Part 3: Billing and Deployment

​This is the last Part in our 3 Part series "WHAT TO EXPECT IN PROFESSIONAL/BUSINESS WALKIE TALKIE APPS".
Deployment without going through App Stores

Once you have selected a Walkie Talkie App, you will need to be able to distribute the app to everyone who needs it. Assuming the app takes care of user management in an enterprise friendly way, the question now is how to get the App onto everyone’s phone.
Consumer apps typically expect a user to go the App Store and download the app. However not all employees have access to download apps on their phone. They might not have added their billing details or do not even have a iTunes/Google Account.
Enterprise apps should allow sideloading of Apps via providing a download link, APK or integrate with a Mobile Application Tool.
Enterprise Apps should also keep everyone up to date. You can roll out an app but how do you get everyone to be on the same version? Enterprise Apps should prompt users for updates when required and even enforce an update via the update methods of downloading APK or Moble Application Tool.

Business Billing rather than In-App Purchase or Paid Apps

Consumer apps feature in-app purchase to enable pro features. However In-App purchases require the user to have their own iTunes or Google Account linked to a credit card. This makes a roll out of application difficult as you just need one employee to not have their Google or iTunes Account setup properly to stop your entire deployment.
Enterprise apps typically offer payment methods where a company can pay for the service for all their employees. This could be done via Credit Card billing or Invoicing. If your company allows the use of a credit card, that would be great. However many companies do not have credit cards available for employee purchases.
Look for Vendors whom can extend Invoicing arrangement to your company so that you can quickly get the app setup. For budgeting purposes, you could also ask for a prepaid account where you can pay upfront so your finance department does not have to process small amounts every month.

Predictable Expenses for Budgeting
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Companies typically do their budgeting cycles by years. This makes it important for Apps or software to charge a known and predictable amount. It is difficult for the employee to ask for more once the budget has been fixed.
Some Walkie Talkie apps charge by usage and type of features used. Look for an app that allows you all the current and future features based on the number of active users which should remain quite constant.

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