微軟收購(gòu)Yammer背后的玄機(jī)

????2）軟件不再是一種產(chǎn)品，而是變成一項(xiàng)依托于云的服務(wù)：微軟、甲骨文、Adobe等科技巨頭通過(guò)向個(gè)人或企業(yè)銷售經(jīng)過(guò)授權(quán)的正版拷貝，才打造了今天屬于他們自己的商業(yè)帝國(guó)。這個(gè)體系像銷售電視、沙發(fā)一樣把軟件當(dāng)成產(chǎn)品來(lái)銷售，它在過(guò)去一直很有效。但這種模式對(duì)企業(yè)用戶的要求很高，包括沉重的前期成本，而且用戶必須維護(hù)價(jià)格不菲的服務(wù)器。

????“軟件即服務(wù)”則采取了一種隨用隨付的模式，很像有線電視或電話的收費(fèi)模式。硬件和軟件的升級(jí)、支持和安全等都由云服務(wù)器的提供商集中管理。對(duì)于企業(yè)來(lái)說(shuō)，“軟件即服務(wù)”解決方案的提供商，如Salesfoce、谷歌（Google）應(yīng)用套件、Hubspot等，往往能為提供商和企業(yè)帶來(lái)明顯的雙贏局面，不僅能降低成本，還省卻了傳統(tǒng)授權(quán)軟件可能導(dǎo)致的許多麻煩。

????3）CIO可以獲得“眾包”的幫助：科技博客TechCrunch的編輯瑞普?恩普森撰文稱：過(guò)去，首席信息官就是上帝。“穿著灰西裝，坐在高高的椅子上咆哮如雷，發(fā)號(hào)施令，為大公司乃至更大的用戶群制定產(chǎn)品決策。”毫不奇怪，這樣的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)也是極高的：如果選錯(cuò)了產(chǎn)品，一家公司可能因?yàn)楸孔尽⒌托У腎T而導(dǎo)致好幾年翻不了身，甚至損失數(shù)百萬(wàn)美元。

????近年來(lái)，企業(yè)的軟件決策越來(lái)越呈現(xiàn)自下而上的態(tài)勢(shì)。在底層員工不經(jīng)意地介紹下，Dropbox和LastPass這樣免費(fèi)的軟件即服務(wù)解決方案正在職場(chǎng)中慢慢普及。如果這些應(yīng)用的確填補(bǔ)了一個(gè)領(lǐng)域的空白，CIO們最終會(huì)意識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)，進(jìn)而會(huì)選擇一個(gè)高級(jí)的企業(yè)版本（這也就是免費(fèi)+增值模式的價(jià)值所在）。Yammer的CEO大衛(wèi)?薩克斯解釋了一個(gè)典型的過(guò)程：“員工們可以先免費(fèi)使用Yammer，然后推薦給同事，然后公司可以選擇引進(jìn)它、為它付錢等等。”

????4）企業(yè)軟件社交化：社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)可能一開(kāi)始是一種消費(fèi)現(xiàn)象，不過(guò)它顯然在企業(yè)界也可以廣泛的應(yīng)用。比如像Yammer一樣的內(nèi)部網(wǎng)絡(luò)可以使企業(yè)內(nèi)部在防火墻里進(jìn)行像Facebook一樣的對(duì)話。這樣可以弱化等級(jí)制度，各部門的凝聚力可以超越辦公室的圍墻，而且大家可以以新的方式協(xié)作培養(yǎng)創(chuàng)意和項(xiàng)目，這是電子郵件等傳統(tǒng)的Web 1.0渠道無(wú)論無(wú)何也做不到的。

????另外，新型企業(yè)軟件還把社交特性包含到了各種具體的功能當(dāng)中，比如任務(wù)管理功能（如Asana）和文檔創(chuàng)建功能（如谷歌文檔）。它反映了在真實(shí)生活中，許多項(xiàng)目并不是由某個(gè)員工一個(gè)人完成的，而是由大家通力合作，每個(gè)成員都貢獻(xiàn)一部分力量。項(xiàng)目執(zhí)行的協(xié)作性是新一代企業(yè)軟件最重大的優(yōu)勢(shì)之一——同時(shí)它也是最容易被忽視的優(yōu)勢(shì)。

????5）企業(yè)計(jì)算的移動(dòng)化：SAP公司的首席信息官近日為他的員工采購(gòu)了4萬(wàn)臺(tái)iPad平板電腦——這也折射了一個(gè)事實(shí)，也就是許多人已經(jīng)開(kāi)始攜帶自己的平板電腦到單位工作了。多年以來(lái)，我們一直被束縛在家用臺(tái)式機(jī)前。事實(shí)上，職場(chǎng)IT并無(wú)多少必須使用臺(tái)式機(jī)的必要。正如CNET的大衛(wèi)?羅森伯格指出的那樣，我們希望的是不管我們的員工身在何處，都可以“隨時(shí)隨地查閱重要的業(yè)務(wù)數(shù)據(jù)”。

????2) Software becomes a cloud-based service, not a product: Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe and other behemoths of enterprise software built their empires by licensing copies to individuals or companies. This system - selling software just like TVs, sofas or any other product - worked great for them. But it demanded a lot from business users, including heavy upfront costs and the need to maintain pricey on-premises servers.

????Software-as-a-service (SaaS) instead treats software as a pay-as-you-go subscription, much like cable or phone service. Hardware and software is all centrally managed by the provider on cloud-based servers, including upgrades, backups and security. For businesses, SaaS solutions - Salesforce, Google Apps, Hubspot, etc. - often represent a clear win-win, promising both lower costs and fewer headaches than licensed alternatives.

????3) The CIO gets crowd-sourced: Back in the day, writes TechCrunch's Rip Empson, the CIO was god, "sitting in his high chair in a grey suit barking orders, making the product decisions for big companies with even larger user bases." And little surprise. Stakes were exceedingly high: Choosing the wrong product could doom a company to years of clunky, ineffectual computing and cost millions.

????These days, software decisions in enterprises are increasingly made from the bottom-up. Free SaaS solutions like Dropbox and LastPass percolate through the workplace organically, introduced casually by employees. If these apps indeed fill a niche, eventually CIOs take notice, opting into premium, enterprise-wide versions (Herein lies the virtue of the freemium pricing model). Yammer's own CEO David Sacks explains a typical progression: "Employees can start using [Yammer] for free, message with their coworkers, and then the company can decide to endorse it, pay for it, that sort of thing."

????4) Enterprise software goes social: Social networking may have originated as a consumer phenomenon, but it clearly has wide-reaching business applications. Internal, Yammer-like networks enable companies to carry on Facebook-esque dialogues behind the firewall. Hierarchies are flattened; working groups can be organized that transcend office walls; ideas and projects are nurtured collaboratively in ways impossible via traditional Web 1.0 channels like email.

????Broader still, new enterprise software incorporates social features into functions as diverse as task management (Asana) and document creation (Google Docs). This mirrors how projects actually get done in real life - not in silos by lone employees but collectively, with each team member contributing a piece of the puzzle. Collaborative project execution represents one of the most profound - and widely overlooked - advantages of new-generation enterprise software.

????5) Business computing goes mobile: The CIO of SAP recently purchased 40,000 iPads for his employees - a reflection of the fact that many people were already bringing tablets to work. It's been years since we were tied to our home desktops. There are frankly very few reasons why workplace computing still needs to be desk-bound. As CNET's David Rosenberg writes, why wouldn't we want "to make business-critical data available anywhere, anytime," wherever our employees might be?