No More A Pancake, But A Waffle

Meet the New-and-Improved Enterprise Software with more pockets like customer insight, clear segmentation and sharper verticalisation. Many new syrups that matter are also pouring in here. Let’s take a whiff...

- Pratima H

Enterprise software saw a chocolate swan in the black swan of the pandemic. Who could have thought that while initial shockwaves halted IT spends, the pandemic actually proved to be a strong inflection point for digitization and big enterprise transformation projects. Now that the storm is past us, the momentum continues, albeit a little subdued. What's also interesting is how BFSI, healthcare, large enterprises, SMES and Cloud have become the front-running wagons of this gravy train. Despite inflation, controlled spending, geo-political tensions and SVB aftermath -enterprise software is a hot treat. But a treat that has put traditional Application and outsourcing work in the far shelf now.

Companies are neither asking for, nor giving, plain pancakes that can be easily and with no differentiation - stacked upon each other year after year. Gone are the days when an enterprise deal looked the same as the other one. Differentiation, edgy flavours like Al, and made-to-order sizes are now selling like hot cakes. Well, like waffles, to be precise.

NEW GRIDS, SAME IRON

The days of traditional IT work, undifferentiated software and good-old outsourcing spadework are getting thin and thin. New forces like Cloud, Al, analytics and edgy work are eggs that are entering the batter mix of enterprise software.

There are no stale areas as such, however, there is lot less focus on traditional outsourcing (although it continues in areas like custom development), weighs in Biswajeet Mahapatra, Principal Analyst at Forrester. "Outcome-based contracts are finding more acceptance, but they come with their own set of challenges. Application maintenance will remain in focus for few more years and as more and more workloads move to the cloud - it will wane away. Data analytics is showing a lot of insourcing as companies find projects in-house easier to manage."