The Importance of Native Smart Phone Apps in Wholesale Distribution CRM

We live in a connected world where real-time access to important information is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Your sales reps and your customers expect it. It’s no surprise that many software companies are working hard to get data into your hands through your smart phones and devices. What is a surprise is how many companies take short-cuts that impair the effectiveness of your mobile strategy.

Developing mobile applications for wholesale distribution is not an easy task. The most reputable software companies go through extensive customer reviews and planning processes before a single developer begins coding. After that, there are elaborate development, testing and deployment phases before general release. With those kinds of investment, it’s no wonder that some companies decide to deploy their apps as mobile web apps rather than native mobile apps.

Native applications are apps developed specifically for a particular mobile device and operating system. The application resides and operates on the actual device and can take advantage of the features and functionality of each device. Native apps provide a much richer experience and more robust features, but they also require unique development for each platform (e.g., IOS and Android) to take advantage of those special features.

Web applications, on the other hand, are simply internet-enabled apps that the user accesses from the web browser on their phone. Not only are they limited in their ability to provide the user with the unique experience promised by their smart device, they are also subject to strange quirks and behaviors when they are operated from a variety of browsers and devices. The lack of standards makes user interfaces more difficult to learn as buttons, text input fields, and other processes operate in ways that seem strange to smart-phone users.

In addition to being able to access all of the device’s features and having a standardized UI, native applications typically run faster than web apps since the app if built specifically for your device and operates on the device.

At SMP, we decided not to take the short-cut of offering a web app and offer our mobile app natively to your smart devices. This means that you can get fast access to the data you need in the field just as you would from your desktop version of SMP, your ERP system or even Microsoft Outlook. Your sales reps will be up and running on their smart phones faster than ever.