An app for your employees, with no app store in the way

What it is usually for

An app for people working away from the desk, in a shop or in a warehouse replaces paper and scattered messages. For example:

• an inspection form with photos, which reaches the office already filled in;
• a request for materials, which lands in the order list;
• looking up a product by its barcode, with the camera;
• hours worked for a customer or a job.

Why a PWA

A PWA is a website that installs like an app: it has its own icon, opens full screen and can work without a connection. One program runs on Android, iPhone, Windows and macOS, and it costs less than two native apps. There's no store review before each update: the new version reaches everyone the next time they open the app.

The app reads and writes to the same database as the office's business software. Something entered on the phone shows up in the office straight away, and a price changed in the office reaches the phone straight away.

An example

For AREAVISION I built the app for shop staff, which also runs on handheld scanners. It finds a product from its barcode, pairs it with its electronic label read over NFC, camera or scanner, and makes the right labels flash for a promotion or a restock. The CRMs I built for Dracartys and for my own business also install on the phone this way.

The limits

On iPhone the browser can't read NFC, and a PWA doesn't appear in the stores. If you need either, go for a native app. If the business software it should connect to doesn't exist yet, it usually makes sense to start there.

Frequently asked questions

How do employees install it?

They open an address in the phone's browser and add the icon to the Home Screen. No app store account is needed, and updates arrive on their own.

Does it work without a connection?

It can. KardPal, for example, keeps its data on the phone and works offline. Which parts need to work offline we decide in the analysis, because it changes how the app is built.

Is it fine on an employee's personal phone?

Yes. The app doesn't ask to manage the phone, and everyone logs in with their own account. When someone leaves the company, you close their account.

When do you need an app in the stores?

When you want to be found in the App Store or Google Play, or when you need features the phone's browser doesn't provide: reading NFC on iPhone, recording GPS position with the app closed. On iPhone, push notifications also only arrive if the app has been added to the Home Screen.

Read more

• The service: PWAs, apps from the browser
• Work of this kind: AREAVISION: website, back office and app
• More pages like this: Software for one specific job