It really depends on whether this is ultimately a top-down or bottom-up approach and to what extent the end-user experience is compelling enough to act as a forcing function to enterprise adoption. A bottom-up distributed mobile app must be both viral and incredible engaging. Without proof that...
Parse is indeed one of the best for user accounts, IAP tracking, custom push, analytics and user data sets. You can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0llIdtYNA on Youtube for some basic understanding of the Parse platform.
These are very good questions to start with. In addition, Make sure you cover the following bases: 1. Security - viruses are just one thing, ask them about pen testing done, system stability, fallback options, rollback plans for deployments/changes, make them reassure you that they are rock sol...
Are you looking for a partner or a vendor?
A great structure is having an internal champion present on each team, unit, office, etc. that can easily provide answers to benefit questions. This structure is particularly important if the company is spread across several locations without HR on the ground in each locale. On the more proacti...
Why don't you use Wordpress? Free plugins like s2member are available; DAP and Wishlist are great paid options. Easy to use, too.
How would you describe this app to a friend? Who would you recommend this app to? If the app wasn't working, what would you use instead? And observation! Just watching people use the app, you can see from their faces/hands which bit is working for them or not. Great to hone in those areas of...
I'll divide your question into 2 questions, because I am not sure which one you're really asking :-) 1. Should I hire him despite the costs involved? You seem to already agree to this, based on what you wrote ("I am willing to set aside...assuming I see some ROI..."). 2. How to I justify his hig...
Chartmogul is the best one I've found. There are many great ones though. You can even use open source analytics software to build your own.