The Enterprise App Store Proves Instant Gratification is a Good Thing After All

Although only six percent of IT workers say their company has already adopted the enterprise app store concept, 25 percent say they are currently developing their own app stores. As employees become used to instantly accessing and downloading apps on their mobile devices, they want the same convenience for their desktops at work.

The enterprise app store can be a crucial driver for employee productivity. Under current circumstances, 72 percent of respondents to an Embarcadero Technologies survey said that waiting to search for, download and upgrade software significantly affected their productivity at work. Eighty-four percent of respondents said the ability to point, click and download software would be valuable, with half of survey participants rating the idea of an enterprise app solution as highly valuable or extremely valuable.

“Today's workers spend too much time in the antiquated method of acquiring software and installing it on their PCs and maintaining licenses,” explained Michael Swindell, Senior VP of Product Management and Product Marketing for Embarcadero. “These methods have to change to keep up with today's technologies. The growing trends of BYOD and the consumerization of IT are pushing the need for ‘iTunes-like’ app stores more than ever before.”

Although IT departments typically provide software for enterprise employees, 47 percent of respondents currently use alternative methods of acquiring their apps. Sixty-two percent of respondents have more than 16 applications on their desktop at work, and over half of IT workers say that they experience compatibility problems between PC software applications.

BYOD only complicates matters, as IT departments cope with downloading software for a wide variety of platforms.

An earlier report by Gartner (News - Alert) found that enterprise app stores offer a wider variety of applications, lower overhead costs and drive efficiencies through process automation. As such, the enterprise app store concept will reduce costs and allow employees to concentrate on the essentials of their jobs.

“The whole experience of PC software is widely out of sync with how today's workers want to interact with their software,” said Swindell. “We have all become familiar with the instantaneous process of accessing apps on our mobile phones and now, we want that on our desktop computers.”