Lane cited seven "laws" for companies looking ahead in enterprise software:

1. Serve an individual need.
2. Seek viral, organic adoption.
3. Provide contextualized, personal information.
4. Require no data entry or training.
5. Deliver instantaneous value.
6. Utilize the community and social relationships to understand the user.
7. Require a minimum IT footprint.

Paul Krill captures the key takeways from Ray Lane's presentation on the future of enterprise software at this weeks Software 2006 conference. Ray made reference to Bill Joy's concept of six Webs which I was fortunate enough to learn about 10 years ago. It has been instrumental in shaping much of my thinking in seeking to understand how organisations would evolve over the last decade and beyond. If this is all new to you I highly recommend watching Bill's presentation from earlier this year on MIT World. More to follow …

UPDATE : Software 2006 Industry Report by McKinsey and Sand Hill Group