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The thing is ... very few companies do actually use all the complex configuration of said purchased software. Rather, they are stuck with it. And deal with it,

The thing is ... very few companies do actually use all the complex configuration of said purchased software. Rather, they are stuck with it. And deal with it, limiting the contact surface, until they cannot bear it anymore, and spend more to upgrade/get some consulting to have the solution reorganized for them. On one hand, you have purchase departments that are not the target users, and decide only based on paper reports, what to purchase. Losing the run from the start line. That's a given. On the other hand, you have those who prefer to outsource the understanding of their own workflow/tooling/business, that could leave them somehow unique and different, to some outside flexible product that claims to solve that (and that meets this and this requirement from that body & that set of laws), but still requires armies of consultants to make it work properly, although it does not cover really your use case, so you better adapt your way of work to what "they" say is good (got Agile anyone?). Why? Because regulations. Because market/business standards. Financial due diligences. And why would they not prefer that? They (anyone, we) do not care. We are not paid to care for that. Or rather, we get rapidly burnt for caring. That's like the entropy law for software & processes in enterprise in general. Oracle, for instance (but that's valid for so many, if not all, enterprise-targeted solutions), didn't sell itself based on technical merits, you know. Business are complicated, yes. And they get even more complicated because of people lacking of the courage to say fuck you to the salesman.

basseq 7y ago
> The thing is ... very few companies do actually use all the complex configuration of said purchased software. That's the point, though. Enterprise software is a superset (E) of all features that a large group of very diverse customers need. An individual customer has a need for a much smaller set of features (C). That enterprise software may very well be the best software that includes all those needed features: C ⊆ E There are niche providers, so a logical customer would select the software that meets all of their needs and as little else as possible. But there may not be a niche provider that meets that criteria. So as an individual customer, you may be stuck between an Enterprise software that meets all your needs, but is "more than you need" and a niche software that doesn't meet all your needs.
- Juliate 7y ago
  > That enterprise software may very well be the best software that includes all those needed features. How come you can't have something nice & even decently working for: pay, HR, vacation, expenses tracking? Or more, how is it possible that obviously unfit and malfunctioning solutions (for problems that have been known, solved and specified for years) are still on the market in 2019 in companies that pretend to be serious about software?
  - nradov 7y ago
    Pay, HR, and expense tracking are extremely complex areas due to federal / state / local labor laws, collective bargaining agreements, and individual organizational policies. Any application which deals with all those complexities will inevitably be full of defects and usability problems. There is no solution, it's simply reality.
    - afarrell 7y ago
      Do the users of the software need to know about all that complexity? If the answer is: "they definitely do", then you are right. There's no way around it. If the answer is: "No, they only need to know about 4% of it. The rest can be automated and hidden away." then the problem is that people aren't incentivised to pay the cost of building that software. There is a broad solution: Hire engineers, UX designers, and product managers to spend time to solve those problems and to manage that complexity. The problem is that this requires the time and effort of skilled people and that requires a sustained commitment of money. So that requires someone with decision-making power to allocate money from a budget of limited resources. If the additional UI improvement helps win sufficient revenue, then its worth it. But if the additional UI improvement doesn't persuade decision-makers or only helps 1 client account, then it is not.
      - nradov 7y ago
        In this area of enterprise software, the users absolutely need to know about the complexity for compliance reasons. Any errors can potentially result in criminal charges, civil liability, or at least bad PR and employee morale. Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. For example, employers sometimes receive court orders requiring them to periodically seize a certain amount from a particular employee's pay in order to satisfy a legal judgment. And in some cases there can actually be multiple such orders that would effectively reduce the employee's take home pay below zero. Now what do you do? Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity.
twunde 7y ago
While enterprises businesses may not use every single feature, they typically end up using 90-95%. The problem is that the same tool is l used across multiple departments. Take Epic. The EMR is used by doctors, nurses, billing, operations, finance, executives, pharmacists. And keep in mind that the way doctors use it will carry depending on the department. That's a lot of use cases to support

basseq 7y ago

> The thing is ... very few companies do actually use all the complex configuration of said purchased software. That's the point, though. Enterprise software is a superset (E) of all features that a large group of very diverse customers need. An individual customer has a need for a much smaller set of features (C). That enterprise software may very well be the best software that includes all those needed features: C ⊆ E There are niche providers, so a logical customer would select the software that meets all of their needs and as little else as possible. But there may not be a niche provider that meets that criteria. So as an individual customer, you may be stuck between an Enterprise software that meets all your needs, but is "more than you need" and a niche software that doesn't meet all your needs.

Juliate 7y ago
> That enterprise software may very well be the best software that includes all those needed features. How come you can't have something nice & even decently working for: pay, HR, vacation, expenses tracking? Or more, how is it possible that obviously unfit and malfunctioning solutions (for problems that have been known, solved and specified for years) are still on the market in 2019 in companies that pretend to be serious about software?
- nradov 7y ago
  Pay, HR, and expense tracking are extremely complex areas due to federal / state / local labor laws, collective bargaining agreements, and individual organizational policies. Any application which deals with all those complexities will inevitably be full of defects and usability problems. There is no solution, it's simply reality.
  - afarrell 7y ago
    Do the users of the software need to know about all that complexity? If the answer is: "they definitely do", then you are right. There's no way around it. If the answer is: "No, they only need to know about 4% of it. The rest can be automated and hidden away." then the problem is that people aren't incentivised to pay the cost of building that software. There is a broad solution: Hire engineers, UX designers, and product managers to spend time to solve those problems and to manage that complexity. The problem is that this requires the time and effort of skilled people and that requires a sustained commitment of money. So that requires someone with decision-making power to allocate money from a budget of limited resources. If the additional UI improvement helps win sufficient revenue, then its worth it. But if the additional UI improvement doesn't persuade decision-makers or only helps 1 client account, then it is not.
    - nradov 7y ago
      In this area of enterprise software, the users absolutely need to know about the complexity for compliance reasons. Any errors can potentially result in criminal charges, civil liability, or at least bad PR and employee morale. Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. For example, employers sometimes receive court orders requiring them to periodically seize a certain amount from a particular employee's pay in order to satisfy a legal judgment. And in some cases there can actually be multiple such orders that would effectively reduce the employee's take home pay below zero. Now what do you do? Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity.

twunde 7y ago

While enterprises businesses may not use every single feature, they typically end up using 90-95%. The problem is that the same tool is l used across multiple departments. Take Epic. The EMR is used by doctors, nurses, billing, operations, finance, executives, pharmacists. And keep in mind that the way doctors use it will carry depending on the department. That's a lot of use cases to support