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Easily Add Custom Business Apps To Your Service Offering

You’re looking to equip your services with custom apps and elevate your client’s operations. You’ve heard of no-code solutions and scoped out some options – most of which were disappointing. 

Oversimplified and rigid business app builders left you with the desire to build it all yourself. You want highly-capable apps and digital forms, not run-of-the-mill solutions that leave your clients feeling frustrated and limited. 

Apps you control.

Don’t stop searching just yet. Highly customisable app builders exist; you can even white-label some of them (like Appenate).

And the costs? Far less than you think. Let’s explore. 

How Your Clients Can Benefit From Custom Apps

You’re already helping your clients to streamline their processes. You give them the tools they need to raise efficiency, revenue, safety, etc. But what if you delivered those solutions in a neat, digital package? 

Your clients would be able to curb paper usage, and their new cloud-based apps would smooth out any updates or processes they introduce. 

While everyone hates filling out paper forms, some protest against digitalisation too. This usually dissipates after some use. Once employees see what the apps can do for them – they’re sold.

This case study serves as a good example. 

Upon adopting apps over paper processes, your clients can look forward to the business gains awaiting them, namely: 

  • Efficiency – Saving time per task thanks to optimisation.
  • Cost-savings – Freeing up resources that they can spend on profit-generating activities.
  • Customer Satisfaction – Faster and more accurate service delivery, backed by proof.
  • Environmental sustainability – Cutting extensive paper usage and dependence on natural resources.
One worker uses custom business apps on a tablet and the other uses paper

Why Is Custom App Development So Expensive?

Casually put, a lot goes into it. Outsourcing your grand design to a competent dev-house is the most typical route to follow – and a viable one if you lack industry knowledge.

You could also build from scratch – piloting an in-house project, but you’ll need the dev power and an in-depth understanding of the industry to start.

For both of these scenarios, the cost of development will vary depending on the following:

  • Scale & complexity of the project.
  • Skilled human resources needed to design, develop, test & maintain the app.
  • Number of integrations required.
  • Level of cybersecurity needed.
  • Data storage requirements.
  • Chosen platform & device compatibility.

Depending on the above, you’ll pay anything between $30 000 – $250 000 for development.

If you commit to laying down capital for this project, be sure to factor in the subsequent maintenance costs, estimated at around 12-70% of the original development cost annually. 

These costs can create a lot of pressure to make your app profitable quickly – pressure you could do without. So it makes sense first to seek other, more cost-effective avenues.

Before You Leap – There’s An Easier (And More Affordable) Way

If you prefer not to traverse the tricky (and costly) waters of building an app from scratch – and outsourcing its creation will tank your reserves (or come uncomfortably close to it), what can you do? 

You can always try a white-label app builder, like Appenate. We’ve been in the game for 11 years to affordably help service providers offer meaningful, easy-to-use apps to their clients.

The benefits of the white-label software route (while not true of all white-label providers, they definitely apply to Appenate):

  • Free trials enable you to test before you invest.
  • You can build on a tried-and-tested solution and customise it to your liking.
  • Low subscription fees allow you to build and test solutions without the pressure of turning a quick profit.
  • The backend of the software is maintained and updated by the provider.
  • Data security is covered.
  • 100% white-label with no mentions of the original provider.

The Machinations Of No-Code App Builders

Every no-code builder is different. No-code, at its essence, is a novice-friendly approach to app creation. It curtails the technical with innovative drag-and-drop features and a visual approach.

The idea is that line of business employees are handed the power to streamline operations without getting their hands dirty with code – decentralising the ability to create powerful business tools.

That said, Appenate takes it a step further and allows those with the savvy to build advanced apps that connect to various environments and functions. It’s no-code, but delivered in a programmer-friendly way. 

A snapshot of Appenate's custom business apps displayed on a desktop

If It’s ‘So Easy,’ Why Isn’t Everyone Doing It?

A few reasons halt internal app builders from becoming the global standard. Here are a few:

The Need For A Company-software Fit

Unique operational requirements need compatible software solutions to hit the ground running.

A lot of no-code app builders look pretty and are highly simplistic to cater to basic processes – leaving a lot of unique company operations behind. 

If you want more control over the functionality of your applications – an industrial-grade app builder should do the trick. Appenate lets you create as many apps as you like, each customisable to meet unique expectations.

This also comes complete with a task automation system, and apps can tap into advanced device capabilities like GPS, QR Codes, NFC tags and are even OCR-capable.

Businesses Want To Brand The Software Themselves

Many businesses are intrigued by the idea of layering their services with a no-code digital solution. However, they often shy away from cookie-cutter tools they can’t market as their own.

100% white-labelled solutions, while hard to come by, can relieve this concern.

Hesitancy To New Tech

The fear of the unknown is as old as the human story. It’s hard to be entirely comfortable with something you have little-to-no experience with. A user-friendly interface and excellent (free) support and training should restate these concerns.

Make sure you buy into a tool that has excellent support available at all times. You don’t want a critical business process to depend on a support team that only tends to your emergency tickets two weeks after.

What Are The Risks?

The risks involved with a no-code white-label solution are practically non-existent compared to building from the ground up. A free trial should offer insight into whether the tool is a fit for you and your clients. 

A couple of months of affordable subscription fees will allow a rollout to clients to see how they get on – and if all fails, the loss is minimal compared to creating a $100,000+ app from scratch. 

Read case studies, check reviews, and sign up for a trial to experiment. You won’t know – until you do.

As for the hidden costs? There are none – with Appenate, at least. Some providers charge for training and support; this can become problematic if the platform isn’t intuitive. 

We’ve removed this risk by offering free training and support – for life. 😉

If you are looking for a level of support that absolutely blows your mind, do yourself a favour and use Appenate.”  – Jeremy G.

What Are Your Next Steps?

Step One: Establish your app requirements. 

Step Two: Decide what you’re willing to pay.  

Step Three: Research your options. Compare functionality, costs, and customer reviews.

Step Four: Sign up for a trial and leverage the knowledge of the support teams to assess whether the solution is right for you.

You can always start by trying Appenate, an industrial-grade app builder. No-code, white-labelled, and fully customisable. Read some of our case studies to see how we’ve helped other thriving businesses. 

Dive in and create as many apps as you want – we’re not here to limit you. Reach out to our support team whenever you need – they’re always ready to help. 🙂