Like me, you've probably heard stories about deployments of rigid, formal, line-of-business (LOB) systems that fail to live up to the promised ROI.  Typically, companies make big investments in portals as interfaces to these LOB systems, but the portals suffer poor adoption.  The missing ingredient tends to be user experience.  Think of the perhaps apocryphal story about the placement of sidewalks at UC Irvine (Larry Wall Interviews and Articles) as opposed to what was observed at UC Berkeley (PeterMe.com).  Does the software put a wall up and (try to) force you to go a certain way or does it work the way you want to work? 

Addressing this is one of the key thrusts of Office Business Applications. That is, enable applications to be built around these line-of-business system deployments so people can work the way they want to.  Research and case studies have shown that once the line-of-business systems are extended to work in the interfaces that people use every day, the adoption goes way up (Microsoft Project Elixir). 

So, does your business software work your way? Tell us what you think.

- Chris