« Back to Blog

3 Reasons Not to Build a Workforce Management App In-house

Many companies are beginning to discover that email is not always the best way for employees to communicate. More and more are turning to other communication tools for workforce management, like group messaging or stream messaging. A few companies are even attempting to develop an in-house communication app. This route tends to be plagued with numerous hurdles and most of the time it’s not the best idea. But thankfully there is the ability to operate and power a third-party app that gives you all the reliability and security you were looking for in an internal communication app without the headaches and time involved in creating your own.

1. They save you time

Creating your own app takes time, which many companies simply don’t have. As Drew Gainor mentioned in his Forbes article, there is much more to developing your own app than the actual creation of it. Because in addition to the design, building, and testing of the app, there’s also the marketing and behind the scenes work that goes into implementing it. Not to mention the time it takes to maintain the app. Specialization is key in the rapidly changing world and attempting to do all things, is an attempt to fail.
Choosing a workforce management solution provider means that instead of recreating the wheel, you simply have to customize it and make it your own. Your company can take a solution that has already been finely tuned numerous times and brand it as needed with all of the cool features and slick design aspects that you were hoping your internal team could think of and develop.

Choosing a customizable solution you don’t have to build in-house, like Beekeeper means that instead of recreating the wheel, you simply have to customize it. Your company can take a solution that has already been created and brand it as needed, making it available quickly.

2. And time is money in Business

Third-party solutions are generally significantly cheaper than developing your own group messaging app. When you begin to factor in all the costs associated with the product. It can be incredibly expensive to create your own app, from the idea concept to the development, design, and execution there are many individuals wanting to get their hands involved in this type of project. In addition to the initial development fees, there’s also the cost of adding additional features, updates, fixing bugs, and the possibility of having to create additional versions for all the different platforms your employees are using on a daily basis.

Even if you already have people at your company who are competent and capable of handling these kinds of tasks, you may not end up with something of quality and sadly this is where the great idea seems to fall apart. As Robert Strohmeyer mentioned in his article for PC World, “Training and cultivating a new developer from within your own ranks is a tough proposition that offers no guarantee of a great app at the end of the process.”

In a report from Opinion Matters on key digital trends, they found that 94% of organizations with over 15 developers on staff still don’t have the necessary mobile development staff to handle their needs.

What’s more, hiring an outside consultant or company to create a group messaging app for you doesn’t guarantee a great app either. You many times don’t know what you’re getting until it’s complete and by that point how do you know it’s going to be engaging and actually benefit the business? Essentially, you could spend thousands of dollars to create your own app yet end up with either nothing to show, or a product that doesn’t drive and deliver what your company even was wanting!

3. You know what to expect

The beautiful thing about working with a solution provider is you can see what you’re getting before you even purchase it. Instead of putting your faith in a workforce management app developer, whether an in-house communication app or an outside consultant, companies can choose exactly what will work for them by evaluating and choosing from specific options that are currently available and are available to customize!

Internal communication apps like Beekeeper, only offer features they’ve found to be useful, so you’re avoiding making the mistake of adding unneeded (and often costly) team app features that don’t deliver on the company’s objectives or goals! That means instead of making mistakes for yourself, you’re benefiting from mistakes others have made before you. Take a look at just a sample of what you can do with the Beekeeper workforce management platform.

While it may sound enticing to build your own internal communication app, many times a new team app from scratch just isn’t the right solution. Instead, a customizable app can offer everything your company needs – and you can get exactly what you want with your communication tools quickly, for a fraction of the cost of developing your own and with research and dedicated support staff to make the progress simple, easy, and efficient.

Take a look at how our team app has saved FRHI time and money all while engaging over 45,000 colleagues.

Get a free demo of the Beekeeper team app to learn how we can help communications within your organization.