Tech Data Pushes Into Enterprise Mobile App Development Through Deal With InnoviMobile

Tech Data is looking to capitalize on a growing market opportunity in enterprise mobile app development.

The Florida-based distributor announced at its TechSelect conference in New Orleans that it has inked an exclusive agreement with InnoviMobile to offer enterprise application solutions and bundling options through its mobile solutions division as it calls app development an "untapped segment of the market for distribution."

Research firm IDC projects 35 percent of large enterprises will leverage mobile application development platforms to develop and deploy mobile apps across their organizations in 2015. It also forecasts the number of enterprise applications optimized for mobility to quadruple by 2016. IDC adds that IT organizations will dedicate at least 25 percent of their software budget to mobile application development, deployment, and management by 2017.

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Yvette Martinez-Wilson, Director of Carrier Relations and Services for Tech Data says the deal is Tech Data trying to get out ahead of the curve and capitalize on a market that is about to see a great amount of growth.

"In today's environment we see a lot of the mobile app developers more focused on the consumer end, however, there is a huge opportunity on the enterprise side," Martinez-Wilson told CRN. "There is a trend from an enterprise perspective that companies are looking at to help them with productivity, customer management and in some cases employee communication, so there are varying reasons why the enterprise is looking at mobile apps to get more and more device oriented and working on the go."

She notes that InnoviMobile was once a reseller in the channel, so the company has an understanding of how channel-dynamics work. The New Jersey-based company enable customers to host and manage mobile content in a secure private cloud.

"Mobility is definitely a critical thing today as more and more clients are moving into a more mobile environment," said Jamey Mellis, CEO of Software Solutions and Designs, Inc. a South Carolina-based Tech Data partner. "Having those mobile components to manage is very vital to us in the IT industry in being able to keep up with those devices, the data, security and so forth, so with Tech Data's lineup it adds an absolutely critical piece to the environment that we have to have. It's nice to have that one stop shop to be able to go and have all the parts and pieces that we need to be able to provide that total solution to the customer."

Through the agreement, Tech Data offers many services from InnovieMobile including starter app-development package in InnoviStart, a hosting service for apps that require cloud data storage in InnoviCloud, a subscription-based app maintenance agreement, and an on demand service that provides app developer tools.

"Mobile app development is certainly an opportunity we identified early on," Martinez-Wilson said. "As we went out and looked at that space and began to understand that market opportunity, it certainly began to translate into an opportunity for our resellers to not only help support their end-user requirements but also add an additional revenue stream for these types of opportunities."