The target customers could be different in that the article refers to end users or common man while typical users of business applications are enterprises. But in these days where start ups crop by the day and competition is intense, enterprise applications have become prevelant especially software, customer management tools. The question that sprung in my mind was how can customers life be more simplified?
SaaS (Software as a Service):
For sure this is one buzz word in the industry. The software and hardware required for the business application is all managed and maintained by external vendor. But the adoption rate is very slow and the dependence on external boundaries for sensitive business data makes it less attractive for companies to go this route. Added to which is a total dependence on network which is not 100% reliable.
Seamless Software Upgrade:
Software once installed, seamlessly updates itself from a central repository owned by the provider of software. This process is executed over certain intervals. This model has been more receptive given that the user has more control over the software and when he updates it. But this model has been applied largely for upgrades only and not for a fresh install.
The challenge I would like to see here is to adapt this business model in a way that customers can install a product over the internet which some of the products do already, but also upgrade their products to not only dot.dot versions but a whole new product seamlessly without breaking existing functionality of the product. Some of the tools out there are getting better at doing this, for eg: NetBeans, Eclipse, XML Spy etc.. But for enterprise applications to get there it would probably take some effort from the vendors to adapt to this model.
