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Open Thread: What Can Enterprise Software Developers Learn from Consumer Apps?

Simon Mackie — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 19:00:27 +0000

In recent years, it seems that innovation in traditional “enterprise” collaboration tools has stagnated, while apps developed for the consumer/ SMB market are innovating at breakneck pace. As a result, we’re seeing more and more of those consumer tools finding their way into the workplace. Over on GigaOM Pro (subscription required), my latest Long View takes a look at some of the lessons that vendors of enterprise apps could learn from the vibrant and innovative consumer web apps market. Here’s a quick rundown of my five key takeaways:

Foster innovation through third parties. Innovation doesn’t have to come solely from within a company. By having open and documented APIs, a vendor can encourage third parties to build upon and enhance their products.
Release early; iterate often. The release cycles of traditional enterprise tools are too drawn out, which means that they’re not as nimble and able to respond to new techniques and technology.
Freemium works well. The freemium model is good, because it allows businesses to “try before they buy,” allowing them to see whether the tool will fit into their workflow before committing to the cost. It’s also useful for the vendor, as it helps to get their tool exposed to an audience who may not previously have considered it.
Ease of use matters. Some enterprise apps could be described as, well, a bit clunky, often requiring training to use. On the other hand, the consumer space is extremely competitive, and as a result, successful apps tend to be very well designed, with a great deal of care paid to making them usable.
Use social features to encourage adoption. Users can be resistant to fitting new tools or features into their workflow. By taking cues from the social features found in apps like Facebook, developers can encourage users to embrace new applications.

Those are the points I make in my GigaOM Pro article, but I’m curious to hear what you think: What could the developers of traditional “enterprise” software learn from the apps in the consumer/SMB space?

Photo courtesy Flickr user iboy_daniel, licensed under CC 2.0

Open Thread: What Non-tech Tools Do You Use?

Simon Mackie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:00:44 +0000

Here at WebWorkerDaily, we understandably spend rather a lot of our time talking about technology: The gadgets and software that enable web working. But what about the tools that many of us rely on every day that aren’t “tech”? For example, I still have a landline phone (although I use it increasingly infrequently), I couldn’t do without a notepad and pencils for jotting stuff down and doodling ideas, even though I have excellent note-taking apps on my iPhone and Macbook, and I have an old-fashioned filing cabinet right next to my desk, despite the fact that most of communication is now electronic. I’m curious as to what “old school” tools other web workers rely on. So, what “non-tech” tools do you use?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Are You Empowering Your Mobile Workforce?

Photo by stock.xchng user iprole

Open Thread: How's Your Personal Tech Spending?

Mike Gunderloy — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:00:00 +0000

As the larger economic picture continues to look dismal, the reverberations are being felt within the tech sector. As our parent blog GigaOM reports, the venture capital firms are starting to get antsy about whether Silicon Valley can continue business as usual. Apple and other tech stocks are way down, and layoffs are showing up in the industry as well (though there are layoffs in good times too, depending on who you work for).

And yet, when we asked how the economy was treating you web workers personally, the majority of respondents didn’t report a slowdown. I’m seeing the same pattern in other communities I’m a part of – Rails developers, for example, still seem upbeat on the prospect of more work.

But there’s another aspect to this: even if your revenues are staying high, what about your spending? The Washington Post reports that consumer spending is way down, and the holiday shopping season is shaping up to be a dismal one. Granted, there’s a big difference between running out to the department store to buy socks and ordering a new 30-inch monitor or copy of PhotoShop, but we wonder: are economic worries causing you to rein in your business spending? Have you postponed or cancelled planned improvements to your home office space? Working to get your gadget addiction under control? Or is it still “spending as usual” in your corner of the web worker economy?

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Open Thread: How's the Economy Treating You?

Mike Gunderloy — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:00:00 +0000

If you’ve been paying the slightest bit of attention to the news recently, you know that the US economy is, by some accounts, in dire shape. With the failure of high-profile firms, the rescue of others, and a $700 billion bailout wending its way through Congress, it’s understandable that many are feeling jittery about the future. An era of contracting credit and a tighter job market don’t seem like much fun.

At WWD, though, we’re focused on our own little niche of the economy: the web worker. Here, the picture may be slightly brighter. But there are several forces that affect us directly when things get tight:

Web workers can end up being viewed as easily-trimmed jobs, especially if they’re not in the office to exercise political clout.
But contractors may be in a good position, because contracting work out is often cheaper than hiring more full-time employees.
Tighter budgets may get more companies to consider telecommuting, as a way to save money on office space.

So how is all this playing out for you? Are you staying busy? Has the current economic news got you more worried than ever about your ability to continue as a web worker? Or have you found ways to turn the economic weakness to your advantage, by offering lower-cost services to your clients?

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Open Thread: What do You Want from a Cell Phone?

Mike Gunderloy — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:00:00 +0000

There are plenty of manufacturers and carriers out there who will be happy to tell you what you want from a phone. To hear them tell it, if you’re not carrying a device with a camera, a touchscreen, an internet browser, GPS, Bluetooth, and a fancy colorful operating system, you might as well be carting around a tin can and a long piece of string.

With the recent upgrades to the iPhone, and the imminent release of the first Google “Android” phone, the hype machine surrounding these devices has been cranked up to higher levels than ever. But while I’m sure there are focus groups and test devices involved in the process, no one ever asked me what I wanted in my cell phone. And I’ll bet they never asked you, either.

So, let’s remedy that. If you were designing your ideal cell phone from scratch, what would you put into it? And perhaps more importantly, what would you leave out? Have you found your ideal phone in the market, or are you still vainly hunting? And does the next generation of handsets look like it’s going to offer what you want?

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