There has been a great deal written in the past few days about sexiness or lack thereof of enterprise software, in other words, software for businesses of what sort or another. The whole brouhaha was started by Robert Scoble in his article Why Enterprise Software isn't Sexy. That's when the discussion began in earnest, with all the subtlety of "J'accuse!" My fellow Enterprise Irregulars were called out and they weighed in. You can take a look at a list of their articles here, courtesy of Jason Wood's The Ponderings of Woodrow. Scoble's main point is that there are not that many people on the blogosphere who write or read about business software, or more widely software that businesses use regularly. I guess it was actually Bill Gates who was complaining about it. OK, that's probably true. Enterprise software probably does not have a lot of sex appeal for the average guy. But how about for the people who are close to it, like the people who build it, buy it, use it everyday, run their business on it? Yes, if you take a random sample of people from a wide swath of society and put them on a patio for drinks and eats, you'll probably have a lot easier time starting a conversation about Facebook than about NetSuite. Even older people are inclined to ask about Facebook, as I experienced at the Thanksgiving table this year. A lengthy discussion about social software ensued, and I entered my two cents from a typical enterprise point of view, but my teenage daughter quickly grew impatient with my ramblings and jumped in. Her take is all about friends and human connections, and the things that humans alone seem to love, like music, art, etc. This is a microcosm of the entire discussion about the sexiness of enterprise software. Look, most people don't care what cuts the payroll check, or how the money gets electronically posted to their account. They only care that when they run the debit card at the grocery store they have enough to pay for whatevers in the cart. I don't blame them since they have no vested interest in payroll, other than the cash; however, there are two groups who do have a vested interest. The first is the person paying for the software. This person has people who help them manage the decision of how to cut payroll, with what software. God knows they don't take the task lightly either. The second group is the ones who use the payroll system every day. These two groups may not describe their interest in the software as sexy, but believe me they are passionate about it. They want the software to work for them and their constituents, the payees. They are very interested in the software, including, many times, the ease of use and the look and feel of the animal. But since they have a long term relationship with the software, theirs is more of a marriage than a one night stand. So they tend to think about not only the look and feel, but the character; the guts of it get a lot of attention. And one of the things they want to know, is will it last? Sexy, after all, is in the eye of the beholder. Well at any rate, that's my short take on this subject. By the way I have a Facebook account now. You are welcome to find me out there, Thomas Foydel. I even started a NetSuite group. There are not, however, any compromising photos, sexy or otherwise.
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