By M.R. Rangaswami, Sand Hill Group
The Enterprise 2.0 opportunity for software vendors is to seed the ground for the next era of software applications. Over the next 5 to 10 years, software that leverages the tenets of Enterprise 2.0 will let “a thousand flowers bloom.”
There are a variety of possible scenarios. What if a consumer packaged goods company could introduce products via podcasts? What if a retailer could corresponds with its customers via a RSS? What if Fortune 500 companies could tag all internal documents and create proprietary indexes for future document searches? What if vendors’ software upgrades could be incremental instead of a big bang, all-or-nothing scenario? What if a customer could integrate a legacy application with a new one using only a few keystrokes?
For enterprises, the advantages of Enterprise 2.0 software are numerous.
- Lightweight—Requiring minimal system and maintenance resources
- Easy to use—Simple interfaces will mean no user training is required
- Quick adoption—Company-wide rollouts can be provided via services or downloads
- Easy to integrate—Web services and open source code will ease integration
- Vendor accountability—On-demand and service-based apps keep vendors responsive
As leading-edge CIOs embrace the philosophies and potential of Enterprise 2.0, some software vendors struggle with how they will fit into this new world. The reality is that the benefits for software vendors are also compelling.
- Fast development—New development models such as co-creation and global development will improve go-to-market speed.
- Reduced capital investment—Open source, components and shorter development time translate to lower production costs.
- Shorter sales cycle—Self-service and try-and-buy models mean products prove themselves.
- Committed, satisfied customers—Better products and service-based pricing means customers remain loyal.
In Part 3 of this series, I will describe the implications of Enterprise 2.0 on the users of software, and on Workforce 2.0.
(Jump to the next post in this series.)
M.R. Rangaswami is co-founder of Sand Hill Group and founder of SandHill.com, a strategic online resource for software business executives. This piece first appeared as part of an op-ed on SandHill.com.
