Enterprise app stores arrive; IT departments nonplussed

Not solving the issues with enterprise app stores ends up creating an unsustainable issue in the enterprise as users adopt the tools they prefer, however completely on their own platforms in accordance with their own control. During app stores have thrived beyond all expectation in the consumer space over the last several years, a rush to adapt this successful new distribution model for software to the enterprise has met a definitely muted reception.

But it’s as well this enormously wide variety of choice combined with a very low barrier to access that gives enterprises pause. During app stores have come and gone in various forms over the years, it’s their runaway success on mobile devices, most notable iOS and Android, that have validated the model and more importantly, created critical mass and expectations in the minds of hundreds of millions of consumers as to the richness, variety, and ease-of-use they should expect in they decide to select and buy a new piece of software.

The last year

Especially in the last year, app stores have now moved then beyond the mobile space. With the opening of Apple’s Mac app store previously this year, a similar one rumored to be coming in the near future from Microsoft for Windows 8, and Google having entered the space last year with its Apps Marketplace, along with many other smaller players it’s safe to say that traditional software has begun moving towards the app store model.

However, during enterprise app stores have now been launched in earnest from a wide variety of companies, large and niche both, their uptake has been very little like the gold rush mentality of consumer app stores. It may be because the enterprise offerings haven’t hit on the right combination of features, target audience, and application inventory. Or it may be that there is little demand for targeted, just-in-time business software in enterprise settings. I personally greatly doubt the latter, however the former is always possible. All things considered, it took Apple and both its renowned user experience capabilities and market leadership position to hit upon the right formula and prove that app stores are not only viable yet an increasingly preeminent way in which software is acquired.

In actuality, I believe that along with the right enterprise formula for an app store, there is a matching problem in the mindset within most organizations when it comes to acquiring software. Unlike the Internet, most enterprises are not improving fast enough to make it easier and more rapid to obtain software.

The enterprise app store space since its inception

I’ve been watching the enterprise app store space since its inception and it’s clear that IT departments are not specifically lining up to enable this new software distribution channel within their organization as a faster, more hassle free conduit for access to a wider variety of price competitive business solutions. As a matter of fact, IBM’s own offering in the space, Smart Market, has seemingly come to this same conclusion and proceeded directly to the most in accordance with served business segment that’s much less likely to have the bureaucratic and cultural hurdles that larger organization will have. This market is small and medium sized businesses and they don’t have IT departments or very much time and expertise to invest in independent vendor comparisons, complex installations, or painful recurring maintenance. SMBs want utility software that easy to find with plenty of selection so they don’t have to customize, and with lots of competition to drive down price. By the by, this is the same market that many SaaS products are going afterwards, nevertheless never got critical mass around, partially I suspect because they didn’t have a discovery and consumption platform as simple and easy to use as app stores.

No, a big part of the issue here is that IT departments are directly in the critical path of enterprise software consumption. Last year I explored how the stranglehold that IT has on both the strategic and tactical use of research in large companies is slipping for a confluence of reasons. The ongoing consumerization of the enterprise is rapidly leading to something some observers are calling the Personal Enterprise, where users are increasingly in control of shaping their research experience at work. When the business can provide the IT tools they need, workers can increasingly reach for their personal smart device, where they have ready access to tools that are often a great deal superior to what they have at work. That the cost of these new solutions is near free, during the outdated enterprise versions are enormously expensively is increasingly lost on fewer of us.

A closely related trend to enterprise app stores is that both technology and demand in IT solutions has moved beyond systems of record to systems of engagement. Most organizations have enough systems of record, nevertheless a great many don’t have enough effective systems of engagement. Apps that help businesses with better communication and collaboration, exactly with better discovery and access to both internal and external knowledge and people, is a growth industry as this time

An important offshoot of regular app stores are social app stores. Facebook had one long previously Apple introduced its mobile app store and it was largely responsible for providing the community-developed feature set that ultimately catapulted Facebook past its at that time-rival and social networking leader MySpace.

Microcosm of this whole narrative

In a microcosm of this whole narrative, and of more direct interest to those that follow this blog, are enterprise social networking platforms that are now opening up and allowing 3rd party social applications to live and operate in the same way that Facebook apps do online today. Enter Google’s OpenSocial social networking application format, which is getting increasingly popular with business users and especially popular with enterprise social software vendors.

Interestingly, the default mode of the Jive Apps Market is opt-in, meaning that users within an enterprise can see and potentially install all new apps that are being released into the app market from 3rd party vendors. During it can be changed to opt-in mode, where IT can specify only which apps can be seen, it’s an intriguing test to my way of thinking to see if enterprises are ready to open up and let their users get better access to the software they need to get their jobs done. Given that about a third of all IT these days is so-called “shadow IT”, meaning innovation solutions that are unsanctioned by IT, and you can see why there might be a middle road: Offering a wider selection of apps to users without completely relinquishing control.

The VP in charge of Jive Apps Market

I spoke to the VP in charge of Jive Apps Market, Robin Bardoli, this week and asked him about what he thought the issues were in opening up app stores, in particular the opt-in default mode that Jive uses out-of-the-box. He noted that “what we’re doing with Jive Apps Market is trying to open up a dialogue between employees, IT, and the business around which business applications employees can use to get their work done.” Moreover, because it’s a social platform that intrinsically fosters open discussion, Robin believes “only a social business platform like Jive has the ability to enable this dialogue between IT and employees inside an organization.” And there are in fact features for IT in the Jive Apps Market, noting that “the Jive Apps Market as a matter of fact strikes the balance between allowing employees to get access to the applications they need to get their work done, and giving IT control and line of sight into usage and spend.”

Bardoli as well had good things to say about OpenSocial itself as a model for social applications, saying the use of OpenSocial has “been fantastic. The cost of integration of 3rd party applications to closed enterprise platforms earlier OpenSocial has been too high. OpenSocial has slashed it to a few weeks from many months.” There’s often been debate on how effective OpenSocial in the consumer space has been given that Facebook has dominated social networking applications on the Internet. However in the enterprise, OpenSocial increasingly seems to be gaining a foothold as a natural integration models that as well incorporates the social context of its users.

Frankly, during I’ve been bullish on OpenSocial for both internal and external uses for quite a during, there is often a terrible lack of imagination when using it to integrate applications into the social architecture of software. Too often OpenSocial is just used it as a dumb wrapper instead of a way to put social computing intrinsically into the flow of work taking place in systems of record. I’m hoping we’ll see better from the products that are launched in the Jive Apps Market and other social app stores.

Finally to wrap up, I all in all believe that many of the issues that IT departments — too many of which are either ignoring the broader consumerization trend or are merely being dragged incrementally into doing more instead of being proactive — are failing to be addressed. Certainly, they are somewhat challenging issues that will require a leader with industry stature. Nevertheless not solving the issues with enterprise app stores ends up creating an unsustainable issue in the enterprise as users adopt the tools they prefer, yet completely on their own platforms in accordance with their own control, instead of in a place that both the needs of the business and IT can both live with.

Here at that time are those issues that will have to be addressed if enterprise app stores are to flourish after a fashion that is constructive to the entire organization, including business and IT.

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