Swimming in Apps & Opps

From the August 2010 Issue

It’s summertime, and it’s hot. So it only seems appropriate to be thinking about cooling off with a dip in the pool. The problem is that I can’t pull myself away from the Internet and all the applications that are now available for small businesses to run their business. All kidding aside, I’m not sure if you have noticed or not, but the Internet is swimming in applications for small businesses and stores from which to buy them.

Apple’s success with its app store has spurred lots of interest from large companies in creating “stores” to connect their primary product with other applications that could bring them more customers and/or revenue. There is an additional benefit to the large company in that small developers can build many more applications than they could ever hope to. They can watch and see which ones get traction and then more deeply integrate the functionality into their product. Smaller developers get a market and access to many more customers for their products and services. Best of all, customers are closer to the holy grail of customized software for their business.

In the old days, businesses had to buy software from a big retail chain. Software companies had to pay for the shelf space. Unfortunately for businesses, consumers outnumber us and, as such, shelf space is mostly dedicated to consumers and very little is for business. This meant that the shelf space was quite expensive. Small developers focused on a niche application or a vertical market were out of luck. The only ones that got to market were the ones that commanded a high enough price that they could afford a direct sales force. Even Intuit had to leverage its consumer products, Quicken and Turbo Tax, to gain shelf space for the business applications. The advent of the app stores changes everything.

As with most things, the consumer model is leading the way for businesses. The Apple App Store has more than 200,000 applications. There is literally something for everyone. I know I have downloaded dozens of apps for fun and productivity reasons. The kids always want to play hangman or something on the phone. Business applications exist on the app store, but they fail to provide any real benefit other than being mobile. And while this is extremely valuable, it does not advance the connectivity goals and needs that businesses have.

Businesses need data to be shared between applications. We want the sales order to turn into the invoice to turn into money. We are in the early stages of this development, and the folks at SalesForce are leading the charge.

SalesForce gets the credit for being the first major player to see the benefit to its customers of sharing the data. The company launched its AppExchange site several years before Apple’s App Store. They now have more than 1,000 applications that integrate with the customer relationship manager data that SalesForce is all about. These applications make SalesForce a better product. One example is EchoSign, which turns sales orders into signed contracts over the Internet. There is no paper involved, and everything is linked to the customer record in SalesForce. And SalesForce is just the beginning of this type of integration.