Not all companies are created equal so it should come to no surprise that companies adopting Enterprise App Stores (EAS) may have different reasons for doing so. From discussions with companies over the past few months, it is clear that companies have different motivations for using an EAS. Below are three examples that exemplify current trends in the marketplace.
Managing BYOD Issues
The first is a pharmaceutical company dealing with BYOD. This is one of the more common situations that companies are facing today. In this case, the company has a mixture both corporate-owned and personally-owned devices coming from contractors and employees.
Currently, this company is using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution driven top-down, primarily for the corporate-issued devices. However, when it came to implementing MDM on BYOD devices, it created a bit of a push back around privacy and corporate liability issues. Employees really didn’t want the company controlling or monitoring any part of their personal device. With contractors it was even more challenging to gain acceptance. So this company looked at Enterprise App Stores as a way to deal with BYOD and privacy concerns in a way that was familiar to users and less intrusive.
App and Content Distribution
In the next example, we have an energy management company. Here they were looking for a better way to manage apps across different user profiles and platforms that include not just mobile devices but also laptops and desktops. For them it is not just about mobile apps but also the need to distribute different content types such as files.
They needed to support field operators with mobile devices for things like service manuals and field applications. However, they also needed a way to distribute source files to the various supporting IT groups in the organization in a way that offered control and tracking. So for this company, an EAS represented an ideal way to control and track the distribution of content whether it is an app, file or document to different users in the company as well as out in the field.
Mobilizing the Corporate Intranet
The third profile is from a semi-conductor manufacturer. In this case, instead of IT, the discussion was with their VP of channel sales. Initially, he didn’t really care much about mobile app management, device management or Enterprise App Stores for that matter. He saw it as an IT issue.
However, what got his attention was the idea of being able to mobilize their current Intranet using an EAS paradigm. For him, it was all about enabling his sales force in the field to access information like price sheets, marketing collateral, RFP templates, and all sorts of sales tools. While these materials exist on the corporate Intranet, it is hard to find what they need. On a mobile device, it is simply prohibitive.
So when this VP of Channel Sales realized that an EAS could be used as a mobile Intranet that lets his workforce easily get access to valuable sales tool out in the field anywhere anytime on multiple mobile devices, that became exciting for him.
In each of these examples, all three are using EAS a bit differently. One is about BYOD, one is about file and content distribution, and then you have a sales force wanting to access the Intranet on mobile devices. So what is the killer app when it comes to enterprise mobility? There isn’t just one “app,” the killer app is simply access to information, anytime, anywhere. That is the power of enterprise mobility.
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Edited by
Rich Steeves 
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