start creating your competitive advantage with your custom business app today.

Chris Catto