How to Create Custom Apps for Your Biz: AMA with Narmadhaa Sivaraja

Let’s talk about the role of custom apps in business. When might you need to create a custom app? Has your business considered creating a mobile app?

If you’re like me, it may not be clear whether you need a ​web app or a desktop app​ or a mobile app. Do you even what the difference is? That’s what we hope to clear up with this AMA.

Find out everything you want to know about creating apps for your business in the BizSugar Mastermind Community.

If you are not already a member, first join the BizSugar Mastermind Community by clicking the button below.

Once you’re a member, click the button below to go directly to this event in our Mastermind Community Forum.

Read all the excellent questions and answers given during this AMA to find out whether your business could benefit from having a custom app. Find out what kind of app you need. We will also talk about whether you can create it yourself. Ask when you may want to hire a developer.

What is a Custom App?

A custom app is an app designed specifically for a particular business. To develop one, keep in mind your:

• processes
• workflows
• approval hierarchies
• stakeholders
• customer engagement

The app caters to all (or some) of the business’s requirements without the owner or the employees altering their work styles to adapt to the app.

A custom app might replace any of the software a business uses. Or it can connect with existing apps and help with data storage and in the flow of information.

For more information ​read What’s a Custom App here​.

What are the Benefits of Custom Apps?

Ways having a custom app can benefit your business and customers:

• Enhanced brand visibility
• Increased customer loyalty
• Connect with consumers while they are mobile
• Better accessibility
• Ensure customers see sales, special events and product launches
• Ease in making purchases, appointment scheduling or other specific actions

Who is Narmadhaa Sivaraja?

Narmadhaa Sivaraja is a passionate story-teller and blogger and a marketer, content writer and copywriter by profession. She works for Zoho’s low-code app development platform, Zoho Creator.

Narmadhaa has attended events on behalf of Creator and pitched it to potential customers and developers. And she has also done a few sessions at Zoholics and annual internal workshops.

We’ve asked her to be our guest to talk about custom apps because she writes and has built some basic apps. She understands the extent of what Zoho Creator is capable of doing.

What is Zoho Creator?

Zoho Creator is a platform on which you can build apps for your business. It’s a DIY tool, which largely uses a drag and drop interface so that non-programmers can build apps on their own.

This video made it more clear to me what I might use Zoho Creator for:

More savvy developers can use Deluge, Zoho’s proprietary scripting language, to add additional functionality and customize their apps in any way they want.

Zoho Creator integrates with other tools and APIs. ​Go here to find out more about Zoho Creator​. You can also watch the video below, read the PDF ​Getting started with Zoho Creator​ or read more about ​Custom App Development​.

Getting Started on Building a Custom App

This is a multi-part series of posts entitled “The Zen approach to designing a business system” by Priya.Sri, a Zoho Solutions Provider, about how to go about building a custom app (parts 1-6):

1. How Obese is Your System?
2. ​Modeling—The Who, What & How of it
3. Use Cases/Business Scenarios: Customer Orders
4. Tracking Payments
5. “Schema Diagram’ aka ‘Entity-Relationship Diagram”
6. Order Management / Delivery Workflow

Topics we can cover in this AMA

As a marketer and writer for Creator, Narmadhaa writes to inform users about:

• why they shouldn’t buy generic software
• the benefits of custom apps
• when and how to use custom apps
• the options available in the market
• who to outsource your app building to — or whether you should at all

Case studies/examples/ideas of custom apps in many industries

Some examples of using custom apps in business (written by our guest, Narmadhaa Sivaraja):

• Winery management
• Financial services
• Real estate management
• Project management
• Event management
• Inventory management
• School and student management
• Marine transportation
• Healthcare management

Resources for developers who want to build apps using open Creator and sell them:

• Create and sell custom apps with Zoho Creator
• Benefits of using Zoho Creator: It’s a low-code tool
• It’s a rapid development solution
• Use it to create an online database
• Automating workflows using Creator

Find out everything you want to know about creating apps for your business in the BizSugar Mastermind Community.

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If you are not already a member, first join the BizSugar Mastermind Community by clicking the button below.

Once you’re a member, click the button below to go directly to this event in our Mastermind Community Forum.

Read all the answers given to the questions asked during this AMA to find out whether your business could benefit from having a custom app and if so, what kind of app you need. We will also talk about whether you should create one in-house or hire someone to do it for you.

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