微软收购Yammer背后的玄机

    2）软件不再是一种产品，而是变成一项依托于云的服务：微软、甲骨文、Adobe等科技巨头通过向个人或企业销售经过授权的正版拷贝，才打造了今天属于他们自己的商业帝国。这个体系像销售电视、沙发一样把软件当成产品来销售，它在过去一直很有效。但这种模式对企业用户的要求很高，包括沉重的前期成本，而且用户必须维护价格不菲的服务器。

    “软件即服务”则采取了一种随用随付的模式，很像有线电视或电话的收费模式。硬件和软件的升级、支持和安全等都由云服务器的提供商集中管理。对于企业来说，“软件即服务”解决方案的提供商，如Salesfoce、谷歌（Google）应用套件、Hubspot等，往往能为提供商和企业带来明显的双赢局面，不仅能降低成本，还省却了传统授权软件可能导致的许多麻烦。

    3）CIO可以获得“众包”的帮助：科技博客TechCrunch的编辑瑞普•恩普森撰文称：过去，首席信息官就是上帝。“穿着灰西装，坐在高高的椅子上咆哮如雷，发号施令，为大公司乃至更大的用户群制定产品决策。”毫不奇怪，这样的风险也是极高的：如果选错了产品，一家公司可能因为笨拙、低效的IT而导致好几年翻不了身，甚至损失数百万美元。

    近年来，企业的软件决策越来越呈现自下而上的态势。在底层员工不经意地介绍下，Dropbox和LastPass这样免费的软件即服务解决方案正在职场中慢慢普及。如果这些应用的确填补了一个领域的空白，CIO们最终会意识到这一点，进而会选择一个高级的企业版本（这也就是免费+增值模式的价值所在）。Yammer的CEO大卫•萨克斯解释了一个典型的过程：“员工们可以先免费使用Yammer，然后推荐给同事，然后公司可以选择引进它、为它付钱等等。”

    4）企业软件社交化：社交网络可能一开始是一种消费现象，不过它显然在企业界也可以广泛的应用。比如像Yammer一样的内部网络可以使企业内部在防火墙里进行像Facebook一样的对话。这样可以弱化等级制度，各部门的凝聚力可以超越办公室的围墙，而且大家可以以新的方式协作培养创意和项目，这是电子邮件等传统的Web 1.0渠道无论无何也做不到的。

    另外，新型企业软件还把社交特性包含到了各种具体的功能当中，比如任务管理功能（如Asana）和文档创建功能（如谷歌文档）。它反映了在真实生活中，许多项目并不是由某个员工一个人完成的，而是由大家通力合作，每个成员都贡献一部分力量。项目执行的协作性是新一代企业软件最重大的优势之一——同时它也是最容易被忽视的优势。

    5）企业计算的移动化：SAP公司的首席信息官近日为他的员工采购了4万台iPad平板电脑——这也折射了一个事实，也就是许多人已经开始携带自己的平板电脑到单位工作了。多年以来，我们一直被束缚在家用台式机前。事实上，职场IT并无多少必须使用台式机的必要。正如CNET的大卫•罗森伯格指出的那样，我们希望的是不管我们的员工身在何处，都可以“随时随地查阅重要的业务数据”。

    2) Software becomes a cloud-based service, not a product: Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and other behemoths of enterprise software built their empires by licensing copies to individuals or companies. This system - selling software just like TVs, sofas or any other product - worked great for them. But it demanded a lot from business users, including heavy upfront costs and the need to maintain pricey on-premises servers.

    Software-as-a-service (SaaS) instead treats software as a pay-as-you-go subscription, much like cable or phone service. Hardware and software is all centrally managed by the provider on cloud-based servers, including upgrades, backups and security. For businesses, SaaS solutions - Salesforce, Google Apps, Hubspot, etc. - often represent a clear win-win, promising both lower costs and fewer headaches than licensed alternatives.

    3) The CIO gets crowd-sourced: Back in the day, writes TechCrunch's Rip Empson, the CIO was god, "sitting in his high chair in a grey suit barking orders, making the product decisions for big companies with even larger user bases." And little surprise. Stakes were exceedingly high: Choosing the wrong product could doom a company to years of clunky, ineffectual computing and cost millions.

    These days, software decisions in enterprises are increasingly made from the bottom-up. Free SaaS solutions like Dropbox and LastPass percolate through the workplace organically, introduced casually by employees. If these apps indeed fill a niche, eventually CIOs take notice, opting into premium, enterprise-wide versions (Herein lies the virtue of the freemium pricing model). Yammer's own CEO David Sacks explains a typical progression: "Employees can start using [Yammer] for free, message with their coworkers, and then the company can decide to endorse it, pay for it, that sort of thing."

    4) Enterprise software goes social: Social networking may have originated as a consumer phenomenon, but it clearly has wide-reaching business applications. Internal, Yammer-like networks enable companies to carry on Facebook-esque dialogues behind the firewall. Hierarchies are flattened; working groups can be organized that transcend office walls; ideas and projects are nurtured collaboratively in ways impossible via traditional Web 1.0 channels like email.

    Broader still, new enterprise software incorporates social features into functions as diverse as task management (Asana) and document creation (Google Docs). This mirrors how projects actually get done in real life - not in silos by lone employees but collectively, with each team member contributing a piece of the puzzle. Collaborative project execution represents one of the most profound - and widely overlooked - advantages of new-generation enterprise software.

    5) Business computing goes mobile: The CIO of SAP recently purchased 40,000 iPads for his employees - a reflection of the fact that many people were already bringing tablets to work. It's been years since we were tied to our home desktops. There are frankly very few reasons why workplace computing still needs to be desk-bound. As CNET's David Rosenberg writes, why wouldn't we want "to make business-critical data available anywhere, anytime," wherever our employees might be?