If you are serious about enterprise mobility than your company probably already has an enterprise app store.  Enterprise app stores are invaluable to corporations on many levels from convenience to safety.  They allow your IT department to keep a better handle on the apps that are being used and what is and isn’t working for the company.  Even if you think that you enterprise app store is running at top capacity there may still be components that it is missing.

First and foremost your enterprise app store should support all of the major mobile platforms.  Many companies are choosing a bring your own device policy leaving them with the issue of having to support three or more platforms for their mobile enterprise app.  If you are not supporting at least Apple, Android, and Blackberry you are leaving out a portion of your employees which will in turn have to download unapproved possibly dangerous third party apps.

Safety and access control features will aid in keep both your employees and your company’s private information safe.  Make sure that there is a secure log on and can only be accessed while on your secure network.  You could even institute a user driven access control list which would prevent employees from downloading apps that are not meant for their job at the company.

Something that is commonly overlooked is the ability to send push notifications.  The IT department should be able to use the push capabilities of the supported platforms to send notifications to users.  These notifications can alert employees of possible updates for their corporate apps.  This can be a valuable tool for making sure that all employees are using the newest version of the app.

Your enterprise app store should have measures in place to identify and prevent malicious apps.  This has been a major problem on one major platform, but it’s not just the public app stores that need to be worried.  Corporate app stores can still fall victim to malicious software from third party app or a disgruntled employee.  Your enterprise app store should be prepared to address and rectify any sign of a malicious app that could be harmful to devices and sensitive material.

Lastly you should have a clear and defined set of rules of which apps make it into your enterprise app store and how they get there.  There should be a published set of guidelines that clearly shows employees the acceptable policies for app approvable.  This also gives your company a chance to reassert policies and design guidelines of the corporate app store.

Enterprise app stores are only going to grow in popularity as the mobile age takes over.  As your company grows the need for a mobile app store will arise and you will want it perform at its top capacity.  If you already have an enterprise app store you will find that there are still holes to be filled.  Until there is an industry standard for enterprise app stores the only thing that corporations can do is work with the best possible mobile app developers and do their best to create the best mobile app store experience that is possible.