Thinking about developing mobile apps for your social enterprise? Read this first.

These days it seems as though mobile apps are ubiqutous in the social sector--it's mHealth this, and mobile banking that. And also in the private sector; mobile applications are seen as important tools for pretty much all aspects of sales. Take the case of Nike. Through the "Nike iD" phone app (on the video above), the customer can purchase shoes. But why would she purchase shoes through a phone, and not through a store where she can try the shoe out? Or even on her laptop or home computer through the Nike iD site? The key is that the phone app adds value to a purchasing decision process vis-a-vis these other two point-of-purchase options because the customer becomes a co-creator of the product. Through the app, she takes a picture (with the phone's camera) of an object that catches her eye as she walks around town. The Nike iD app then matches the colors to the picture and also asks her if she wants a regular sneaker, a high top, etc. The Nike Training Camp app is another way that Nike engages their customer, as she can develop training goals and link it to her friends to get their support in reaching these goals. Nike even offers prizes when she shares these goals with friends. Both very savvy marketing strategies, which is the kind of innovation that has helped Nike stocks soar over the past ten years.

MIT Nextlab's MoCa project (on video below) has taken these private sector lessons back to the social sector, by developing phone apps that would serve as diagnostic tools for hard to reach rural areas. We asked Leo Anthony G Celia,M.D., one of the founders of MoCa about how he sees the future of mobile adoption. His answer? "The rate of adoption of mobile health technology relies on how quickly we can re-engineer workflows in care delivery.  It needs to be accompanied by the same meticulous value chain analysis that is required of any health technology. Since it requires a huge up-front cost as compared to the traditional paper-based data capture and information flow, it would need to be justified by value in order to guarantee sustainability.  Thus, rigorous evaluation is needed to insure that it provides a cost-effective way of achieving the desired outcomes and delivers the best return-on-investment."

So perhaps you are thinking of developing your own phone app, because you can and these days it's not very expensive to simply create one. But the question is what kind of back infrastructure will you be capable of building given your budget, and if you have a limited budget, where would you prioritize your resources?

Learn more about the MoCa project by clicking here.