The Salesforce AppExchange officially launched in 2006 and permanently changed the landscape of enterprise app development and discovery. Today there are dozens of enterprise app marketplaces. Let’s explore not only the original, but five of the most established marketplaces to come in its wake.
1. AppExchange
Celebrating 11 years, AppExchange has remained far and away the largest and most successful marketplace of its kind. On the tenth anniversary of the AppExchange launch, Ron Miller of TechCrunch wrote that Salesforce’s novel idea “revolutionized software distribution,” noting that it came well before Apple’s flagship app store. Miller also argued that AppExchange popularized the idea of creating an open platform that other companies built apps for and businesses around. Further, industry analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe added that AppExchange spearheaded the success of “the cloud model” and SaaS, which had struggled to gain traction prior to Salesforce’s breakthrough idea. By opening up the platform to 3rd-party developers, “the number of applications just exploded.”
Some of those 3rd-party developers, such as Jeremy Roche, founder of FinancialForce, initially faced ridicule for building their software and businesses on another company’s platform. However, Roche’s company is now a leading cloud ERP provider, and hundreds of other companies have shared in his success. In May, 2017, Salesforce announced a $100 million fund to further stimulate development on the AppExchange.
Today, the AppExchange has over 3,000 enterprise apps and more than 5 million installs. It also has more than 50,000 customer reviews to help guide users to the best enterprise app for their business. Nearly 90 percent of the Fortune 100 have already installed apps from the AppExchange.
Along with the usual advanced search filters, such as price, category and customer rating, the robust AppExchange interface allows you to filter by mobile device, Salesforce platform, collection, industry and language. Plus, Salesforce will be releasing an much-anticipated overhaul this summer to provide better listings for partners and better shopping experiences for customers. In addition to apps, you can also find a large selection of consulting partners in the marketplace, both Product Development Organizations for commercial app development and Systems Integrators.
2. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is the fastest growing enterprise SaaS company with over $1 billion in revenue. The ServiceNow Store features more than 350 enterprise apps built on the ServiceNow platform by
by 3rd party ISVs, solution providers, system integrators and service providers. The store features both paid and free cloud-native enterprise apps and integrations. You can search them by category, such as service management, or industry, such as manufacturing. ServiceNow certifies each app in the store to ensure that it meets their standards for content, security, performance, compatibility, installation, integration and documentation.
3. Microsoft Partner Network
Microsoft has three app marketplaces for their partners to choose from: AppSource, Office Store and Windows Store. However, AppSource is their only app marketplace clearly geared toward enterprises. Microsoft describes AppSource as “the premier destination” for top apps built for Microsoft Dynamics (a leading ERP platform), Office, Power BI (a suite of business analytics tools) and Azure. Apps, add-ins and extensions found on AppSource are either built by Microsoft or their partners. AppSource allows you to try out apps before you buy them, and Microsoft has a program for helping enterprises configure and provision apps for their business.
Interesting observations from Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Worldwide June 2017:
While Microsoft Azure is an enterprise-ready platform, Gartner clients report that the service experience feels less enterprise-ready than they expected, given Microsoft’s long history as an enterprise vendor. Customers cite issues with technical support, documentation, training and breadth of the ISV partner ecosystem. Microsoft is actively addressing these issues and has made significant improvements over the last year. However, the disorganized and inexperienced ecosystem of managed and professional service partners makes it challenging for customers to obtain expertise and mitigate risks, resulting in greater reluctance to deploy production applications or conduct data center migrations.
4. Oracle Partner Network
Companies that join the Oracle Partner Network (OPN) can list their apps and services on the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, which launched in the Fall of 2013. The listings are divided into applications and services. There are three main categories of apps:
- Applications (SaaS) – This category includes Sales Cloud apps, Marketing Cloud apps, Service Cloud apps, and fifteen other types.
- Platform (PaaS) – This category includes Business Intelligence Cloud apps, Database Cloud apps, and six other types.
- Infrastructure (IaaS) – This category includes Compute Cloud apps and three other types.
The Services section of the marketplace gives users access to services such as consulting and training provided by Oracle partners, organized by industry and region.
5. Marketo LaunchPoint
Marketo is a leading marketing automation platform. Marketo LaunchPoint is their app marketplace, which describes itself as “the most complete ecosystem of marketing solutions.” The marketplace offers hundreds of primarily marketing-related apps across eleven categories, such as content marketing, mobile marketing and video marketing. They also categorize their marketplace by platform: CMS, CRM, eCommerce and Integration. In addition to their marketplace of apps, LaunchPoint also lets you explore and connect with Marketo specialists.
6. Zendesk
Zendesk is a popular help desk and customer service platform. Their app marketplace has over 500 apps, both free and paid, that extend their platform along a number of vectors, such as productivity and time tracking; IT and product management; and telephony and SMS. Popular apps include Pathfinder, Evernote for Zendesk and Google Play Reviews. The vast majority of apps are free. However, about two dozen are available on a “per agent, per month” plan. Still fewer are available on “per account, per month” plans and one-time payments.
The Verdict
We’ve now had a look at some of the best-known and widely-used enterprise app marketplaces. Each has its own strengths and weakness relative to its own unique market. However, AppExchange, the first of its kind, remains far and away the most active and impressive marketplace after more than a decade. This infographic does an excellent job of detailing the ROI of building an app on the Salesforce platform.
IDC, the premier global market intelligence firm, recently conducted a study of Salesforce customers that shows that businesses who are driving innovation with Salesforce App Cloud are achieving 478% five-year ROI, releasing new apps in 59% less time, and increasing revenues an average of $55,000 per 100 users, letting them break even in just seven months.
The business case is proven – now is the time expand your market to the AppExchange.
CodeScience offers the expertise to supercharge your AppExchange strategy. Learn more at www.codescience.com/services.
