企业移动应用的时尚进化

    大约一年前，克里斯·欧康纳与丹·麦克库辞去了在全球生物技术产业巨擘基因技术公司（Genentech）IT部门的安逸工作，创办了Taptera公司，专门为企业提供白标移动应用服务。此后，这家位于旧金山的初创公司已经推出了5款精巧的企业应用，包括一个会议室预定系统和一个员工通讯簿。他们的最新产品Serendipity将于本周发布，一旦客户出现在附近，这款应用程序就会向销售人员发出提醒。

    你可能从未听说过Taptera这个名字，但事实上，包括Taptera在内的很多初创公司，甚至还有很多大企业，都希望在用户友好型的企业移动应用市场里分一杯羹。随着越来越多的员工把个人的iPhone、iPad、安卓设备、以及其他消费电子设备带到办公室，具有前瞻性的公司终于开始行动起来，不但支持这些设备，而且为它们提供可以在这些平台上运行的创新型应用软件。欧康纳与麦克库在基因科技公司曾经开发了一些新潮有趣的iOS应用，例如帮助用户寻找会议室的软件“订房间”，以及名为“Peeps”的联系人名簿。他们的成功引起了苹果公司（Apple）的注意，并受苹果之邀前往芝加哥和加拿大，在消费电子产品活动上给企业的首席信息官们演讲。最终，他们两位离开了基因科技公司，创立了自己的应用软件企业。

    Taptera的首席执行官欧康纳表示，公司正在按计划开展工作，将于今年内开发至少15款应用，计划明年再开发30款。这些应用都在苹果的App Store免费供应，但是除非你们公司的IT部门（按照每位员工每台设备的标准）按月给Taptera付费，否则，这些应用对个人用户并不能发挥太大作用。企业付费后，员工们就能从类似SAP这样的后台系统访问数据，或者从客户关系管理平台Salesforce.com获得客户信息（碰巧这家网站是Taptera的投资方之一）。

    Taptera这样的公司究竟可以走多远尚未可知，但毫无疑问的是，它们至少能够风光地被那些急于在移动应用领域提高声望的大公司以高价收购，SAP就是一个例子。（欧康纳称，Taptera至今没有接到任何正式的收购意向。）Taptera虽然规模尚小，却代表着业界的一股洪流。

    许多企业软件领域的初创公司已经踏上开发移动应用之路，而不是被动地补充开发iOS或者安卓应用。马特·墨菲是风险投资公司凯鹏华盈（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）的合伙人（该公司不是Taptera的投资方），他也看到了这种迅猛的变化。凯鹏华盈公司有一个以iOS应用为中心的iFund项目，它在最初三年里只投资于消费者软件，但现在情况正在发生变化。

    “开一家企业应用公司是很时髦的事情，”墨菲说。“现在门槛降低了，因为人们越来越多地把自己的移动设备带到办公室使用，而且对设计的膜拜再次回流。” 墨菲的公司不久前投资给一家名为Apperian的移动应用管理提供商，他表示自己正在深入了解几家其它的企业应用初创公司，包括应用开发人员。

    About a year ago Chris O'Connor and Dan McCall left their cushy IT jobs at pharmaceutical powerhouse Genentech to launch Taptera, a company that specializes in building white-label mobile apps for the enterprise. Since then, the San Francisco-based startup has launched five sleek apps for businesses, including a meeting room reservation system and an employee directory. Their latest creation, Serendipity, is an app that notifies salespeople when customers are nearby, which the company is unveiling this week.

    You may not have heard of it, but Taptera is one of many startups -- and large enterprise players --hoping to tap into the demand for user-friendly mobile apps in the workplace. With employees bringing iPhones, iPads, Android devices and other consumer gadgets into the office, forward-thinking companies are finally starting to not only support these devices but also provide innovative apps to run on them. At Genentech, O'Connor and McCall developed sleek, playful iOS apps like Get A Room, a meeting room finder, and a contacts directory called Peeps. They were so successful that they caught Apple's (AAPL) attention—the iPhone maker invited them to speak to CIOs at customer events in Chicago and Canada. Eventually the duo left Genentech to start their own enterprise app-building business.

    O'Connor, CEO of Taptera, says the company is on track to develop upwards of 15 apps this year, with another 30 in the pipeline for next year. The apps are freely available on Apple's App Store but they won't do you much good unless your IT department cuts a monthly check (per user per app) to Taptera to connect data from back-end systems like SAP (SAP) or customer information from Salesforce.com (CRM), which happens to be an investor in the startup).

    It's not clear how big a company like Taptera can get. But they could definitely end up being an attractive acquisition for a larger company hoping to beef up its mobile apps cred—a la SAP. (O'Connor says there have been no official offers for the company to date). And while small, Taptera is part of a larger trend.

    Plenty of new enterprise software companies are starting on mobile, not just developing an iOS or Android app as an afterthought. Matt Murphy, a partner with venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (who is not an investor in Taptera) says he's also seeing the rapid shift. For the first three years, Kleiner Perkins' iOS apps-centric iFund only invested in consumer apps. But that's changing.

    "It's cool to build an enterprise company nowadays," says Murphy. "The walls are coming down because of BYOD [bring your own device] and there's a new appreciation for design." The firm recently invested in mobile app management provider Apperian and Murphy says he is eyeing several other startups--including app developers--in the enterprise space.