Many people think that the Enterprise software space is in the midst of a transformation. We are seeing a move away from heavy, complex and costly enterprise-class software to light weight, easy to use, and (much) cheaper online-delivered software. This shift has been building steam for quite some time now. You only need to look as far as the success of sites/products like SalesForce.com and NetSuite to see how beneficial this approach can be.
Some of the more tangible benefits:
- No IT infrastructure / maintenance / dependence / additional resources
- Access from anywhere / anytime
- The possibility of (cheaper) integration between systems through open industry standard protocols (RSS, SOAP, REST, etc.)
However, there are also some drawbacks that need to be addressed by each of these software providers as they come online and/or continue to develop their products:
- Security - If a company does not believe their data is secure, even the best sales person will never get them to sign-up.
- 24/7 Access - As witnessed by SalesForce.com's downtime back in January, when a widely used site like that goes down, users get really angry- and they aren't quiet about it.
- Customers - not technology - come first. We have seen advertisements that tout increased AJAX functionality, when much of the target market doesn't understand or care about this.
While these tangible benefits can certainly be compelling and the drawbacks will be addressed, we feel it is the intangible benefits of the new wave of online software that will prove to be the most interesting.
Currently taking the lead in developing new, more user friendly ways to get things done is the Consumer online software space. Witness how easy it is to add a link to Delicious, share a digital photo in Flickr, contact someone on MySpace or get a personal blog created at Blogger.com.
What do these online applications have in common?
- They are ridiculously easy to use. Some even sacrifice functionality in order to make the usability better.
- More and more, they provide open API's which allow other software to extend and compliment their features. Flickr users can include their photos on their Blog with very little effort.
- The software incorporates 'smart' user interface elements which allow users to do more within the context of a single 'page'.
These commonalities among the new generation of online applications give us great hope when looking towards the future of software. When taken in the context of the Enterprise, you can already see the evolution taking place. SalesForce users are, in general, diehard fans- making it nearly impossible for companies to switch to a SalesForce competitor. Why? Because the SalesForce software has a simple learning curve (quick user adoption) and allows users to do what they need to do with relative ease.
So why does all of this matter?
Because as we noted in our previous post, Web 2.0 and the Enterprise, software should not get in the way, it should help. Chances are if you're using enterprise software on a daily basis on the job, it took you way too long to learn how to use it and too much time to complete even simple tasks. As the focus of software developers continues to shift towards the end user, we can expect the tools we use on a daily basis to become much more friendly. No longer will it take you 10 minutes to add a contact into your billing system or 5 minutes to give a co-worker access to internal reports.
