August 5, 2008 – 23:24
Everyone in the High-Tech industry in Israel knows the drill - every three or so years you need to choose a new company car. Either your leasing period expires or your switch companies (on your own volition, one would hope). Due the the complex Israeli taxation system, your limited to a small subset of cars which meet a specific price criteria. These days, you can choose between the following - Mazda 3, Ford Focus, Renault Megane and Toyota Corolla. The debates between the four different models can fuel endless lunches and never reach any resolution. Why? Because for each participant in the debate, the needs from the company car are different. How is this related to UI and/or to enterprise software? Allow me to demonstrate.
Renault Megane
The Renault Megane is an extremely comfortable car. Amazing inner space, smooth driving and the trunk is so big you can literally fit your house inside. However, it has quality issues - the electronic key card keeps dying on you, it does not accelerate very well and I even know a guy who’s megane just incinerated because of faulty wiring.
Translated into Enterprise Software: Even if everything else is ok - you simply can not compromise on quality. When your business depends on a piece of software, you can not afford for it to crash and burn.
Toyota Corolla
The Corolla is the most modern of the four. It looks like a real executive car, straight lines, contemporary design. And its smart! how smart? It has a robotic gear box which learns to anticipate your needs and switch gears for you before you even think of doing so. So cool! But here’s the problem - first of all, it takes time for the gear to learn to adapt to you. And then one day, your wife takes the car for some errands and the robotic gear totally goes out of whack. By the time it adapts to your wife’s driving (I am so not going to touch that one) you are back in the driving seat and the learning curve starts all over again.
Translated into Enterprise Software: You need your software to be flexible. Your business changes rapidly, and your software should be able to keep up.
Mazda 3
I’ve been driving the Mazda 3 for the last 4 years. Its a cool car. Its fast, it accelerates like you wouldn’t believe, it looks slick and the dashboard gives you the feel that you’re almost in a race car. The problems start when you (god knows why) have kids. The first one is ok. The second one - things get crowded back there. If you’re contemplating that third kid - forget about it. Just no room.
Translated into Enterprise Software: You need your software to scale as your business grows. What’s fine for the beginning is simply not enough when you become (hopefully) a multinational conglomerate.
Ford Focus
The Ford Focus has it all. Its a solid car. It performs well, it has excellend quality and lots of space. They even added a build in CD Player in the latest models (the extractable one was a gold mine for car-theives in the Ra’anana area). Everything you would expect from the vehicle which drives you and your loved ones. Only one teency weency problem - Its boring. The Focus is probably the most boring car on earth (maybe except for the Volvo). Just thinking of getting a ford focus makes me start to yawn incontrollably.
Translated into Enterprise Software: Most enterprise software is boring. It is simply not designed to be Cool. This was fine 10, 20, 35 years ago. But with today’s corporate workforce, who uses iGoogle and NetVibes, who stands in line to get an iPhone this is simply not enough.
Bottom Line
What do you think? I ordered the Ford Focus. I didn’t want to, but the other choices were just not good enough. Don’t get me wrong. I trust my Focus to get me where I need, safely and with comfort. I’m just not excited about it. Personally - I feel that this is the feeling a lot of our customers (in the enterprise market). Yes - they trust our software to run their business. But aren’t they entitled to be a little excited as well?
P.S.
Comparing any of these cars to known CRM/ERP vendors is totally in the readers eyes. I wouldn’t presume.
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