(2006-08-23) Governor Thingamy Situational Software

James Governor on the case for Thingamy and Situated Software. We're entering an era of customisation that could turn SAP and Oracle into last century's fish and chip wrapping... If you build software to solve a particular business problem, though, isn't it likely to taste bad when you go and install it somewhere else?... Thingamy takes a different approach, partly predicated on the notion that user-defined customisation is where business value arises. The software doesn't treat users like idiots. Sig talks about objects, and really means it. I was taken with the approach: a lightweight policy-based Work-Flow engine built into the software, sitting on top of an object oriented database (Object Data Base)... Who are the people that really know how a process works- what happens when a person makes a business decision? The person making that decision and their immediate colleagues, or a professional business process modeller based in the Czech Republic? Toyota understands that people on the shop floor can optimise business processes. All truly great businesses enable the creativity of their employees rather than driving the enterprise as a top down time and motion study. That is the direction software must take.