There are many approaches to building mobile and cross platform web apps, from an agency building from scratch through responsive design and screen scraping to dedicated mobile platforms. Choosing the best approach is vital and mistakes can prove costly in the long run. Whilst using a dedicated platform can look to be a more expensive option initially, it proves more than worth the investment in the long run.
Here are our top ten reasons for using a dedicated platform
- Stability
The dedicated platform provides a solid base and framework for delivering sites which means a developer is not starting from scratch each time and is using a solid, stable framework.
- Ease of Management
The use of a platform to build your cross platform web apps can reduce post-live site management effort by at least 40%. Because the platform manages devices and page assembly for each device, there is typically no work required to support new devices which reduces development and testing effort each time a new device comes to market.
- Lower risk
A dedicated web development platform provides a framework for site development. This framework has been built to deliver cross platform web apps and has been through a suite of regression and performance tests. Using the platform as a framework gives a consistent approach and a set of built in features that reduce the risk associated with developing from scratch each time.
- Faster build
Sites are developed smarter and faster using less lines of code. Less code means a faster build with less likelihood of errors and less testing. Our services team typically take only 90 days to build a complex, fully transactional cross platform site.
- Better ROI
With shopping on mobile becoming a mainstream activity, investing in a platform to build your mobile site will get you to market quicker and prevent you losing revenue to the competition.
- Future Proof
A dedicated platform will always be up to date with new devices coming to market. You do not have to worry about new devices and how your site will support them. With regular service bulletins and device updates, you can be sure your site will work on devices available now and in the future.
- Built by experts
Mobile development is relatively new. There are many approaches to developing mobile and cross platform sites. Do you want to trust your site to developers who are just learning about mobile development, or do you want to use a platform developed by mobile experts who know the difficulties and have overcome them?
- Web standards
Choose a platform that uses web standard development languages. That way you don’t have to wait for proprietary languages to catch up, limiting your ability to
- Flexibility
Choosing a platform which uses web standards means that you can create sites using the latest capabilities of Javascript, HTML5 and CSS without having to wait for your proprietary language to catch up. The platform should be able to deliver the best user experience across all devices, including PC. Create the best user experiences now, not later.
- More than just a development platform
A platform should allow your site to develop and grow with minimal effort. Adding extra sites should be a simple process and use the same platform. The platform should also be able to manage analytics and tracking across all your sites, providing invaluable web journey data for your users across all touchpoints, whichever channel they use to access your data.
The bemoko platform has been developed to address all the above needs and ensure that cross platform web development is as simple as possible. Our expert services team use the platform to sites for our clients. From marketing sites to full m-commerce transactional sites, the bemoko platform has been a proven success for all our clients.
If you would like us to build your mobile site or if you’d like to use our platform to build your own, please visit http://www.bemoko.com or email Emily.Nicholls@bemoko.com
With stats on the increase for people searching online for information and
with tablet browsing looking to overtake pc sites, then why it is that
companies are still thinking it’s the norm to concentrate all efforts on
enhancing or re-developing existing pc experiences and then think about doing
mobile as an after thought – therefore leaving mobile for at least 6 months
Surely with the same effort you can have a PC site and a mobile site as part
of the same build for a smaller investment. Are we not yet at the stage
where the mind-set should be reversed and really the question that should be
asked is if we are going to want a mobile site why not build PC site with
this in mind and do the two together?
With more businesses seeing their trade moving from PC to mobile and even
bricks and mortar businesses seeing their revenue switch to online can your
business really afford to wait? Marks and Spencer mobile purchases are
apparently on average double the value of on their PC Site.
By delaying through concentrating on your PC site now and then looking at
mobile, your opportunity cost is high, and your actual build costs will also
be far higher and more painful in the long-term as you’ll be managing 2
sites . By doing it now and as part of your current build you’re only
looking at an incremental increase of around 20% in time and cost, your
on-going management of mobile will be drastically reduced and your
opportunity cost will be reduced too. If M&S are anything to
go by you’ll be making money!
If all of this doesn’t make you think about doing your mobile now and as
part of any existing build or refresh then consider this… Data from
Microsoft’s internal analysis of their mobile search query data reveals that
70%t of PC “query chains” (essentially search tasks) are completed in about
one week while 70% of mobile users do so in one hour!
Your customers aren’t waiting, so why are you?
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Cross-device web content optimisation provider partners with information management specialist and successfully delivers first joint website development project for US-based international marketing agency
bemoko, the cross-platform web content optimisation provider, has partnered with IPL, an IT services company specialising in IT solutions and consultancy, to provide integrated online projects. bemoko will create client websites that are optimised to run across all platforms and devices. bemoko will also ensure that the websites fully integrate with any backend systems. IPL will be responsible for the back end of the websites – overseeing any integration with third party platforms such as marketing, accounting or ERP systems, whilst also providing on-going managed services support.
The reliability and high performance of this partnership has already been proven in the creation of a multi-lingual educational website for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, on behalf of a US-based international marketing agency. This project resulted in the successful deployment of a cross-platform website, available in multiple languages and including a full integration with the pharmaceutical company’s own CRM databases.
On an ongoing basis, the partnership will allow bemoko and IPL to jointly deliver similar enterprise-scale website projects across all business sectors. bemoko will govern the front end deployment of the website and ensure full functionality across all internet-ready devices, while IPL will provide a full managed service for the underlying back end, including security, integration, support and ongoing maintenance.
bemoko is a cross-device web content optimisation provider, which has been developing mobile websites since 2000. bemoko’s solution supports all devices and uses the latest HTML5 techniques to ensure the best possible user experience. IPL provides a wide variety of enterprise level solutions for major industry sectors including aerospace and defence, banking and finance, emergency services, government, telecoms and media.
Philip Clement, Sales Director at bemoko, comments, “We are typically responsible for the most visible part of the website, and for ensuring that every element of its design translates on to any possible device used to access it. However, if the underlying structure of the site and its ability to integrate with other crucial business applications fails, then our work is fundamentally undermined. Our ability to perform depends on our project partners, as delays in the infrastructure development inevitably constrains our own activity. We therefore have to surround ourselves with reliable, experienced organisations whose work is proven and of a consistently high level. In partnering with IPL, we are now confident in our ability to deliver successful website projects consistently on time and to budget.”
Jim Thomas, CTO of IPL, comments, “We are anticipating this partnership to be a highly mutually beneficial one. It is hard to imagine major online projects being developed without a need for cross-device access. For example, online banks, e-learning and e-commerce projects all require equal access no matter what the device. However, access is only one part of the story as there is little point in guaranteeing the ability to upload a website on to any device if the underlying applications are not fully functional and integrated into the whole. As a result, partnerships such as this are essential and in the process of completing the multi-lingual project for a leading international pharmaceutical company, we were highly impressed by Bemoko’s professionalism and enthusiasm, making us certain of continued success in future projects.”
About IPL
IPL – Information Processing Limited – is a software development and Consultancy Company, established in 1979, based in Bath and has over 280 employees.
IPL prides itself on its professional and reliable approach to software development, delivering ‘right first time’ solutions which significantly reduce Total Cost of Ownership.
IPL’s quality, environmental and information security management systems are certificated to ISO 9001/TickIT, 14001 and 27001.
IPL provides enterprise level solutions for major industry sectors including aerospace and defence, banking and finance, emergency services, government, telecoms and media. IPL’s clients include Nationwide, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, Everything Everywhere and the Highways Agency.
About bemoko
bemoko is the leading Multi-Channel Optimisation specialist, delivering Your Brand-Anywhere™ bemoko’s Multi Channel Optimisation solution takes any website or content, optimises, customises and delivers fast and perfect user experiences on any device – every time
If you are marketing professional working within the Third Sector, read on, you’ll like this. If you work in IT then stop now as this article contains language that might cause offense!
The challenge of the working relationship between Marketing and IT is not a new one, I’m not exactly sure when it started, the first e-mail campaigns or the early CRM systems perhaps? But start it did and continues it has! We have all learned to live with this complex and sometimes difficult relationship – Eric Schmidt is quoted as saying that “Lovies and Techies don’t get on”! And perhaps that’s it, we simply have to accept that the differences between the people and the jobs are at odds and find workarounds and compromise.
Sadly this compromise generally falls on the side of marketing. Budget, time to market, complexity of data harvested and level of integration into other digital elements are just a few of the areas that marketers have to live with. Marketers are held hostage by their technical teams who blind with science and explain how hard it all is and how long it will all take in a way that reminds me of the stereotypical car mechanic, who tells you that the small knocking noise coming from under the bonnet is ‘terminal’ and will “cost a packet”.
The discord between these two departments does have a cost to the business but it is relatively low impact because competitive businesses have the same challenges, so everything moves ahead at about the same speed and customer experience is on par across the sector. This is however about to change, mobile engagement is not only the fastest growing channel, it carries the highest consumer expectation, 24% of mobile internet users expect a web-browsing experience comparable to their desktop, if not they will abandon or switch. More than half of consumers who’ve shopped using their mobile have abandoned a purchase because of poor navigation or slow pages.
So not only do you need a fully interactive mobile strategy functional within the next 6 months, it needs to use the latest techniques and technology to ensure customer retention through fast and optimised experiences.
Regardless of what is said, internal IT teams do not have the experience or expertise to deliver on a mobile strategy in these timescales and certainly will not be able to up-skill to the level required. At best a DIY approach will be ‘on the job’ learning and trial by error development, which will deliver a poor result, extend the delivery timescales, create lost opportunities, lost customers and lost revenue.
Marketers have learned that a DIY approach to specialist areas like CMS, PPC and SEO is a waste of time and resources; they know from experience that external experts get better results faster and cheaper than trying to do it themselves. Mobile is just the same.
The only way to move into mobile as fast as is currently required is to use external mobile experts that have a proven track record of delivering mobile projects, alternatively work with a mobile partner that will integrate with your teams and use technology and solutions that make development fast and simple and the on-going management and maintenance sustainable.
Please feel free to read, share and comment
This article can be found online at CharitiesManagement.com under the Charity IT section
http://www.charitiesmanagement.com/charity-it.html
It seems that QR codes are popping up everywhere I go at the moment, I’ve seen them on posters, beer pumps, taxis, buses and in brochures.
QR codes were invented in 1994 for the car industry, but have now seeped into society in general, mostly in advertising campaigns.
For those new to these little square barcodes, they allow anyone with a QR code reader application on their phone to scan the image and extract the information. This information can be anything from information on a product to a URL to a website. QR codes provide a useful mechanism for directing a consumer to your website without having to manually enter a URL.
Given that QR codes have been around for nearly 20 years, why is it only now that they are starting to be used in anger? One of the main reasons for this was the lack of support and availability of QR code readers on phones. Sure, you could eventually find and download one for your Nokia and Blackberry device, but it wasn’t for the faint hearted and your average non-techie phone user would simply not have bothered. This all changed with the advent of app stores which made it easy to download and use a QR code reader, hence the sudden growth in the use of them.
All of us at bemoko are, it could be said, a little obsessed with QR codes – we have to scan them everytime we see them, just to see what people are doing with them. Some experiences are excellent, but the majority of experiences are disappointing to say the least. It seems that, as with all bandwagons, people are merrily jumping on with little understanding of the best way to use QR codes. Take for example the QR code we saw on a bus stop near Reading (http://pinterest.com/bemoko/) – it was potentially interesting but, being surrounded by bright flashing blue lights, it was rendered unreadable by the QR app.
The vast majority of QR codes take us to a website. Given that you can be 99% certain that anyone scanning your QR code will be using a mobile device, surely it is necessary to take that person to a mobile optimised website? The number of QR scans which have taken me to a full PC website which I can’t read properly (even if I can be bothered to wait for it to download) is astonishing. It’s pretty much a waste of a good marketing idea and budget.
My plea for marketeers and QR code campaign creators is:
- Make your QR code readable by the QR code apps
- Make sure your landing page is mobile optimised
- Provide a URL for someone to go to if they can’t read the QR code
- Make the landing page the start of the journey and provide a route to more (mobile optimised) content
So, in summary, QR codes can be a great tool for guiding your consumers to your content, but they need to be used properly and in the right context.
Footnote: I couldn’t resist adding this great misuse example: http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/content/qr-codes-hit-road
bemoko power new SAAS mobile web and apps for Cable&Wireless Worldwide
London, UK – 15th March 2012 – bemoko the leading Multi-Channel Optimisation specialist, has been selected by Cable&Wireless Worldwide (C&WW) to deliver mobile web and multichannel technology and expertise to form part of C&WW’s innovative and integrated communications solutions.
The solutions provided by bemoko will form a part of the Cable&Wireless Connected Customer solution set, allowing C&WW’s clients to easily and quickly enhance their customer experience across multiple digital channels delivering greater customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy whilst generating sales growth. The solution allows retailers to integrate and align across all customer contact points, providing a single point of management for all digital channels. Examples of increasing customer engagement for the connected customer include searching for the best price whilst viewing the product in-store, snapping a picture of an item and arranging for it to be delivered or buying online on a mobile phone and collecting it straight away.
Malcolm Seagrave C&WW Solutions Director said “Our long-term relationships with the some of the UK’s leading technology businesses ensure our clients can realise the benefits of new technology in a fast, secure, reliable and simple way and equip us with the first-hand knowledge and insights needed to create the solutions to our customers’ challenges. bemoko’s leading edge mobile web technology is a key component in C&WW’s innovative and integrated communications solutions”
Phillip Clement Sales Director at bemoko commented “This is a fantastic example of bringing two technologies and areas of expertise together and delivering an integrated product – powered by bemoko, Cable&Wireless Worldwide can now supply its customers a broad range of mobile and multi -channel services built for the way consumers shop and interact with brands and enterprises today”
Two days, hundreds of people, thousands of brochures, stacks of technology and two sore feet…Mine!
March 2012 TFM in London at Earls Court
The two day event drew a variety of people and knowledge and depending on what you had been sent out to find or what you personally wanted to get your teeth into or expand the ever growing mobile mind, there was something for
everyone at this year’s TFM&A.
Now I know that us “brits” like to queue, but the seminars took queuing to another level! They were really popular with SEO at the top of the list! Watch this space… mobile optimisation is the next big concern for marketers, there’s no point being on the 1st page of Google if once the customer arrives on their smartphone they get a 1mb page that takes 30 seconds to load! We’ll be talking more about how we help our customers get mobile sites that load in 3-5 seconds!
From bemoko’s perspective it was great to hear and meet companies who had taken their first leap into getting their web content onto mobile devices – a real step change from last year, now nearly everyone we spoke to is doing something and want to be seen to be leading the way forward, so we had great fun discussing the different approaches, and sharing how bemoko can reduce cost and time to market and increase functionality.
As always the App-v-web debate continued but unlike last year, mobile web was definitely coming out as more cost effective and fulfilling option, with apps being used as “icing on the cake”.
Any more observations from the show, comment, let us know, please feel free to share this blog and come back to read more
It looks like everyone is waking up to the fact that creating a website which works across all platforms, with all their different capabilities and form factors, is not the same as creating a PC site.
A variety of solutions to this problem are appearing all the time, from the basic screen scraping of PC site content, through mobile site ‘builders’ which let you drag and drop code, to full web development frameworks like Ruby On Rails, Grails and, of course, our own bemokoLive.
There is a lot of buzz around responsive design at the moment – this basically entails using advanced CSS and web dev techniques to allow the client to decide on how best to display the site depending on its capabilities. This is a good approach, but depends on the client being able to support the techniques required and it also assumes you want to display the same content on all devices. As Bryan Reiger says in his excellent presentation, 2/3 of people in the US do not have a smartphone – client side responsive design will not work for these consumers. Client side responsive design also involves sending more data to the device than it might need – using unnecessary bandwidth and making the customer wait longer for their page. Imagine a restaurant where you sit down and the waiter gives you a plate with every meal the restaurant serves on it, you then choose to eat only the food you want. This is clearly an ineffective solution. Many of the pages I have seen that have been touted as responsive design ‘icons’ are over 1MB in size. This is a poor user experience for someone on a mobile data network – people won’t wait that long for your site to load and will move on.
There is another way to support the benefits of responsive design – server side responsive design. This method lets the web framework on the server decide on the best optimisation for the device in question, sending optimised markup and content. The device only gets what it needs. Going back to the restaurant analogy, the server only sends you a plate containing the food you want. Luke Wroblewski make some strong points for taking responsive design server side in his blog.
Server side responsive design is guaranteed to support all devices and leaves the heavy lifting to the server rather than requiring the relatively low powered device to do all the work. There are advantages to client side design in some situations where you can avoid page reloads on, say, a change of orientation.
The best approach, then, is to use a mix of both server side and client side responsive design to ensure the user gets the best experience, whichever device they are on. This technique is becoming known as RESS and, again, LukeW has done a good write up on the differences between the methods.
The bemokoLive platform provides a framework for delivering server side responsive design whilst allowing the easy management of the code required for client side responsive design. Because the framework already provides comprehensive device detection and segmentation it is easy to deliver certain CSS only to certain groups of devices, for example you might decide that only devices which support AJAX get a certain version of the CSS and the Javascript required. It is much easier to manage this on the server using the device categories rather than create ever more complex media queries in the page. The server side approach saves on development time and also saves on code management and extension once the initial site has been created, with less risk of introducing bugs and the ability to target devices based on fine grained device detection.
We use our platform along with HTML5 and responsive design techniques to deliver our customers a rich, flexible user experience whichever device they are using.
bemoko- www.bemoko.com the leading multi-channel optimisation specialist is pleased to see the launch of the latest version of the Macmillan mobile site.
bemoko’s leading edge solution has been at the centre of the delivery of Macmillan’s awarded mobile web offering since 2010, providing a flexible mobile platform that transforms and optimises their content across all devices. This latest version of the Macmillan mobile site responds to the increasing numbers and diversity of mobile devices used to access Macmillan’s information and services.
Andy Nash, Macmillan’s Digital Project Manager (Mobile Channel) commented, “Using bemoko we have been able to develop a site which tailors its style for different devices. This gives us the ability to present information, features and functionality in different ways to different audiences based on what we know about their devices, features and functional capabilities, and enables the delivery of a much more personalised experience.”
Mat Diss, Managing Director at bemoko said, “This is exactly what bemoko was built to do, it’s great to see an organisation take mobile web to the next level and really embrace the advanced features and power of our platform.”
It’s been 3 weeks since I set foot through the door of bemoko and have fully immersed myself into the wonderful world (which can be technically challenging at times) of mobile web.
I am trying to understand what makes the mobile world tick and how 2012 will pan out, from reading blogs, twitter and various resources out there. I felt that I would share my views on how I use apps and accessing website from my mobile.
I take on board the buzz around “apps” and creating an “app” and brands putting money and time into the development of these beautiful creations, but what should feel like ground breaking move into mobile and online for some brands does not have the desired marketing effect on me at the moment.
I take the view that when I am not on my mobile and iPad they are mostly in the hands of my 7 and 4 year old boys and are the only times during a day that they are not constantly demanding things from me. To keep the peace I will download and use an app to entertain them and as long as it does not cost me any more than 69 pence then it’s a small but functional price to pay.
I have monitored over the past couple of weeks my habits when shopping, checking Facebook, finding insurance quotes, using Google etc.. And it is all done via url’s and 100% visiting and revisiting websites through my mobile or IPad. Websites (mobile optimised ones are preferable) are the key to me getting to what I want and quickly it’s that URL although some would say old fashioned but to me the content is perceived as being up to date, giving me the chance to experience and interact with the site.
If friends are recommending voucher codes , makeup, shoes, latest gossip on Facebook they don’t ever send an app link on email or text they send over the URL to take me to the place where I can most importantly buy or get the items/ info from. If I have to spend time downloading an app, reading and then worrying about it working on my mobile, by the time I have considered all these parts it’s too late and my life has moved on.
The route to market and how you want to connect with consumers is varied, I expect that when we purchase my sons first mobiles they might disagree with me on a couple of the above points but at least I won’t have to Google what it all means as I do for most topics for their homework as by then I should know.
for more information : www.bemoko.com
bemoko is the leading Multi Channel Optimisation specialist, delivering Your Brand-Anywhere™
bemoko’s Multi Channel Optimisation Solution takes any website or content, optimises, customises and delivers fast and perfect user experiences on any device – every time.