Good Reading–On What an Enterprise REALLY Needs

Another chance to share an article that provides an alternative view from one you normally read here – in this case an opinion piece from an enterprise CIO on why he doesn’t believe Google is a credible enterprise vendor. Read the entire article here but some relevant quotes below:

While we’re integrating consumer technology into our business, we also deliver many purpose-built systems to provide a competitive business edge. We depend on reliable, focused vendor support. We need to understand future product direction. We need partners that don’t chase shiny new things for a living and understand the discipline of delivering shareholder value through risk-managed innovation and execution… I don’t think Google gets this point at all…I could be part of the in crowd and say that I get it. But I’m not sure I do. It can take me six months to socialize (my favorite new buzzword) an innovation, and another six to implement it. Google, is that product going to be around after six months, or replaced?

The cynics will tell me I need to be a more nimble innovator and implement mass organizational change in a month or two. Fortunately for my employer, I realize the nonsense in this notion. Business change is risky. I will take what I can get from Google, but I see a gap between what I need and what it promises. This is why my company recently switched from Google to Microsoft as the map provider for our customer portal. Microsoft was simply more enterprise-friendly.

Google, I know you don’t care. As a midsize enterprise, we aren’t even a pixel on your radar screen. I hope some larger enterprises are able to help you pave this road for the rest of us.

Google, you have some great products. You have market share, cash, and the ability to innovate. You also have the opportunity to change the world in many other ways, but it will take some adjustment in thinking and approach to conquer the enterprise. An attitude adjustment wouldn’t be a bad start.

Our industry is anything but black and white. Dissenting perspectives from real world practitioners extend the thinking of all of us – this article, and the sentiments it espouses, are a good example of this.