Advantages of Mobile Application

Discuss about the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

The restaurant franchise Picoso is a Mexican restaurant that is embarking on development of a mobile application that will facilitate the home delivery option that will add to the strengths of the company and help it in growing further. The restaurant maintains a web based system for home delivery but is planning to incorporate the ordering facility with the help of a mobile application as well. The development of this mobile application would be beneficial for both the restaurant and its customers. The already existing web based system is to be updated in order to incorporate the home delivery services in it along with the development of the mobile application will help in serving a greater range of customers. The report discusses the different benefits of the mobile application compared to the web based order system of the Picoso Franchise. The work development structure of the front end of the development of the mobile application is illustrated in this report (McWherter & Gowell, 2012). The report concludes with the different recommendations for in house development of the mobile application.

With the increasing use of technology and Smartphone, people prefer the use services that can be easily customized. Use of mobile application improves the interaction of customers with the business and product that would definitely help in attracting more customers. In the business point of view, it becomes easier to target key users or the customers with the help of mobile geo targeting. The combination of features such as geo-fencing with SMS text will allow the business in connecting to the customers more easily. The new feature that is to be enabled in the system includes incorporation of the home delivery option and therefore, this geo tracking feature of a mobile application would be an add on.  The mobile payment option adds further benefits to the customers. According to (Bharadwaj, et al., 2013) the use of digital business strategy extends the scope of the business beyond the business firm and boundaries. Researches prove that the use of mobile applications is increasing at an exponential speed and therefore access to the mobile application and targeting the customers who are using mobile applications becomes easier. (Saarijarvi, et al., 2014) argue that the new mobile services revolutionize the different ways through which customers make decisions in context of food retailing. Understanding the nature and the stage of the interaction is critically important in developing in mobile applications as it helps in providing better services to the customers. Mobile services have gradually emerged better over the years in context of food retailing. Major example of the business doing good via mobile application is Starbucks (Wen, et al., 2014). It is the most popular coffee chain in the world. It is a trendsetter in the terms of mobile marketing. Another similar example of successful business using mobile application is Dmonino’s Pizza. Similar to Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza also operates one of the most successful Android and iPhone applications, which has almost 1000000+ downloads and over 230000 5-star reviews on Android. This application allows people to order pizza from anywhere. Customers are furthermore provided with the option of tracking the order (Zhao & Balague, 2015). The mobile application offers increasing benefits in comparison to the web based system because with increase in use of mobile devices, the different mobile applications are gaining more popularity in comparison with the web-based system. According to (Kim, et al., 2013) different researches shows that majority of the mobile users have already downloaded at least one branded application. Therefore, with the advent and increase of the use of mobile technology and Smartphones, it is obvious that a mobile application will attract more customers in comparison to the web based system. Another reason of increase in use of mobile application is that, it is easily customizable. Customer satisfaction is a key criterion of a sustaining business and the mobile application will definitely be the game changer in providing an uninterrupted customer service.

Constraints of Web Based System

The mobile application is more advantageous in comparison to the web based order entry system because there are certain constraints in the web based order entry. It is not as user friendly as a mobile application and therefore people prefer a mobile application over the web based order entry system. Furthermore, since the application is to be developed in house, Picoso can guide the developers in developing an interactive interface that can guide the people in selecting a proper option making the process of order placement even simpler.

The work breakdown structure of the project can be termed as a hierarchical decomposition of the work executed by the project team. The work breakdown structure of the font end development of the mobile application is illustrated below-

WBS	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
0	Picoso App	53 days	Wed 01-11-17	Fri 12-01-18
1	Project Starts	0 days	Wed 01-11-17	Wed 01-11-17
2	Feasibility Study	6 days	Wed 01-11-17	Wed 08-11-17
2.1	Checking the Economic feasibility of the application	2 days	Wed 01-11-17	Thu 02-11-17
2.2	Checking the Technical feasibility of the application	2 days	Fri 03-11-17	Mon 06-11-17
2.3	Checking the Operational Feasibility of the application	2 days	Tue 07-11-17	Wed 08-11-17
3	Requirement Analysis	3 days	Thu 09-11-17	Mon 13-11-17
3.1	Meeting with client to Know about the basic requirements	1 day	Thu 09-11-17	Thu 09-11-17
3.2	Documenting the requirements	2 days	Fri 10-11-17	Mon 13-11-17
4	Planning	5 days	Tue 14-11-17	Mon 20-11-17
4.1	Technical requirement of the application	2 days	Tue 14-11-17	Wed 15-11-17
4.2	Resources to be used in developing the front end of the application	3 days	Thu 16-11-17	Mon 20-11-17
5	Implementation	20 days	Tue 21-11-17	Mon 18-12-17
5.1	Framework	9 days	Tue 21-11-17	Fri 01-12-17
5.1.1	Designing the framework of the application	5 days	Tue 21-11-17	Mon 27-11-17
5.1.2	Coding	4 days	Tue 28-11-17	Fri 01-12-17
5.2	Interface Designing	11 days	Mon 04-12-17	Mon 18-12-17
5.2.1	designing of the Home page	2 days	Mon 04-12-17	Tue 05-12-17
5.2.2	Designing of the browsing option page	2 days	Wed 06-12-17	Thu 07-12-17
5.2.3	Designing the order option page	2 days	Fri 08-12-17	Mon 11-12-17
5.2.4	Designing the order description and summary page	2 days	Tue 12-12-17	Wed 13-12-17
5.2.5	Client’s approval	2 days	Thu 14-12-17	Fri 15-12-17
5.2.6	Implementing changes if required	1 day	Mon 18-12-17	Mon 18-12-17
6	Testing	14 days	Tue 19-12-17	Fri 05-01-18
6.1	Unit Testing	2 days	Tue 19-12-17	Wed 20-12-17
6.2	White-box Testing	2 days	Thu 21-12-17	Fri 22-12-17
6.3	Black-box testing	1 day	Mon 25-12-17	Mon 25-12-17
6.4	System Testing	1 day	Tue 26-12-17	Tue 26-12-17
6.5	Performance Testing	2 days	Wed 27-12-17	Thu 28-12-17
6.6	Integration Testing	1 day	Fri 29-12-17	Fri 29-12-17
6.7	Usability Testing	1 day	Mon 01-01-18	Mon 01-01-18
6.8	Debugging ( if required)	1 day	Tue 02-01-18	Tue 02-01-18
6.9	Documentation	0 days	Tue 02-01-18	Tue 02-01-18
6.10	Share documents with Client	1 day	Wed 03-01-18	Wed 03-01-18
6.11	Product demonstration	2 days	Thu 04-01-18	Fri 05-01-18
7	Project Handover	5 days	Mon 08-01-18	Fri 12-01-18
7.1	App demonstration and Documents Handover	1 day	Mon 08-01-18	Mon 08-01-18
7.2	Completion of payment	1 day	Tue 09-01-18	Tue 09-01-18
7.3	Resources release	1 day	Wed 10-01-18	Wed 10-01-18
7.4	Client Signoff	1 day	Thu 11-01-18	Thu 11-01-18
7.5	Client’s feedback	1 day	Fri 12-01-18	Fri 12-01-18
8	Project ends	0 days	Fri 12-01-18	Fri 12-01-18

Table 1: The activities or the work break down structure of a project

(Source: Created by author using MS Project)

Picoso has opted for developing the mobile applications in house; therefore, it stands a chance of improvising or modifying the project according to the needs in the implementation phase. Keeping in mind the different the objectives and requirements of developing this application, the recommendation are as follows-

1. The user interface of the application should be simple and attractive that would attract many users in downloading and using this mobile application.
2. The application should definitely incorporate the menu and different offers that can attract the customers in placing orders with the help of the app.
3. The application should incorporate a secure option of payment through credit cards and online banking that’s would enhance the usability of the application.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Picoso’s idea of the developing a mobile application is very effective on a business point of view. Researches show that different leading businesses have been successful with their mobile application, which has helped them in reaching a wide range of customers. With the addition of the home delivery option, it would be furthermore essential for Picoso to offer application based services along with the web-based system. The report discusses the various benefits of incorporating the application-based services instead of the existing web based system. The report further illustrates the work break down structure of the application development and discusses the various features that would be essential to incorporate into the application during the implementation phase.

Bharadwaj, A., Sawy, O. E., Pavlou, P. & Venkatraman, N., 2013. Digital business strategy: towards a next generation of insight. s.l.:s.n.

Kim, E., Lin, J. & Sung, Y., 2013. To app or not to app: Engaging consumers via branded mobile apps. Journal of Interactive Advertising, Volume 13(1), pp. 53-65.

McWherter, J. & Gowell, S., 2012. Professional mobile application. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons. .

Saarijarvi, H., Mitronen, L. & Yrjola , M., 2014. From selling to supporting-Leveraging mobile services in the context of food retailing. Journal of retailing and consumer services, Volume 21(1), pp. 26-36.

Wen, D. et al., 2014. In: June Gamification design for increase customer purchase intention in a mobile marketing campaign app.. s.l.:Springer,cham, pp. 440-448.

Zhao, Z. & Balague, C., 2015. Designing branded mobile apps. Fundamentals and recomendations, Volume 58(3), pp. 305-315.