My use of the term “Drag Queens” to describe some enterprise software companies was outed today by Vinnie.

What did I mean when I said “old enterprise companies dressing up like a pretty E2.0 babe”

Here is the story of Tim, an Enterprise 2.0 customer who is a little timid, but has decided go for it and party the night away.

Dress up baby, we’re going out tonight

Tim, a friend of Charlie, is out at a club, the lights are low, the music is loud and he has had a few drinks.

The place is packed, and it seems like it is all new faces. Interesting people, great dancers and they are all buying you drinks. There are even a few celebrities hanging around. He dances until 3am, and before the lights go up, Tim ducks out the door.

As he is walking home through the rain, Tim is feeling pretty good. He had a fun night of dancing, good friends and he now has a girl on his arm. She’s pretty and says all the right things.

This story ends with an IT Project Failure, to say the least.

Who is he/she anyway?

The story is much the same for customers in the Enterprise 2.0 world. Those customers who are actually making purchases right now are a little timid and not sure exactly what to expect, and usually it was a friend who took them out to the party.

When the lights go down and the drinks start flowing however, things aren’t as clear as they were before and it isn’t always obvious who you are getting in bed with.

The Drag Queens of Enterprise 2.0 are those old Enterprise software vendors who haven’t done anything to change their products, but instead they went out and have bought a nice dress and have put some eye shadow on their football player physiques.