Verticalware
I have changed roles, now I run a small industry architecture team, still involved with RFID but not directly. I am starting to blog again, but with the change in role, I now plan to focus on Industries in general.
I believe there is a new trend in the industry, enterprise software is evolving into what I call Verticalware.
More and more vendors differentiate themselves with verticalized offerings, demonstrating deep domain expertise. Technology vendors with horizontal capabilites showcase vertical scenarios and illustrate how their stuff can be used to put vertical solutions together. Customers connect with these vendors who address industry specific issues.
What does Web 2.0 mean to enterprise decision makers, are there any Web 2.0 trends that an operations manger need to be aware of and leverage? supply/demand, inventory/customer location, resource capacity/load mashups? what is 'Search' to an enterprise, is it a new interface pattern to get to information. We believe there is a move from Gen I (infrastructure) to Gen U (user), how does this translate to the enterprise, what is democratization of information and decision making
Are customers wary of running their business as dictated by their ERP systems? are they tired of 3+ year implementations and the vicious cycle of upgrades? are they ready to take charge? with the software and tools becoming more and more business-ready should these customers looking to compose their own apps? I believe 80% of the processes in an enterprise are commodity with no competitive differentiator whatsoever, does it still make sense to spend big $$ automating and implementing these processes in traditional ERP? why not self-service, why not use the business ready platforms and tools from vendors and do it yourself. What does this trend toward self-service mean to vendors?
What about Software as a Service (SaaS), I have a feeling in industries it means both software and service. In my previous life, I had lot of fun dreaming up online exchanges that not only provide core supply chain capabilities but also aggregated suppliers and buyers, provided product catalogs, ran auctions and group buys and provided analytics and insight. Of course these trends didnt really take off in 1999, 2000, but was this too early?
These are some high level ideas I plan to explore further, these all fit nicely into what I call Verticalware. comments?
