Consumerization of IT services and enterprise data security requirements are the main influencing factors for the Enterprise app marketplace to come into existence. The analogy of local app store can be traced to the official mobile app stores of Apple and Android. Enterprises hosting their own app store provide their end users a liberty to get immediate access to the app required and in turn the enterprises will be able to control the software that is vastly used within the firm.
Reasons for the Birth of Local App Store
Consumerization of IT
Consumerization of IT has enhanced like never before with the advent of BYOD strategy and this has resulted in many conveniences that are given away to the end users. Apple’s own app store is the inspiration to the rising of the enterprise app store model. In the world of severe competition and quick access to the resources end users expect more than what is in the existence. For these reasons, enterprises are finding it viable to have an in-house app store.
Constant bombardments to IT department from the end users and management
It is quiet a task for the IT administrators to maintain costs whist catering to the requirements put forth. Often, even in the times where the cost is not considered versus the time, managements of small medium businesses do wear out the IT departments with their cost cutting strategies.
In order to ease out the bottle neck scenarios caused due to traditional approaches of manually deploying client software and liaising with license management solution, app store like this is the rescuer for the IT departments. An ideal case would be accomplished if the enterprise app store is enabled to function like the iPhone stores where the consumers have nothing to complain.
Enterprise App Store Foundation
The vital factors that influence the success of the local app store are security of the data and management of the app store contents. Enterprise data is worth a ton and no compromise should ever happen due to app store. Cases or accidents that happen via the store will dampen the spirits of using this strategy.
Though inspired by the Apple’s store, the local enterprise stores should never keep it open to see the contents to the public for obvious reasons. Thus, it is very essential to leverage identity management and authentication within an organization.
Another significant practice to be followed while deploying the app store is to not make it a dumping place for unimportant goods. Thus, governance regulation rules should be followed at all costs.
To conclude, the Enterprise app stores should be deployed on par with the device standards must be designed to meet the demands that the IT department is pounded by the workforce or client base. It is very important that this strategy is not abused due to its user friendly nature. With no doubt, we agree that the success of the app solely lies in the simplicity of the design and usage. So is the app store in an enterprise also, simplicity is the secret ingredient for a successful enterprise app store model.