The Sisqokid

Consumerization of Enterprise

Amongst the many buzzy internet themes popular these days, one that particularly intrigues me is the theme of consumerization of enterprise. Broadly speaking consumerization of enterprise refers to the evolution of enterprise software. As anyone who has worked in a big corporation can attest, enterprise software is generally stogy, complex, bland and antiquated. In stark contrast, successful modern consumer applications are clean, simple, engaging and fresh.

Over the past year, my colleagues at IA Ventures and I have developed a simple framework for thinking about this theme. To us, consumerization of enterprise means three things:

1. UI/UX. Incorporating design and interaction best practices refined over the past decade in the consumer web for clean, simple and engaging user experience and user interface. 
2. Social. Building social into the foundational fabric of the application either by enabling social interaction and connectivity through the application and/or leveraging graph data (social, interest, professional or other) to optimize the experience and performance of the software.
3. Mobile. Building applications with a mobile-centric design philosophy. In other words, building applications from the ground up optimized for usage on mobile phones and tablet devices. 

We have made two investments at IA specifically around this theme - Banksimple and Coursekit. Both companies exist to disrupt massive incumbents (Banksimple :: online banking portals from traditional brick and mortar banks / Coursekit :: Blackboard learning management system) and both specifically replace antiquated enterprise offerings with applications designed from the ground up with UI/UX, Social and Mobile best practices incorporated. 

The exciting thing is that the world of enterprise software is ginormous and industries across the board are ripe for disruption. The application of consumer web best practices will be one of the defining drivers of innovation and evolution in the world of enterprise software and we are just now beginning to see the promise of consumerization of enterprise become reality.