As part of the ongoing Tech Talk on “Rethinking Enterprise Software”, a few things I’ve been thinking about:
– We have to rethink the enterprise IT infrastructure as a whole for SMEs. This consists of the hardware (desktop and the server), the desktop interface and the software on the software. The Enterprise Software part which I’ve been analysing is part of the bigger whole, and cannot be seen in isolation.
– For most SMEs, the problem really is one of information flow. Given that I have a good product and that companies who I sell to will pay me money, the problem boils down to getting information of my product to the companies who need the product, and then internally, ensuring that I have an integrated system for managing information flow. To this end, a thought exercise which needs to be done: what is my ideal world for information flow? If there were no constraints, what information would I like on people’s desktops?
– With respect to the enterprise software architecture, there are 4 elements which constitue infrastructure: the Enterprise OS, a Visual Business Process definition environment, the Information Bus, and the Enterprise Information Portal. The final element are the Software Components which are developed on this platform by various companies close to the customers. I will elaborate on these elements in next week’s Tech Talk.
