Sonoma Claims First Ever Line-of-Business App For Windows 8 Tablet
Sonoma Partners has claimed that they are the first ones to make a Windows 8 app for an enterprise. Called the “Ultimate Beer Ranger” — this app was developed for the famous New Belgium brewery. The Colorado based brewery is the company behind many famous brews such as the Hoptober and Abbey. This app will be used by their sales representatives on Windows 8 tablets.
The sales reps are currently using their smartphones to pull the data from the main database even though they have a few iPads amongst them. Smartphones are right now easier for them to use. But this new app will change all that and give them fast and easy access to instant metrics about sales and volume and the basics like information about brews and images. There’s also a live tile that will show reps when their next appointment is.
The work for this app began with the release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview back in 2011 and the company had a prototype ready in about six weeks. For Sonoma Partners, this is definitely a first where they are going to be working to optimize an app for tablet usage using Windows 8 friendly tools.
The app’s claim as the first has not been verified officially but it is definitely the first of its kind to make any noise about developing a Windows 8 tablet app for the enterprise. Everything that we have seen so far have been apps designed for consumer use, which is of course the bigger market for individual developers but for larger companies, enterprise projects often mean much more money.
Sonoma Partners will display the app at the Convergence conference organized by Microsoft next week.