These days, apps aren’t just about amazingly addictive games like Angry Birds or streaming your favorite tunes from Grooveshark. More and more, they’re about getting work done. As the work world becomes increasingly mobile, it’s becoming essential that we have an app to help us do our jobs in better, simpler ways.
This is a fact not lost on enterprise software vendors. Everywhere, vendors trying to build out “an app for that.” As enterprise software vendors develop for mobile applications, they’re looking to the king of mobile – Apple – for inspiration.
I see three ways that Apple’s consumer tech innovations are influencing enterprise software development. Today, enterprise vendors are:
1. Creating a mobile user experience that mirrors that of iOS.
2. Building an ecosystem of mobile apps developers for their products.
3. Selling their apps in their own enterprise marketplace.
It’s no secret that Apple is the gold standard for what a mobile user interface should look and feel like. The minimalistic and clean look is what helps make Apple iOS so intuitive to use and work with on a daily basis. Enterprise vendors are trying to replicate that level of elegant design and usability, looking to Apple as a template for how an application should work on a mobile platform.
A great example of how serious enterprise vendors are taking user design is SAP’s recent release of an iPad application for their BusinessByDesign product. iPad users can access and analyze Business ByDesign sales and revenue performance data from a unified interface, with convenient graphical business intelligence features. It’s a far cry from previous mobile designs released by SAP.
Beyond that, enterprise vendors such as Salesforce are enlisting the help of mobile developers to build applications for their platforms. Building out an ecosystem has been critical to producing the astounding number of apps available in the iTunes App Store. It will be essential to creating a vibrant development environment in the enterprise as well. Salesforce’s development community has already cranked out more than 1,300 apps.
To capitalize on the development talent they’re enlisting, enterprise vendors are also distributing these apps in their own enterprise marketplaces. NetSuite has set up a store called SuiteApps while Salesfoce sells their apps in their AppExchange market. Salesforce is already beyond the 1,000,000 app download and they’re selling more and more each day. Acting as the distribution network is an easy way to generate a steady and reliable revenue source for enterprise software vendors. In Apple’s case, they’ve made roughly $1 billion (given that they take a 30% cut on all sales) from simply selling apps that other people have made.
As enterprise software vendors develop for mobile applications, they’re taking a different approach to the way they design, develop and distribute applications. It’s a decidedly different approach to mobile application development in enterprise.
But that’s just how it looks from where I’m sitting. What influence do you see Apple exerting on enterprise software development? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Guest Post by Derek Singleton - ERP Analyst, Software Advice.
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