Nearly 80 percent of manufacturers to develop mobile apps this year

IDC Mfg. Insights, Framingham, Mass., has announced the availability of a new report, "Business Strategy: Looking Forward to the Corporate Application Store" (Doc #MI241960), that discusses the rising trend of using a corporate app store to manage the proliferation of mobile apps across manufacturing organizations.

While mobile is becoming a popular form factor for new applications being developed by manufacturers, the rise of mobile apps poses a number of challenges for managing them in the context of the IT environment. The new report explores strategies around corporate app stores in the context of an organization's mobile maturity.

Mobility in manufacturing is presenting a new challenge for IT organizations to create, deploy, and manage the rising tide of mobile apps throughout the company.

According to the report, the ideal corporate app store is independent of device and application source, is sanctioned, and meets governance and security requirements of the corporation. Current adoption rates for corporate app stores are less than 20 percent, although almost 80 percent of manufacturers are developing mobile applications, and at a more rapid rate than traditional applications.

The decision to open a corporate app store must factor in employees' willingness to use the app store, and supplying current, relevant mobile apps will be essential. IDC believes the ability to support rapid mobile application development through the use of "patterns of applications" will influence the success of the store.

IDC expects manufacturers to increase their adoption of corporate app stores in the next 12 to 18 months as they accelerate the delivery and quantity of mobile applications they provide to their employees and look for effective, secure ways to manage related processes.