Today Aspenware announced a new User Experience practice. We've created an intro that you can watch here 

or from the website at aspenware.com/experience. Our team is already working with a number of businesses such as New Belgium Brewing, Vail Resorts, eCollege, COPIC, Xcel Energy and others. We are formalizing something we have been doing for some time.

Aspenware's vision statement is "Create Amazing". It is simple and pervasive. We create amazing software. We also work hard to ensure the entire experience of working with us is amazing.

Our formalization of a User Experience practice stems from our passion for craftsmanship and significant market trends. We enjoy creating and are energized by the positive exclamation we receive from the people with whom we work. But our move is also driven by what people are buying.

1. People expect a great technology experience at work.

Remember when business users were ok with bad software? We didn't enjoy it. We tolerated it. Often we spent millions of dollars on large systems that could be classified by three letters (CRM, ERP, PLM, etc.) but took years and millions of dollars to implement. The average tenure of a CIO has plummeted to something close to 2 years. No one has the time to wait for ROI.

We now expect intuitive and targeted applications, accessible from anywhere, and on any device. We expect solutions in weeks or months. We expect to bring our consumer devices to work and use them. We are blurring the lines between personal and professional. We are demanding well-crafted software.

2. Modern businesses encourage their people to create. 

We have been programmed to believe that the white collar worker is supposed to show up to a cube-based factory from 8 to 6 with a lunch in the middle. We clock in, attend meetings, check off our tasks and check out. Occasionally we get to sing happy birthday or hang out for a few beers after work. We strive to make the soul-sucking monotony tolerable.

However, we are not robots. We ache to create meaningful things. Increasingly, our customers recognize this shift, and when embraced, the speed at which we are able to collaborate and build is unprecedented.

3. We want better service from best-of-breed services companies.

Traditional technology services companies work like a factory. They develop messages to hook you, queue you up, weight your importance, work to get you to sign large non-performance based contracts and load you up with butts-in-seats on a dollar-per-hour basis. They all say they have the best processes, people and sample work.

Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, "I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish and what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100 to 1. Given that, you're well advised to go after the cream of the cream. That's what we've done. You can then build a team that pursues the A+ players. A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players."

This holds true for services companies as well. Quite frankly, most services companies are full of B and C players. Size does not equate to results, in fact, there is a higher probability of negative correlation. Our customers are looking for high levels of innovation and collaboration in addition to amazing software. They get better service, because they hire better people. 

We have embraced these trends, formalized a practice that encourages collaborative software creation and drives amazing technology in the enterprise through high-performing teams. I am very proud of the team we have assembled and look forward to creating more amazing things.