Australian telco Telstra announced the Telstra Apps Marketplace for business customers looking for online apps such as Box and DocuSign. The apps featured on the Telstra Apps Marketplace, which will be gradually introduced in the coming months, will be for “small, medium and large businesses across a wide variety of industries”, says Brendan Donohoe, director of solution sales at Telstra Business.
The launch follows the release of research that estimates Australian SMBs are wasting $608 million per year due to their reliance on traditional paper-based tools.
Donohoe says that after launching Telstra’s first app marketplace T-Suite in 2008 “we listened to feedback and looked at a way we could improve the apps experience”.
“The new Telstra Apps Marketplace is a much more user-friendly platform for our customers, from discovering the apps, right through to buying and using them. For example, customers can now access all their apps from one single sign-on so there’s no need to remember multiple URLs and logins,” Donohoe says.
“The apps we are bringing to the Telstra Apps Marketplace undergo rigorous testing and review so we are getting the right apps that will be both a good strategic fit with our current catalogue of apps as well as our other core products and services. We also test the apps to ensure they are security compliant and easy to use.”
The Telstra Apps Marketplace launch focused on two business applications – Box and DocuSign. Telstra has a strategic investment in both companies, Donohoe says.
“[Box and DocuSign] are applicable to all sorts of businesses, in lots of different shapes, sizes and industries, but they are particularly relevant for businesses who need access to information when they are out of the office. Both apps also integrate with each other and other apps in our catalogue such as Microsoft Office 365 and Canvas,” Donohoe says.
“We’re looking to add more apps to the Telstra Apps Marketplace over the coming months, and early next year we’ll also migrate our current T-Suite apps and users over too,” Donohoe explains.