Intelligent reaction key to software success
Published:14-September-2005
By BR staff writer
If the pending acquisition of Siebel Systems highlights anything, it is that software vendors need to change or die. Seibel was unable to change sufficiently and fast enough and has paid the price. In stark contrast, Salesforce.com continues to move forward in terms of development, subscribers and revenue.
There is no universal key to success but Adam Bosworth, currently chief engineer at Google and who in previous jobs has been credited with the development of key platforms at Microsoft such as Access and Internet Explorer and the WebSphere platform at BEA Systems, says that software development is evolving and successful companies need to be aware and adapt.
Presenting at the Salesfroce.com Dreamforce conference he spoke about what he believes has helped Salesforce.com become successful.
"Software evolution is not about intelligence but about intelligent reaction," he said. Companies have to watch, listen and learn from their customers and adapt."
The days of experts retiring to ivory towers to devise five year grand plans, creating APIs from which their vision can be built, and trying to persuade customers of the value are gone. New style software development starts with applications not APIs, the usable object that can be rolled out and changed quickly, not the building blocks that create monolithic applications and takes time and knowledge to implement.
It is all about looking at the real world and real customer issues, he said, which is why Google built a search engine before it created integration API's and also why Salesforce.com came to market with an application not a vision or a platform. You have to focus on what is happening with the customers, not creating a grand vision. Companies can have a plan but should not obsess about it, he said.
"Salesforce.com tries to do what you ask for not what they think you should have," he said and this is the key differentiator. He went so far as to say that while Salesforce.com had an ambition in its early days it did not have a grand plan, but what it did was react intelligently.
