I’m here in Montgomery, Alabama on the air-strip. Our jetBlue flight (Austin to JFK) had an “unexpected” landing because of some computer problems. Exciting! I hear some Pizza Hut pizza is on the way: “we ordered 20 different pizzas.” And soon, we’ll be on another airplane up to NYC…yeah…in 4 hours.

While waiting — watching some Marine fighter jets (F-16s?) take off, interestingly enough — I started thinking about enterprise software. I’m the guy who read
Crossing the Chasm on the beach during our honeymoon, so what do you expect?

What is Enterprise Software?

While I enjoy a good snark-fest about “Enterprise Software,” the reality is that there is enterprise software and it does have meaning to people. Granted, it has meaning in the same way that the phrase “being American” has meaning: it’s not clear and concise, and the “definition” definitely isn’t the same across different groups, or even intra-groups.

Aspects of Enterprise Software

Here’s the list so far (it’s not ranked, in order, etc.):

• “Controlled collaboration.”
• Can 1 person be an “enterprise”?
• People working together.
• Controlling the public face/external interface.
• Executing to plan.
• Authority. Access. Authentication. Authorization.
• Uptime. Error-free. Transactional.
• Money. Profit. Relationship (with customer).
• Longevity. Growth. Investment. ROI.
• Careers. Employee. Boss. CEO. Board.
• Work with other software.
• Change and adapt to new business models.
• Cost little.
• Marketing: good PR from using the software.
• Knowledge transferable: users can be treated as cogs/easily replaceable/switch outable.
• Scales.
• Support from vendor: problems can be resolved or worked around quickly (less than 24 hours).
• Works with your hardware.
• Can be upgraded without loosing data, configuration, or needed functionality.
• Can move to other hardware.
• Usable by non-technical people.
• Keeps data and info in the desired walled-gardens. Prevent leaks.
• Does not help competition.
• Multi-user.
• Direct-sales.
• Fewer customers.
• Conforms to law, rules and regulations, compliance.
• Reports, statistics, and dashboards.
• Hierarchical thinking.

Consumer Software

Of course, the above makes you start thinking “what’s the opposite of enterprise software?” Consumer software:

• Desktop.
• 1 user. No Login. Open access.
• Install.
• Never upgrade.
• Same hardware forever.
• Download everything and anything.
• Parental control. V-Chip, AOL, Earthlink.
• DRM.
• …the customer’s activities and feature set are controlled and dictated by the vendor instead of the customer controlling and dictating to the vendor.
• High volume sales. Retail.
• Email, word processing, IM, web browsing, party planning, article/blog/etc. reading, movies.
• Law keeping/legal behavior not important.
• Programatic enforcement of law “nonexistent.” (Except DRM.)
• No historic reporting, reports, etc. needed.
• Customers have no organized “this is what we want” voice
  • Consumers take what they’re given.
  • Small/growing DIY trend that counters the above. How big is the DIY/Make generation/user base?
• (Recent/new) span multiple devices.