How Cross-Platform App Development Nurtures Tech Talent

Attracting and retaining the tech talent required to bring new and innovative solutions to market quickly continues to be a major challenge for enterprises seeking to grow. Moving to cross-platform app development, which uses common tools and a single codebase, can help. Here’s how. Companies must strike a fine balance between adoption, maturity, and popularity across their tools and technologies in order to build out the talent roadmap of tomorrow. And while many organisations find the allure of native Android and iOS features too appealing to pass up, the long-term costs associated with retaining highly specialised developer teams can become unsustainable over time.

Fortunately, there is a better way. Read on to find out how a cross-platform app development approach can enable your organisation to boost talent acquisition and improve the developer experience.

Historically speaking, native features built for iOS and Android were considered the obvious choice for organisations seeking to deliver a strong frontend user experience.

However, in more recent years, technologies like React Native have significantly matured. As a result, leading companies like Bloomberg, AirBnB and many more are openly using JavaScript based technologies to build their mobile applications.

Not only do technologies like  React Native offer a single codebase that works well across both web and mobile, but they are among the most popular frontend programming languages, with a huge developer community behind them.

As you would expect, the useability and popularity of technologies like React Native makes hiring talented developers with the right skillset simpler and more accessible than ever before. Retaining talent also becomes easier, since embracing a cross-platform architecture empowers developers to come into your business and start making an impact from day one. Find out more about how cross-platform mobile is leading the way for enterprises seeking greater agility and innovation.

When it comes to frontend development, creating a strong user experience is typically one of the first goals that comes to mind. However, in order to drive productivity and release new features fast, building a strong developer experience (known as DevEx), is key.

Removing friction throughout the development process is crucial to continuous delivery, enabling developers to spend more time creating and less time putting out fires.

Using a cross-platform mobile approach to application development, and leveraging common tools like React Native , empowers developers to create fast and responsive applications without having to create separate instances of each across web and mobile.

Removing friction can have a significant positive impact on employee productivity, engagement and retention, as well as reducing the time to market for new updates and features. The combination of all of these factors can have a lasting positive impact across your entire organisation. Related Read: 5 Reasons to Embrace a Cross-Platform Mobile Architecture

Moving to a cross-platform mobile architecture is a great way to boost your talent roadmap, both now and in the years to come. But once your organisation has reached that decision, how do you proceed? Choosing the right technologies for your business’ frontend is key.

To work out which technologies are right for your business’ cross-platform approach, it’s important to consider available experience and existing investments, as well as typical usage, volume, and anticipated change for your frontend.

When assessing cross-platform technologies, such as Xamarin, React Native, Kotlin, Flutter, and Sencha, you will also need to consider the following:

At NearForm, we can help you understand the full picture when moving to a cross-platform approach, covering the fundamental organisational and technical aspects. Related Read: How Cross-Platform App Development Reduces TCO

Moving to a cross-platform app development approach doesn’t happen overnight. However, there are steps you can take today to pave the way for embracing common tools and a single code base.

From planning how to take your existing staff from their current skill set to becoming productive in your new chosen technologies and language, to benchmarking target response times and more, we can help.

To find out more about how NearForm can help kick-start your cross-platform app development journey, click below. Discover the key steps your business can take to embrace a ‘write once, deliver anywhere’ approach.