How Nearform makes mobile better for global enterprisesHow Nearform makes mobile better for global enterprisesHow Nearform makes mobile better for global enterprises

“The impact Travelex has achieved at speed with Nearform is phenomenal. We’ve given our users a mobile experience that is founded on customer and data insight, leading to a significant boost in customer top-ups.”

Stuart Adams, Director of Product at Travelex

There are over 6.3 billion smartphone users across the world, and each of us spends a significant amount of time with our eyes glued to the screen. The majority of that time is spent using apps.

But if the one you offer to your customers doesn’t provide the smart, fast and nimble experience they expect, then their time will be spent using your competitors’ apps.

For today’s businesses, mobile applications are the battlefield where modern custom is won and lost. A well-designed, well-performing app builds brand recognition, drives exposure, fosters loyalty, increases user engagement times and provides a consistent experience across physical and digital interactions.

It’s not only an extension of your brand; for many, it’s their primary experience of it. And with a range of features and capabilities, apps can enhance customer experiences with hyper-personalised recommendations, seamless support and frictionless access to the services you provide — essentially, offering things that can’t be experienced elsewhere.

There are benefits for you, too. The applications your customers use can be a trove of user data. They can deliver vital insights into the habits, behaviours, needs and desires of your target audience, helping you to identify risk and opportunity and deploy new strategies.

All of which is to say, apps are at the heart of many modern businesses. The problem is, developing apps that provide all of the above, and perform well and consistently, can be expensive and complicated. Especially if you’re developing apps natively for both iOS and Android.

There is a better way…

The mobile market is split into two camps, Android and iOS users. And traditional application development has seen separate teams develop independently for each platform. This means twice the cost. And when the price of developing an app can reach $300,000 (even above in drawn-out projects), those aren’t insignificant numbers.

But cost isn’t the only hurdle. This siloed approach to app development means features are often rolled out to different users at different times, and carrying them over from one platform to the next can be a gruelling and error-prone task. This, in turn, impacts user experiences.

In fact, a huge amount of your developers’ time can be spent ironing out kinks or trying to ensure updates are working correctly. The overall result is slow, high-cost development and, oftentimes, apps that are inflexible and difficult to maintain without a dedicated team.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nearform’s approach to mobile development reduces the cost and complexity of building and maintaining apps, allowing you to meet your customers with the latest features and capabilities — all through a single development team.

Our approach to better mobile development is built around four main principles that come together to take clients from ideation to launch and beyond. To guide you through how it works, we talked to one of our expert engineers, Eli Zibin.

Eli has extensive experience designing high-performing, intuitive apps for leading companies in numerous industries. He’s worked with The Atlantic, and Tusk Philanthropies. Below, Eli discusses our approach:

1. We understand your needs (and those of your users) with our Ignite discovery process

"Ignite is our discovery process for bringing business and technical teams together to accelerate and de-risk delivery. By the end of the Ignite process, we are ready to build an incredible mobile application that is well thought out and designed to solve your business needs and delight your customers."

2. We simplify development with React Native

"React Native is a proven and very popular multiplatform technology that allows you to build fully native iOS and Android applications from a shared single codebase. It speeds up development and removes the need for having different teams for different platforms. Some of the most-used apps on your phone might be using React Native, and you might not even know it."

3. We provide an end-to-end service, from design to deployment

"We love building excellent mobile applications, and our designers are top-notch at providing thoughtful and delightful user experiences and design systems that make sense for whatever problem you’re trying to solve."

4. We deliver aftercare, training and support so you can build for today, tomorrow and beyond

"One of my favourite parts about React Native is that it is still React (it just targets new platforms beyond the web). So, it’s amazing to onboard and help upskill web developers onto React Native, empowering them to build both web products and mobile apps once our project has ended. React Native is a great technology to expand your existing web team’s expertise into new platforms."

Our “mobile made better” approach, powered by React Native and engineered by Nearform, has seen us create high-functioning, adaptable apps for some of the biggest brands in the world, providing benefits at speed and at scale:

• PUMA: 99% reduction in deployment time
• DPD: 70% of queries resolved in-app
• Kernel: 40% increase in weekly orders

“We were excited to work with [Nearform] to create a composable e-commerce system based on modern headless principles. We knew they had the expertise to help us build the right stack to achieve our business goals.”

Bettina Donmez, Senior Manager of E-commerce Platform Development at PUMA

If you’d like to learn more about our approach, you can read our ‘Mobile made better’ eBook. Or, if you’d like to talk to a member of our team about how we can help you with your application development, contact us.