Enterprise Application Development: The Complete Guide

In the past, the app development process was a slow and rigid process. Large teams worked with on-premise systems and followed a step-by-step, “waterfall” method to building software. The process was often complicated and costly.

On top of that, IT needed to manage infrastructure, ensure uptime, and handle security and scalability for each app, all of which added to the workload. And as the demand for AI-driven applications grew, 86% of IT leaders anticipated their workloads to increase – while 33% lacked the in-house resource or AI skills to tackle these initiatives.

As the need for faster development grew, businesses turned to cloud platforms to break down these barriers. Today, enterprise application development focuses on creating powerful apps that are customized to your business needs. It’s no longer just about long, drawn-out processes. Instead, it’s a collaborative, modern approach where IT teams and business users work closely together to solve real problems — quickly. With cloud platforms, especially low-code ones, the heavy lifting is taken care of. No more worrying about infrastructure or managing security from the ground up.

Enterprise app development is important when your current tools, systems, and out-of-the-box applications can’t keep up with the demands of your growing business. Whether you’re scaling operations, improving customer experiences, or modernizing outdated processes, custom application development can bridge the gap.

These scenarios in particular call for enterprise app development:

• Scaling operations: As your business grows, you need apps that can handle increased data and user interactions without slowing down.
• Enhancing customer engagement: Customer expectations are higher than ever. Custom apps help you create seamless, personalized experiences that keep customers coming back.
• Streamlining internal workflows: If inefficiencies are piling up, an internal app can simplify processes and boost productivity across teams.
• Modernizing legacy systems: Outdated systems can hold you back – enterprise apps provide the flexibility of cloud-based solutions that evolve with your needs.
• Empowering AI-driven experiences: AI-powered apps are gaining traction, especially in customer service and operations. With AI agents handling routine inquiries and automating processes, you can be more competitive in your industry and deliver faster service to your customers.

When your business faces challenges that off-the-shelf solutions can’t address, the right enterprise app development platform gives you the tools to create custom applications that fit your business needs perfectly.

Custom enterprise apps can make a huge difference for your business. Here are some key benefits:

• Increased efficiency: Automating time-consuming tasks means your team can focus on more strategic work. This means less manual work and faster results.
• Better decision-making: With real-time access to data, custom apps allow your business to act on insights specific to your needs.
• Enhanced scalability: As your business grows, your apps can scale with you. Modern application development platforms ensure your solutions can handle increased workloads and expanding data streams.
• Improved security: Custom apps give you the ability to build in robust security features, ensuring your data is protected at every step. From encryption to user permissions, you’re in control.
• Greater flexibility: Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, enterprise apps are made to fit your exact business needs. No compromises.

By using APIs, reusable components, and modular architectures, businesses can create apps that grow and adapt without adding extra complexity (and technical debt). Investing in enterprise app development means your tools stay useful, scalable, and ready for whatever comes next.

In the past, building apps came with a lot of obstacles — high costs, long development cycles, and complex security issues. But today’s enterprise platforms are changing the game. Here’s how:

• Low-code and no-code options: Not every app needs a full development team. No-code and low-code development platforms allow non-developers to create apps using drag-and-drop interfaces, drastically cutting development time and costs. Now, even small- and medium-sized businesses can enjoy the same customized application solutions as enterprise-level companies, thanks to software development tool providers.
• Prebuilt components and templates: Why start from scratch when you don’t have to? Modern platforms come with prebuilt UI components, templates, and APIs that accelerate the development process and reduce errors, especially with a low code vs no code approach.
• Built-in security features: Security is a top priority, but it doesn’t have to slow you down. Enterprise platforms come with built-in security features, from encryption to multi-factor authentication, ensuring your apps are protected from the get-go.

It’s important to note that SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS each offer different levels of support. SaaS gives you ready-to-use software, PaaS offers a platform for building custom apps with minimal coding, and IaaS provides the infrastructure businesses need to scale without worrying about managing hardware. Together, they help businesses move faster and create solutions that are just right for their needs.

With cloud-based infrastructure, scaling your app to keep up with growing demand is a breeze. For example, PaaS makes it easy to expand without having to do major technical overhauls. Plus, these platforms encourage real-time collaboration between developers and business teams, speeding up feedback and ensuring the app is on track from the start.

With cloud-based platforms on the rise, choosing the right development tool is crucial. It’s no longer just, “How can we design this app?” but rather, “Which cloud solution will best support our development process?” Choosing the right app development cloud provider is an essential part of the development process — here are key factors to consider when looking for the right platform.

Speed is always a concern when creating business apps, which is why the tools themselves need to be capable of producing fast results. To accomplish this, the best app development tools offer a variety of time-saving features, such as easy visual prototyping, model-driven development of business logic, APIs to integrate apps with data, easy testing and analytics capabilities, and more.

Custom applications rely heavily on vital customer and company data. Of course, that data may also be very sensitive, and so should be protected at all costs. The best application development tools rely on effective, built-in security measures. Both network- and application-level cloud security help to ensure that no weakness exists in either the app or the cloud for cyber criminals to target.

Reliable password policies, permissions, multiple factor authentication, field- and row-level security, penetration testing, secure firewalls, HTTPS encryption, and other security measures are all important in a platform.

Effective app development tools should be capable of scaling along with your business, so that you benefit as much from them tomorrow, as you do today.

Development tools that can support massive streams of data — including internet of things (IoT) data — will be better suited to help your business grow. Additionally, tools that can be configured to your existing practices and processes will be able to remain viable as those processes change.

As new innovations come along, they have the tendency to disrupt the existing market. Superior enterprise application development tools include the ability to support these disruptive innovations, so that your business doesn’t end up getting left behind.

Predictive intelligence, continuous DevOps, at-rest encryption key management, custom AI, enhanced API management, and more can help ensure that disruptive innovations don’t disrupt your work.

Even with the right enterprise application development tools, creating a custom app from scratch takes time.

As such, an enterprise application development platform designed with a reliable ecosystem of prebuilt components and apps natively developed by third parties on the platform of your choice may make all of the difference. The right app ecosystem decreases the time and money spent on development, and ensures that your application is ready when you need it.

Salesforce is widely known as the world’s #1 CRM provider, but it also offers a powerful cloud app development platform. The Salesforce Platform makes it easier for businesses to create custom applications that are built around their customers.

Designed to be flexible and intuitive, the Salesforce Platform empowers anyone to build apps using low-code tools, and offers capabilities for connectivity, automation, and intelligence. Thousands of businesses rely on it as a core part of their enterprise application development strategy. In today’s world, new data demands new ways of thinking about enterprise app development. With Salesforce Platform, you can design apps that make a real difference in your business.