Business application development
Mobile app development, connected to the systems behind it
iOS and Android apps for customers, members and field teams — joined up to the systems that hold the data, rather than a shell that shows a website.
The situation
When the work happens away from a desk
A mobile app is worth building when something genuinely needs to happen away from a computer. It is worth not building when it does not.
- Field staff recording work on paper and typing it up afterwards
- Photographs and signatures collected by email or messaging app
- No usable connectivity where the work actually happens
- Customers asking for an app because the website is unusable on a phone
- Data arriving a day late because it is entered back at the office
- Separate apps for related tasks, none of which share data
What it covers
What an app project covers
Platform decision
Native, cross-platform or a progressive web app. The honest answer is often that a web application would do the job.
Offline and sync
Working without a connection and reconciling cleanly when one returns, which is where most field apps succeed or fail.
Device capabilities
Camera, location, scanning, signatures and notifications, where they are part of the task rather than decoration.
Integration
Live connections to the CRM, finance or operational systems the data belongs in.
Security
Authentication, encrypted local storage and remote revocation, because phones are lost more often than laptops.
Store submission and release
App Store and Play Store submission, review, and the release process afterwards.
How we work
How an app is built
Decide it is the right answer
Establish what genuinely requires an app. If the honest answer is a responsive web application, that is what we will recommend.
Design for the context
One hand, poor light, gloves, no signal. Designing for a desk and shrinking it produces an app nobody uses twice.
Build and integrate
Deliver working builds you can install and use early, connected to real systems rather than mock data.
Release and support
Store submission, then the ongoing work of OS updates, device changes and store policy — which does not stop after launch.
Outcomes
What you are left with
- Work captured where it happens, not retyped later
- Data arriving in the system the same day rather than the next
- Something usable without a signal, syncing when there is one
- One version of the record, not a paper copy and a digital one
- An app in your own developer accounts, under your control
- A release process you can keep running
Platforms and tooling
What we build with
Cross-platform
- React Native
- Flutter
Native
- Swift
- Kotlin
Back end
- REST
- GraphQL
- .NET
- Node.js
- Azure
- AWS
Named as platforms we work with, not as formal partnerships.
Common questions
Questions we are usually asked
Often not. If the requirement is being usable on a phone, a responsive web application is faster to build, needs no install and has no store review. A native app earns its cost when offline working, device hardware or push notifications are central rather than convenient.
Cross-platform frameworks like React Native and Flutter cover most business apps well from one codebase. Two native codebases are justified when you need deep platform integration or performance that a shared layer cannot reach.
Yes, and for field applications it usually must. The hard part is not storing data locally but reconciling it sensibly when two people have changed the same record, which is a design decision rather than a technical afterthought.
You should. We can publish under your developer accounts, so the app, its reviews and its users remain yours regardless of who maintains it later.
Apps need maintenance to keep working — OS releases, device changes and store policy changes all force updates. That is an ongoing cost worth budgeting for at the start rather than discovering at the point the app stops working.
Yes, and it should. An app that holds its own separate data creates reconciliation work rather than removing it.
Talk to someone who has built this
Not a salesperson working from a form. Tell us what the problem looks like and someone who has delivered this kind of work will come back to you, usually within one working day.
Book a free consultationRelated
Where this usually connects
- Web application developmentBrowser-based applications for work that outgrew a spreadsheet.
- APIs and microservicesConnecting platforms that were never designed to be connected.
- Systems integrationMaking the systems you already own talk to each other.
- Customer and member portalsSelf-service for the things people currently email or phone about.
- Bespoke business applicationsSoftware shaped around how you work, when nothing off the shelf fits.
- Software and hardware integrationConnecting devices, equipment and sensors to business systems.