Integration of Mobile Application: A Report for Picoso Restaurants

This report analyzes the integration of mobile applications into the business processes of Picoso, a Mexican restaurant franchisee. It compares the advantages of mobile applications over web-based applications, emphasizing faster operations, customizable preferences, reduced network usage, device-related services, and push notifications. The report details a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the front-end user interface, including user signup, home page design, payment options, personal details, and push notifications. It also discusses alternatives to in-house development, contrasting contractual and in-house approaches, and recommends in-house development for increased transparency and modification flexibility. The conclusion highlights the benefits of in-house application development for Picoso's business operations and customer engagement.

Integration of mobile application
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Executive summary
This report includes a comparison between the use of mobile applications and web based
applications. The chosen company is a Mexican restaurant franchisee name Picoso. This report
includes a discussion of the various benefits of applying mobile application integration in the business
processes. In addition, the report also presents a work breakdown structure for addressing the front-
end user interface requirements of the mobile application. The report also includes a
recommendation that includes a choice between commercial applications or in-house development.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:........................................................................................................................................ 4
2. Discussion:........................................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Company Overview:.......................................................................................................................4
2.2 Topic 1 Benefits of mobile applications over desktop applications:..............................................5
2.3 Topic 2 Work Breakdown Structure:..............................................................................................6
2.4 Topic 3 Alternatives to in-house development:.............................................................................9
3. Conclusion:........................................................................................................................................ 10
4. References:........................................................................................................................................ 11
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1. Introduction:
An integration of the mobile application in business processes involves the installation of a
product application to increase the efficiency of the business applications. The most basic
requirements for a mobile application are the need for a Smartphone or any other mobile dependent
platform devices which are not provided by the use of a laptop or a desktop. This report includes a
discussion of the various benefits of applying mobile application integration in the business processes.
In addition, the report also presents a work breakdown structure for addressing the front-end user
interface requirements of the mobile application. The report also includes a recommendation that
includes a choice between commercial applications or in-house development.
2. Discussion:
This section discusses about the main requirements of the report.
2.1 Company Overview:
Picoso is a Mexican restaurant franchisee that operates in many business locations in the
Sunshine Coast. The business activities of the restaurants include dining of customers where they are
only allowed to dine inside the restaurant. The restaurant also has a website which is mainly used to
order take-outs from the restaurants. This facilitates customers to come and take their order from the
restaurant. The report includes a comparison among the mobile applications and the websites that
will be used in the restaurants to adopt the delivery service of the restaurant. Customers will be more
than capable to order from the restaurants without the need for going in the restaurants. These
orders will be completed by delivery process of the restaurant. This adoption will allow the restaurant
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to make more profits and drive more sales. Furthermore, the activity of brand exposure will also
increase which will help the restaurant to get more customers and reach a high level in the market.
2.2 Topic 1 Benefits of mobile applications over desktop applications:
This section is used to describe the main features of the mobile applications as opposed to the
websites.
The faster speed of operations is the first advantage of a mobile application. The speed of
operations of a mobile application is much greater than the website based applications. This is mainly
due to the fact that the mobile application stores data in the local devices. This reduces the time
required to retrieve the data from it and thus increases the operational flexibility. In case of a website
based entry, the data is stored in the database or servers which needs strong network access to
provide retrieval of data (Al-Jabri and Sohail 2012). Furthermore, the use of plugins and
programmable tools are also a major point of difference. The websites uses the JavaScript for working
whereas the mobile application uses the framework to operate. This is also another point which
contributes to the prompt actions of the mobile application.
The presence of customizable preferences in the mobile applications is the second advantage
to their use. Cookies used by websites, which are used to collect data from a user may not always
work due to the presence of antivirus programs. But in case of a mobile application, the analytics of
the user activities are recorded and the search results are filtered depending on their engagements. In
addition, they are also given combo offers which are also based on their activities (Corral, Janes and
Remencius 2012). This helps in getting more engagement from the users and helps a company to
reach their targeted brand image in the market.
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The reduction of network usage is another advantage for a business implementing mobile
applications. This reduces the need for constant connection in some product pages. For example, the
restaurant may host their product description pages in the application. This page does not need
network access to reload it every time the product page is opened. This increases the engagement of
the customers and makes them adopt the mobile versions of the site which drives in more sales.
The next advantage of a successful mobile application is the use of various device related
services. This means the use of many Smartphone applications like the camera or GPS for functioning.
For example, the GPS can be used to automatically get the location of the customer and will make it
easy for both the restaurant and the customers to place an order (Dalmasso et al. 2013). In addition, a
barcode scanner can be used to get an estimated price of the various products so that it can be
purchased online.
Lastly, the push level notification is another advantage which contributes to the benefits of the
mobile application integration. These push notifications are always shown at the top of the screen or
at the lock screen. This helps to keep the customers engaged about the products and services and
thus helps to increase the sales made by a company or business organization ( Tayade 2014). Regular
update notification is another way of letting the customers feel more engaged with the application.
2.3 Topic 2 Work Breakdown Structure:
This section defines the front-end user interface of the mobile application that is to be
developed by Picoso. Along with this, the work breakdown structure is also provided here.
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Fig 1: Work breakdown structure
(Source: Created by the author)
The work breakdown structure shown in this report is used to describe the activities of the
front-end user interface of the mobile application. These activities will be integrated in the business
operations. The user signup is the first feature of the application. This page is used to get access to the
system. After installing the application, this is the first page that will open in front of the user’s device.
This page is used to get authentication features from the users and also to get leads. There are two
divisions of this feature which includes the signup and the sign-in parts. The first part is used by new
customers whereas the second part is used by existing users. After getting email and password from
the users, they are granted access to the system.
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The home page is the next feature of this application. The main requirement of the home page
is the need for a great user interface which will highlight the brand of the restaurant franchisee. This
will also increase the brand value in the market. This is the first requirement of a mobile application as
a great interface and designs is necessary to succeed in the market. Moreover, the home page
displays a list of deals and combo offers which are used to show food items according to the
preferences of the user. This increases the number of sales made in the day and increases the
revenue generated (Palmieri, Singh and Cicchetti 2012). In addition, customers can also search for a
particular food item from the list of orders available. The food icon showed will show a star rating on
top of it that will rank the food items out of 5. These ratings are based on the feedbacks received by
the users.
The payment option is the next characteristics of the mobile application. Every user will have a
caret option which will be used to store the food orders so that they can order bulk items from the
restaurant. In addition, the cart feature will also allow the users to edit the orders based on their
preferences and also add/remove them from the cart. This option provides flexibility and increases
engagement on their platform. The orders which are placed are then reviewed by the user and then
they are allowed to check out of the process by paying for the services. This is to get the orders for
delivering at their doorsteps.
The personal details page is the next feature of the mobile application. This page is basically
used to update the personal credentials of the users. This includes updating the address, name, and
pin code or email id of the customers. This section is used for both the existing as well as the new
customers (Hao et al. 2013). The existing customers can update their credentials whereas the new
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customers can provide their customers. This reduces the time required to give address every time of
placing orders.
Lastly, the push level notification is another feature which contributes to the benefits of the
mobile application integration. These push notifications are always shown at the top of the screen or
at the lock screen. This helps to keep the customers engaged about the products and services and
thus helps to increase the sales made by a company or business organization. Regular update
notification is another way of letting the customers feel more engaged with the application.
2.4 Topic 3 Alternatives to in-house development:
This section discusses about the presence of alternate methods of mobile application
development. There are basically two types of application development. One is the contractual
workings where an outside company is given a contract for making the application. Another method is
the in-house development where the company itself makes the application. This is the basic
requirement for a mobile application adoption which is necessary before commencing with a business
(Shiraz et al. 2013). The outside companies are responsible for fully developing the application
according to the requirements of a client. This gives a benefit of keeping away from the hassles of
programming and added expenses. However, the business policies may not always comply with the
contractor’s policies which may result in disputes in the application frameworks. Moreover, an
application provider may sell their services for a cheaper rate and then trick the businesses by
disappearing with their money. This is the main foundation of a fake company. Furthermore, full
custom rights are not provided to the client company which causes them to take the help of the
contractors every time they need an update.
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Thus, this report recommends the use of in-house applications which will increase the
transparency of the system and can be modified without the need for any external helps.
3. Conclusion:
Thus, the conclusion that can be drawn from the report is that the use of in-house application
can provide more benefits to Picoso than the use of commercial contractor based companies. This will
help them to continue their business operations and make changes according to their business needs.
The analysis made on this report aims to showcase the various benefits of the mobile application
integration in the business. This increases the engagement of the customers and makes them adopt
the mobile versions of the site which drives in more sales.
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4. References:
Al-Jabri, I. M., and Sohail, M. S. (2012). Mobile banking adoption: Application of diffusion of
innovation theory.
Corral, L., Janes, A., and Remencius, T. (2012). Potential advantages and disadvantages of
multiplatform development frameworks–a vision on mobile environments. Procedia Computer
Science, 10, 1202-1207.
Dalmasso, I., Datta, S. K., Bonnet, C., and Nikaein, N. (2013, July). Survey, comparison and evaluation
of cross platform mobile application development tools. In Wireless Communications and Mobile
Computing Conference (IWCMC), 2013 9th International (pp. 323-328). IEEE.
Dinh, H. T., Lee, C., Niyato, D., and Wang, P. (2013). A survey of mobile cloud computing: architecture,
applications, and approaches. Wireless communications and mobile computing, 13(18), 1587-1611.
Hao, S., Li, D., Halfond, W. G., and Govindan, R. (2013, May). Estimating mobile application energy
consumption using program analysis. In Software Engineering (ICSE), 2013 35th International
Conference on (pp. 92-101). IEEE.
Nayebi, F., Desharnais, J. M., and Abran, A. (2012, April). The state of the art of mobile application
usability evaluation. In Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), 2012 25th IEEE Canadian
Conference on (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Palmieri, M., Singh, I., and Cicchetti, A. (2012, October). Comparison of cross-platform mobile
development tools. In Intelligence in Next Generation Networks (ICIN), 2012 16th International
Conference on (pp. 179-186). IEEE.
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Prasad, M. R., Gyani, J., and Murti, P. R. K. (2012). Mobile cloud computing: Implications and
challenges. Journal of Information Engineering and Applications, 2(7), 7-15.
Rao, N. M., Sasidhar, C., and Kumar, V. S. (2012). Cloud computing through mobile-learning. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1204.1594.
Shin, C., Hong, J. H., and Dey, A. K. (2012, September). Understanding and prediction of mobile
application usage for smart phones. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous
Computing (pp. 173-182). ACM.
Shiraz, M., Gani, A., Khokhar, R. H., and Buyya, R. (2013). A review on distributed application
processing frameworks in smart mobile devices for mobile cloud computing. IEEE Communications
Surveys and Tutorials, 15(3), 1294-1313.
Tayade, D. (2014). Mobile cloud computing: Issues, security, advantages, trends. IJCSIT) International
Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, 5(5), 6635-6639.
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