Page 32 - GS221201

Education

Every second of the • The average rate of new feature releases for finance
apps is 31 to 90 days. For high performers, the
mobile experience • The average finance app deploys a new version of
average is 14 days or less.

is really part of the its app to the app stores every 15 to 30 days. High
performers release new app versions every 14 days
or less.
payment process • It takes the average finance app 2-3 days to release

a bug fix when necessary. High performers make
this fix within 24 hours.

As the number of mobile payment options increases,
speed is one factor that is well-within companies' control.
Prioritizing it is the distinguishing factor between mobile
visionaries and mobile leaders.
Frequent updates can make the user experience
maximally crisp and bug-free

Companies that increase their release frequency will also
see a direct correlation to their overall app engagement.
The more releases a mobile app issues to the app stores,
the more bug fixes it can implement, ultimately making
the experience for users as seamless as possible.
By Barnabàs Birmacher
Bitrise For instance, Dojo, a payments company specializing in
contactless card machines and next-working-day transfers
company can have the best payment technol- (see https://bit.ly/3gMnSJ3), adopted what is known in the
ogy on the market, but if every step leading mobile DevOps industry as a "release train" to accelerate
up to it is not equally as engaging, users and this process. This fixed cycle—for example, releasing an
A customers might never reach the transaction. update or feature on the second Friday of every month—
With the mobile payments market expected to increase leads to smaller deployments, which make it easier to track
32 percent from 2022 to 2028 (see https://bit.ly/3FgcnTo) it's bugs and ensure that users get timely fixes.
critical that the entire mobile app experience be geared
toward getting users to their final destination: payment. Continual app innovation also means there is something
new for consumers to engage with each time they visit
This means prioritizing factors like ease of use, security the app. For Dojo, putting a release train in place allowed
and speed—which all play a larger role in the digital world developers to turn their focus to the customer experience
than they do in person. instead of manual engineering, and roll out new features
to users much faster than before.
There are four key ways for payments companies to
improve these factors to optimize the mobile experience Don't sacrifice security for simplicity
before, during and after a transaction actually takes place. Payments app providers are often pulled in two directions
Speed is directly proportional to sales when it comes to security and simplicity: Their users
expect a quick, seamless experience, but they are part of
For payment providers, every moment equates to revenue. the heavily regulated financial industry, which means
Even a slight delay in the mobile payments process can having high-level security in place is crucial to protecting
result in a lost sale altogether. sensitive consumer data.

But load time is only half the battle. The rate at which The extra security steps needed to assuage these concerns
mobile companies release new features and app versions often result in a longer, more complicated user experience.
to the app stores, as well as how quickly they address However, there are ways to create an app that is both
bugs that can directly impact things like app load time, simple and secure.
are equally—if not more— important.
First, address security and compliance checks as early and
MODAS from Bitrise (see https://bit.ly/3UtEpPz) analyzed often in the development process as possible. This will
what distinguishes a high-performing finance app from help mitigate risk by catching errors earlier, making them
a low performer. The differences in speed are staggering: easier to fix.
Shifting security to the left in a development pipeline also
32