Apr 28
Enterprise catches up
Web 2.0 was a fluffy term to describe some recent, innovative approaches to web applications and services. While the 2.0 catchphrase makes us cringe, it’s good to see these advances creeping into the enterprise market, an area that can truly leverage the technology.
The enterprise software market, once the hotbed of innovation, is starting to catch up to the consumer Web, where people are becoming used to melding data from their desktop with services online. It’s a shift that could shake up the traditional enterprise-software model, experts predicted.
“Blogs and wikis are starting to move into businesses as a simpler and lightweight way to do collaboration,” said Anne Thomas Manes, an analyst at the Burton Group.
“With all new and interesting applications in the consumer space, I’m sure someone is going to figure out how to take those concepts and use them in business,” she added.
Excellent points regarding hosted applications:
Hosted business applications are conducive to a “try before you buy” approach, particularly for midsize and small companies.
Rather than spend $100,000 for on-premise software, a business customer can quickly sign up for a hosted application, like one from Salesforce.com, and pay on a monthly basis.
Because companies don’t have to make an initial investment, they don’t get caught up in the multimonth sales cycle typical of enterprise software, experts said.