Does it pay to build your own custom mobile apps? Yes, says survey
There's a tendency among people in enterprises to use off-the-shelf mobile apps to help them get their work done. This is the essence of shadow IT, and to a large extent, mainstream IT as well. But it may work out better in the long run for companies to design and build their own mobile apps. Photo: Joe McKendrick That's the key takeaway from a new survey of 374 executives, published by CDW, which sought to measure the business value gained from mobile apps. The survey finds that for the most part, companies use more off-the-shelf than custom mobile apps -- six off-the-shelf apps for every five custom mobile apps, on average. Nearly 80 percent of businesses surveyed said they allow employees to use off-the-shelf mobile apps. But IT budget dollars are flowing to custom apps. Close to half, 48 percent report that their app development budgets increased over the past year, and 42 percent plan to invest in new app development in the year ahead. On average, businesses esti