企業移動應用的時尚進化

????大約一年前，克里斯·歐康納與丹·麥克庫辭去了在全球生物技術產業巨擘基因技術公司（Genentech）IT部門的安逸工作，創辦了Taptera公司，專門為企業提供白標移動應用服務。此后，這家位于舊金山的初創公司已經推出了5款精巧的企業應用，包括一個會議室預定系統和一個員工通訊簿。他們的最新產品Serendipity將于本周發布，一旦客戶出現在附近，這款應用程序就會向銷售人員發出提醒。

????你可能從未聽說過Taptera這個名字，但事實上，包括Taptera在內的很多初創公司，甚至還有很多大企業，都希望在用戶友好型的企業移動應用市場里分一杯羹。隨著越來越多的員工把個人的iPhone、iPad、安卓設備、以及其他消費電子設備帶到辦公室，具有前瞻性的公司終于開始行動起來，不但支持這些設備，而且為它們提供可以在這些平臺上運行的創新型應用軟件。歐康納與麥克庫在基因科技公司曾經開發了一些新潮有趣的iOS應用，例如幫助用戶尋找會議室的軟件“訂房間”，以及名為“Peeps”的聯系人名簿。他們的成功引起了蘋果公司（Apple）的注意，并受蘋果之邀前往芝加哥和加拿大，在消費電子產品活動上給企業的首席信息官們演講。最終，他們兩位離開了基因科技公司，創立了自己的應用軟件企業。

????Taptera的首席執行官歐康納表示，公司正在按計劃開展工作，將于今年內開發至少15款應用，計劃明年再開發30款。這些應用都在蘋果的App Store免費供應，但是除非你們公司的IT部門（按照每位員工每臺設備的標準）按月給Taptera付費，否則，這些應用對個人用戶并不能發揮太大作用。企業付費后，員工們就能從類似SAP這樣的后臺系統訪問數據，或者從客戶關系管理平臺Salesforce.com獲得客戶信息（碰巧這家網站是Taptera的投資方之一）。

????Taptera這樣的公司究竟可以走多遠尚未可知，但毫無疑問的是，它們至少能夠風光地被那些急于在移動應用領域提高聲望的大公司以高價收購，SAP就是一個例子。（歐康納稱，Taptera至今沒有接到任何正式的收購意向。）Taptera雖然規模尚小，卻代表著業界的一股洪流。

????許多企業軟件領域的初創公司已經踏上開發移動應用之路，而不是被動地補充開發iOS或者安卓應用。馬特·墨菲是風險投資公司凱鵬華盈（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）的合伙人（該公司不是Taptera的投資方），他也看到了這種迅猛的變化。凱鵬華盈公司有一個以iOS應用為中心的iFund項目，它在最初三年里只投資于消費者軟件，但現在情況正在發生變化。

????“開一家企業應用公司是很時髦的事情，”墨菲說。“現在門檻降低了，因為人們越來越多地把自己的移動設備帶到辦公室使用，而且對設計的膜拜再次回流。” 墨菲的公司不久前投資給一家名為Apperian的移動應用管理提供商，他表示自己正在深入了解幾家其它的企業應用初創公司，包括應用開發人員。

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????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.