There is a convergence of consumer-driven user experiences happening within the world of enterprise software. This trend should not be shocking; what should be surprising is how long it took. There are examples all over the place but with Slack having a direct listing IPO last week, and Zoom’s earlier in the year, both these companies are the poster child for this shift in how enterprise software companies must embrace.
The dawn of the consumer era of computing rose with the dawn of the smartphone era. The consumer-centric software and services experiences smartphones drove are the culprit for this influence on enterprise software. Humans expectations changed as the bar was set higher with rapid innovation in software on mobile devices. Thanks to shiny, engaging, and user-friendly smartphone apps, consumers would never look at software the same again. That bar entered the tools they used at work. And their enlightened view on better software experiences helped them see a better way around better user experiences and led to them to be critical and frustrated with the complex tools most enterprises shove down their worker’s throats.
This movement is at the heart of the term many use called digital and workplace transformation. Core among this trend is consumer friendly user experiences for all things humans in the enterprise touch, but chief among them are the software and services they use as a part of their primary job function. I’ve seen multiple investment firm research studies suggesting that user experience focused enterprise software could lead to an incremental $8-15 billion dollars a year in software sales. Whether enterprise IT managers like it or not, user experience sits at the center of all human software interactions and with that comes great benefit to the enterprise.
On this topic, I found a few data points relevant from a recent study from Sales Force.
– 67% of customers say their standard for good experiences are higher than ever
– 51% of customers say most companies fall short of their expectations for great experiences
– 72% of customers say they share good experiences with others
This data validates the high bar that humans now have when it comes to software and services. With 72% saying they share good experiences with others, it makes sense how things like Slack or Zoom were able to grow within an enterprise even without IT approval. Now IT managers, as a part of workplace transformation, are offering teams a menu of software and services options to use when it comes to productivity and collaboration software and CRM software.
The main thing you will hear from IT managers about this trend is they are doing it mostly for retention. The reality is many job markets are hot and a lot of attractive talent, especially younger talent, will simply not tolerate old world workflows and painfully designed enterprise software. It has to be easy to use, and more importantly, it has to fit the workflows of the digital and connected generation. But, if this is done right, it leads to not just higher retention but also a more engaged and more productive workforce.
Box CEO Aaron Levie has been quite active on Twitter in the days post-Slack’s listing. This recent tweet caught my eye, and I thought was worth sharing.
The tectonic shift causing a new era of enterprise software is that product development, distribution, adoption, customer service, and design look vastly more like a consumer company than a traditional enterprise company.
— Aaron Levie (@levie) June 23, 2019
This is an interesting claim but has a great deal of magnitude if true, and I think it is true. His statement highlights how the influence of user experience design and understanding is influencing enterprise software. If the hunger for this was not immediately apparent, look back to the original launch of Apple’s iWork. That moment, for me, was when all of this became clear. Apple is, by nature, one that designs software with user experience at the center of their ambition. And this culture, which is the intersection of liberal arts and technology is how Apple makes great software experiences. At the launch of iWork, we witnessed Apple demonstrate what enterprise software, specifically productivity software, should look and feel like. Apple showed us how easy creating spreadsheets, presentations, and documents should be. I remember seeing that and thinking, this is exactly what Microsoft should have done with Office.
Sadly, iWork never caught the workplace by storm, and now–finally–Microsoft has made great strides in making their software more consumer friendly and easier to use. Microsoft is also at the center of taking this trend even farther by integrating AI into Office and bringing new intelligent helpfulness to aid customers in getting more done in a shorter amount of time, without hassle or complexity.
With iWork, Apple gave a glimpse of a better way forward for enterprise software design and everyone who saw that viewed it as refreshing compared to the tools they used in their day to day workflows at the time. The industry still has a long way to go, but moving forward on this trend line is clearly the direction enterprise software is headed.
