It's been a while since I had a minute - I'm sure you've had those months too. At last I found a good excuse to write, as we migrate to a new mailing list platform and need to test that it works. Please bear with us if we've made a mistake with your subscription. Yes, our new software is open source. And all I'm spending on it is time. So my priority is deploying my sparkling CRM system for as little money as possible. But what are your CIO's software priorities and where are they putting your money?
Product development wins the race for budget and importance
Hot off the press is our software research with Arthur Goldstuck's company World Wide Worx. Perhaps you saw our comments on the cover of iWeek last month. We asked your CIO the questions and the winner is....more money is being thrown at using software to create new products for your company than any other category of software. Product development also ranks as one of the most important categories, alongside a few others. For example, furniture companies are spending more money on software to design new furniture than elsewhere.
Does this really mean we're more innovative?
Arthur reckons it's an indicator that software is not merely a tool. Rather it's adding more value to businesses and is becoming a means to achieve competitive advantage. Yet infrastructure, finance/accounting and operations software together make up more than 40% of the software budget. This tells me that the basics are still chewing up most of the resources.
HR software is important but cheap yet you're planning to spend more on it
I'm always intrigued by contrasts. Only 5% of your software budget is consumed by HR software, yet it is one of the most important categories. Maybe your HR platforms are in place, or annual costs are low? Or maybe you've had the luxury of negotiating down the price because it's a competitive space? HR and knowledge management are the only categories you plan to spend more money on in future, so I guess the HR software vendors have cottoned onto the idea that they could be charging more....or you're putting your money where your mouth is.
Showing posts with label software trends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software trends. Show all posts
Monday, August 4, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Future According to You
I'm planning to write a series of white papers about local software matters this year. First I was undecided on the first topic, now I'm not sure. It's a toss up between software innovation and software trends.
Of white papers and dithering
As the end of March deadline for our own Leapfrog Award draws nearer and I dust off my power suit to attend the TT100 awards, my thoughts are turning to innovation. But we're wrapping up interviews for our local software research, I can't wait to chair the IT confidence panel discussion again in March, and I have a press deadline on local software for Monday. So local trends are hovering in the ether too. For this article, local trends has won the flip of the coin.
The million dollar question
We asked CIO's a particularly spicy question in our software survey this time: "What do you think the 3 most important software trends will be in the next 5 years?" And we got some VERY interesting answers. Better yet, we got some great conversations started on the way the software word is heading and how this impacts local companies. Many of the responses confirmed our own predictions about local software trends (see www.nfold.com/5trends.html).
Top Trends
But there are some new trends emerging that we also think will be big. And our local CIOs seem to agree, with 100% of the responses agreeing mentioning one of our original trends or the following ones we think are emerging.
Convergence - by this we mean not only more functionality available in fewer software systems, but also fewer devices delivering more useful features. And communication is becoming unified too.
Integration - as technology to integrate becomes cheaper and interfaces between systems become more standard, the dream of keeping data where it belongs and delivering it to where it's needed becomes more achievable.
Configurability - software has become more modular and can now deliver off-the-shelf what used to require custom development. It has also become more aligned to business processes rather than forcing customers to adapt to its own features. The race for features is over.
Mobility - with widespread adoption of mobile phones that have become ever more like mini-computers, software features are now delivered to the palm more easily. Already calendaring, messaging and collaboration are at our fingertips. Other features are following fast.
Surprise!
Less popular, but equally interesting, were some more trends we think worth watching:
Voice over IP - it's hard to argue with free communication over existing data networks that are becoming cheaper to grow.
New Interfaces - will voice and touch replace the keyboard & mouse?
Social Networking - the way we communicate is evolving, and could transform the workplace.
Clean Green
Yet another email in my inbox, with the catchy title "shed your load...", is a call for papers from ITWeb for its GreenIT summit. This is a new one on me and was not mentioned by any of our CIOs in the survey so far. But I can see how online meeting software can cut down on the need to travel and burn up fossil fuels. And shifts in behaviour mean that people are more ready now than ever for the idea of a virtual office. Imagine how working from home could impact on your lifestyle and those traffic jams in Jozie! Telecommuting is the way to go.
Of white papers and dithering
As the end of March deadline for our own Leapfrog Award draws nearer and I dust off my power suit to attend the TT100 awards, my thoughts are turning to innovation. But we're wrapping up interviews for our local software research, I can't wait to chair the IT confidence panel discussion again in March, and I have a press deadline on local software for Monday. So local trends are hovering in the ether too. For this article, local trends has won the flip of the coin.
The million dollar question
We asked CIO's a particularly spicy question in our software survey this time: "What do you think the 3 most important software trends will be in the next 5 years?" And we got some VERY interesting answers. Better yet, we got some great conversations started on the way the software word is heading and how this impacts local companies. Many of the responses confirmed our own predictions about local software trends (see www.nfold.com/5trends.html).
Top Trends
But there are some new trends emerging that we also think will be big. And our local CIOs seem to agree, with 100% of the responses agreeing mentioning one of our original trends or the following ones we think are emerging.
Convergence - by this we mean not only more functionality available in fewer software systems, but also fewer devices delivering more useful features. And communication is becoming unified too.
Integration - as technology to integrate becomes cheaper and interfaces between systems become more standard, the dream of keeping data where it belongs and delivering it to where it's needed becomes more achievable.
Configurability - software has become more modular and can now deliver off-the-shelf what used to require custom development. It has also become more aligned to business processes rather than forcing customers to adapt to its own features. The race for features is over.
Mobility - with widespread adoption of mobile phones that have become ever more like mini-computers, software features are now delivered to the palm more easily. Already calendaring, messaging and collaboration are at our fingertips. Other features are following fast.
Surprise!
Less popular, but equally interesting, were some more trends we think worth watching:
Voice over IP - it's hard to argue with free communication over existing data networks that are becoming cheaper to grow.
New Interfaces - will voice and touch replace the keyboard & mouse?
Social Networking - the way we communicate is evolving, and could transform the workplace.
Clean Green
Yet another email in my inbox, with the catchy title "shed your load...", is a call for papers from ITWeb for its GreenIT summit. This is a new one on me and was not mentioned by any of our CIOs in the survey so far. But I can see how online meeting software can cut down on the need to travel and burn up fossil fuels. And shifts in behaviour mean that people are more ready now than ever for the idea of a virtual office. Imagine how working from home could impact on your lifestyle and those traffic jams in Jozie! Telecommuting is the way to go.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Software in your Stocking
As a busy year draws to a close, everyone's thoughts seem to be turning to the holidays. So what software should you ask Santa to put in your stocking?
I'm sure software vendors are smiling. Budgets are now becoming available to buy the latest greatest software. Let's face it there's lots of super duper new software about and the old software dogs have many new tricks up their sleeves. My fellow software junkies and I would love to play with all the new toys about, but the last thing the world really needs is more software.
Are companies using what they have to full potential? I would argue that more can be done with what we already have in place. So rather than considering what new software to buy, perhaps CIO's should think about existing features available in the software they have already implemented. They are likely to find that quicker and cheaper results will follow, that could have a huge impact on their company performance.
Just as we only use 3% of our brains, we leverage a fraction of the potential that our enterprise software offers. It's time to start working smarter. A good way to begin is to identify the constraints in your company. Is there duplication of effort? Are there manually intensive processes? Where could you still cut costs or improve efficiencies? Is there a gap in the market your competitors have overlooked? Then re-look at software already being used in your business to see whether features exist or can be configured to meet your needs.
Why re-invent the wheel when it's already turning? Your wagon may have a steam engine hiding under the hood if only you would look.
I'm sure software vendors are smiling. Budgets are now becoming available to buy the latest greatest software. Let's face it there's lots of super duper new software about and the old software dogs have many new tricks up their sleeves. My fellow software junkies and I would love to play with all the new toys about, but the last thing the world really needs is more software.
Are companies using what they have to full potential? I would argue that more can be done with what we already have in place. So rather than considering what new software to buy, perhaps CIO's should think about existing features available in the software they have already implemented. They are likely to find that quicker and cheaper results will follow, that could have a huge impact on their company performance.
Just as we only use 3% of our brains, we leverage a fraction of the potential that our enterprise software offers. It's time to start working smarter. A good way to begin is to identify the constraints in your company. Is there duplication of effort? Are there manually intensive processes? Where could you still cut costs or improve efficiencies? Is there a gap in the market your competitors have overlooked? Then re-look at software already being used in your business to see whether features exist or can be configured to meet your needs.
Why re-invent the wheel when it's already turning? Your wagon may have a steam engine hiding under the hood if only you would look.
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