The SAP lesson
Before the 1990s, big organisations ran on custom software. SAP and others traded fit for one painful standard. AI-assisted building tips the balance back toward custom fit.
The TL;DR about marketplaces is that more free plugins are likely to emerge, be reused, and further developed. Which is again not great news for small, medium and niche SaaS.
This has happened before, in reverse. It is worth remembering.
Before the 1990s, most large organisations ran on custom software, built to fit exactly how they worked. The Army had its way. A bank had its way. A carmaker had its way.
Then came a wave of consolidation: SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle. These systems promised one standard and lower cost. The price was fit and flexibility. The experience was often painful, and many of those systems are still painful today. As one executive put it, every business person hated it.
AI-assisted building tips the balance back toward custom fit. Not because everyone is now a developer. Because the cost that made custom tools too expensive has dropped.
It tips the balance back toward custom fit, because the cost that blocked it.
The TL;DR about marketplaces is that more free plugins are likely to emerge, be reused, and further developed. Which is again not great news for small, medium and niche SaaS.
The difference between a Mega Drive and enterprise software is that nobody's production database was at stake when you left Sonic paused overnight.
Before the 1990s, most large organisations ran on custom software, built to fit exactly how they worked.
This does not mean big software vanishes. A system like Salesforce will not disappear. The large systems of record have deep data, strong networks, and compliance built in.
The tools at real risk are the small, single-purpose ones. The niche admin panel. The twenty-thousand-dollar-a-year workflow tool that a capable operations lead can now rebuild in an afternoon.
The difference between a Mega Drive and enterprise software is that nobody's production database was at stake when you left Sonic paused overnight.
It tips the balance back toward custom fit, because the cost that blocked it has dropped.
Before the 1990s, big organisations ran on custom software. SAP and others traded fit for one painful standard. AI-assisted building tips the balance back toward custom fit.
This is the short version. Read the full-length essay, “Enterprise assisted-coding is the new Mega Drive. How to survive the creative chaos?”.
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