What ends up happening is that all this overhead (sorry infrustructure) requires most of the resources available, leaving you with very little time to work on making the product better for your users.

Come to think of it, the whole decision process about what software to buy is being controlled by IT departments with the users needs very low on the reasons for purchase.

It seems to me that there must be a better way to get the infrustructure and control IT wants without making it the majority of every development teams time in the Enterprise software space and I think I know what it is.

There is a new trend emerging among ISV’s (Independent Software Vendors) to try and find frameworks or platforms that provide all the infrustructure and build their value added solutions on top of them. I am currently looking at two platforms that seem to cover the common needs of most line-of-business applications like customers, accounts, cases and more to see how easy it is to develop within or on top of or even next to these platforms.

The two platforms I am currently looking at are: Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SalesForce’s new force.com.

Maybe this is the new version of “Don’t build what you can buy” so I decided to call this post “Don’t build what you can buy 2.0″.

I am interested in peoples experience with these platforms. Comments anyone?