Enterprise software sucks.
Yes, this is a broad stroke. However, every piece of enterprise-level (that is, software that major corporations or institutions use, think Blackboard in colleges for example) I’ve recently encountered has been atrocious and painful to use. It’s astonishing that the businesses that make such poor examples of software are still in business with the absolute trash that is put out at an enterprise level.
Now, I understand that there are reasons for why this is. However, I can’t find a single good reason why it has to suck.
Reason as I see them: (I would love to hear your perspective on this if I’m missing something here)
- Big companies historically move slowly
- B2B purchases aren’t often ones of speed or convenience. They’re dreaded and painful.
- People dread new software
- Businessmen/women in corporations make “safe” purchases, not good purchases
- People who make purchase decisions often don’t understand software or its end uses
- Training people on new software is expensive and time-prohibitive
None of those reasons are good enough to put up with horrible software. There are new software companies popping up in the consumer world that moves 100x faster than anything in the enterprise realm. There IS better software out there. Yet, most institutions are stuck with the same crummy software that they’ve been using for ten years.
Most organizations ignore the better option and/or completely ignore updates that solve many problems. CSU, for example, is running an ancient version of Blackboard that I swear is built for IE6. Even Microsoft aborted IE6. There have been huge improvements to Blackboard since the version CSU runs.
There has got to be a better way to go about this software and circumvent these issues. Maybe it’s just too early. As my generation (and about 6-7 years my elder) start to become decision makers, better software will no longer be a hassle, but instead a necessity due to us being “digital natives”.
Anyway, I suppose there isn’t a good end here yet, just ramblings and notes for the future…