Why Building for the Enterprise Excites Me
A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to exchange a couple words with Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box at Startupday 2012. He was extremely quick witted, energetic, and spoke with immense passion. My short conversation with him was motivating and since I also find the enterprise to be interesting I thought I’d share some additions to Aaron’s thoughts:
Challenging the Status Quo
In the enterprise today there are various legacy applications in place but they’re not able to adapt to current technology advances. These legacy companies are so big that they’ve already invested in business processes based on the last decade of their existence. This makes it hard for them to disrupt themselves because they have a lot to lose due to their years of investment.
Entrepreneurs who are excited about the enterprise, like me, see this as a huge advantage to challenge the status quo by moving the needle in the direction of the current technology climate. By doing so we can bring innovation into the enterprise by leveraging technologies (like the cloud, etc) to deliver a much more richer experience.
Enterprise Software Experience Shouldn’t Lag Behind
It’s safe to assume that most employees go home and have a much different experience with technology than in their workplace. For example, most of these people come home and use Facebook.
If we develop better enterprise application with the end-user in mind then work productivity and efficiency drastically increase. Newer enterprise applications will now have the same seamless experience that is similar to applications they use outside the workplace such as Facebook. There is no longer a disconnect in the experience from outside the office versus inside the office.
At a high level this is critical because users will have the same level of expectations as technologies they already use.
On Premise Vs. The Cloud
Legacy systems in the enterprise have a history of having long release cycles which presents a challenge when adapting to evolving businesses needs. However, when delivering a solution through the cloud, releases and the ability to iterate can be much more frequent in a drastically shorter amount of time. Through this medium and having a customer centric approach to solving business problems- enterprise software can now reflect the ever changing needs of end users.
On premise software just doesn’t have the ability to do this. Yes, security, is a huge concern for the enterprise with the most common question being: is my data secure? But there are measures that are helping alleviate concerns in this area making this less of an issue. For one, this is as much as an importance to enterprises as it is to those who are delivering solutions for the enterprise through the cloud. Secondly, current Software as a Service (SaaS) companies have and regularly seek third-party certifications and audits. There are a series of standards and audits that each individual company goes through to ensure trust, compliancy, and adhere to best practices.
Box published an informative white paper to provide knowledge of their security measures they are taking to secure and ensure trust with their customers’ data.
Just to think that most people spend their time at work using software that is cumbersome and ultimately not built for them in mind is another factor why their is a shift occurring. As technologist it’s our duty to deliver a solution that solves real problems to help businesses become more efficient, make more money, or whatever else value proposition may be. The new wave of enterprise software should be developed by having a user-centered approach to solving problems that will drive the most value.
The enterprise space might not be exciting to you but I hope I’ve highlighted points that make it obvious that there is an immense opportunity on the horizon.
With all that said, what else could make enterprise software better?
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This post was published on October 18, 2012.