Salesforce.com Launches Private AppExchange

In a move aimed at broadening the enterprise reach of its application marketplace, Salesforce.com on Thursday launched its Salesforce Private AppExchange. The new exchange lets IT organizations roll out their own apps, which can be accessed on mobile devices and Web-based clients.

Built on the foundation of its existing Salesforce AppExchange, the new private iteration lets enterprise customers build and distribute internally developed software that can be accessed via the single sign-on service the company announced earlier this month called Salesforce Identity. The private enterprise marketplace is designed to let IT organizations consolidate access to applications and give employees broader choices of tools that are on the common platform. 

"You can distribute any application, so it could be an app that's delivered by one of our ISVs that's listed on the AppExchange, or it could be an application that runs on another cloud service that doesn't have an integration point to the platform," explained Sara Varni, senior director of Salesforce.com's AppExchange.

Asked if the Private AppExchange requires pre-integration with other cloud services or application stores, Varni said, "It's really a mechanism to distribute applications to end users more so than where the application exists."

One key benefit of the Salesforce Private AppExchange is it will allow organizations to integrate Salesforce.com's Chatter enterprise social networking service into their apps, explained Constellation Research vice president and principal analyst Alan Lepofsky.

"Employees can now engage with their colleagues to discuss the applications, provide self-support, weed out the best apps, etc.," Lepofsky said. "This is more effective than accessing a generic public app store and having to fend for yourself to discover the best tools. Several social business vendors provide integrated application stores, but many are just catalogs and are lacking the social elements that Salesforce is looking to provide."

Users can move from the Private AppExchange to the Salesforce identity app launcher, enabling them to see what apps they have access to, Varni added. Any Salesforce customer that has access to the AppExchange via an enterprise license has rights to the private exchange, as well, she said. Those without enterprise licenses can provide access to the new private exchange and the new Salesforce Identity service for $5 per user, per month.

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/31/2013 at 1:21 PM