Software developer vs web developer
In the Information software developer vs web developer, we have seen the democratization of computers in the 1970s, started by Apple and then followed by IBM/Microsoft. Before that, computers were only affordable and used by large corporations. They were huge mainframes in giant computer rooms, maintained by trained staffs in white coats. The personal computer revolution claimed that computers could be used by mere mortals, private individuals, and small companies, and computers were not the privilege of only the big institutions.
We also saw the democratization of networked computers in the 1990s with the Internet revolution software developer vs web developer. Before the wide-spread of Internet, only in corporations the computer are networked together and share information, and the network is maintained by skilled IT staffs. With the Internet, average Joes can easily connect their computer to the vast network and access almost the entire human knowledge.
We are beginning to see the democratization of software developer vs web developer. In the past, only corporations with million dollar IT budget can afford ERP, CRM or other types of business enterprise software. Software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing are changing that right before our eyes and making it possible for small to medium size companies to increase their performance and competitiveness by incorporating these technology solutions into their business.
Democratization of Business Software
I believe we are still in the beginning stage of this revolution that empowers companies with limited IT resources to have access to productivity enhancing business software, and reap the fruits of technology advancement.
Various studies show that business intelligence gathering and analysis is important for a company to gain a competitive edge, but BI solutions can be very expensive to implement. With costs for the software, infrastructure, customization, implementation, training, and IT resources, the total cost is often in six digits or more, and making it unattainable for most small companies.
For a BI solution to be affordable, it needs to be “simplified” so it requires minimum IT involvement and minimum users training. This requires a entirely different approach from traditional BI software, and should be designed from the ground-up for non-techies. To lower the cost, the software developer internship should be easy to deploy and need no or minimum development or implementation effort from IT. And for end-users to perform data mining / ad-hoc reporting, it needs to be “smart” at understanding the data model and the data, mapping the data mining request to the data model, and retrieving the relevant and correct data. The software needs to be flexible, adaptive, and can learn from experiences, so the end-users can do data mining quickly using their business knowledge.
With this kind of affordable and easy-to-use BI software, business intelligence gathering and analysis can finally be used by mere mortals, private individuals, and small companies, and BI would no longer be the privilege of big institutions.