Tired of using the pencil and notepad approach, my wife downloaded a grocery list app from the Apple App Store for her iTouch.  I’m not sure she’s used it yet, and I have my doubts that it’ll make her shopping experience any easier, but it got me thinking: what if there was an app store for logistics software, where a transportation manager, for example, could browse through various applications (e.g., an appointment scheduling app, a widget for financial settlement), buy them online using a credit card, download them, run some quick installation wizards, and off they go, on the road to improved productivity and cost savings.

This is the future of software-as-a-service (SaaS), the next step in its evolution.

SaaS was supposed to help software vendors penetrate the small and midsize market, but the early adopters have mostly been large companies.  Yes, SaaS implementations are generally less complex and more affordable than implementing a solution in-house, but SaaS solutions still require weeks of implementation work.  An implementation measured in weeks or days is better than months, but the vision is to drive it down to hours.  No vendor is there yet, but a few are at least in the planning stages of how to get there.

This vision is not new or unique.  Salesforce.com, for example, launched its AppExchange a few years ago, where third-parties can develop applications on the Salesforce.com platform (just like third parties can develop apps for the iPhone).  AppExchange currently offers over 800 apps, although I didn’t see any useful ones for logistics.  Most of the apps at the Apple App Store are consumer oriented, but I did find one from FedEx to track packages.

FedEx Mobile for iPhone from Apple App Store

This “exchange” approach to software innovation is a departure from the traditional model, where all innovation comes from a single source, the software vendor.  In an exchange model, anyone with a great idea (and the technical knowhow) can develop an app that can serve as standalone solution or extend the capabilities of an existing solution.  The Logistics Viewpoints website, for example, is powered by WordPress, an open source software application.  Many of the site’s features are “plugins” developed by third parties and available for download for free in a Plugin Directory.

Of course, I don’t expect “app store” solutions to replace enterprise-strength applications anytime soon or ever.  And there are the usual concerns about security and governance.  But they could fill the void that currently exists between full-featured enterprise applications and the spreadsheets and fax machines that I wrote about yesterday.  I also think the app store concept is another example of solutions and business models that gain traction first in the consumer market and then work their way into the business realm (see “Facebook in Supply Chain Management” and “Video Game Technology Comes to WMS Market“).

“Think different.”  This is one of my favorite Apple ad campaigns from a few years ago, and it’s my advice to logistics software vendors and customers today: Think different when it comes to how you develop, sell, purchase, and deploy logistics software.