Partnerpedia, a long-time developer of private-label
mobile-application marketplaces, entered the space under its own name at the
recent Gartner Symposium ITxpo 2011 in Orlando, with the unveiling of the
Partnerpedia Enterprise AppZone.
By 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile
application downloads from app stores each year, Gartner
predicted, in a new report released at the event during the week of October 16.
One dominated by consumers, apps and marketplaces are moving into the
enterprise—and the IT department.
“With enterprise app stores, the role of IT shifts from
that of a centralized planner to a market manager providing governance and
brokerage services to users and potentially an ecosystem to support
entrepreneurs,” Gartner said. “Enterprises should use a managed diversity
approach to focus on app store efforts and segment apps by risk and value.”
App
stores and marketplaces are one of the top
strategic technologies for 2012, the research
firm said, joining context-aware computing, media tablets, and big data,
among others.
Partnerpedia, whose booth welcomed a steady stream of
visitors, developed its Enterprise AppZone as a way to give IT the central
control the department craves, while providing business users with the
flexibility they are accustomed to in the world of mobility and tablets. Enterprise
AppZone also helps organizations deal with the frequent scenario that happens
when employees purchase their own device and use it for company business, and
then leave the organization and have proprietary apps housed on their
smartphone or tablet.
“Anytime there’s a new technology introduced to an
enterprise, IT’s first reaction is, ‘Security.’ That is valid. What have
changed now with mobile devices are the end-user’s expectations and
productivity is now a requirement. It can’t just be a security issue,” said Sam
Liu, vice president of marketing at Partnerpedia in an interview. “Executives
are saying to IT, ‘I need it. Figure it out.’”
With Enterprise AppZone, IT departments can publish a
corporate private app store. Everything in it is authorized by the IT
department but is separate from a user’s personal applications.
“There’s no training involved because consumers already
know how to use an app store,” Liu told Channel
Insider. “It’s all role-based.”
Applications within Enterprise AppZone can be expense
reports, product demos, price sheets, training materials, or other tools
relevant to entire organization or certain departments, Liu said. This allows
mobile professionals such as salespeople to have immediate access to materials
without the need for Internet. Scheduled to become available before year-end, Enterprise
AppZone can be divided by category, and can be searched, just like commercial
app stores. If employees leave the company, IT can end their rights, cutting
them off from the store and its apps, without affecting other areas of the
phone or tablet.
Enterprise AppZone also includes security features such
virus detection, monitoring, policy management, user/group access control, and
remote wipe. In addition, Enterprise AppZone includes an application
marketplace where IT can securely purchase and freely download pre-vetted
business apps. And the marketplace supports corporate procurement processes
such as volume and PO purchasing, and license management.
Pricing, which is not yet available, will be on a per-month,
per-user basis.
Smartphones and tablets may be only the beginning.
“There’s no reason you can’t use the same app that’s
self-service on laptops,” Liu told Channel
Insider.
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Cloud Computing 
