Our CEO – Mayowa Okegbenle (middle), flanked by Hauwa (left) and Mazino (right) of Smooth FM 98.1.
What it takes to build a Mobile App – Mayowa Okegbenle On Business Hub With Mazino and Hauwa of Smooth FM.
On Tuesday August 6, Smooth FM had a smooth tech talk with our very own Mayowa Okegbenle. Mayowa was invited to educate listeners of the Business Hub programme what they need to know about app building and app maintenance for their businesses.
It was indeed enlightening to get deep but truthful insights about having a mobile app for your business.
Mayowa told the listeners app building is not cheap. “If you hear anyone tell you to bring 300k for an app you should be worried” “if anyone tells you your app will be ready in 3 weeks or 5 weeks, be worried” He stated that for a fantastic app that works you need a minimum of 750k. Technically, you get what you pay for.
Mazino- one of the presenters on the show was curious to understand the cost. She had to ask Mayowa to justify the cost. According to Mayowa, “Behind every great app development is a business analyst, a designer, a software engineer, a user experience/user interface expert, marketer and beta testers. In some cases you need a market research team”.
He also mentioned that some businesses will never exist without a mobile app. Businesses like Uber, Airbnb and many others including Instagram. Do you think they were built with 300k?
Some questions came in during the programme and one of them was tailored towards who needs a mobile app? When do you need a mobile app? Why do you need a mobile app?
Mayowa told the listeners that one major essence of a mobile app is to help businesses scale. If your customers or market consume data and spend most of their time on their mobile devices, then you need an app to get closer and interact better with them.
So, if your business is handling large volumes of transactions like Alibaba, or needs help handling more people then you need an app. He also mentioned that with a mobile app, structure and ease are put in place.
However, if your business is not yet handling a large scale and you are fine handling it on social media or via your website, then you do not need a customised mobile app. He also made it clear that maintaining a mobile app is quite some cost and more expensive if it was built poorly in the first place.
One listener asked about apps and software that enables people to build apps themselves. Mayowa said that works if the app needed is for just basic things like data collection. He hopes that in the future there will be more DIY app so that developers can solve more serious problems.
Hauwa- the Cohost asked Mayowa, What about outsourcing app development to Indian developers? Mayowa answered her saying app building is not entirely a developers job. He explained the role of the analyst and designer before it finally gets to the developer. And that it is a process that requires close working. So if you are not ready to travel to india for 3 months to one year during development process then why start to get disappointed?
In summary, Mayowa compared app building to building a bridge. “Do you just call an Engineer to construct a bridge? Because software is not tangible, it is usually underpriced. But then people get what they pay for at the end”.
We can say we are more educated and aware and so are you.
So who should develop your mobile app? What must be in place before the app is built? How long should the app development take? What does it take to maintain this app? What budget must be in place? Do you outsource the maintenance or have an inhouse maintenance set up? This and many more were discussed.
