5 reasons for having an enterprise app store

About 44% of IT executives in a new survey report they have internal enterprise app stores in place, but that may be about it. Organizations with app stores report they are better able to keep some control over application usage, as well as mitigate software expenditures.

Those are some of the findings of a new survey of 329 IT leaders, published by PMG Business Process Automation. The survey explored a range of IT business issues, from enterprise app stores to cloud to perceptions. The survey finds 25% of respondents have a functioning app store, and another 19% are considering one.

Of course, with enterprise apps, we're not talking about $1.99 games or comic book guides. Enterprise app stores are directories of productivity and industrial-scale apps such as purchase order generators or customer list managers.

Here are the five leading reasons for having an app stores, as found by the survey:

1. Increased control over application usage (72%): You have a central respository through which well-vetted applications or services can be delivered.
2. Reduced risk (65%):  There's less of a chance of someone procuring incompatible or unsupported software which could break a process or two.
3. Greater control over software expenditures (54%): Centralized purchasing of applications means more clout with vendors, and perhaps volume discounts.
4. Increased the value delivered by the application portfolio (53%): Applications are in the app store because they have been deemed essential to the business.
5. Decreased administration expenses (51%): With everything in one place, there's less of a need for IT professionals to be running around the enterprise trying to keep things up to date, or trying to figire out why a system crashed.

Of course, there's no guarantee users won't do end-runs around the app store to get something they feel they have to have.