Lost In Code

This pathetic state of affairs exists because the executives at tools companies suffer from a bad case of tunnel vision, which prevents them from articulating the strategic business value of their products. Instead of emphasizing what their tools can do for the end business customer, they prefer to highlight the latest widget in their development environment that marginally enhances developer productivity.

While that new feature may temporarily engage the developer, it does nothing to generate more work for the developer.

This creates a classic chicken-and-egg problem because developers naturally gravitate toward the toolsets they think can get them the most (or the most lucrative) gigs. Right now, that pretty much means the defaults are Microsoft toolsets for Windows applications and IBM toolsets for enterprise applications. So it's little wonder that companies such as BEA Systems, Borland, Sun Microsystems, Novell and a host of other tools providers are having a difficult time

overcoming the inherent inertia in the market that favors Microsoft and IBM.

What's an even bigger shame is that solution providers are flocking to application development as the primary way to continue to add value in the channel. As a result, software developers are among the most sought-after people being hired by solution providers, according to the forthcoming CRN Salary Survey. But the types of developers that solution providers will hire is determined by the executive management of the solution provider based more on business issues than on the particulars of a development environment.

This cart-before-the-horse problem is lost on tools vendors that seem obsessed with maintaining a flawed economic model in which they seek to create a large supply of developers without helping to create the demand for their services among the people who actually hire developers,the solution providers.

Are you listening? Do you agree? I can be reached at (516) 562-7477 or via e-mail at [email protected].