Globalization and business requirements in an aggressively competitive world demands for the development of a number of technologically enabled services and software. To cater for such requirements, organizations either need to increase the strength of professionals in their workforce or need to outsource the work to external organizations with the expertise in the field. However, the development and vast use of Internet has led to the integration of web applications in the business process paving way for the organizations to make use of virtual teams.

A virtual or a geographically distributed team is made up of members who work across organizational and geographical boundaries and different time zones. For these distributed software development teams, communication is the key and needs to be well connected through corporate networks or the Internet. The team members though distantly located work on the same project or product. For the organizations, involved in product R&D services, the distributed development teams are reason for proximity to customers, work clusters or cost advantages.

The array of software development projects undertaken by organizations for various web development services also requires deep expertise and understanding of the market trends and latest technologies. One way of acquiring this is through the use of offshore development services. Web development services like mobile application development services, customized application development and payment gateway integration are taken up by the offshore development services teams.

These geographically distributed teams irrespective of being part of offshore or nearshore development services, offer the organizations advantages such as improved productivity, knowledge transfer and greater market position. Nevertheless, these teams are not away from challenges such as lack of communication and poor leadership besides n incompetent team member.  However, with technological evolution, the networked teams can stay connected through threaded discussions, web conferencing, instant messages and blogs besides sharing the repositories.

The leaders in the field of application lifecycle management have designed and developed agile methods for a faster product R&D service at a global level irrespective of the type of application With the teams distributed around the globe, combining the agile methodology with the top of the line PLM tools helps distributed software development teams deliver quality products.  The collaborative platform and its framework facilitate a quicker product lifecycle completion, while bringing around a 30% reduction in overhead costs.

The distributed software development becoming the trend in the globalized environment, it becomes necessary to ensure that every team member is equally responsible to achieve the project goal. With the help of scrum-based distributed R&D software and a platform of integrated open source tools for collaboration, tracking and end-to-end visibility of the product life cycle, it is possible to provide the developers real-time access to the developmental process.


Also read on - Application lifecycle management, Product lifecycle management
 
 
Technology is something that is always moving forward. There are numerous developments taking place in every sphere of technology. Mobiles are the widely used next generation device and its applications include the innovative technological advancement in this field. It is the popular surge of the demand for mobile applications that motivates the technical professionals to strategize the future of mobile application development.

Going by a study conducted by Global Intelligence Alliance recently the top three reasons why enterprises still prefer the native mobile applications are :-
  • Being able to set up high quality user interface
  • Being able to leverage well known established application store distribution channels
  • The requirement to access device hardware


This apart, the top three reasons why businesses go on with certain web technologies in case of mobile application development are:-
  • To be able to build high quality user interface
  • Cost benefits of offering one interface available on numerous environments
  • Having direct control over the distribution having no requirement to have a third party approval


Eminent companies specializing in software product development are today equipped with the apt procedures, tools and other level of expertise and experience to create mobile applications faster and in a cost-efficient manner. Some of their focus areas are as follows:-
  • Presence & Social Networking
  • Mobile VoIP
  • Gaming
  • Location-Based Services (LBS)
  • Messaging & Syncing
  • Mobile Media Streaming
  • Mobile Advertisement & Ad Engines


These companies also have the experience and skill for working with Level A enterprises and have been supporting them with valuable product lifecycle management solutions.

Selected mobile application development facilities are as follows:-
  • Developing mobile applications in J2ME, BREW, Android, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry
  • Conceptualizing mobile applications and eliciting requirements, for instance UI design, prototype, wireframes, user stories
  • Designing, developing and testing applications
  • Porting mobile applications between platforms and devices
  • Developing server-side and infrastructure, including for location & mapping services
  • Integrating third-party components on the server side, for instance SMS/MMS, billing, feeds, ads, content and many others
  • Integrating carrier, SMSC and billing systems, for instance LBS platform for location determination
  • Coordinating with carriers and device manufacturers for mobile application testing and certification, for instance NSTL, Java Verified
  • Launching and distributing mobile applications
  • Carrier Catalogs and Storefronts
  • Providing maintenance and support services


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