One thing I’ve found useful in designing a new product is to consider from the beginning how it will be used, and by whom.  While this may seem common sense, there are a lot of product design conversations that begin with a conversation about feature/functionality, not who and how. All too often products run into trouble because they blur the line between a tool that can be heavily customized/configured, and a solution that is much more narrowly focused.

Tools address a broad or general need, leaving it up to the end-user to manipulate or configure the tools to address the need in a specific way. As a product developer, it is impossible to anticipate the need and we focus on providing lots of options.  Microsoft Excel is an example of a tool – it can be used for financial modeling, project management, general data organization, etc.

Who uses tools?  These are often the domain of the I.T. side of the organization, consultants, business analysts, etc.  The builders that have the time, energy and focus on crafting a specific solution to a specific problem.

Selling a tool is always challenging, because it can be used in so many different ways. LogiXML has done a great job selling their Info product, which I’d classify as a tool, because there is an existing market, with many mature products, that is relatively well understood by buyers.

Business solutions are more focused on a specific problem for a specific business person. In thinking about solutions I always like to think about how will use it, how will it be used, what do they care about, and what is the business problem. If the business problem isn’t annoying enough, expensive enough, or top of mind –  or the software your building can’t demonstrate that it can save/make real money, then it can be a real challenge to market and sell the product.

Can there be products that are both solutions to specific problems, as well as tools?  Sure – however I’ve found that positioning one product as both can be confusing to the end users and result in an overly complex product that doesn’t serve either purpose very well.  Instead, positioning them as separate products that have different benefits to different people makes a lot more sense.

Here at LogiOnDemand we often talk about “Bi for the masses” and need for simple products that can be used at every level of an organization.  Shawn Rogers over at the B-Eye-Network recently took a look at Widgenie and made the following point, which is spot on:

“…as more people in the enterprise get their hands on business intelligence the demand for innovative delivery will follow fast.”

As the cost of delivering tools and solutions that allow end-users to understand and act on their information has fallen, people outside the traditional roles of analysts, senior management and I.T. are starting to realize the capabilities.   At OnDemandIQ we saw this first hand when, for one of our customers, we rolled out a BI solution to hundreds of sales people that were in the dark previously on who to target, which clients were driving their revenue, and which clients were falling off.  Previously, this had been the domain of the analysts who would periodically crunch the numbers and roll-out sales force wide directives that may or may not apply to each region.  Now, each sales person can make individual decisions that are best for them in their territory.

News.com blogger Dan Farber posted an article about cloud computing, as told by Sun Microsystems CTO Greg Papadopolous. In it he talks about the transition to software-as-a-service applications and advocates a “free market in which all interfaces and formats are based on open standards…”

As a developer of SaaS applications that focuses on giving end-users better control, visibility, and access to their data – one of the major challenges is getting access to customers data.  I’m all for the concept of open standards that would allow a product like ours to quickly and easily pull data from multiple applications and integrate it into one unified view.  Open data providers like Amazon DB are going to make it easier for products like ours (Widgenie) to plug into a robust, secure framework that allow people to share and manipulate their information.

That said, when we shift to business applications such as accounting or ERP systems – we still have many problems (ignoring the fact that much of this data still sits behind the firewall and is relatively inaccessible)  Yes, having an exposed interface into the data is a necessary first step – but understanding both the structure of the information and how it is used is much more complicated.

First, even within a specific industry and a specific function, applications organize and store their information in different ways. One accounting package may handle credits and returns in a completely different way than another.  Second, there are business rules that dictate how that software is used – do we track orders by ship date, order date, or transaction date?  Are commissions paid in one way on discounted sales and another on full price sales?  These challenges require a solid understanding of both the application and the business..

Filed under: Logi OnDemand