| I don't think the author understands the dynamics of the enterprise market. The companies mentioned in the article are definitely not the rule, and I don't see a trend here. I'm guessing that those companies don't have wide adoption across the largest of companies either. First, the person with the purse is not usually the end-user. Therefore, features, capabilities lists and slide decks are generally more valuable than product design. Second, the person with the purse is not usually the bringer of new tech. The decision-maker isn't usually the company's earlier adopter. Large companies select and condition for certain types of people to fit certain molds. That person typically has had, "pick your battles carefully" drilled into them, and they tend to avoid making unnecessary risks. Third, companies only begin to change when they're under pressure, and at that point, their internal software systems aren't usually their primary focus. Large companies only make big changes in software when they see others succeeding at it, when it's mandated, when the ROI is obvious, when the employees are uprising over it, or finally, when they want to seem the industry vanguard. Fourth, FUD still rules in the enterprise. It's much easier to fall back on the tried-and-true than to take a risk with uncertain results. And, if the tried-and-true comes from the 'best thinkers around' (e.g. the high-end academics and other big company employees), they're easily adopted. Try to see how hard it is to get a REST API adopted in the enterprise, and you'll understand. Fifth, enterprise procurement can be dominated by RFP processes that generally tends to favor big lists of things other than usability and openness. Sometimes it's who is the cheapest. Other times, it is who is most secure. Or, who is the most reliable. It's rarely which product is the most well-designed. Sixth, enterprises are _extremely_ process driven and have custom workflows for everything. The employees are very attached to those workflows. It usually takes a team of fast-talking consultants to piece together a Frankenstein monster system from available APIs to get those workflows to work. It's better to change the workflows at the beginning, but that rarely happens (then you have training issues, which is a whole other issue). We will only see better designed enterprise software when the small companies that are using them now become big companies and have that mindset written into their corporate principles list. |