What is Enterprise Web Development?

Enterprise web creation is usually a fast-paced process that strives to implement the latest technological advancements to help cater to the immense and continuously growing online and offline demands of the enterprise.

In this article, we’ll aim to take a thorough look at enterprise web development, the must-haves of such digital platforms, the benefits of running one, and help you determine whether your business needs enterprise website development to introduce more flexibility and a better flow to your day-to-day operational tasks.

Defining Enterprise-Level Web Development

First, let’s start with defining the three major digital platforms that you may run into online when it comes to enterprise-level entities.

Enterprise Website

An enterprise website can be simply described as a group of web pages that represent the enterprise and have the same domain name. This is pretty much “the basic package” that allows you to have a presence online and reach more potential customers. 

The most significant difference between a traditional website and an enterprise platform is that the latter requires more advanced tools and features and will mainly require a more elaborate tool for content management, most often an ECM or Enterprise Content Management system.

Enterprise Web App

These describe web-based applications that can help you and your staff handle internal and external company operations and needs. An application such as this puts the enterprise on the road of digital transformation, helping it meet the latest standards of the digital sphere.

It’s imperative to know that these apps can either serve internal purposes only for better communication across departments or maybe an external tool that can help with many services, like customer relationship management. 

Enterprise Software Development

This type of development usually comes into the picture when the enterprise needs an app or software only for internal use. Most often, these aren’t customer-facing digital platforms but rather focused digital interfaces that help the company with operations such as accounting, project management, automation, record management, and more.

The Differences

People often confuse the terms “website,” “software,” and “web app,” and it’s imperative to know at least the fundamental differences between them. 

• A website is a platform consisting only of web pages that create an online presence and aid in reachability.
• An app is a full-on application that is able to handle both external and internal tasks.
• The software will primarily handle the internal processes of the enterprise.
• Apps and software often share a lot of similarities and might even be used somewhat interchangeably, depending on the features they showcase.

The Importance of Enterprise Web Development

Now that you know the different “layers” of enterprise web development, it’s probably time to talk a bit about its significance for a large business.

For starters, a digital platform for enterprises means having a global channel where the company can communicate its brand message, products, and services, together with its value proposition. Such an online presence can help convert target audiences first into potential and then paying customers.

In the modern world, having a website means being able to maintain a constant connection with your customers, helping establish and maintain a continual reputation, and giving you the foundation to work on increasing your customer base continuously.

On the other hand, technically, more advanced digital platforms such as software or applications can go further than helping you with branding and marketing. 

The latter two can help you digitize and automate different operations making both your internal and external operations more straightforward and effective. From this perspective, digital platforms and web apps are more than just simple tools to be “present” online. They represent a highly creative digital space where businesses can streamline and reorganize their operations.

The Benefits of An Enterprise Website

So, let’s see how businesses can benefit from these platforms.

1. A Better Way For Showcasing Your Services and Products

A well-designed and developed website represents a great way to highlight the services and products you offer to your audience. They are able to take a more detailed look at everything you have to offer without the need to actually leave their homes.

2. Generate a Strong Online Presence

A strong online presence will also act as social proof. It shows your audience that you welcome communication, have an excellent reputation, and strive to interact with the people who reach out to you. Also, it shows that your company makes a genuine effort to reach out to them as well.

3. A Powerful Marketing and Branding Tool

Branding and marketing are both essential in adequately positioning your businesses in the market. An enterprise website can do wonders when it comes to increasing your business reach and can help you create effective marketing strategies to “spread the word” about your services and products. 

4. Achieve Your Business Goals Faster

Ultimately, these are the two main driving forces behind creating a website. A well-developed website should help you improve the services you offer and your customer relationships and boost your revenue, improving your bottom line in the process as well.

5. Better Overall Customer Relationships

No matter the size of your business, you need to maintain a good relationship with your customers, as achieving your business goals is highly dependent on how your customers feel about your business and the services you provide. Having a digital platform enables you to communicate with your buyers directly, 24/7.

Critical Enterprise Website Features

Apart from the benefits, there are also crucial features that you need to include while designing your website to be able to reap the benefits we talked about above.

1. Great Design

A solid website design is crucial for a stellar user experience. Having a platform that’s easy to navigate and allows your visitors to find what they are looking for is probably one of the most critical factors in having a successful website. If the design is good, you have a better chance of converting your visitors into customers.

3. An Easy To Understand Value Proposition

Let your audiences know that you are here to solve a specific problem they have. Having a clear value proposition is also paramount to ensure your website will strike the right chord with them.

4. Stellar Content

To make the best out of your website, you also need informative and value-driven content. Remember, content is king in digital marketing, and you need to develop a content strategy that manages to both advertise your services and products and showcases their real-life benefits as well.

5. Responsive Design

This probably goes without saying, but it’s 2022, and all those websites that fail to load properly on mobile devices are losing precious leads and, ultimately, money. To help your search engine optimization efforts, user experience, and a myriad of other important factors, having a responsive design is a must.

6. CTAs

A good website always has a set of powerful CTAs (calls to action) that encourage users to perform a specific action, like making a purchase or subscribing to a service. Having a few clear calls to action can go a long way in improving your site’s conversion rates.

7. Data and Performance Analysis

A website should be able to capture essential analytic and demographic data that helps you see how you’re doing in the online marketplace. Visitor numbers, lead generation, buying patterns, and conversion rates are just only a few of the metrics you need to study in order to make smarter promotional and marketing decisions.

Enterprise Software and Web Application Development

As we’ve already mentioned, web apps can be developed to serve a myriad of different purposes. Some only take care of internal functions, while others help with external operations as well. 

Depending on the scope of needs and requirements, a web app may only be an internal interface that helps with record management and employee reports. On the other hand, the app may also have external features that allow for other features such as order placing and delivery tracking. 

Overall, both web app and software development give enterprise-level businesses a chance to improve their business functionality and overall productivity. A cleverly developed software or web app can help a large business with managing their operations more effectively and gives them the opportunity to create robust and new methodologies to break the lines between digital and offline procedures.

Enterprise Web App Benefits

Let’s see the various ways web application services can help large businesses to optimize both their internal and external processes.

Improved Flexibility

Your employees are able to receive and send information and data wherever they are. This can enable you to be more flexible with remote teams.

Better Marketing 

Web apps are also stellar digital platforms that can serve as the basis of effective marketing strategies. Apart from promoting your services and products, you can take advantage of the different functionalities apps can have to create a more engaging shopping experience for your visitors.

Improved Integration and Interfacing

A well-developed web app will integrate and interface with your existing digital system or previous application without any problems. It should ensure interoperability between different devices, systems, teams, and people. 

Cost-Efficient

Because web apps need only a single operating system during development, they are cost-efficient solutions. Furthermore, usually, they are hosted from a single server, improving accessibility as well. 

Secure Data

Because these apps are hosted and run on servers with increased security, the chances of suffering data leaks or cyber threats decrease considerably.

Custom Design

Custom web apps can also fully support completely custom designs that can cater to the need of any business, helping the enterprise even further in achieving its business objectives and creating unique digital processes.

Must-Haves for Enterprise Software/Web App Development

Just as an enterprise website, web apps and software also need to have focused features that make them enterprise-level.

They Should Be Scalable

This is a crucial quality because a web app of software that can’t adapt to the increased workload will simply be unable to sustain the competition. As your enterprise grows, your web products should also be able to scale and advance. 

They Must Be Secure

App security and enterprise-level development usually go hand in hand. Enterprise web apps must be secure on servers and computers and must show resistance to online risks and cyber threats. 

Interoperability 

To have better connectivity with different devices and networks, you need an enterprise web app that can manage to cooperate with several various networks and systems.

Cost Control

A good web app will not cost more than the initial development budget or will be pretty close. Cost control can be a sketchy topic when you are developing an application for an already existing platform, and the integration-interfacing processes run into complications.

Solid Performance

As the performance of your platform more or less plays a crucial part in how your users and customers perceive you, having a robust, exceptionally performing web app is vital. A serious company cannot afford any downtime as it may lead to immense losses.

Outstanding performance is a critical precursor for profit and for a better ROI.

Enterprise Web App Development – What Does it Take? 

At first glance, enterprise-level application development may seem like a complex and intricate process. And if you have no prior experience, then the process can be overwhelming. However, with the help of the right experts, the development process will be more streamlined and straightforward. 

Still, here are some considerations to make while choosing on React for web application development.

Tech Stack

For web app development, you will need a full-stack approach, meaning you will have to think about both front-end and back-end development. The first is the process of designing the app’s interface, while the latter is reserved for the coding process or the structure of the app. 

Front-End Development

This is the process of client-side coding, and this development makes your web app visible on browsers. Client-side coding usually includes:

• Using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascade Style Sheets)
• Leveraging the features of JS libraries and JavaScript as a whole
• The utilization of frameworks such as Angular or React, just to name a few.

Back-End Development

Back-end development is the process that entails server-side coding and deals with the technological requirements that servers need to interpret and execute requests and commands.

For the most part, development experts will use one of the following frameworks:

• Spring
• Hibernate
• Apache Strut2 

On the other hand, they will most likely use the following technologies for managing enterprise databases: 

• MSSQL
• MySQL
• Redus
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB

Considering Efficient Cloud Services

Needless to say, if you want your enterprise web app to run on the cloud, you will also need reliable cloud services. 

For the most part, your best bet is to choose a provider with global coverage with maximum uptime. 

Choosing the Right Application Framework

Frameworks are more or fewer tools, program libraries, and other crucial components in a web platform’s architecture system that enables it to function correctly.

Choosing the proper framework can affect myriad factors, including search engine optimization, cost-effectiveness, scalability, flexibility, and more. 

As such, it’s crucial to discuss all your needs with your development team beforehand so that they can help you pick out the framework that will best suit your enterprise’s needs.

Putting it All Together 

No matter whether you opt for a single website or a more elaborate web application or software solution, enterprise web development is an intricate and complex process where you simply have too many questions to answer. And without the correct answers, you can end up with a web presence that simply fails to do justice to your prestigious enterprise. 

Working with experienced developers is the best way to create a digital platform that caters to your company’s every need and helps it achieve its objectives and business goals, introducing a more streamlined approach to handling everyday tasks.

Building an enterprise takes time and effort. Building an enterprise website or app should also be taken equally seriously.