This post is part III of III in the App47 series on mobility use cases. Today, we’re covering an enterprise use case with AmerisourceBergen. For previous parts in the series, see: Introduction; Part I (B2C); Part II (eCommerce).
When most people think mobility use cases, they think enterprise. And for good reason: platforms like App47 (enterprise mobility management, or EMM) are built around the needs of enterprises who want to use mobile applications.
Long-time App47 client AmerisourceBergen is a textbook example of an enterprise mobility use case. All told, AmerisourceBergen employs approximately 16,000 associates with a diverse set of mobility needs. To take full advantage of the opportunities presented by mobile apps in the enterprise, the company needs a platform to continually develop, test, distribute, and monitor apps.
Although a small company with only a few apps could get by without an EMM platform, when thousands of employees and dozens of apps are put into the picture, such a platform becomes a necessity. AmerisourceBergen utilizes a wide variety of apps. Some are built internally, some are native, some are hybrid, some are web apps, and some are public apps.
This presents the first challenge: the need for a curated app store. AmerisourceBergen needs full control over which users get which apps, which users can use which devices, how apps are deployed, and how users are onboarded—all in an easy-to-use platform. If the app store isn’t easy for users to navigate, they won’t come back. What’s more, the platform needs to be secure not only at the time of app download, but also through the entire period of continued usage.
A commonly requested feature for in-house developed native apps is version control—something AmerisourceBergen uses frequently. Users aren’t going through a public app store, but it’s still essential to make sure users are staying on the correct version of the app. Most commonly, apps are updated with security patches. Our enterprise app store ensures that versions stay current, and defines security boundaries and enforces them.
Which brings us to the bread and butter: analytics. How are apps being used? How often are they being used? Which users are using which apps? Which features are most frequently used, and what impact might those use cases have on the business? Are apps current? App47 gives you full visibility of your mobile apps within the platform, which enables that ever-important ROI tracking that should be part of every enterprise’s mobility program.
Whether they’re deploying to employees, partners, vendors, or anyone else within your enterprise’s ecosystem, you need that full control and those comprehensive analytics. While traditional MDM solutions can typically only be used for direct employees, a solution like App47’s allows companies to serve their entire base of end users at once.
All of these features used by AmerisourceBergen for their enterprise mobility program build off of the features we outlined in our B2C mobility use case a couple of weeks ago. AmerisourceBergen uses App47 to build, develop, and test apps, with full version control along the way. As a large enterprise, AmerisourceBergen uses the full suite of App47’s features, from development to deployment to monitoring and version control once an app is deployed.
Unsurprisingly, most enterprises have an incredibly diverse set of needs—that’s an almost guaranteed byproduct of having so many employees across so many different businesses. App47 covers those needs and then some, and AmerisourceBergen is a great example of the wide variety of features available to companies who use App47 as their EMM platform.
Check back next week! Then, we’ll wrap up and close out this series on mobility use cases. In the mean time, let us know your thoughts by contacting us directly through the comments, or via our Twitter feed @App47. We’d love to hear from you!
