It's the Design, Not the Features

by Jim Ritchey, Phil Hill

The enterprise software market has gone through a significant period of consolidation, which has resulted in organizations selecting among a decreasing number of vendors for increasingly large and complex applications. Even though the market has changed, too many organizations still make enterprise software decisions based on the obsolete assumption that there are multiple vendors that are primarily differentiated by their product features. From this standpoint, the selection of enterprise software often comes down to scoring exercises based on product features, technology choices, product pricing, total cost of ownership (TCO), and implementation planning. The problem with this approach is that it focuses too narrowly on the past -- features and configuration capabilities that have been developed to date -- whereas the focus should be aimed toward the future -- the underlying system design and its implications.

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It's the Design, Not the Features1 June 2008

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