I think the main point is simple economics. Software is all fixed costs, the costs of making a copy are zero.
So let's say you are making enterprise software, if your market is 1000 companies, you will sell at most 1000 copies. If you charge $100,000 per copy, you will generate at most $100 million if you capture 100% of the market. That's the world of enterprise software.
If you are making consumer software, your target audience is 3 Billion. If you charge $10 and capture the whole market, you will make $30 Billion.
What that means is that compared to consumer software, enterprise software is incredibly expensive while also having 1/300th of the development budget to build the product.
Corollary 1: Enterprise software will never win head to head versus consumer software, and firms will use consumer software whenever possible.
Corollary 2: Given the small dev budgets, Enterprise software will skimp on all non-necessary aspects of development to meet the minimum viable product standards before they can ship. This is why your corporate accounting software package has a terrible UI but it has the required functionality and uptime.
Corollary 3: while consumer software often can fix bugs and roll out patches on a monthly basis for free, enterprise software will fix bugs with delays in years and only with expensive support contracts.
Corollary 4: Enterprise software is both highly customized and highly rigid. Highly customized in that a lot of Enterprise software development is bespoke for a few key customers because of Corollary 1, and highly rigid in that Corollary 3 means you are stuck with whatever they deliver.
I remember for a while, Cisco had a branch for each major customer. Imagine maintaining hundreds of branches in your code base.
Once you understand the basic economics of the thing, you no longer have to ascribe ill will, incompetence, or ignorance to any actor. It's just "you get what you pay for" and "no one can do miracles" in a product which is all fixed cost.
With those broad facts in mind, most aspects of enterprise software become obvious. I really don't think issues like "someone else buys it, not the user" make much difference. After all, parents buy lots of consumer software for their kids (games) which are amazing and incredibly polished.
So let's say you are making enterprise software, if your market is 1000 companies, you will sell at most 1000 copies. If you charge $100,000 per copy, you will generate at most $100 million if you capture 100% of the market. That's the world of enterprise software.
If you are making consumer software, your target audience is 3 Billion. If you charge $10 and capture the whole market, you will make $30 Billion.
What that means is that compared to consumer software, enterprise software is incredibly expensive while also having 1/300th of the development budget to build the product.
Corollary 1: Enterprise software will never win head to head versus consumer software, and firms will use consumer software whenever possible.
Corollary 2: Given the small dev budgets, Enterprise software will skimp on all non-necessary aspects of development to meet the minimum viable product standards before they can ship. This is why your corporate accounting software package has a terrible UI but it has the required functionality and uptime.
Corollary 3: while consumer software often can fix bugs and roll out patches on a monthly basis for free, enterprise software will fix bugs with delays in years and only with expensive support contracts.
Corollary 4: Enterprise software is both highly customized and highly rigid. Highly customized in that a lot of Enterprise software development is bespoke for a few key customers because of Corollary 1, and highly rigid in that Corollary 3 means you are stuck with whatever they deliver.
I remember for a while, Cisco had a branch for each major customer. Imagine maintaining hundreds of branches in your code base.
Once you understand the basic economics of the thing, you no longer have to ascribe ill will, incompetence, or ignorance to any actor. It's just "you get what you pay for" and "no one can do miracles" in a product which is all fixed cost.
With those broad facts in mind, most aspects of enterprise software become obvious. I really don't think issues like "someone else buys it, not the user" make much difference. After all, parents buy lots of consumer software for their kids (games) which are amazing and incredibly polished.