First, the best way for IT to distribute mobile apps is through an enterprise app store. A company that deploys an enterprise app store can save money by controlling which apps employees can download as well as cap the numbers of licenses in use.

Because security is so critical, a company with an enterprise app store can breath easier knowing its workers aren’t downloading apps that can put the business at risk, and an enterprise app store lets IT distribute line of business apps to any mobile device; smartphones, tablets, phablets – and any operating system; Android, iOS, Blackberry.

With an enterprise app store, line of business execs can work with IT to control which employees have access to which line of business app based on their roles in the company. This handles the specifics of which applications can be distributed to, and accessed by, individual employees.

IT can ensure that these role-based enterprise mobile apps give users the features and capabilities as well as the necessary data they need to do their jobs. Employees will jump at the chance to download apps that make the most sense for them and will make their jobs easier – thus ensuring increased productivity and user adoption.

Here’s an example of how a manufacturing company might use role-based enterprise mobile apps:

Each day, service technicians are required to do several different jobs. The service department leaders could determine the five or six of these tasks their technicians absolutely have to do when they’re on the road, such as ordering a small part for a repair job.

These techs don’t need to access the entire, complex application for field service technicians. Rather, all they need is to be able to download one-off apps that are specific to their roles and easy to use.

Role-based enterprise mobile apps can be used for just about any job in any vertical. The key to creating role-based apps employees want to download and use is for line of business leaders to work with IT to analyze their department’s processes and systems so they prioritize the features and capabilities of the various role-based apps.

Doing this will ensure that the company determines the apps that employees – or groups of employees – need to become more productive, thereby improving the efficiency of the business.

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However, because employees continue to download apps for personal use in record numbers, it’s critical for IT to strike a balance between ensuring the privacy of employees’ personal apps and information while applying appropriate safeguards to protect enterprise apps and corporate data.

Combined downloads from the most popular commercial app stores — Apple’s App Store, Google Play, the Windows Phone Marketplace, and BlackBerry World — jumped 11% from the fourth quarter of 2012 through March 2013, according to market research firm Canalys. Meanwhile, enterprise mobile app downloads also continue to occur at a rapid clip. According to Yankee Group, the proportion of companies that have increased their budgets for mobile apps this year has nearly doubled, from 28% to 51%.

As employees continue to download both personal and corporate apps, IT organizations need an effective way to protect the privacy of employees’ personal data while ensuring that enterprise apps, along with proprietary and customer data, are secured.

To read the complete article on Wired Innovation Insights, click here.

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One approach to this problem is mobile device management (MDM), but the problem with MDM is it requires managing a device that belongs to the user. What’s more, containerization at the device level compromises the user experience. A better approach is mobile application management (MAM), which can be applied, as the name implies, at the application level, wrapping corporate apps and data, but not wrapping Facebook or Roku.

This approach provides a high level of administrative control while still offering a superior user experience for all mobile applications, both the wrapped and unwrapped, so to speak…

Read the full article on Network World!

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This is not a strategy to ignore, as customers are increasing their interest in retail mobile apps. According to analytics firm Flurry, Android and iOS users spent 525% more time on retail mobile apps in December 2012 as they did in the prior year, while in 2012, consumers spent 27% of their app time on retail apps (up from 15% in 2011). For the retailers who can leverage the mobile medium effectively, the sky is the limit.

Retail enterprise mobile apps can run the gamut from consumer-facing apps that drive foot traffic and increase purchases to employee productivity apps that help salespeople increase their effectiveness on the floor. For brick and mortar retailers, driving foot traffic is imperative, and leveraging mobile devices to access their consumers can make it happen.

According to Mobile Marketer, 44% of all restaurant and retail mobile ad campaigns include a store locator. This location-based component not only encourages users to go into the store but removes barriers from doing so; the information is right there.

Once in the store, engaging customers to drive purchases is the next key goal for brick and mortar retailers. Price is one way the retailer can connect with the customer — for example, Walmart has a price checker app which allows customers to get prices and stock information about products.

Enterprise mobile apps can help shoppers choose coordinating products while the retailer is happy to upsell. For example, J. Crew’s new mobile app helps customers to find matching products and then requests the help of a sales assistant once they are ready.

For retailers such as Walgreens and CVS, utility is a strong component of their mobile apps, which allow users to request prescription refills to pick up at the store and to get deals.

Lastly, putting apps in the hands of retail employees can enable them to sell more and provide a better customer experience — Apple store employees can conduct an entire purchase experience via handheld devices coordinated across multiple employees, while many mobile solution vendors are introducing apps that leverage location-based data to help salespeople optimize their activities on the sales floor.

Using apps that provide stock availability information or styling suggestions can help the salesperson drive up a consumers’ total transaction value, such as in Sephora’s mobile app, which enables the salesperson to scan a customer’s skin and recommend the optimal matching colors and products.

The possibilities seem endless, however 30% of the top 100 US retailers do not have a mobile app for iOS or Android. Clearly, if your organization can effectively tap into the power of enterprise mobile apps, you will have an advantage over your competitors.

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Before developing a BYOD strategy, IT has to determine the specific goal of the strategy is as well what it’s looking to protect. The goal for most enterprises is to enable their employees to be more productive as well as to protect sensitive corporate data.

Research firm Gartner Inc. agrees, “IT’s best strategy to deal with the rise of BYOD is to address it with a combination of policy, software, infrastructure controls and education in the near term, and with application management and appropriate cloud services in the longer term,” according to a recent Gartner report.

With a mobile application management strategy, IT can be sure that corporate data is encrypted on the device, and that users can’t copy and paste into or out of the app. Additionally, IT can wipe the device of corporate data on demand, but not interfere with the user’s personal information.

Here’s the deal about BYOD and MAM: it’s about connection and communication — how a particular device works with everything and everyone in the organization, not vice versa.

Using mobile application management software tools, IT can develop, test, deploy and control in-house and third-party mobile apps. Not only that, but employees can also download and use IT-approved and provisioned mobile apps from their companies’ enterprise app store.

Mobile application management also lets companies wrap fine-grained security policies around individual mobile apps to add multiple layers of protection to any app that needs more security.

This app wrapping lets enterprises secure sensitive data by wrapping each of the third-party apps that they want to allow to access corporate resources. Then they can deploy those wrapped mobile applications to their enterprise app stores so employees can download them, knowing they’re as secure as possible. IT can also control who has access to which apps, depending on an employee’s job function, among other factors, even though it no longer has control over the device.

The fact is that the use of smartphones, tablets and even phablets (a tablet that also functions as a phone), is only going to increase. That means there will be even more pressure on IT to implement a workable BYOD strategy. It also means that IT must turn to mobile application management tools to turn the strategic vision of BYOD into a successful reality.

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In a word: No.

That’s because if you distribute your app on the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store, or Microsoft’s Windows Store it will become publicly available. Not only that, but mobile apps downloaded from public app stores disrupt IT security, as well as application and procurement strategies, according to Ian Finley, research vice president at Gartner Inc.

The fact is that IT departments can’t really control their mobile enterprise apps if they distribute them via cloud-based, public app stores. And if they support public app stores, they also have no way of knowing what other, potentially harmful, apps mobile workers are downloading.

But that’s not all.
In today’s world of BYOD (bring your own device), enterprises have to be vigilant about protecting their corporate networks and the information contained in these networks. Mobile application management is key to managing and securing internal mobile enterprise apps — a challenge with public app stores.

One of the best ways to achieve manageable applications is via app wrapping, a security solution that automatically wraps fine-grained security policies around individual mobile apps. With app wrapping, enterprises can secure sensitive data by wrapping each of the third-party apps that they want to allow to access corporate resources. But the problem is, IT can’t wrap security and policy around mobile apps in a public app store.

To ensure that level of security, IT departments have turned to enterprise app stores to manage their enterprise apps on mobile devices. By 2017, 25% of enterprises will have an enterprise app store, according to Gartner.

“Enterprise app stores promise greater control over the apps used by employees, greater control over software expenditures and greater negotiating leverage with app vendors, but this greater control is only possible if the enterprise app store is widely adopted,” Finley says, adding an enterprise app store has to offer a large variety of apps to be successful because users won’t adopt enterprise app stores if they don’t have access to a lot of apps.

And when they’re successful, enterprise app stores can increase the value of the apps while reducing the associated risks, license fees and administration expenses, he says.

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A History of Moving the Industry Forward
Apperian was founded by the Apple execs responsible for building the very first enterprise apps for iOS. So, for us, it’s always been about the apps – never the device.

After building hundreds of iOS and device-agnostic custom apps for the enterprise, we began building capabilities to help our customers manage their mobile apps. It was a natural progression that would soon result in the Apperian EASE® platform, today’s most forward-thinking mobile application platform for the enterprise. And that’s when our transformation truly began.

Now, we are widely recognized as the industry pioneer and leading platform provider for managing the full lifecycle of mobile apps in the enterprise.

Everyday, the world’s largest and most complex IT environments put their trust in Apperian. We give their workers the right access to the right versions of the right apps in a way that is incredibly easy to use, manage and scale.

Behind the New Approach
We’re at the forefront of a rapidly evolving industry. In rebranding the company we wanted to project our passion for the app lifecycle and express the speed, agility and strength we bring to the enterprise.

We are continually helping our customers move forward and in turn we are moving an entire industry forward. Our new branding approach encompasses these characteristics and will more effectively position us for the exciting things to come.

What’s in It for You
Along with our new brand approach, we are launching a number of programs to better interact with you our customer. We’ve also launched a new customer satisfaction program where we benchmark and hold each of our employees accountable for ensuring that our customers are successful, happy and gaining the most value from us. And we are overhauling how we communicate product enhancements and platform direction.

Amidst all these changes and enhancements, we’re still Apperian. Still the fearless innovators. Only now we have a fortified commitment to leading our industry and customer organizations to extraordinary new heights.

Let’s move forward together.

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According to Frost & Sullivan, 68% of North American businesses plan to roll out one or more mobile apps through mid-year. Meanwhile, the most popular enterprise mobility apps in use are predominantly focused on driving higher productivity from employees. In a survey of 300 mobile and wireless decision makers in North America, Frost & Sullivan found that 80% of respondents have deployed wireless email while the next most popular categories for mobile apps are access to internal databases (48%), standalone corporate instant messaging (44%), mobile sales force automation (38%), and employee-to-employee social media (37%).

Once a company has built an enterprise mobile app, it’s just the first step in the app deployment journey. In order to protect employee and corporate data on mobile devices, companies must ensure that they’re securely managing mobile apps effectively while setting up a structured approach to distribute, update, monitor, and provision apps across the workforce….

Read the rest of the article on Wired Innovation Insights!

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