Designing Digital Communities – A Software Maker’s Imperative
The Evolution of Software Big monolithic solutions like Baan ERP, Oracle, and SAP R3 still dominated the ERP software market at the beginning of this decade. Many people were relieved that the Y2K issue was mostly resolved without any major crashes. Mobile phones were fashionable, and having a vehicle kit was a sign of status. The globe was embracing the internet. Even with how quickly technology is developing, it could take three years for new software releases to reach the market. Monolithic architectures prevented software solutions from developing as quickly as customers desire. Client-server and thin clients replaced mainframes in a large number of new businesses. Jan Baan, the creator of the Baan Company, attacked his product and referred to it as the "mother of all complexity." In an audacious move, he founded Cordys, a new BPM firm, in 2002 to democratize development. In a multi-tenant, thin-client system, he urged "citizen developers" to design new applicat