Thomas OtterI have seen several keynotes from software executives lately. I recollect that all of them had iPads in them. Seasoned software executives have been getting positively giddy about the iPad.
It has given Steve Jobs a sales force that he didn’t know he had. It seems without really planning for it, the iPad has become the must have enterprise device.
But what I’ve not yet seen is the must have enterprise application on the iPad. Yes, I’ve seen some neat repurposed reports and simple entry screens but I’ve not yet seen an application that makes me sit up and say wow, that is a new and fundamentally better process enabled by the device. So far the innovation is all about Apple.
If the iPad means that enterprise software companies build executive dashboards and actually get executives engaging with the software, then fine, okay, that is an improvement from where we are today, but it misses the big opportunity.
Just fixing the executive user experience has a whiff of the Potemkin about it. It would be a whole lot better if the iPad helped to prompt a rethink of how everyone interacts with enterprise software. Today the iPad merely illustrates the chasm between the typical enterprise software user experience and delightful design.
Category: UI software design software industry usability visualization Tags: Apple, Design, Enterprise Software., ERP, UI
3 responses so far ↓
1 BenB September 10, 2010 at 8:07 am
I am coming out of a customer meeting just now. The sales executive actually mentioned the ipad as well. To me it feels like customers want to make sure they can interact with the software on those devices in the future as they foresee a wide adoption especially on a management level. So its more about future readiness than about immediate value add.
2 Dave Kasabian, http://blog.pervasivepm.com/ September 10, 2010 at 10:43 am
Thomas,
I think your point if valid but in my opinion right now the iPad is all about consuming content rather than creating it. I think the big value of the iPad to business software is expanding the user community and making usage of enterprise apps easier and more pervasive. Even without a “killer app” for the iPad it will change the face of enterprise software over the next couple of years.
Dave
3 E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez » My Top 5 iPad Apps of the Week – Week #4 September 15, 2010 at 1:11 pm
[...] friend Thomas Otter, who, not long ago put together this blog entry under the heading “The iPad and the Enterprise” and where he shared this rather thought-provoking [...]