121633 Resource 102363 102466 102466 1144099338393 1144187040799 Controlled The Marketability of Bad Software

The Buy Signals for software purchases have changed. Have you?

There was a time when business software users were reassured by bad software. Bad software necessarily had a huge foundation of support and related services. Word Processing and Spreadsheets could be made extremely complicated, to the point that professional training firms took hold. The software was just the tip of the iceberg for most firms. Once they purchased those licenses then they had to hire someone to train them, etc.. They also purchased books, seminars and consulting services. But instead of detracting from the software this micro economy took hold and actually reassured business buyers that the software was ok. They were not going to get stuck with something no one else had. To the contrary, the greater the micro economy was in size and noise volume, the more attractive the software. Since 2000 and the internet bubble burst, there has no worse sector of the economy than software training. At some point business owners, managers and users figured out that they really did not need all the special training anymore. They had gotten over the initial software hump and were learning to learn on their own. They also did not want to keep spending the big training dollars to learn the 90% of the application they were not using. The micro economy became a business buy signal for software though. When business people look around the marketplace they still have the same fear that they alone will purchase some software, sink a bunch of time into it and in six months find out that the vendor has gone under or been bought out. And no one wants to the only person in straight leg pants when everyone else in wearing bell bottoms, right?So business people continue to look for the same buy signals in the software marketplace. The problem is that with much of the new software there are no extensive training classes necessary. The software is largely self-explanatory. There may be services required to get up and running but with a one or two hour training session most customers will have no problem. If you visit a large bookstore you will not find a section on NetSuite, NetSuite implementation, or Salesforce.com for that matter. In fact you won't find a single book on either. On-demand software, like NetSuite and Salesforce, has a problem in this regard. They simply do not move in the same micro economy that so much of the software that was dropped on us in the 80s and 90s does. On-demand by its very definition does not require the legions to manage its installation and the esoteric skill set to keep it up and running. In turn there are no training classes for these types of technical specialists in on-demand software. There are no treatises on how to run it without going insane at the local bookstore; there are no magazines devoted to its complexity and 'hidden' features.So if the micro economy that you got used to seeing around the first iteration of business productivity and business management software disappears, what's left? Well, just you, your business and the software. Feels a little naked, huh? Don't worry, just remember that the micro economy didn't spring up because the software was great and we were all stupid. The micro economy of trainers, installers, troubleshooters and various hangers-on sprang up because the software was of dubious quality and poor craftsmanship. You're fine. Try on-demand software. It's as intelligent as you are.Update: Ryan Choi points out that there is a  "salesforce.com For Dummies. 10 application/xml false netsuite netsuite implementation on-demand software software complexity Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; T312461; YPC 3.0.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 tfoydel false true false false true 102363 blog blogsite/SightLines/web