Shopping 5.1 is here!

It is my pleasure to announce that the 5.1 version of Shopping, our Enterprise AppStore, is now available. The Shopping 5.0 version was a game-changer in the way it provided a consumer grade experience to users when they try to obtain desktop Apps, web Apps, virtualized Apps, file share privileges, AD group membership requests, hardware requests, and other IT service requests. This is something a typical consumer of IT service requests never had before. Shopping 5.1 takes an evolutionary approach in taking the game forward and provides a host of technological and usability upgrades to the already industry best solution.
If I were to divide the 5.1 release into themes, I will say there are three central themes to it – Security, Usability and Technical advancements.
Security – Shopping is now fully compliant with the Role Based Access Control in SCCM 2012. But how does it make Shopping more secure? To understand this, let’s first understand what Role based access control means to Config Manager 2012. RBAC provides Configuration Manager administrators an easy way to implement the security model that allows them to assign and manage administrative permissions by assigning which actions they are able to perform using security roles, which users and systems they can manage through collections, and which objects they can access using security scopes. As a solution that uses Config manager as its vehicle of delivery to install software on the applicant user’s machine, Shopping’s compatibility with the security protocol implemented by SCCM 12 is a natural fit. By adhering to the these rules, Shopping ensures that the SCCM Admins can continue to use RBAC based security rules to control access for a single and flexible model across the enterprise. In simpler words, by reducing one potentially moving part from your underlying SCCM implementation that Shopping leverages, Shopping enables your Org to finally move towards a “Single Pane of Glass” for software and service interactions between IT and the end user.
To get a sneak peek into the Shopping RBAC compatibility, please have a look at our quick video – Shopping 5.1 RBAC Compliance video
Another security enforcement is the new splash/welcome message, which comes in handy when you want to centrally enforce your corporate policies or make the user accept the terms and conditions, before the user can start using Shopping.
Usability – The full App Store experience can also now be had on the touch devices. Shopping 5.1, when run in its recommended resolution, is compatible with iPad, Surface Pro, and touch monitors running Windows.
Technical Advancements – Shopping has also made subtle, but significant changes to its search functionality. Search is at the heart of any consumer grade software solution. As the number of Apps in your enterprise App Store proliferate, finding those Apps quickly and accurately becomes even more important. Most of the advancements to the search functionality are under the skin. Shopping now uses industry leading search engine platform to provide faster, more accurate search results displayed in order of relevance, with keywords clearly highlighted. It’s really quick – For most search queries, you can expect a sub second response.
We also made your transition to a new Shopping version smoother – Two Shopping systems can now be run in parallel with the same SCCM and Active Directory installation. This helps you to setup a new Shopping version without disturbing existing Customer configuration. Given this new capability, new releases of the Shopping technology may be run in pilot alongside existing systems before migrating the users to the newer release and finally deprecating the previous version, all without the user population having any knowledge of the transition.
This is just the tip of the iceberg – We have myriad of other additions that make the Shopping 5.1 a must try product.
To learn more about the new features, please have a look at – Shopping 5.1 feature video
To learn more about Shopping, the enterprise app store from 1E, visit the Shopping Product Page at our website.