Neglected Factors When Building Enterprise Systems

1) Ease of integration in the target business, 2) vendor lock-ins, and 3) inflexibility caused by technical debt.

Image by Eveline de Bruin from Pixabay

When I look back on all the applications and systems I worked on in my career, I’d say that 90% of all long-term problems are due to these three reasons:

1. Ease of integration in the target business: The overall price of a product for a customer is much more than just what they pay for the product itself. Customers’ time and effort spent integrating a product into their business can break many deals because the seller doesn’t consider this.
2. Vendor lock-ins: Partnerships can’t and shouldn’t be avoided. However, when the price of ending a partnership becomes so high that business can’t continue without it, the relationship sometimes changes into a host-parasite symbiosis. Removing the parasite becomes the mission, and the focus is shifted away from growing the business.
3. Loss of flexibility caused by technical debt: Early in a product’s life, speed is important because each month without a profit drains the budget and we quickly need to know if we are on the right track. Technical decisions and habits set at that stage can cause problems that become visible much later.