Guest post by Chris Hazelton

As more mobile devices move into the enterprise, the door opens wider for mobile applications that power employees' day-to-day work. Interest in managing smartphones and tablets is growing rapidly, and as IT shops are overwhelmed managing the growing number of both corporate- and employee-liable devices, the next battle will be controlling enterprise apps.

Managing devices will keep employees in compliance, but managing apps will keep employees productive.

The enterprise app store is a critical tool for organizations to manage app deployment to an even greater degree. A private enterprise app store allows organizations to empower users with mobile apps just like a public mobile app store, but it also provides the means to manage, secure and track the success of an organization's mobile enterprise strategy.

The lifecycle of enterprise mobile software begins with the decision to build or buy mobile apps, but the process does not end there. IT must determine the best way to deliver the app to the users that need it most. Once the app is ready for deployment, IT could upload it to a public app store, but that does not solve the issue of making users aware of the app. A public app store is a channel for delivering software, but in a sea of literally a million apps, ensuring that employees download the correct app becomes a real issue. Most importantly, once a mobile app has been published in a public app store, IT cannot institute policies over the use of that app.

A private mobile app store--one that can be customized at the group or individual level--is both a channel for apps and a communication platform for IT to highlight key apps. Instead of telling employees to "go download the sales app," IT can deliver a clutter-free experience where users can discover the critical apps they need to do their jobs on the go, as well as a list of third-party apps that IT recommends.

With wide adoption of smartphones and growing demand for mobile tablets across industries, mobile devices alone will not provide a competitive advantage, but custom mobile software can. Organizations are looking to mobile apps to revolutionize the way they deliver their products and services to customers. However, companies that are building or buying custom mobile apps to meet their needs risk diluting the value of these apps if they publish them in a public app store. Competitors can, to some degree, inspect apps or infer their usage to gain competitive insight, negating a big advantage of custom apps. A private app store allows IT to act as a gatekeeper, limiting access to employees and keeping a company's mobile strategy private.

Enterprise app stores also make IT teams' lives easier. The on-board app store has proved to be a highly successful model because of its simplicity. Any corporate app store would require minimal training and very little interaction with a company's helpdesk. The enterprise app store model allows IT to ensure that all users are running the most up-to-date version--ensuring that employees are current on products, pricing and company priorities. In some corporate app-store offerings, IT can push end-user licensing agreements to employee-liable devices.

These app stores can also provide analytics for IT to justify and direct future investments--are employees downloading the apps, are they using them, do they find them helpful?

As budgets remain stagnant or are tightened, IT needs to push employees toward self-service models. The enterprise app store is the ultimate end-user portal, where IT can provide guidance on what types of apps are necessary, and a gentle reminder of which apps are permitted, as opposed to app blacklisting.

Is an enterprise app store the only way? No, but in terms of marketing apps to users and getting their buy-in, there is no better way. Companies can issue a device that is preloaded with apps, but that flies in the face of consumerization and may require IT to physically handle the device, an activity that does not scale cheaply. IT can push apps directly to users over the air, but installing an app on a device does not mean it will be used. An enterprise app store offers both fruit and vegetables: Users get the apps they need, and IT can also provide convenient apps that make employees' lives easier. App stores encourage users to buy into enterprise mobile apps, rather than having apps force-fed to them.

The enterprise mobile app store is not the answer to all of an IT team's needs, but it does solve many problems regarding how IT deploys apps, secures corporate data, pushes software updates and measures return on mobile investments. An enterprise app store is a channel, a walled garden (keeping people out, not in), a gentle reminder for updates and a feedback mechanism for IT. Enterprise mobile app stores are not the only way, but they are the best way to deliver mobile tools to employees to keep them secure, productive and happy.

Chris Hazelton leads 451 Research's Mobile and Wireless practice. His research focuses on the mobile device management and application development platform markets that target smartphones and tablets. He is primarily interested in the shift in computing from desktop to mobile operating systems.