The ideal client for enterprise software

Enterprise software is accessed through a client: the program installed on the user device. They come into two flavours: thin and thick. This refers to the amount of business features that are present on the user side. On the thin side are the historical text terminal of mainframe applications, and also most web-based applications: they just display the page layout sent from the server. A thick, or fat client will include some of the business logic locally, and can also be used disconnected from the server. A Mechanical CAD system is a typical thick client: while it can connect to a vaulting server to store models, most of the action happens on the client program. Today, the clear consensus for most enterprise software is to build web-based applications.  That is a solid choice, but not ideal.

Enterprise Software sucks

The dawn of the twenty first century is a rather comfortable time to live in for the privileged residents of developed countries. Most of the small irritants in life I even remembered experiencing 30 year ago are gone. To quote but two of them, even the cheapest cars are now air-conditioned, and dentists now widely use anaesthesia so we feel no pain when treating tooth decay. There remains, however, island of pain and frustration in this otherwise rather pleasant life. The first thing that come to mind is red-tape , the curse of many large organizations, whether government or corporations. I would like to devote this blog to a more focused irritant: the high cost, poor performance and inadequate user experience of most enterprise software.