Consumer apps versus workforce apps

History

In the history of building workforce apps, there was in interesting twist.

In the beginning, computers were a thing for large companies, research facilities and universities. Consumers rarely came in touch with them. They were difficult to operate and very, very expensive.

At a later point in time, consumers got interested in computers, because they got less expensive and smaller. The Personal Computer was born. Remember the IBM-XT? I remember it well because I had one; I’m that…. experienced 😁.

Computers got smaller, and smaller until they could run on batteries.

The Telxon PTC960-SL was the first handheld I used to program for. It had similar specs as the original IBM-XT.

It was a Microsoft DOS compatible machine, with a 21×16 line text LCD and a kind of wifi. We used this to support warehouse personnel with their daily job and to give them realtime information at their current location.

At a later point in time, when DOS was replaced by Windows on the desktops, the OS on these devices was replaced with WindowsCE and Windows Mobile.

At this exact point, the twist happened. The computer companies were shifting their focus from enterprises to consumers. There was much more to earn there, the consumer market was much bigger. Not a few big chunks of money to earn, but many, many more small chunks.

So in the early days, the focus was on enterprises and consumers were a side market. Now it is the other way around. The focus is now on consumers and the enterprise is a side market.

There is not much to complain, in the end a lot of things improved, but there are some pain points that I will explain here below.

Hardware for the workforce

As devices for consumers are build in large quantities, they are in general cheaper and with better hardware specifications than the Enterprise counterparts. I remember, roughly ten or fifteen years ago, that enterprises tried to use consumer devices as a cheap alternative. The thought was simple: Buy a new one at the local shop if it fails or dropped and shattered. But in the end that didn’t work out well.

1. The lifecycle of a consumer device is short and unpredictable.
   “No sir, that particular model is replaced by this new fancy bigger one.”

2. There is no way to get an SLA (service level agreement) on these devices.
   “How can you expect an SLA on a 300 dollar device?”

3. Erratic OS updates.
   “We promise some updates for the first year, and it depends.”

4. OS updates can not be scheduled.
   “Production is halted in hall 1 and 2 because Android <X> came out last night.”

5. Contents of OS updates is not clear.
   “All 300 devices are offline, because of a patch in the WiFi driver.”

6. No internal hardware barcode scanner.
   “A camera can scan a barcode too. I do this all the time with electronic banking at home".

7. Bluetooth connection issues with hardware barcode scanners.
   “Press and hold till the light flashes blue, three times.”

8. Simply not ruggedised enough.
   “Oops, sorry boss.”

9. How to keep your workforce of Candy Crush and Pokemon Go?
   “How many points did you get in the first shift?”

If the number of devices was larger than a few, this became soon a nightmare to manage. Especially as time goes by and entropy kicks in.

1. More brands

2. More models

3. More configurations

4. More firmware versions

And how about security? How can you secure your business, if you have no idea which security patches are installed on your devices? Ransomware, anyone?

Operating Systems for the Workforce

To be honest, there is only one operating system left for our Enterprise Workforce devices, and that is Android.

So here we are. We now have Enterprise devices with a consumer OS and tools that are mostly used to build apps for consumers.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. The quality of the tools, like Flutter, is extremely high, with a great developer experience. Maybe that quality would not have been reached if the market was not so big.

But there is a constant tension:

Android introduces ways to improve battery life, protect the end-user privacy and add ways to secure their monetisation with the play store.

Enterprise devices manufacturers seek ways keep the operating system open, productive and usable for their customers workforce.

This is something that you have to keep in mind when developing apps for workforces.

Consumer apps versus Workforce apps

In my view, the last two factors are the key distinctions between consumer apps and workforce apps.

App logging

We use logging extensively. If a customer has a question, we can download the logging an trace step-by-step what happened. As the software is on the edge of the process, it is also the place where the user encounters issues.

With logging we can proof:

1. Bad response times of the backend.

2. Issues with the network or endpoints.

3. User errors.

4. Basically always show that the issue is not ours 🫢

Main goal

The main goal for most consumer apps is to please and monetise the consumer. Therefore they have to offer a super smooth experience where the user is always in control. Chances are great, if the user has to wait too long or too often, your app gets deleted and gets a bad review.

The main goal for most workforce apps is to support a workflow and to prevent mistakes. Therefore, if we have to wait for confirmation from the backend, there is not much else we can do then to wait. If we have to protect the workflow by locking the UI, then thats it, we lock it.

With consumer apps, the consumer is king. With workforce apps, the workflow is king. That’s basically it.