SAP is getting its app store act together, with the unveiling of a new App Center that brings together partner offerings for its entire catalog in the same place. The move gets what had become a growing problem with app store sprawl under control, as SAP's Steve Ache writes in a blog post:
In the first generation of the SAP App Center we focused on applications that were designed to run on SAP Cloud Platform. The SAP App Center developed into great resource for customers who were looking for applications to extend their digital core.
At the same time, SAP continued to run other marketplaces, particularly those that are associated with our cloud applications like – SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Analytics, Concur, SAP Ariba, and others. The marketplaces continued to grow, and we uncovered a problem. We had partners who developed applications that had to list and maintain their applications on multiple marketplaces. And we had customers who had to visit multiple SAP marketplaces to find what they were looking for.
SAP's first move was to consolidate the SuccessFactors app store into App Center last year. The latest iteration of App Center goes much further, bringing together all partner applications. There are now 1,405 applications in total on the site, the vast majority of which were developed by partners. It also features Ariba technology for payments, along with billing and provisioning capabilities.
Meanwhile, SAP Store will remain in place for software and services sold by SAP directly.
Analysis: One-Stop Shopping Makes Good Sense
It's good to see SAP recognize the problem that had formed due to multiple app stores, and the move to consolidate them is one that should especially please partners, who will benefit from greater visibility compared to what was possible in the previous siloed structure.
The combined store should also appeal to customers thanks to the improved navigation and buying experience—in particular the benefit to procurement of having purchasing, billing and partner vendor communications through a single portal.
It also represents an example of SAP living up to its pledge in recent years to become easier to work with on both a partner and customer front. That being said, the standard in enterprise app stores has long been set by Salesforce's AppExchange, which has been unified from the beginning and remained so through dozens of acquisitions. In that sense, SAP's new App Center is playing catchup, but it's still a welcome, if overdue move.
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