Enterprise apps are already big business. More and more companies are harnessing the power of mobile applications and reaping a wide range of benefits.

If you’re a business owner interested in developing your own enterprise apps, keep reading to find out more about some of the key business areas they can bring benefits to.

Online shopping

90% of the world now lives in a place with access to a mobile network* so online shopping apps can explode your online sales.

Source: mobiThinking Global Mobile Statistics 2011

You may not be in the same league as supermarket Tesco, who recently launched an innovative barcode scanning/online shopping app, but you can still significantly improve your bottom line by embracing mobile shopping.

Imagine a world where almost anyone could potentially order one of your products from anywhere at any time – an online shopping enterprise app will make that vision a reality.

Interactive product catalogue

An enterprise app that delivers an interactive product catalogue will have the following benefits.

• Make your business look more professional
  If you have agents across the world promoting your products, an interactive product catalogue app will show you mean business.
  Imagine the difference it would make to show a digital product catalogue with interactive features rather than a traditional paper-based one.
• Give your sales staff a new way to show products to clients
  An interactive catalogue app will make your product more engaging for your sales people and customers alike.
• Save on re-printing costs when new product ranges are launched
  If your product catalogue frequently needs updated, an interactive app will be much easier to keep current rather than having to print new catalogues or inserts every time your business launches a new range.

Automated billing systems

• An enterprise app that automates your company’s billing systems could bring about a number of tangible benefits across the areas outlined below.
• Cut down on paperwork An automated billing system can help your business cut down on unnecessary paperwork.
• Time efficient By automating what can often be a time consuming process you can free up more time for your staff to do other things e.g. make sure your sales team spend less time on admin and more time selling.
• Environmentally friendly
  If you’re a large organisation, an automated billing system can not only cut down on paper but also streamline the posting out of invoices and receipts which will reduce the carbon emissions associated with your company’s activities.

As well as the three areas mentioned above, enterprise app can also be developed for human resource management, CRM, content management and IT deployment.

Whatever enterprise app you have in mind for your business, let our development team create a cost-effective and beneficial solution to drive your company forward in this mobile internet age.

Google has warned of a worrying trend of internet censorship affecting many of its services, including search, Docs, Blogger and YouTube, some or all of which are blocked in 25 of the 100 countries in which it operates.

Web Censorship – Google Services Blocked in 25 Countries

Not only does this impact upon free speech but it also raises concerns for companies who rely upon these services for their international business promotion.

What Are The Reasons Behind Web Censorship?

Much of the content on the internet originates in the west and this often conflicts with tradition, laws, ethics and values in other countries throughout the world.

Many governments feel that the internet is a vehicle for trying to instil western values into the citizens of their country and web censorship is a viable means of controlling this outside influence.

Web censorship has become a hot political topic with the freedom of speech campaigners not seeing eye to eye with governments who feel they’re doing the right thing in protecting their people from offensive content.

Web censorship shouldn’t really come as a surprise as there’s no reason governments across the world should take a different view of online activity than they do to offline business and adherence to local ethics and laws.

The real problem lies with the fact that the internet has been developed as a completely open and free source of information and censorship is against everything it stands for.

How Are Businesses Affected by Online Censorship?

Online censorship can affect global businesses in many different ways. We’ll take a look at just some of these below.

• Restricted trading

For many companies (including Google) web censorship in some countries makes it impossible in their eyes to trade in certain countries.

In the case of Google and China, this could potentially cost the company huge sums of money not just in the present but in future years too.

• Damage to brand reputation

When a company has invested millions in building a global brand both online and offline, web censorship imposed by individual countries can damage their brand reputation and cost them dearly.

With the online market being such a big part of most organisations’ strategies for global sales, damage to brand reputation may lead to them pulling out of a particular country or region altogether on moral or financial grounds.

• Additional costs

Governments and leaders can change every few years across the world and a global business may have set up in a country only to find that a new regime are opposed to their online activities.

This clearly has cost implications for the businesses concerned in terms of relocation expenses, higher labour costs etc.

A Business View on Web Censorship

As the founder of one of the most successful global businesses on the planet, Bill Gates has his own views on web censorship.

He told ABC’s Good Morning America programme “”You’ve got to decide: do you want to obey the laws of the countries you’re in or not? If not, you may not end up doing business there.”

This is a valid point and for companies who have been trading globally offline for many years is one they have already learned and accepted as part and parcel of doing business with other countries.

Why should the online world be any different?

Working Around The Web’s Censors – Alternatives to Google

So what exactly are the solutions if you rely upon these Google services to promote your company and products in a variety of countries overseas?

When these services are already blocked, as in the example of YouTube in Turkey, the next step would be, where possible, to source alternatives.

There are many other video hosting sites available, Metacafe, Revver and Hulu being just three examples, however, you would be advised to research which, if any, are most used in the affected country.

Since Google’s Blogger frequently faces censor blockage, those aiming for an audience within China have been turning to various paid hosting services, with some offering to change a blog’s IP address within 30 minutes of it being blocked by the authorities.

Just as internet users always seem able to find a way through the censors’ net, so too can the companies determined to get their message across.