The enterprise software market seems to be undergoing some major consolidation lately, Exhibit A being IBM’s acquisition of Cognos.  It seems to me that things are settling into a few different types of software, and in the spirit of the Discovery Channel special on animals I watched last night I’ve decided to stick them into a family tree:

• Applicatus Flexibulus – These applications are easy to install, easy to administer, and easy to use.  Although relatively new to the software scene, they are breeding like rabbits and have a habit of mating to form entirely new applications.  Web 2.0 companies are leading the charge in this arena.  This family of software includes hosted on-demand systems like SalesForce.com and EmployEase, Latigent/Cisco, wikis, blogs, and a wide variety of open source software (which is less polished but easily accessible).  Typically they are cheaper, have a very light footprint and are built with the user experience in mind.  Very popular with users and IT, they are becoming more and more common, killing other breeds of software by taking over their natural habitat.
• Applicatus Expensivus - Systems that are hard to install, hard to administer, and even more difficult to use.  This includes software like Cognos, SAP, and WebSphere.  These packages can be found living in mid- to large-businesses, where they are typically seen surrounded by hordes of highly-paid consultants from companies like IBM, and can be easily identified by the large amounts of training required to use them.  This software tends to make splashy entrances and then die soon afterwards, like a peacock with a terminal disease.  End users may or may not adopt the technology, depending on their tolerance for complexity and the amount of money spent on the implementation.  You may find this software attempting to mimic Web 2.0 software in an attempt to lure prey, er, customers, however if you observe long enough you will find that it tires easily and cannot keep up the charade for very long.
• Applicatus Legacus—Next to impossible to install, extremely hard to administer, and hard to use.  Typically only found in older and larger companies, this software is a dying breed, because everybody hates it and attacks it on sight.  These are the mainframe and legacy applications that have been around for years and don’t adapt well to change.  Tends not to reproduce, but puts down deep roots and seldom dies.  Many traditional enterprise ERP and financial systems fall into this category, not seeking new customers but simply sucking the blood from their existing customers until they die.  Tend to be antisocial and do not play well with other systems.

Now, if you talk to software salespeople you have to be careful because while they often claim that their software is part of the first category, they often lie.  There’s a certain amount of substance and confidence that’s needed in order to be a true Web 2.0 enterprise software package.  Substance because the software needs to be truly open and easy to use, confidence because opening up software tends to make enterprises more modular and less reliant on any one part.