When is an enterprise app not an enterprise app? When it’s not an app for the enterprise. Confused yet? Let’s clarify. Enterprise apps have been on a tear, helping organizations energize their mobile workforce and unlocking all kinds of productivity potential.
Now, there’s a new class of apps being built to benefit those enterprise organizations, but their not intended for use internally. They’re for vendors, re-sellers, contractors and similar partners who work with a company — and while they have the same potential energy as internal enterprise apps, they are also demanding that the appdev and app deployment industries take an unflinching look at security.
We’ve had several conversations lately about this burgeoning sector of enterprise app use. Companies want to equip employees with mobility, but also those third-party partners who help them get things done. The hurdle is that when most people think of app acquisition, they think of iTunes and Google Play. They have to figure out how to distribute their apps to all those partner tablets and smartphones, but they don’t want something obviously intended for a very specific enterprise function to be sitting visible on a common app store, inviting attempts at compromise.
The easy resolution? Abandon the idea altogether — and watch longingly as that potential productivity boost fades away. But it’s possible to find the middle ground of app management, including security and license compliance. People are building apps to make their business run better, they know they can’t be in a public app store because of compliance, licensing and security concerns.
The solution? A MAM-based approach. Clearly MDM won’t work; the enterprise doesn’t have rights to the contractors’ mobile devices. This isn’t to say that MDM is dead. On the contrary, it simply says the right tool for the right job in this case is MAM. Management at the app level, however, combined with distribution through your own app store, is giving companies the power to push out and control these apps with the security confirmation they need. It gives them the ability to authenticate users, track who is downloading, who is updating — all the vital aspects of app performance optimization.
Furthermore, the MAM-based approach means control of the app, the ability to turn off or even wipe the enterprise app on an individual’s device if there’s a misappropriation — the kind of security essential to any enterprise mobile app regardless of whether it’s used by employees or partners.
We’re following this facet of enterprise app evolution very closely, and are already working with organizations to see how effective the MAM-based approach works across very wide partner/vendor networks. Count on our sharing solid examples of its effectiveness in the near future.
