11.07.06

Today is my second day at webMethods Integration World 2006 show, which has been really interesting and enjoyable.  If you use webMethods in your shop, this is a really great event, as you get lots of information on the future, and can chat with your fellow users.

What struck me today though, was a major (though definitely not the only) source of ideas for features, especially in the user interface.  A major area of investment for webMethods over the past few years has been support for composite applications, which requires a good presentation layer (web-based, for webMethods).  The focus over the past couple years was integrating a portal that they had bought with the rest of their stack (wM is really good about integrating software they buy, though it usually takes a couple releases), and now the focus is on improving the UIs that are produced.  To this end they have built a nice designer using Eclipse, and provided a number of very handy AJAX components.

All of this is good news, but what really caught my attention is the source they referenced for many of their new features.  In the morning session, the AJAX features were described as being “just like Netflix“, and in the afternoon a really cool control for the business activity monitoring was referenced as being similar in concept to “Google finance” (it’s the stock price chart, try it out). 

webMethods is not unique in this however.  At an analyst conference several months ago, TIBCO was showcasing — at an exhibit booth — an AJAX toolkit they had put together!  This may not seem like much, but it struck me as not too different from a company that installs piping for oil refineries as coming out with a very attractive line of bathroom faucets (attached to their 24 inch diameter pipe…).

What I believe is at work here is a new appreciation for the power of simplicity.  Companies are starting to understand that users are not even capable of leveraging the existing features of the products, let alone new ones — so what are they to do?  Ideally, they can “re-introduce” customers to the power of the software they already own, and help them use it.  But to do that, they need to learn some new skills and approach the problem differently.

This is where the consumer oriented services, like Google, Amazon, and Netflix come in.  These services are the internet equivalent of a vending machine.  Google revolutionized the search industry by distilling the entire process down to a text field and a button.  Netflix leveraged relatively sophisticated (for a web page!) AJAX technology to streamline the experience of its customers.

I have seen it written that consumer internet technology is now guiding enterprise technology, and I think its superior approach to simplicity is the reason why.  It turns out the functionality in sophisticated enterprise software is not done until it is actually usable.

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity”. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

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