Buy vs. Building Mobile Solutions for Handhelds

I had a conversation this week concerning the issue of buy vs. building mobile software solutions. I have previously written about this subject in a blog article in January and again in May, however this issue comes up regularly so let's spend some more time on it.

Developing a mobile solution is a major challenge for most companies. Why? Let's identify some of the key components of a mobile solution:

1. If you have never created mobile applications, there is a steep learning curve to understand the mobility architecture, development environments, synchronization rules, integration processes etc. A lot of mobile middleware development is just plain tedious, expensive and risky.
2. Are you going to develop for just 1 kind of handheld computer or many? There are many different screen sizes, buttons, accessories, etc. If you want to support many different kinds of handhelds and their unique add-on components - expect a couple of years of development.
3. How do you develop a solution that will work equally well on multiple operating systems such as Tablet PC, PDA Smart Phones, Pocket PCs and/or laptops? What if your business user wants you to support laptops, PDAs and Tablet PCs with the same mobile application?
4. How do you develop and manage a synchronization server? Have you ever contemplated how difficult this might be?
5. How do you add database integration to your synchronization? How do you do this without messing up the production servers?
6. How do you add data validation to your mobile solutions?
7. How are you going to manage secure communications between your mobile application and your central database?
8. How do you build in mobile printing support?
9. How do you manage the deployment of mobile devices and track all the users and mobile applications?
10. Who is going to write all the help menus, user documentation, etc., if you develop in-house?
11. How do you add support for new hardware add-ons such as bar code scanners, RFID readers, GPS, digital cameras, printers to your application?
12. When Microsoft releases the next version of Windows Mobile 6.0, are you going to re-write your application to support the new hardware? You will be required to since all new handheld devices are sold with the latest OS.

I am a big advocate of internal development projects, but only if you have a RAD tool (rapid application development) for this purpose. MobileDataforce has the PointSync Suite which already has most of the features you want already developed and ready for you to configure for your specific requirements. It is rarely worth a company's time and money to re-create, design and develop that which is already available for $5,400.