Salesforce’s market dominance can be attributed to many factors, and the platform’s extensive customizability and overall flexibility are among them. For instance, Salesforce enables companies to create mobile apps for both employees and customers either by using Salesforce’s native no-code tools or opting for Salesforce custom development to build apps from scratch.
In this article, experts from Itransition, a company that provides Salesforce services and solutions for 10+ years, highlight Salesforce mobile app benefits and describe common development approaches and a development roadmap.
Examples of Salesforce mobile apps
As was previously mentioned, Salesforce provides capabilities enabling the creation of Android and iOS mobile apps for both employees and customers. For employees, Salesforce mobile apps can grant convenient remote access to CRM functionality and data, while for customers, mobile apps can act as additional communication channels, enabling two-way interaction beyond traditional email or phone support. Examples of Salesforce mobile apps include:
- Marketing management apps
Companies can develop mobile apps that allow marketers to access customer data, create and manage tasks, track marketing campaigns in real time and on-the-go, as well as manage leads and opportunities directly from mobile devices.
- Sales management apps
Salesforce mobile apps can provide sales reps with many useful capabilities, including viewing and updating leads, sharing documents with other reps, and scheduling meetings, helping them manage the entire sales cycle from any location.
- Field service management apps
By using Salesforce mobile apps, field technicians can receive and manage work orders in real time, remotely track available inventory like specific spare parts and equipment needed to complete their tasks, and access necessary technical documentation for more efficient field servicing.
- Customer-facing apps
Mobile apps can serve as self-service portals, enabling customers to easily access their account details, order history, and other information. Companies also can create mobile ecommerce apps, allowing customers to browse product catalogs, add items to shopping carts, and conduct transactions.
Key advantages of Salesforce mobile development
- Enhanced productivity
Marketing, sales, and field service teams can complete and manage their tasks on the go without being in the office, which allows companies to improve their workflow efficiency.
- Streamlined collaboration
Mobile apps can simplify communication between field workers in different locations, as well as between field and office workers, thereby enabling more seamless collaboration between employees within the company.
- Improved service quality
Mobile apps can contribute to increased customer satisfaction, with service reps resolving customer issues faster and more efficiently or customers themselves getting additional, more convenient self-service capabilities.
Common approaches for Salesforce app development
No-code development
This approach involves using Salesforce’s drag-and-drop visual tools, such as Lightning App Builder, Flow Builder, and Mobile Publisher, to build and customize mobile apps.
Advantages:
- Apps can be built and deployed quickly, in a few weeks or even days, which makes this approach suitable for prototypes, minimum viable products, or small business apps.
- This approach is also considered highly cost-efficient, since inexperienced developers or even non-technical staff can use it to build apps, eliminating the need for more qualified specialists.
Limitations:
- The no-code approach will not suit a company looking to build apps with highly tailored user interfaces or unique business logic and functionality.
Programmatic development
The programmatic development approach involves using Salesforce’s proprietary backend programming language, Apex, along with UI frameworks such as Lightning Web Components and Visualforce, to build custom apps from the ground up.
Advantages:
- Companies can create unique business logic and tailored user interfaces, which is not possible with declarative, no-code tools.
Limitations:
- The development cycles are typically significantly longer compared to the no-code approach.
- Building apps with code requires dedicated expertise, so companies would need to hire a development team.
Hybrid development
In many cases, companies can combine the use of no-code Salesforce tools with custom coding. Leveraging “the best of both worlds”, companies can strike a balance between cost-effective rapid development and flexible coding to create more unique user experiences.
Salesforce mobile app development roadmap
Generally, the mobile app development process in Salesforce replicates the typical software development lifecycle and includes the following steps:
Discovery
In the first stage, developer teams determine the mobile application’s goals (field service, ecommerce, etc.), identify its end users, document user requirements, and conceptualize the mobile app.
Planning and design
The project team maps the mobile app architecture, selects appropriate development technologies and approaches, and creates wireframes and prototypes for the app.
Development
Depending on the chosen approach, the team either writes code to build data models, workflows, and app UI, or performs these tasks using no-code tools.
Testing
Developer teams also execute unit testing, performance testing, user acceptance testing, and other types of quality assurance activities to validate that the application meets all requirements and functions correctly.
Deployment and launch
The next step involves moving the application from the sandbox environment to the production environment, after which it can also be submitted to Apple or Google app stores or be remotely installed on corporate-owned devices.
Post-launch maintenance
After the release, the app needs to be continuously monitored and updated to ensure its stability and security.
Final thoughts
Along with robust sales, marketing, and service management functionality, Salesforce provides companies with comprehensive mobile app development capabilities, including no-code tools and custom development. With these tools, businesses can expand the functionality of their CRM systems to facilitate fieldwork for employees, as well as provide customers with more seamless access to the company’s services and support. An experienced provider of Salesforce services and solutions can help you create an efficient mobile app by analyzing your business requirements, conceptualizing the solution, choosing the most suitable development approach, and bringing the solution to life.
