Enterprise App Stores for Distribution-Led Businesses

Saurabh Verma is a CPG Domain Consultant with Tata Consultancy Services. He comes with over 6 years of rich industry experience in managing sales and key accounts for various manufacturing and CPG organizations across multiple geographies. This industry experience complements his current role in IT sector in exhibiting thought leadership in the field of sales and distribution. He has created innovative solution concepts in the field of sales force automation, trade promotion management, retail execution, distribution management and big data analytics. He has been involved in several consulting engagements with CPG clients. He is a Salesforce.com certified administrator and contributes to department's CPG initiatives on Salesforce.com platform. He is a certified business analyst from British Computer Society and a trained professional on SAP TPM. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Mr Ankit Chordia, CPG Digital Lead as well as his colleagues in the CPG practice, for their contributions to this paper. The world is increasingly becoming mobile. A growing number of people are embracing smart apps on their mobile devices to carry out daily activities related to their personal as well as professional lives. Many organizations recognize the potential of this trend towards increasing the productivity and effectiveness of their employees. This has resulted in several enterprise mobility initiatives, such as the building and implementation of Enterprise App Stores (EAS). An EAS serves the needs of employees as well as external business partners and customers, by providing an entire array of business and utility apps that make their lives easier. This white paper focuses on the need for the EAS in distribution-led businesses, not just from the perspective of enhancing internal operational productivity, but also in terms of enabling true collaboration with other stakeholders in the value chain, such as trade channel partners and customers. The paper also lists some of the key factors these organizations should consider while implementing an EAS.