App is shorthand for application. Traditionally applications or software programs have been designed to do comprehensive tasks like manage all of your accounting or provide a suite of interrelated and complex communication functions like office suites. With the popularity of iTunes and smart phones and tablets, applications have become apps and the focus has switched to the task at hand. In many cases, these mobile applications can also be found through web browsers (think email programs like ConstantContact or Social Media spaces like Twitter or Google Maps). So, the software that you have on your desktop like Windows or Mac OS becomes much less important.
What’s So Great About an App? A few things make apps especially useful to small businesses:
1) Access – Your app follows you wherever you go. Whether you access it on your mobile phone or web browser or both, if I have access to the Web, I can likely get to my app.
2) Relevance – Web-based apps typically update themselves. They are updated often and updates are normally at no cost. Because they are so nimble, feature improvements are much quicker for developers to complete.
3) Platform Independent – What’s that mean? It means apps don’t care whether you are a Mac or a PC or a Purple People Eater. Since they are typically delivered through a Web browser or mobile phone, they are flexible as to the delivery method and tend to work well on everything from mobile phones to net books.
4) Security – While the Internet does pose risks, web apps in general eliminate many of the problems that their fatter, more sedentary cousins experience. They don’t actually live on your computer so they are not likely to get infected and they are also not likely to create competition for other applications on the computer.
Like more information on some specific apps you can try out in your business? Check out Part III of our RevITup TechEd™ Cloud Series, “Riding the Cloud: 10 Ways to Harness Cloud Power for Your Business”. We have all kinds of resources you can test out and we’ll show you how to evaluate what’s really valuable for your business.
