A Software’s History Gives Great Insights
I’ve read a lot lately about the degree that a software system, whether it be ERP or PLM, makes more sense if it is designed for the industry served. This is especially relevant in manufacturing where process manufacturers (food, beverage, chemicals) deal with formulas and recipes and others (assemblers, fabricators) deal with bills of material.
I think it is more relevant to talk about what customer base originally drove the success of the package and then how it morphed to attempt to serve other industries. This software package history can also reveal extremely important considerations like the quality and experience of the consulting personnel.
Again, this is very true in the process industries where only a handful of packages are really designed for such companies from the ground up. That never stopped others from selling their software into this area but many companies found it very difficult to twist a bill of material into a formula.
Have you experienced trying to fit a round peg into a square hole? Do you have an experience to share implementing software? Certainly there are other important aspects to an implementation other than software? Share them!
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6 opinions for A Software’s History Gives Great Insights
Aditya Gholap
May 11, 2008 at 12:12 am
I sort of agree with what you have to say. Though im not a tool developer myself, i can get an idea of what you’re taking about. For example - i’ve been using a tool called Deskaway for a while now and i KNOW that its geared towards small businesses (mine is one) and i chose the tool because it was small business specific. What do you think a software’s history says about its people though?
Bob Turek
May 11, 2008 at 9:29 am
Aditya- thank you for commenting. I appreciate your viewpoint. Does Deskaway target any niches within the small business space? The people question is interesting- if a company can keep it’s developers and implementation consultants for awhile then two things can be said: they like the software and the results of the implementations AND those people have very deep experience implementing which will cut your time to implement down drastically. What do you think?
Aditya Gholap
May 14, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Yea i sort of agree — with respect to your first question, i think Deskaway targets small business owners as i said above. Implementation of downtime will come down for sure. I also think the product will have a stronger brand and that will translate into features being intertwined in a more relevant way. For example, Zoho has a ‘work is fun’ brand and most of their tools are reflecting it - Deskaway has an ‘intuitive’; superb interface led brand so their augmentations take that shape. An intriguing discussion on the topic! Maybe you should do an interview with such technopreneurs about the same topic. I know the Deskaway founder pretty well and i might also know someone at Zoho - would be great for your blog! I can get you in touch with them.
PS - you should put follow up comments via email as default. I could have never come back - i have you in my feed reader - thats the only reason i checked the post again. Default notifications keep the user more ‘hooked’ - and if someone commented - it MEANS that they are interested, right? Anyway - you’re doing a great job. Would love to carry on the conversation - and would love to help you out with the email interview or whatever!
Bob Turek
May 14, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Aditya- thanks again for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate your viewpoint. The branding is very intriguing. I wish I had more time to do interviews- right not I don’t. REALLY appreciate the default notify suggestion. My issue is that the company that runs these blogs formats the pages a certain way. I’ll see if they can default it. You should be asked to be included in future comments- did you have that option?
Aditya Gholap
May 15, 2008 at 11:55 am
I did have the option - just saying that there shouldn’t be an option. People should get notifications either way. Because they are taking time out to comment so it means they are likely to be interested in future threads! I have you on my feed anyway so i’ll be reading!
Bob Turek
May 15, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Aditya- I guess the option is b5media’s way of saying “thanks for commenting, oh by the way, would you care to receive an email every time this post is updated?” Because they handle all kinds of blogs- some are very highly commented on, this might mean a lot of emails that people don’t want. My blog is a relatively “low comment” one compared to some of the others. Hopefully, my readers do what you did. Any other ideas now that you know exactly how it works? I want to deal with this in a way that drives readers back (NOT drives them away). Thanks- and keep on commenting, I appreciate your views.
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