Top 5 Things to Look In an App Maintenance Company
Mobile App Development
Why Mobile App Maintenance?
Many individuals, professionals, and businesses believe that once the development stage finished and the app is running in the palms of end-users, they have done all! Unfortunately, it is not an absolute truth.
Rather it is a short lived relief and not provide any guarantee for uninterrupted flow of revenues. Bugs are raising and spoiling the reputation of the app in the market. Customers or end-users are annoying and bombarding complaints. The sales staff is seemingly frustrated and supports team finds itself helpless.
Complaints about crashes, bad user experiences, lack of tech advancements, and so on deepening grievances with the pace of time. Competitors are ready to overtake you when they found your performance is declining gradually.
Now app owner, a company, or management of an organization is worried to restore app buzz in the market after a certain period of app release. They revert to the app development company or their consultants who advised them to have an app for their business or profession.
If they are lucky enough, someone might have introduced an app related term – app lifecycle, where
app maintenance has a prominent place. Reputed web and mobile app development companies acknowledge their patrons in advance regarding maintenance, updates, and support services at post-development stage of the app lifecycle.
Many smart and sympathetic app developers or app development firms are offering maintenance packages along with app development packages, just prior to signing the development contract.
Intelligent app developers convince clients in the pipeline to sign app maintenance contract. Thus, they give a broad picture of the overall cost of an app ownership for the entire app lifecycle.
In order to avoid hassles described above, app owners should think of
mobile app maintenance along with app development planning and keep some hints in mind to make the best deal of maintenance for an entire lifecycle of the app in the market.
Let’s check the points we should consider during the signing of our app development project with an eminent company.
1: App Maintenance Company Should Offer Different Types of Mobile App Maintenance Packages
We simply believe mobile app maintenance means fixing issues reported by clients or customers. However, app maintenance is covering a series of tasks. Based on it, we can segregate app maintenance in a few categories, particularly for the sake of understanding, what in on the table and what we actually need.
#A: Corrective Mobile App Maintenance Package
It is a basic type of app maintenance package where some defect correction approaches taken as per the agreements in SLAs signed between the Mobile App Development Company and clients.
For instance, fixing bugs crashes, and managing some emergencies through a correction in code, design, features, functionality, and services involved in app retention in the market. However, corrective maintenance requires minor fixing, and fewer resources or maintenance developers need to spend substantially little time against other advanced packages. Thus, it reduces the cost naturally low for the same package.
#B: Preventative Mobile App Maintenance Package
Apropos to corrective maintenance approaches (which have taken after the defect or emergency arising), adaptive maintenance approaches as its name suggests are taken prior to mishaps or emergencies going to reporting during the post-release stage of the app lifecycle.
In order to take preventive measures, app maintenance team is running app analysis and analyzing app performance patterns using the latest app analyzing technologies and tools prevailing in the market.
Based on the reports, app designers and programmers are discovering potential threats and vulnerability areas in the app, and plan out appropriate fixing strategy before doing actual implementation.
Thus, some categories of applications can be saved prior to anything unwanted happens with the app in near and far future.
#C: Adaptive Mobile App Maintenance Package
Adaptive maintenance package is a bit advanced concept than basic corrections/fixing in the app. We know, over-the-time app technologies advancing and trends changes. Thus, the app needs to include or exclude some features, functions, and services.
It demands some works and attentions of app designing and programming teams and needs testing as well to assure better performance. Since with adaptive app maintenance approaches, maintenance team brings some additional values to the app and its lifecycle, so its cost is a bit high compared to basic corrective approaches.
At marketing point of view, adaptive maintenance approaches are most desirable when the market is fiercely competitive, and tech innovations are more frequent in the app niche.
#D: Perfective Mobile App Maintenance Package
In adaptive maintenance approach, we simply adopt whatever trendy in the market and we have to change it all again when trends are changing. Whereas in the case of perfective app maintenance approach, development team foresees the trends and future of the app in question.
The maintenance team is spending time, resources, and money on analysis of app performance, app adoption/acceptance, and app monetization outcomes to dig deeper. Based on reports, the team is planning the changes in the app to make it perfectly fit for a long period and capable of beating upcoming challenges.
Changes in design and code are expected in this package and some exhaustive testing as well. Therefore, this package is costing the highest, among all offerings, but rewarding a big ROI for the long run.
We can notice significant improvements in the app performance in the current market and maintainability of the app in concern.
In Sum
You must opt for the mobile app maintenance company, most probably from outsourcing community of India that has a team to offer all types of mobile
application maintenance services and packages accordingly.
2: With Capability of App Performance Determination
Up to this, we have talked a lot about mobile app maintenance types and processes at some extents, but we have not mentioned anything that how to measure app performance and based on it, which metrics we need to address during app maintenance packages.
Let’s see general types of metrics & sub-metrics to measure app performance and based on the accumulated data, how we can draw conclusions during app maintenance process. If we are going to the point, to define app performance metrics, we can draw following hierarchy:
- Acquisition Metrics: Without substantial amount of downloads we cannot define any acquisition metric
- Engagement Metrics: Without further engagement of users, a business never gets app conversion hence, cannot grow more
- A Number of active users
- Length of session
- A Number of goals accomplished
- A Number of loyal users
- Retention Metrics: Engaging a user once cannot generate more revenues out of an app, so retention or coming on app frequently depict the app viability in the market
- Retention rate (%)
- Life Time Value
- Quality Metrics: Technical issues in the app may hamper the user experiences with the app and correcting as well as taking preventive measures through various maintenance approaches can improve overall performance/quality of the app.
- Programming automatic crash reports
- Collecting user feedback manually
- Reviews in app stores/marketplaces
- Behavioral Metrics: Understanding of users’ behavior may give insights for the next updates that a maintenance team has to take.
- Devices and locations of users
- Use cases, time, and frequency
- User actions
In Sum
If your selected mobile app maintenance firm is lacking app performance metrics measuring capacities, you hardly have satisfactory and affordable app maintenance services from it. Therefore, be wise and go for the company with all facilities and trained human resources to tackle any scale of app maintenance project despite big challenges.
3: Time and Resources Allocated for the Maintenance Process by the Mobile App Maintenance Company
We calculate maintenance cost mostly based on the time developers have spent on it. Therefore, measuring time and resources including human resource consumption (e.g. a number of developers involved in a task) is vital in the selection of maintenance package.
Mobile OS platforms vary in numbers and nature with somewhat acute fragmentation issues. Therefore, the same app developed on more than one platform may take different time and resources during the same maintenance tasks.
Therefore, based on what platforms you have used to develop your app is defining the maintenance time and cost too.
When App Developed on Separate Platforms
Today iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile platforms are trendy and used by most of the app entrepreneurs to enterprises for mobile app development. If you have developed your mobile app for more than one native mobile OS platform, it is a tough and costly assignment to maintain separate codebase, designing, and other security like standards for each platform individually.
You need to Hire Mobile App Maintenance Company that can manage mobile application maintenance process for all major mobile OS platforms. The company should have adequate numbers of app developers ready to jump into app maintenance projects with intricacies.
Only handful of mobile app development companies exists in outsourcing arena, which has expertise in iOS, Android, and Windows Phones like other platforms for development as well as post-development services like maintenance and marketing.
As far as maintenance time concerns, iOS technologies are more time consuming compared to Android so we cannot predict exact time and cost for app maintenance projects on separate platforms.
When App Developed on Single (Cross-) Platform
Xamarin, PhoneGap, and Titanium are app development platforms offering cross-platform compatibility to your mobile applications. Based on different and commonly used technologies, the cross-platform mobile apps are easy to maintain, compared to native apps of different native platforms and codebase.
Moreover, cross-platform apps have most of the code base commonly built with web technologies like HTML 5, CSS 3, and scripts like JavaScript and C# in the case of Xamarin. Only wrapper segments in the code are in the native programming languages, so maintenance team has to manage only that differing pieces of code in the app codebase.
Thus, it can prove somewhat cost-effective and less time-consuming app maintenance package when app developed on a single platform or cross-platform.
Point & Click Platform
These are basic types of platforms with some drag-and-drop like facilities where further customization has little chance. Therefore, such app takes a little time for app maintenance and fewer resources so packages would be cheaper in nature.
In Sum
Therefore, you must select the mobile app maintenance company that has proper skill sets for your app types and platforms it developed. The broad types of skill sets are desirable in the choice of a company chiefly with iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry app development expertise.
4: Security Updates
Security threats are increasing parallel to the increases in the app usages, and popularity of app technologies. Therefore, native app technologies like iOS and Android platforms are releasing updated versions with security fixes.
The same is true for your app and applicable for you app OS versions too. You need to address security threats, attacks, and defects reported by actual users in the field and release updated version at regular intervals to address raising security concerns.
Moreover, different categories of apps need different types of security technologies and follow different standard either set by the mobile platform or by the leading organizations in the market.
Monetize transactions are sensitive issues for safety and security purposes. Thus, addressing security issues in such apps becomes essentiality during maintenance and update process. You must select the mobile app development company offering app maintenance packages which should have expertise in app security features, functionality, and solutions for different platforms.
After all, sensitive data and app performance should not be compromised, particularly when you have signed up mobile app maintenance packages with a mobile development company.
5: Select Outsourcing Unit for Mobile Application Maintenance
When you select a local company in your vicinity, it may come with some added advantages like familiarity with geography, demography, behavior of target audience, business environment, and most importantly cultural similarities.
However, when you think of outsourcing your mobile app maintenance project to the offshore clients like Indian mobile app development firm, you might have altogether different and superior advantages.
For example:
- Many folds reductions in overall mobile app maintenance cost
- Save you from hiring app maintenance developers with different skill sets for various mobile OS platforms and cross-platforms
- Leverage big team with higher level of expertise and profound experiences in the app maintenance work after checking their extensive portfolio
- Saves you from various headaches associated keeping developers for maintenance or inspecting maintenance work more frequently with local team so you can focus on your core activities
Conclusion:
Based on the given hints while selecting a mobile app maintenance company, we can conclude that the
app development company offering app maintenance packages should have enough talents to address requirements of different mobile OS platforms.
A company must have updated infrastructural facilities to offer advanced levels of services in highly collaborative and conducive environment.
In due course, you can opt for Addon Solutions like reputed
Mobile Application Development & Maintenance Company with flairs and experiences in various categories of mobile apps for viable and affordable app maintenance packages.
Of course, you can prefer Addon Solutions for:
- Minor, incremental, or major enhancements to your app maintenance process
- Minor or major upgrades, and additions to your mobile app in maintenance
- Bug fixing or corrective maintenance packages
- Performance enhancement & operational level support from the app maintenance team