Enterprise Software- Have Your Cake And Eat It To

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

-Steve Jobs 

Over the past few days a meme has emerged that describes Enterprise and business software as ugly.  Scoble has stirred a storm up with this post declaring “Enterprise Software isn’t Sexy”.  He is dead on the money.  Some posts even come back and say: “Damn Proud to Be Un-Sexy”.  The best headline comes from Ross Mayfield with “Enterprise Software Doesn’t Get You Laid, It Gets You Promoted“.  So what are my thoughts?

 

Enterprise Software Is UnSexy Because No Standard of Quality Exists

There is no standard for a good user experience in enterprise software.  Tell me what enterprise software user has a yardstick of quality to compare their experience against? They really don’t.  Notice I say user experience, not user interface.  I’m talking the whole enchilada: 

 

•  Purchasing- Forget this “we do not tell you our prices” garbage, and go through a whole sales routine.  I want the information in my face.  If you’re up front, they will call you as well, trust me. Salesforce does it right.
• Installing- Whether it is open source, an appliance, or on-demand most enterprise software is horrific to get started with.  Salesforce, Basecamp, and such are exempt from this.
• Using- People are used to garbage interfaces and will continue to be okay with garbage interfaces until somebody gives them something better.

Think about this: If the consumer side did not focus on usability, design, and the experience we would be stuck with tickers, flame animated GIFs, frames, midi music, and more.  I call on other companies developing for the enterprise to help raise the standard.  GTFO if you are “proud of being unsexy”.  

Collaboration and Consumerization Will  Bring Sexy Back To The Enterprise

Collaboration is the new essence of enterprise software.  For collaboration to work, the experience has to be good.  Try collaborating on ugly software, it won’t happen.  Too much is going on with collaboration for an ugly interface to be there.  Technologies like Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, RSS, and more are changing the Enterprise.  These technologies were built off of good interfaces.  There’s hope folks, there is hope.

Build For Users Not CIOs

I read this quote on twitter. It may be from Ross Mayfield or Jeremiah Owyang.  I’d like to credit the individual who came up with this, as it is perfect.  Here’s something that might remind you of the SATs:

Web 1.0 : Web 2.0 :: CIO Ruled Enterprise : User Ruled Enterprise

Think about it for a second. Web 1.0 was controlled by the few.  These few people called the shots on content and what went.  In web 2.0, we, the end user rule.  We make the content, we revolt, and we give you commentary.  In the enterprise, the CIO makes the decisions from his dark little tower for tens of thousands of individuals.  With Enterprise 2.0, the end users will tell the CIO what they want.  If it’s all about ROI, I bet you the CIO will see a better ROI from users who are using a system they love. 

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too 

Many say the Enterprise should focus on scalability, security, privacy, compliance,etc.  I 100% agree, this needs to be there.  Nick Carr has it right though with his logic of: amazon is beyond scaleable, secure,etc., but also is very easy to use.  There is no reason to bury our heads in the sand with a shit user interface because we hide behind “scalability” and “security”. You should have your cake and eat it too- Beautiful AND Scaleable software.  That my friends is our end goal at Publictivity.