B2B, multiple customers, and 'similar apps' limitations?

Question

Hey Folks,
  I have an app that is currently distributed via the B2B store. We have another customer coming online and we also want to distribute to them via the B2B store. There are a couple of concerns though. First, the two seperate companies will have different connection settings and different branding. Second, the iOS app has server dependencies, so a client can not upgrade until their company's server is upgraded. And both customers have different testing cycles and lead times. So having a single B2B app isn't going to fit our needs well.
In the past we have worked around the issue for testing by working with our first customer directly. They have an IT staff and enrolled in the Enterprise program, so we can send them the code base and they can build and distribute it to their testing team. Our next company (and likely many of the others to follow) don't have nearly as robust IT staffs and won't be able to manage building and distributing the app internally.
Our thought then, was to create 2 seperate B2B apps for each customer. So we could publish a test version (tied to the server/version of their testing environment) and a production version. This gives us complete control over when each customer takes a new version of the iOS application into testing or production. It gives us the ability to ensure that their servers are on the correct version and that the environments are good to go. Along with managing the branding and other customer-specific aspects of the application.
The concern though, is that with even just a pair of customers, we will have 4 copies of our application that are almost identical. Will this run afoul of the 'similar apps' rule? Is there another option? Are there better ways? Anyone else run into something like this before?
Thanks,
-Rick

Answer 1

Hey Folks,
  I have an app that is currently distributed via the B2B store. We have another customer coming online and we also want to distribute to them via the B2B store. There are a couple of concerns though. First, the two seperate companies will have different connection settings and different branding. Second, the iOS app has server dependencies, so a client can not upgrade until their company's server is upgraded. And both customers have different testing cycles and lead times. So having a single B2B app isn't going to fit our needs well.
In the past we have worked around the issue for testing by working with our first customer directly. They have an IT staff and enrolled in the Enterprise program, so we can send them the code base and they can build and distribute it to their testing team. Our next company (and likely many of the others to follow) don't have nearly as robust IT staffs and won't be able to manage building and distributing the app internally.
Our thought then, was to create 2 seperate B2B apps for each customer. So we could publish a test version (tied to the server/version of their testing environment) and a production version. This gives us complete control over when each customer takes a new version of the iOS application into testing or production. It gives us the ability to ensure that their servers are on the correct version and that the environments are good to go. Along with managing the branding and other customer-specific aspects of the application.
The concern though, is that with even just a pair of customers, we will have 4 copies of our application that are almost identical. Will this run afoul of the 'similar apps' rule? Is there another option? Are there better ways? Anyone else run into something like this before?
Thanks,
-Rick