We like to think (and a pretty consistent flow of user feedback suggests) that we’ve made it easy to stand up an app store. This, in turn, makes it easy for your people to download and install the mobile enterprise apps they need to become a mighty mobile workforce.
There’s a typical hurdle that you need to overcome, however, otherwise app store performance is going to hit a serious snag: fast, secure credentialing. If you have a staff of say 20 people, inviting them one email address at a time is no big deal. Above that number, and that approach is a certified productivity killer. If getting people access to the app store takes a painstaking, piecemeal migration of one user at a time, you increase the complexity level of your app store build exponentially and suffer serious delays in performance and ROI.
This is why, when we built our app store platform, we made sure AD/LDAP integration was baked in from the beginning.
Aside from being an obvious means of facilitating the app store’s usability, it allows for a level of ultra-precise access control. Admins can create specific user groups based on responsibility or field (e.g. sales, admin, HR), allowing them to access and download only the apps they need. Essentially, we’re ensuring ease of management within the app store thanks to ready cooperation with an organization’s existing AD/LDAP capability.
As app store and app lifecycle management advocates, we see fitting in to that existing enterprise ecosystem as imperative. Forcing an IT admin or dev opps person to wrangle troublesome (or worse, tiresome) app store management kills access to the advantages of mobile enterprise apps. If you can instead automate, simplify and streamline that process, you make enterprise mobile app access easy — the first step toward making enterprise mobile app use routine.
As we illustrated in our recent VPP infographic, IT administration can have its share of “hitting yourself in the head with a hammer” moments. Imagine looking at a spreadsheet with hundreds or thousands of names and thinking you had to set permissions and distribute app store invitations on a case-by-case basis. That kind of administrative hurdle will stop your organization’s app store in its tracks. AD/LDAP integration ensures that your app store becomes as much a part of your organizational fabric as any platform: email, virtual collaboration, time-tracking, lead nurturing, etc.
For anyone contemplating app store implementation for their company, but fearful that its potential user base is too big, breath easy . . . and start building!
