I’ve commented before that the biggest advantage for SaaS isn’t cost, but that it brings users and developers
closer together. Jeff Nolan was thinking along a similar line when he
wrote in a recent post that “Most enterprise software is not built to sell to users but rather to IT . . .” resulting in “low expectations from the people who are actually buying . . .”

Jeff asserts this model is being challenged because users are being exposed to new Web 2.0 capabilities through consumer services. I agree. As happened with PCs in the 80’s, and again with the Internet in the 90’s, users’ expectations of IT are being set by consumer hardware and services. Enterprise vendors are clearly aware of this, and as Dion Hinchcliffe noted a few weeks back are actively announcing new offerings.