Software services over the web. If you follow enterprise software — and I suggest the rest of you if you skip this post — you’ll know there is a received wisdom. Companies will pay for software that arrives in a shrink-wrapped box; but not for the same service accessed over the web. The one is tangible; the other ethereal. And functionality doesn’t even come into it. This is one of the main reasons I dislike the enterprise software sector. So I was gratified to read the latest Stewart Alsop. He explains the political reasons why companies prefer to keep their software inhouse, but then predicts that more application services — such as web conferencing system Webex — will emerge. “The concept here–that renting software may be a smart idea when applications are good but not critical to the tech workings of corporations–isn’t widely accepted. But it makes sense to me, and I’m betting it will take hold.”
Alsop on Infotech – A Bet on a Dead Business Model [Fortune] [nickdenton.org]
