In user interface design, when decisions are made without the end users in mind, the result is a bad interface. In the enterprise world, companies purchase softwares based on a laundry list of features instead of usability. This results in horribly designed, overly complicated enterprise software. It turns out, softwares in school suck for the same reason.
I’ve recently had a coffee chat with a friend. He is running a startup making course content management software for the past few years. He gave me a demo. The product looks great, very professional and intuitive to use. Unfortunately, it takes a typical Canadian university two years to order a piece of great software like his. That’s why schools are stuck with horrible legacy softwares that only large companies can produce. Most startups will die waiting for the purchasing order.
This reminds me of my university – Waterloo. Often nicknamed the MIT of Canada, Waterloo produces technical talents that most large companies gladly recruit. But even for a technical university with abundant talents, our school chose Peoplesoft for our school’s coop system. I still remember having to click 5 times to get to the job search page every time after I login. It’s the same damn links every time! Not to mention the fact that I cannot click open multiple jobs in tabs. Waterloo’s Jobmine is my first taste of a bad enterprise software. And I am not alone. Students wasted countless hours of valuable time. A few of us joked about stepping on mines every time we use Jobmine. I was wondering at the time why Waterloo made such a terrible decision. It’s all apparent to me now after the discussion with my friend.
How do startups compete with these large enterprise companies with all these red tapes? It looks like we need to take a second look at the governance of a school. Schools should make purchasing decisions based on its end users – the students.
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