Cloud service marketplace and management company AppDirect is going mobile.
The company works with channel partners, such as large telecommunications companies, hosting providers and retailers, including Comcast, Deutsche Telecom, Rackspace and Staples. It then white labels app stores for them to offer apps to their business customers.
Previously those apps were only accessible via the Web, but now those capabilities are also being extended to mobile devices, it was announced on Thursday.
"Our founding vision was to make it really easy for businesses to find, buy and use all apps they need," Daniel Saks, co-founder and co-CEO of AppDirect, explained to me. And, initially, businesses used sophisticated software and paid for it on a recurring model. When they bought apps like Box and DocuSign, he said, they paid per month and "our \core platform facilitated that."
More recently, though, those same apps have been appearing on mobile devices, and people access them differently that way. You wouldn't necessarily buy Box on your phone, he said, but buy the free app in the App Store. That makes it harder for the IT administrator to manage.
And that is now where AppDirect's new mobile platform comes into play. It enables enterprises to easily access, manage and provision cloud apps across both the Web and mobile devices.
AppDirect does this by offering tools, such as single sign-on, which gives employers a single set of credentials that allow end users to access and manage the same application across Web and mobile versions.
There is also centralized provisioning, which allows end users to rely on a single, centralized dashboard to provision both web and mobile apps across their companies. And unified billing, so that end users can pay a single bill for multiple apps.
A major factor in this move by AppDirect was the rise in the bring your own device (BYOD) movement, in which employers install work related apps on their personal devices.
"There has been a shift in adoption patterns, and we started noticing that users want to use the apps they want," said Saks. "Our mobile platform merges the best of both worlds: allowing employees to find and buy the tools they want and need, while also giving their employers control over what they can access."
Founded in 2009, AppDirect white labels app stores for its channel partners, offering apps to their business customers.
For example, a business will go to Staples and, instead of buying Microsoft or Google apps on the shelf, will be able to select the apps they need, then offer them to employees to manage them all with a single password, Daniel Saks, co-founder and co-CEO of AppDirect, explained to me. Ultimately, this saves businesses both time and money, in that they will often get a discount, as it is cheaper to buy apps as part of a bundle.
AppDirect has seen a lot of growth in the past year, going from 12 to 20 million businesses worldwide, and expanding from 80 countries to 150. The number of business users grew by 200%, and app sales on the AppDirect Network have grown by more than 25% month over month. The company also doubled the size of its team to 150 employees.
The company has raised a total of $60 million in venture capital funding, most recently raising $35 million in April of this year.
(Image source: hongkiat.com)
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Where business can find, buy and manage web-based applications.
Our Business Application Network allows businesses to easily find the perfect software solution for their needs through our application marketplaces. Businesses can now benefit from one bill for all their applications and one portal to manage and use them. This allows greater integration, ease of use and security for application management.
The Story
We founded AppDirect in the summer of 2009 with a simple mission: improve the web-based enterprise experience. Our mission and enthusiasm attracted a leading team with over 55 years of collective on-demand e-commerce and software experience from HP, Oracle, Google, VMware, and Salesforce. In our first year, AppDirect grew into one of the largest independent software distribution channels through channel partners that share our vision and passion for web-based products.
Web-based software is better.
Web-based technology overcomes the barriers to entry that software companies face in the traditional packaged software market. This makes the software industry more competitive and businesses can now benefit from a greater range of products and services. It liberalizes software by allowing small businesses to access and afford enterprise grade solutions.
We make web-based software even better.
AppDirect promotes the ease of use, security and reach of web-based applications. Despite the growth in web-based applications over the past few years it remains difficult to find solutions and integrate them for unified management and use. We address this problem with our Application Marketplace, which makes it much easier for businesses to find and compare solutions. We also allow businesses to manage and use web-based software applications in a unified environment through our Business Application Manager.
