Simplicity is coming

Do what needs to be done and nothing more - keep it simple

       

Right now we are all being held hostage to multiple software platforms, operating systems, devices, internet service providers, major vendors, etc.

Enterprise systems are ending in larger and larger failures. How many headlines are we all seeing that are along the lines of “Company abandons implementation after $50 million”? Almost weekly I know.

To me the growing answer is complexity.

Major vendors have platforms that can do almost anything for anyone, which seems great. Customers love the idea of having a platform to transact all their daily business in a manner that reflects the way they do business.

It is this that is one of the core drivers of complexity. Not only is it very expensive to tailor a system to match your company, but it is even more expensive to update the system when new releases to the underlying software arise every 6 months or so.

In my day to day business I am asked to put my teams into providing Microsoft Excel solutions for problems that clients have which they should be able to solve using their enterprise solutions. I used to think this is ridiculous and try to talk client’s into dealing with their enterprise vendor, but now I am getting it. It is about simplicity.

There aren’t really that many people available to freelance for updates to enterprise software. They tend to be available through a few companies and hard to schedule when you want.

We are all being held hostage to a few. It is like the old fashioned guilds that used to deny the ability for anyone to work in their area unless they sanction it.

Time to strike back. Enough is enough.

First off – bite the bullet and change your company’s processes to match that of the major software. Hundreds of thousands of hours of collective wisdom have gone into the design of the off the shelf solutions. Stop thinking that your way is the only way and adapt to the collective wisdom instead.

Second – Instead of looking at solutions that take care of all problems remember that the more integrated a system the less stable and predictable it is. Try to find core solutions that take care of the major processes and workflows. Then integrate when and as is sensible over time. Get the minimum viable solution up first.

If you think that I am making this up and you provide software solutions – beware. I know of one major international listed company that has banned Microsoft Access databases in its company – why? Because they don’t have enough expertise to set up and maintain Access databases, especially if the developer has left.