Ok, so maybe that’s a stretch. Of course almost all successful app businesses involve a tremendous amount of effort. However, in the enterprise market today there are thousands of apps that have yet to be built and you don’t need to look too far or think too hard to identify a process that is long overdue for a makeover.
That’s not to say we haven’t come a long way. I’ve been on the AppExchange team for over 5 years now and it’s crazy for me to think that when I started I was still faxing in expense reports, building performance reviews in powerpoint, and sharing spreadsheets over email to “collaborate”. Today, there are apps to solve all of these challenges. It’s also interesting to think about how our own inventory of apps has evolved. What started off as a collection of dashboards and add-ons for sales on the AppExchange has now grown into a fully stocked enterprise marketplace with apps for supply chain management, accounting, recruiting and more.
But what’s the next big category? How can YOU build the next big app for the enterprise? My advice is to not try too hard. You don’t need to rack your brain to invent a new process from scratch. Think about existing processes you do day-in and day-out that could be significantly better with small tweaks. Or, think about your industry expertise and how you can apply that to drive a more powerful experience in the cloud. Instagram didn’t invent photo sharing, they just made it more awesome. Work.com didn’t scrap performance reports, it made them more engaging and as a result, more valuable.
In all scenarios, you want to think about how you can deliver a connected app experience. How can you remove friction to keep a process moving from department to department? How can you get people to collaborate in new ways? How can people access this data on the go, on any device? To compete in today’s market, it’s not enough to just be cloud, you need to think about how your app is connecting your customers to the data and people they need the most.
We’ve created this blog to share perspectives on the enterprise app market with you. We’ve learned a lot since we launched the AppExchange in 2006 but the enterprise app revolution is much bigger than us. We’ll not only bring in experts from our technical and marketing teams but also partners, customers and investors to share best practices and thoughts on current trends.
The enterprise opportunity is yours for the taking and we want to help you build the next killer app for business. Together as a community, we’ll make delivering enterprise apps effortless.