This document discusses the rise of software as a service (SaaS) delivery models which allow companies to access software applications over the internet rather than buying licenses and installing software on their own machines. Some key points:
- SaaS is growing in popularity with both customers and investors as it offers benefits like lower costs, more flexibility, and easier upgrades compared to traditional licensing models.
- While SaaS currently makes up a small portion of the overall software market, projections estimate 10% of the enterprise software market will shift to pure SaaS models by 2009.
- For traditional software vendors, failing to offer SaaS delivery risks losing customers to competitors that provide applications through this new model.
Forrester Report: Master DevOps For Faster Delivery Of Software InnovationSEBASTIEN DENES
Modern applications and loosely coupled architectures allow organizations to deliver software faster. Loose coupling means applications can be developed and delivered in smaller increments with fewer dependencies. This reduces risk and allows teams to work independently and at their own pace. Automating processes like continuous integration, testing, deployment and monitoring further speeds up delivery while improving quality. Organizations must adopt DevOps practices and break down silos to fully realize the benefits of faster and more flexible application delivery.
The document discusses the evolution of enterprise portals from traditional on-premise solutions to next-generation SaaS-based portals. It summarizes the findings of research that identified key requirements for these new portals, including cost-effectiveness, security, scalability, and ease of use. The research also indicated that CIOs want "enterprise-proven" solutions from vendors with experience deploying large-scale portals.
Using mobile back end as a service (MBaaS), embedded in a standard enterprise architecture, as a platform for mobile app development offers organizations development agility. MBaaS features also include mobile security, business logic, analytics and support services.
The Salesforce.com Partner Meetup is designed for app providers and ISVs. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet our team and learn how the salesforce.com partner ecosystem is driving the future of enterprise apps. Plus, you will first-hand from partners on how to find success with our AppExchange Partner Program.
Comprehensive it asset management and desktop license optimization solutionFlexera
Flexera Software had grown significantly through acquisitions but was using over 20 different business systems that were not integrated, creating inefficiencies. It implemented FlexNet Operations Cloud to consolidate these systems into a single platform for license management, entitlements, and software delivery. This provided a better experience for customers and staff by streamlining processes and reducing manual work. The project was completed within six months through careful planning and delivered improved security, support, and a more reliable customer experience.
Rapid Roi - Realizing Rapid ROI Through MobilityElizabeth Lupfer
Companies are reaping the benefits from mobile CRM, field service and sales force automation processes with the latest Research In Motion (RIM) offerings.
Software Engineering: Designing a Better Experience for Communications, Media...Cognizant
Software makes the world go ‘round, from hyperefficient business operations to users wowed by the newest app interface and digital products. For CMT companies, software development innovation is the key not only to enhancing business agility but to rapidly designing and offering extraordinary experiences and cutting-edge products that will continually satisfy and delight customers.
Forrester Report: Master DevOps For Faster Delivery Of Software InnovationSEBASTIEN DENES
Modern applications and loosely coupled architectures allow organizations to deliver software faster. Loose coupling means applications can be developed and delivered in smaller increments with fewer dependencies. This reduces risk and allows teams to work independently and at their own pace. Automating processes like continuous integration, testing, deployment and monitoring further speeds up delivery while improving quality. Organizations must adopt DevOps practices and break down silos to fully realize the benefits of faster and more flexible application delivery.
The document discusses the evolution of enterprise portals from traditional on-premise solutions to next-generation SaaS-based portals. It summarizes the findings of research that identified key requirements for these new portals, including cost-effectiveness, security, scalability, and ease of use. The research also indicated that CIOs want "enterprise-proven" solutions from vendors with experience deploying large-scale portals.
Using mobile back end as a service (MBaaS), embedded in a standard enterprise architecture, as a platform for mobile app development offers organizations development agility. MBaaS features also include mobile security, business logic, analytics and support services.
The Salesforce.com Partner Meetup is designed for app providers and ISVs. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet our team and learn how the salesforce.com partner ecosystem is driving the future of enterprise apps. Plus, you will first-hand from partners on how to find success with our AppExchange Partner Program.
Comprehensive it asset management and desktop license optimization solutionFlexera
Flexera Software had grown significantly through acquisitions but was using over 20 different business systems that were not integrated, creating inefficiencies. It implemented FlexNet Operations Cloud to consolidate these systems into a single platform for license management, entitlements, and software delivery. This provided a better experience for customers and staff by streamlining processes and reducing manual work. The project was completed within six months through careful planning and delivered improved security, support, and a more reliable customer experience.
Rapid Roi - Realizing Rapid ROI Through MobilityElizabeth Lupfer
Companies are reaping the benefits from mobile CRM, field service and sales force automation processes with the latest Research In Motion (RIM) offerings.
Software Engineering: Designing a Better Experience for Communications, Media...Cognizant
Software makes the world go ‘round, from hyperefficient business operations to users wowed by the newest app interface and digital products. For CMT companies, software development innovation is the key not only to enhancing business agility but to rapidly designing and offering extraordinary experiences and cutting-edge products that will continually satisfy and delight customers.
This video for this talk from Business of Software Conference Europe 2018 will be published here soon: http://businessofsoftware.org/2016/07/all-talks-from-business-of-software-conferences-in-one-place-saas-software-talks/
Once upon a time, enterprise software was a safe bet for entrepreneurs and investors. This is no longer true. Since Salesforce.com launched in 1999, SaaS has shifted software from being a capital investment to recurring operating expense for customers, but for startups the funding from big upfront licenses is gone. SaaS has become canonical, but four other profound changes have transformed the world in which enterprise software firms operate:
Open source software.
‘The Cloud’.
Internal IT departments have largely changed focus to “keeping the lights on” and protecting systems from cyber attack.
The decline in access to public equity markets
What are the implications for building a B2B SaaS business?
Bill discusses the opportunities and challenges that the new enterprise paradigm presents entrepreneurs from the perspective of someone with five decades of experience investing and founding software companies.
IBM is announcing new mobile capabilities across building, connecting, managing, and securing the mobile enterprise. This includes rapid support for iOS6, support for native and offline apps in IBM Mobile Foundation, improved app distribution and management with IBM Endpoint Manager, and increased accuracy in identifying mobile access security risks with IBM Security Access Manager. IBM is also extending capabilities to mobile through solutions like IBM Social Business, Commerce, and Analytics.
Maximizing business application functionalityDavid Santos
The document discusses how companies can maximize the value of their enterprise applications while supporting cost-efficient business growth. It notes that companies are looking to get more functionality from existing applications like ERP and eCommerce solutions to drive revenue and efficiencies. However, constantly changing needs and increasing application complexity have made this challenging to do with internal resources alone. The document recommends that service providers can help companies adopt new capabilities across their application ecosystems and fully leverage existing applications without having to increase staff, by providing the necessary expertise gained from implementing solutions for many customers.
Microservices best practices: Integration platforms, APIs, and moreAbhishek Sood
Your business’s ability to adapt quickly, drive innovation, and meet new competition wherever it arises is a strategic necessity in today’s world of constant change and disruption.
This paper explores how many organizations are laying a foundation for continuous innovation and agility by adopting microservice architectures.
Discover how to build a highly productive, unified integration framework for microservices that creates a seamless app network with API-led connectivity.
The document discusses a study on developers' perspectives on building B2B e-commerce applications. Some key findings:
1) Current B2B e-commerce solutions often disappoint developers by not meeting important requirements like integration capabilities, customization, and speed of deployment.
2) Developers see Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions as an increasingly popular option compared to on-premise or Software-as-a-Service models, as PaaS provides more flexibility and quicker deployment.
3) The share of projects using PaaS is projected to increase the most over the next two years, indicating developers prefer the PaaS model for B2B e-commerce development
Cisco ONE Software Delivers Better Business OutcomesJohn Brigden
Cisco ONE Software provides a flexible way for customers to purchase network software separately from hardware. It aims to simplify procurement and management over the lifecycle of products. The document analyzes the total cost of ownership using traditional a la carte purchasing versus Cisco ONE Software for wireless access, WAN infrastructure, and data centers. It finds that Cisco ONE Software provides significant savings ranging from 10-55% over the traditional model due to better pricing, access to ongoing innovation, and software license portability during hardware refreshes.
The CLOUD. For techies - it is as real as an ashtray - to the non technical - it is invisible - can't be held in your hand or described - find out what all the chatter is about!
The analyst session presentation agenda provides an overview of the topics and presenters for the Monday, April 11th meeting. The day will include presentations on helping clients transform for growth, new capabilities for the agile enterprise, a cloud update, and Q&A sessions. There will also be executive 1-1 meetings and a reception in the evening. Marie Wieck will present in the morning on business strategy, results, and customer validation to help clients transform. Beth Smith will then discuss new product capabilities to enable agility, integration, and scalability.
- CIOs are facing mounting pressure to do more with less as IT spending decreases and more technology spending occurs outside the IT department.
- Unified Computing combines outsourcing managed services with cloud computing to provide IT departments agility and lower costs while allowing them to become strategic enablers of the business.
- This approach provides all the benefits of cloud infrastructure alongside application skills and delivery from a large systems integrator. Companies like UEFA have adopted this model to dynamically scale their systems and lower costs.
IBM Collaboration Forum - Exceptional Web Experiences and Project NorthstarIBM Sverige
Come and discover the potential to get closer to your customers and increase top line revenue by delivering exceptional web experiences. IBM recently unveiled Project Northstar, which allows our customers to deliver highly engaging, personalised, and differentiated web experiences that meet the evolving need of today's customer. Find out how Project Northstar and the IBM Customer Experience Suite can help attract and retain the best customers, improve brand loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, and lower operational costs.
Jon Mell, Social Collaboration Solutions Sales Leader, IBM
Digital Transformation Playbook: Guide to Unleashing Exponential GrowthBMC Software
BMC, the global leader in IT solutions for the digital enterprise, has teamed with PSFK, one of the world’s leading think tanks, to develop The Digital Transformation Playbook. This guide provides key insights and actionable steps for business executives and public sector organizations to follow as they seek to enhance customer experiences, processes, and business models through digital transformation. To download a complimentary copy of The Digital Transformation Playbook, visit http://www.bmc.com/playbook.
Cloud service providers survey breaking through the cloud adoption barriers- ...Christophe Monnier
- Providers expect their cloud revenue to almost double from 27% to 50% of total revenue in the next 2 years as adoption increases.
- The top reported customer motivations for cloud are cost reduction and speed to adoption. Providers' biggest challenge is demonstrating clear cost savings.
- Functions already commonly migrated to cloud include email/collaboration, sales/marketing, and office productivity tools. A wider range of functions are expected to migrate in the next 2 years.
The document discusses how the SaaS model is becoming an increasingly important trend and viable business model, especially during economic downturns when businesses seek to maximize technology ROI and efficiency with existing resources at lower costs. It notes that SaaS adoption will continue growing rapidly due to benefits like reduced costs, rapid deployment, centralized operations, and elastic scaling. Over the next five years, SaaS is expected to explode in prominence and change traditional business metrics and thinking, with the market evolving to include more niche providers and a blurring between SaaS and platform-as-a-service offerings.
This document discusses the growth of Software as a Service (SaaS) and how Ramco's new SaaS product, Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE), is well-positioned to take advantage of this growth. It notes that SaaS allows companies to convert capital expenditures to monthly/quarterly payments, improving flexibility. It also discusses how RODE meets the needs of small/medium businesses seeking more flexible, affordable IT solutions. The document argues that RODE and Ramco are well-positioned for success in India's growing domestic market.
IBM Bluemix is a cloud platform for building, running, and managing applications. It provides flexible compute options including containers and virtual machines. Bluemix can be deployed publicly, to a dedicated cloud, or on-premises. It offers a catalog of services to extend applications and robust DevOps tooling. Bluemix is built on IBM SoftLayer infrastructure which provides global data centers, networks, and security.
This document discusses IBM's LotusLive cloud-based collaboration platform. It begins by explaining why software as a service (SaaS) is an important delivery model, allowing businesses to access applications via subscription over the internet without owning the software. The document then outlines IBM's LotusLive strategy, which provides cloud-delivered collaboration solutions including messaging, content management, unified communications, and social/situational applications both online through a SaaS model and on-premise if desired. Customers can choose between dedicated hosting or a multi-tenant public cloud environment to suit their needs.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii is located on 40 acres of tropical landscape fronting Wailea Beach. Built in 1991, it has 780 guest rooms and 52 suites. Amenities include 12 restaurants, a spa, 9 pools including waterslides, and meeting/event spaces accommodating groups of any size. The resort offers ocean and mountain views, children's programs, golf courses, and an art collection featuring works by Botero, Warhol, and local artists.
Progetto etwinning"We are what we eat and do"IIS L. Sturzo
This document describes an eTwinning project between schools in Italy and Spain. The project aims to strengthen English language skills, introduce Spanish language and culture, and foster friendship between students in the two countries. Key activities included using dictionaries to learn food terms in multiple languages, analyzing food pyramids, discussing opinions on topics like fast food and healthy eating, and sharing information about food traditions and festivals in Italy and Spain. The project also included activities to help students get to know each other better as they collaborated online.
This video for this talk from Business of Software Conference Europe 2018 will be published here soon: http://businessofsoftware.org/2016/07/all-talks-from-business-of-software-conferences-in-one-place-saas-software-talks/
Once upon a time, enterprise software was a safe bet for entrepreneurs and investors. This is no longer true. Since Salesforce.com launched in 1999, SaaS has shifted software from being a capital investment to recurring operating expense for customers, but for startups the funding from big upfront licenses is gone. SaaS has become canonical, but four other profound changes have transformed the world in which enterprise software firms operate:
Open source software.
‘The Cloud’.
Internal IT departments have largely changed focus to “keeping the lights on” and protecting systems from cyber attack.
The decline in access to public equity markets
What are the implications for building a B2B SaaS business?
Bill discusses the opportunities and challenges that the new enterprise paradigm presents entrepreneurs from the perspective of someone with five decades of experience investing and founding software companies.
IBM is announcing new mobile capabilities across building, connecting, managing, and securing the mobile enterprise. This includes rapid support for iOS6, support for native and offline apps in IBM Mobile Foundation, improved app distribution and management with IBM Endpoint Manager, and increased accuracy in identifying mobile access security risks with IBM Security Access Manager. IBM is also extending capabilities to mobile through solutions like IBM Social Business, Commerce, and Analytics.
Maximizing business application functionalityDavid Santos
The document discusses how companies can maximize the value of their enterprise applications while supporting cost-efficient business growth. It notes that companies are looking to get more functionality from existing applications like ERP and eCommerce solutions to drive revenue and efficiencies. However, constantly changing needs and increasing application complexity have made this challenging to do with internal resources alone. The document recommends that service providers can help companies adopt new capabilities across their application ecosystems and fully leverage existing applications without having to increase staff, by providing the necessary expertise gained from implementing solutions for many customers.
Microservices best practices: Integration platforms, APIs, and moreAbhishek Sood
Your business’s ability to adapt quickly, drive innovation, and meet new competition wherever it arises is a strategic necessity in today’s world of constant change and disruption.
This paper explores how many organizations are laying a foundation for continuous innovation and agility by adopting microservice architectures.
Discover how to build a highly productive, unified integration framework for microservices that creates a seamless app network with API-led connectivity.
The document discusses a study on developers' perspectives on building B2B e-commerce applications. Some key findings:
1) Current B2B e-commerce solutions often disappoint developers by not meeting important requirements like integration capabilities, customization, and speed of deployment.
2) Developers see Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions as an increasingly popular option compared to on-premise or Software-as-a-Service models, as PaaS provides more flexibility and quicker deployment.
3) The share of projects using PaaS is projected to increase the most over the next two years, indicating developers prefer the PaaS model for B2B e-commerce development
Cisco ONE Software Delivers Better Business OutcomesJohn Brigden
Cisco ONE Software provides a flexible way for customers to purchase network software separately from hardware. It aims to simplify procurement and management over the lifecycle of products. The document analyzes the total cost of ownership using traditional a la carte purchasing versus Cisco ONE Software for wireless access, WAN infrastructure, and data centers. It finds that Cisco ONE Software provides significant savings ranging from 10-55% over the traditional model due to better pricing, access to ongoing innovation, and software license portability during hardware refreshes.
The CLOUD. For techies - it is as real as an ashtray - to the non technical - it is invisible - can't be held in your hand or described - find out what all the chatter is about!
The analyst session presentation agenda provides an overview of the topics and presenters for the Monday, April 11th meeting. The day will include presentations on helping clients transform for growth, new capabilities for the agile enterprise, a cloud update, and Q&A sessions. There will also be executive 1-1 meetings and a reception in the evening. Marie Wieck will present in the morning on business strategy, results, and customer validation to help clients transform. Beth Smith will then discuss new product capabilities to enable agility, integration, and scalability.
- CIOs are facing mounting pressure to do more with less as IT spending decreases and more technology spending occurs outside the IT department.
- Unified Computing combines outsourcing managed services with cloud computing to provide IT departments agility and lower costs while allowing them to become strategic enablers of the business.
- This approach provides all the benefits of cloud infrastructure alongside application skills and delivery from a large systems integrator. Companies like UEFA have adopted this model to dynamically scale their systems and lower costs.
IBM Collaboration Forum - Exceptional Web Experiences and Project NorthstarIBM Sverige
Come and discover the potential to get closer to your customers and increase top line revenue by delivering exceptional web experiences. IBM recently unveiled Project Northstar, which allows our customers to deliver highly engaging, personalised, and differentiated web experiences that meet the evolving need of today's customer. Find out how Project Northstar and the IBM Customer Experience Suite can help attract and retain the best customers, improve brand loyalty, increase customer satisfaction, and lower operational costs.
Jon Mell, Social Collaboration Solutions Sales Leader, IBM
Digital Transformation Playbook: Guide to Unleashing Exponential GrowthBMC Software
BMC, the global leader in IT solutions for the digital enterprise, has teamed with PSFK, one of the world’s leading think tanks, to develop The Digital Transformation Playbook. This guide provides key insights and actionable steps for business executives and public sector organizations to follow as they seek to enhance customer experiences, processes, and business models through digital transformation. To download a complimentary copy of The Digital Transformation Playbook, visit http://www.bmc.com/playbook.
Cloud service providers survey breaking through the cloud adoption barriers- ...Christophe Monnier
- Providers expect their cloud revenue to almost double from 27% to 50% of total revenue in the next 2 years as adoption increases.
- The top reported customer motivations for cloud are cost reduction and speed to adoption. Providers' biggest challenge is demonstrating clear cost savings.
- Functions already commonly migrated to cloud include email/collaboration, sales/marketing, and office productivity tools. A wider range of functions are expected to migrate in the next 2 years.
The document discusses how the SaaS model is becoming an increasingly important trend and viable business model, especially during economic downturns when businesses seek to maximize technology ROI and efficiency with existing resources at lower costs. It notes that SaaS adoption will continue growing rapidly due to benefits like reduced costs, rapid deployment, centralized operations, and elastic scaling. Over the next five years, SaaS is expected to explode in prominence and change traditional business metrics and thinking, with the market evolving to include more niche providers and a blurring between SaaS and platform-as-a-service offerings.
This document discusses the growth of Software as a Service (SaaS) and how Ramco's new SaaS product, Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE), is well-positioned to take advantage of this growth. It notes that SaaS allows companies to convert capital expenditures to monthly/quarterly payments, improving flexibility. It also discusses how RODE meets the needs of small/medium businesses seeking more flexible, affordable IT solutions. The document argues that RODE and Ramco are well-positioned for success in India's growing domestic market.
IBM Bluemix is a cloud platform for building, running, and managing applications. It provides flexible compute options including containers and virtual machines. Bluemix can be deployed publicly, to a dedicated cloud, or on-premises. It offers a catalog of services to extend applications and robust DevOps tooling. Bluemix is built on IBM SoftLayer infrastructure which provides global data centers, networks, and security.
This document discusses IBM's LotusLive cloud-based collaboration platform. It begins by explaining why software as a service (SaaS) is an important delivery model, allowing businesses to access applications via subscription over the internet without owning the software. The document then outlines IBM's LotusLive strategy, which provides cloud-delivered collaboration solutions including messaging, content management, unified communications, and social/situational applications both online through a SaaS model and on-premise if desired. Customers can choose between dedicated hosting or a multi-tenant public cloud environment to suit their needs.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii is located on 40 acres of tropical landscape fronting Wailea Beach. Built in 1991, it has 780 guest rooms and 52 suites. Amenities include 12 restaurants, a spa, 9 pools including waterslides, and meeting/event spaces accommodating groups of any size. The resort offers ocean and mountain views, children's programs, golf courses, and an art collection featuring works by Botero, Warhol, and local artists.
Progetto etwinning"We are what we eat and do"IIS L. Sturzo
This document describes an eTwinning project between schools in Italy and Spain. The project aims to strengthen English language skills, introduce Spanish language and culture, and foster friendship between students in the two countries. Key activities included using dictionaries to learn food terms in multiple languages, analyzing food pyramids, discussing opinions on topics like fast food and healthy eating, and sharing information about food traditions and festivals in Italy and Spain. The project also included activities to help students get to know each other better as they collaborated online.
La Unión Europea ha acordado un paquete de sanciones contra Rusia por su invasión de Ucrania. Las sanciones incluyen restricciones a las transacciones con bancos rusos clave y la prohibición de la venta de aviones y equipos a Rusia. Los líderes de la UE esperan que las sanciones aumenten la presión económica sobre Rusia y la disuadan de continuar su agresión contra Ucrania.
This document discusses the rise of software as a service (SaaS) delivery models which allow companies to access software applications over the internet rather than buying licenses and installing/maintaining software themselves. Some key points:
- SaaS is growing as customers want more flexibility and control over relationships with vendors. It also reduces maintenance headaches and upfront costs.
- 10% of the enterprise software market is projected to shift to pure SaaS models by 2009. Venture capital investment in SaaS companies has also risen significantly from 2002-2005.
- Traditional software vendors face threats if they do not explore SaaS delivery, as customers may switch to providers that offer applications this new way.
Asset intelligence utilizes networked devices to gather and act on data autonomously. It seeks to add value by increasing automated detection and action to decrease costs and response times. The proliferation of low-cost sensors and advances in artificial intelligence have enabled this approach. Companies like InControl offer asset intelligence services to automatically track, inventory, and monitor IT assets through integrated detection and data analysis.
This document discusses the rise of software as a service (SaaS) delivery models which allow companies to access software applications over the internet rather than buying licenses and installing software on their own machines. Some key points:
- SaaS is growing in popularity with both customers and investors as it offers benefits like lower costs, more flexibility, and easier upgrades compared to traditional licensing models.
- While SaaS currently makes up a small portion of the overall software market, projections estimate it will grow to 10% by 2009 as capabilities and customer demand increases.
- For traditional software vendors, moving to SaaS delivery or offering online options will be important to remain competitive and not lose customers to new ent
Marjorie Rosenberg's acrostic poem provides insights about her life and career. She has a Master's in Fine Arts and teaching certificate in music. She taught music in schools which taught her to adapt to different learners' needs. She is from New Jersey but has lived in Austria since 1981, where she teaches university students and does corporate training. She finds joy and forms close relationships with her students. She is interested in learning styles and how to encourage students. She has been an active member of IATEFL since 1995 and president since 2015. She enjoys her home in Graz, Austria, which offers cultural opportunities.
The slide deck from my StoryWorld 2012 presentation. Archived here as a repository of resources of some tech, websites and app that can assist with Transmedia storytelling as of October 2012 (expected to be outdated immediately)
Discover a review of biomarkers in 7,331 scientific articles, powered by Luxid!
Based on semantic enrichment capabilities offered by the BioMarker Skill Cartridge® and the Luxid® Annotation Server, 4SBio provides you a review of the current Biomarkers discussed in these 7331 Breast Cancer related corpus published between January and May 2015.
91 differents Biomarkers with a well described biomarker relations: 79 Proteins/Genes ; 10 miRNAs ; 2 Metabolites
Eurtex es una empresa tradicional de fabricación de damascos y diseño de textiles para hoteles, resorts, spas, cruceros, aerolíneas y ferrocarriles. Eurtex fabrica sus propios productos en Barcelona utilizando tecnología de última generación y personaliza cada producto según los requisitos de estilo del cliente.
Traditional application delivery is broken and cannot keep up with demands of the digital age. However, Low-code Platforms are emerging as key enablers to innovation by simplifying the development and deployment of custom enterprise apps.
The document discusses the shift in the enterprise software industry from licensing models to subscription and cloud-based models. It notes that anything offered as a service accounted for over $26 billion in revenues in 2011 for the top 100 software companies, representing a growing portion of the industry. The transition to new models is disruptive and challenges the pricing, delivery, and customer relationships of software companies. It also occurs alongside other industry trends that impact pricing models. The document outlines some of the positive and negative impacts this transition is having on software companies' business models and internal processes related to pricing, profitability, and financial reporting.
Splice Machine Digital Transformation 2.0 white paperSyed Mahmood
This document discusses the evolution of digital transformation. Digital Transformation 1.0 involved automating manual processes and moving operations online. While cloud migration provided agility, true transformation requires modernizing applications to leverage new data sources and intelligence. Digital Transformation 2.0 requires transitioning from systems of record to systems of signals that can analyze real-time data using AI/ML. For companies to realize the benefits of DX 2.0, all applications must be modernized to ingest diverse data sources and embed intelligence. Approaches like lambda architecture are too complex, requiring specialized skills and loose coupling between systems. True transformation is achieved by modernizing applications themselves.
- Cloud computing provides cost savings for enterprises by allowing them to access software services over the internet rather than maintaining their own servers and software. However, tracking software usage for billing purposes under usage-based licensing models is complex.
- Flexera Software provides solutions that help software companies implement a spectrum of licensing models, from strict enforcement of usage to a more flexible "trust but verify" approach, to maximize revenues and ensure compliance.
- As cloud-based services continue growing, new hybrid deployment and pricing models are needed to address the complex needs of tracking usage across local and cloud-based software environments.
This document discusses ERP trends based on survey results from Panorama Consulting Solutions. It finds that around 70% of companies customize ERP systems up to 25% and only about 50% of projected benefits are realized. Future trends discussed include increased adoption of cloud/SaaS models, mobile and wireless technologies, social integration, and a blurring of lines between ERP, CRM and SCM systems. The document also notes growth in ERP adoption among SMEs and in public sectors.
Serving the long tail white-paper (how to rationalize IT yet produce more apps)Newton Day Uploads
Businesses benefit from having fewer technology tools in their 'enterprise stack'. Yet CIOs still need to encourage innovation and employ software tools as an enabler for growth and cost reduction. This white paper focuses on the role of Situational Applications platforms to reduce the number of technology platforms whilst increasing opportunities to serve the long-tail of applications demands from individuals and communities of users whose needs are unfulfilled by core enterprise platforms.
This document is a white paper that discusses why cloud-based enterprise content management (ECM) solutions are gaining popularity. It notes that software as a service (SaaS) revenues are projected to grow significantly through 2014. The document explains that cloud/SaaS ECM allows organizations to access ECM applications over the internet without having to purchase servers or software licenses. It states that organizations are attracted to the cloud because it can deliver cost savings through efficiencies compared to traditional on-premise ECM systems. The white paper aims to provide insight into why cloud ECM adoption is increasing among organizations.
Introduction to Alternative New Approaches to IT DeliverySatyaKVivek
The concept of alternative IT delivery models has been popular for last several years. This isn’t a new concept. But the circumstances resulting from the Covid- 19 pandemic have underlined the importance of these models.
The document discusses the limitations of traditional software development methods, including bugs, time consumption, and failure to apply lessons learned. It introduces Encanvas' Applications Fabric as a codeless cloud service that allows for faster, lower risk application development. This addresses the need for organizations to develop applications quickly to support digital transformation and leverage disparate data sources. The Applications Fabric uses Computer Aided Application Development (CAAD) methods that involve designing applications using pre-formed building blocks rather than coding, reducing risks, costs and development times.
Microservices architecture, or simply microservices, is a method to broaden software frameworks or a single software as a collection of numerous small services. The following are likely to be the top microservices trends of the coming year. Let us take a look at them. https://bit.ly/3uNIrbs
The document discusses Workday's technology platform and development processes. It describes how Workday adopted a new architectural approach and development model compared to traditional enterprise applications. Some key points:
- Workday uses an in-memory metadata model and declarative development approach rather than traditional relational databases and procedural code.
- All application data, metadata, transactions, and requests are processed through centralized services for security, scalability, and continuous delivery of updates.
- Workday's approach aims to make applications easier for customers to use and own through continuous delivery, self-service configuration instead of custom code, and vendor management of the platform.
The Future of Enterprise Software - How Software Companies can Achieve High P...Philipp Stauffer
The document discusses how disruptive changes from the internet and new technologies like software-as-a-service and open source are transforming the enterprise software industry. It argues that the industry is moving from a model focused on proprietary innovation to one centered around efficiency and speed through industrializing the software value chain. This involves distributing software development globally and standardizing components for easier customization and maintenance. While some inertia remains, the internet's impact on transparency and interoperability means traditional vendors must reinvent their strategies or risk being disrupted over time.
The document discusses the rise of APIs and their importance for businesses. It defines APIs and explains how they allow modularization and standardization, like in other industries. APIs are becoming more critical as they allow companies to unlock digital assets and reach customers indirectly. The future of APIs includes areas like standardization, service level agreements, automated service brokering, and programmer-less stitching of services. The document recommends companies identify core digital assets, develop API-based business strategies and models, and work with 3scale to implement an API initiative and maximize potential.
MSP Industry Brief - From Break / Fix to Recurring Revenue Madeline Titcomb
This industry brief highlights the industry and technology trends impacting MSPs now and in the future. It highlights ways for MSPs to take advantage of the cloud to create new revenue streams, address customer needs, and grow recurring
revenue for greater profitability and less volatility.
AppDirect Cloud Service Commerce 101 White PaperMadeline Titcomb
This document discusses the opportunity for service providers to offer cloud services to customers. It notes that while 74% of SMBs want cloud services from their primary provider, only 45% currently receive them. Offering cloud services allows providers to generate new recurring revenue streams, deepen customer relationships, and move up the value chain. However, historically providers faced barriers to entry like high costs and risks of developing marketplaces in-house. The document recommends using a cloud commerce platform to reduce barriers and make it easier for providers to offer cloud services.
Cloud computing technology has been a new buzzword in the IT industry and expecting a new horizon for coming world. It is a style of computing which is having dynamically scalable virtualized resources provided as a service over the Internet.
Digital Engineering: Top 5 Imperatives for Communications, Media and Technolo...Cognizant
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1. Delivering software as a service 1
Web exclusive, May 2007
Delivering software as a
service
A new delivery method is shaking the software industry’s foundations.
Traditional vendors should take heed.
Abhijit Dubey and Dilip Wagle
The online delivery of software—sometimes labeled software as a
service—has been a long-standing dream for some vendors and CIOs. The
concept is simple and attractive: rather than buying a software license
for an application such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer
relationship management (CRM) and installing this software on individual
machines, a business signs up to use the application hosted by the company
that develops and sells the software, giving the buyer more flexibility to
switch vendors and perhaps fewer headaches in maintaining the software.
For many years, traditional software vendors (those who sell licensed and
packaged software, often along with a maintenance contract) have been
able to overlook a rising crop of competitors that offer software as a service,
as the latter have struggled to develop truly competitive services. It’s now
time for traditional companies to pay attention, for they risk losing their
privileged position to attackers that offer applications in this new way.
The complacence of traditional vendors is easily understood in light of the
record: the first generation of online software delivery, in the late 1990s,
failed to meet the reliability and quality standards demanded by business
users. But the new delivery method appears to be taking off. While it won’t
replace existing licenses and in-house custom-developed code overnight, an
2. 2 The McKinsey Quarterly Web exclusive, May 2007
Article at a glance
IDC report1 projects that 10 per-
Traditionally, companies buy software and then
cent of the market for enterprise
install and maintain these applications on their own software will migrate to a pure
machines. That model is giving way to one where software-as-a-service model by
companies will buy subscriptions and access services
2009. Our analyses suggest that
over the Internet from software developers that host
their own applications. software as a service is a growing
priority for CIOs and venture
Some applications will migrate to the new delivery
model faster than others, but all software makers capital investors.
should begin to explore the economics and necessary
capabilities for online delivery. Our review of venture capital
Revenue models for these developers will change, investments shows that companies
since software as a service delivers fees over time whose main business is delivering
rather than large up-front license purchases.
software as a service saw their
Customer service and R&D capabilities will also need revenues rise from $295 million in
to adjust to the reality of ongoing relationships with
2002 to $485 million in 2005, an
customers rather than periodic upgrades.
18 percent increase. On the buyer’s
side, our fall 2006 survey of senior
Related articles on
IT executives indicated a dramatic
mckinseyquarterly.com jump in the number of companies
“Coaching innovation: An interview with Intuit’s considering software-as-a-service
Bill Campbell” applications during 2007.2
“What’s on CIO agendas in 2007: A McKinsey Survey”
With software as a service, a
“Two new tools that CIOs want customer contracts to use an
application, such as ERP or CRM ,
hosted by a third party, rather
than buying a software license and installing the application on its own
machines. Just as consumers can check e-mail or use mapping programs
with their Web browsers, so too can enterprise customers access business
applications over the Internet.
Several factors are spurring the growth. New software design and delivery
models allow many more instances of an application to run at once in
a common environment, so providers can now share one application
cost effectively across hundreds of companies—a vast improvement on
the old client-server model. Bandwidth costs continue to drop, making it
affordable for companies to purchase the level of connectivity that allows
online applications to perform gracefully. Perhaps most important, many
1
Worldwide and US Software as a Service 2005–2009 Forecast and Analysis: Adoption for the Alternative
Delivery Model Continues, IDC, March 2005.
2
Janaki Akella, Kishore Kanakamedala, and Roger P. Roberts, “What’s on CIO agendas in 2007: A McKinsey
Survey,” The McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, January 2007.
3. Delivering software as a service
customers are eager for the shift, as they’re frustrated by the traditional
cycle of buying a software license, paying for a maintenance contract, and
then having to go through time-consuming and expensive upgrades. Many
customers believe they would have more control over the relationship if
they simply paid monthly fees that could be switched to another vendor if
the first failed to perform (see sidebar “How CIOs can get maximum value
from software as a service”). And finally, the successes of early leaders, such
as salesforce.com and WebEx, have demonstrated the viability and value
proposition of this model.
Market indicators suggest that investors share the enthusiasm of vendors
and CIOs. Our index of companies whose main business is software
delivered as a service outperformed the overall software company index
(excluding Microsoft) by more than 1 percent from January 2002 to
December 2006.
Although software-as-a-service vendors are less profitable than some
traditional software vendors today, this gap is primarily caused by a lack of
scale. We expect the economics of online delivery to change as the model
gains wider acceptance. Large software companies (excluding Microsoft)
typically have operating margins of around 25 percent. However, the
margins of companies with revenues below $1.2 billion a year hover around
14 percent—close to the 1 percent margin of the average software-as-a-
service vendor (Exhibit 1). A few service vendors already have much higher
margins (WebEx, at 26 percent, and Digital Insight, at 19 percent) because
they’ve been able to achieve scale and a leading position in their niches.
Other leaders, such as salesforce.com (which provides on-demand CRM and
sales force automation tools) and ADP (the world’s largest automated
check processor) have also gained mainstream uptake among midsize and
large companies.
Traditional software vendors across many industries, we believe, will
find their privileged position threatened unless they move aggressively
to serve their customers by making software applications available
online. To be successful, vendors will have to understand the rules of
the new game, especially how customer service and sales models differ,
and adjust accordingly. They’ll need to grasp why software is moving to
this model and how the new economics affect customers, intermediaries,
and providers—not only software developers, but also IT and business
The index included the performance of the following companies from January 2002 through December 2006:
Concur Technologies, Digital Insight, Digital River, RightNow Technologies, salesforce.com, Taleo, Ultimate
Software, WebEx, WebSideStory, and Workstream.
4. The McKinsey Quarterly Web exclusive, May 2007
How CIOs can get maximum value
from software as a service
Software as a service offers several advantages to department’s infrastructure system that supports this
IT buyers, including more frequent (and potentially function. If the vendor cannot match its competition’s
less painful) upgrades, a lower cost of ownership level of service, then it will fail to realize the full
(up to 30 percent less for a CRM implementation, benefits from the switch.
as the exhibit shows), and a higher level of service
from vendors that must become more responsive to Third, IT managers will need to work closely with
customer needs or risk losing subscription revenues. their business colleagues to refine IT governance
Countering these benefits are the acknowledged mechanisms to capture the best business value
risks of reliability (how can IT departments ensure from online delivery. Departmental charge backs,
that the business can access its applications?) for example, will require some redesign as software
and security (how can it guarantee data privacy in moves from large capital expenditures to smaller
line with regulations?). In addition to these broad but ongoing operating expenses (specifically, the
concerns, CIOs and other IT managers must make recurring subscription fees). Decision rights will
changes in their architectural, managerial, and also have to be modified. Explicit mechanisms, for
governance models to capture the full value of this example, will be needed to determine who decides
new model. the level of customization of software and who
pays for it when two departments want to use
Since most IT systems have been designed as closed the software but only one requires modifications.
systems with a few controlled links to the outside Customers and vendors will need to identify who
world, CIOs will have to shift their thinking about should control the intellectual-property rights on
architecture to a hybrid model of closed and open modified software.
systems. In a review of which systems should be
wholly internal and which should be leased as a Taken together, all of these changes signal that IT
service or completely outsourced, the business must leaders will need to do more than simply plug in new
consider not only data security but also the pace hosted applications; they must revisit the foundations
at which different applications are evolving. This of the IT organization in order to ensure a smooth and
hybrid nature of business applications, which will fruitful transition to the new model.
increasingly look out as well as in, will also affect
decisions on middleware. A comprehensive redesign Kishore Kanakamedala is a consultant and
of a company’s IT architecture must take this factor Roger Roberts is a principal in McKinsey’s Silicon
into account to help the company avoid creating a Valley office.
new system that is as complex or unstructured as the
legacy system being replaced.
Second, the move to software as a service is
frequently justified not only by the lower cost to
own but also, and more important, by its promise to
deliver better service than licensed software can
with a maintenance contract. In order to get the full
benefit of that improved service, IT organizations
need to be able to match these service-level
guarantees and link them with internal commitments
to business users and end customers. For example, if
a software-as-a-service vendor guarantees a service
level on invoice-processing speed, the IT department
must ensure the availability of the purchasing
5. PA 2007 Delivering software as a service
SaaS
Exhibit 3 of 3 (Sidebar exhibit)
Glance: Software as a service offers a reduction in total cost of ownership.
exhibit
Exhibit title: Total cost of ownership differs
Total cost of ownership differs
Sample deployment of customer-relationship-management (CRM) software (200-seat license)
Total cost of ownership, $ thousand
Software on Software as Sources of savings with
premises a service software as a service
Implementation, deployment • Reduced deployment time, limited
Customization, integration 108 72 customization, self-service through
on-boarding scripts
Basic infrastructure testing, 54 0
deployment • Does not require infrastructure and
application testing
Application infrastructure 30 0
testing, deployment
Ongoing operations • Lowers training requirements through
–Simpler user interfaces
Training 101 34
–Self-training, service capabilities
Management, customization of 94 0 • Does not require ongoing business
business process change process change management
– Vendors monitor customer usage
to enhance offering
– Customers provide feedback to
influence feature functionality
Data center facilities rental, operations; 750 0
security, compliance; monitoring of
incident resolution • Includes vendor’s costs to serve in
subscription price (ongoing operations,
Software back-end hardware and software)
User licenses, subscriptions; 480 1,500
maintenance
Other • Provides 99.9% general-server
Unscheduled downtime 308 0 availability vs 99%
Unused licenses 92 0 • Reduces unused licenses by 20%,
users added as needed
Total costs (including those 2,298 1,640
not shown here)
6. PA 2007
The McKinsey Quarterly Web exclusive, May 2007
SaaS
Exhibit 1 of 3
Glance: The economics of companies that deliver software as a service differ from those of
e x h isoftware companies, though they are similar to those of smaller ones.
large b i t 1
Exhibit title: Economics of software companies
Economics of software companies
Breakdown of profit and loss line items as % of top-line revenue1
14 13
EBITDA2 31
Selling, general, 46 49
and administrative 35
expenses (SGA)
15 13
RD 15
Cost of goods 25 25
19
sold (COGS)
All traditional Traditional software Pure software-as-a-service
software companies companies with vendors3 with $1.2 billion
$1.2 billion in revenues in revenues
Averages, based on latest available annual nancial data for each company.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Includes Concur Technologies, Digital Insight, Digital River, RightNow Technologies, salesforce.com, Taleo, Ultimate
Software, WebEx, WebSideStory, Workstream.
Source: Company annual reports; McKinsey analysis
process outsourcing providers. They will have to make changes in their
own organizations by ramping up their ability to deliver software from
large data centers and by developing new ways to sell to and service their
customers. The sooner software companies embrace the change, the
better access they’ll have to top talent and new markets and the better off
they are likely to be in the long term.
Emerging potential
The first wave of adoption for software as a service has been under way for
several years. Companies are eager to acquire the technology for human-
resources applications such as CRM and payroll and for collaboration
tools that aren’t mission critical, involve relatively low data security and
privacy concerns, have a distributed user base, and require little integration
with on-premise applications and little customization. In addition, several
industry-specific applications are gaining popularity in large industries such
as financial services, health care, and retail, as well as in smaller ones such
as automotive retailing, law, and real estate.
The next wave of applications seems likely to involve transactions between
buyers and suppliers, including procurement, logistics, and supply chain
management. As customers grow increasingly comfortable with the concept,
7. Delivering software as a service 7
a third wave of applications more critical to business, such as hosted
environments for software development, may also start to be delivered in
this way. Enterprise customers and those in small and midsize businesses
are likely to adopt applications at different rates. For example, some
smaller businesses are already embracing the online delivery of financial
applications, whereas large enterprises may never do so because of the
breadth and depth of functionality required or because of concerns about
data security (Exhibit 2).
All three waves mostly aim to replicate the functionality of applications that
have been sold as packaged software and hosted on the customer’s site. The
next frontier—we might call it software as a service 2.0—will include new
classes of applications which are actually better suited for online delivery
and seamlessly integrate with on-premise applications. Consider spam- or
virus-protection applications, which are superior to e-mail filters because
they stop junk e-mail or harmful viruses before they enter a company’s fire
wall. Other well-suited applications are those that perform some kind of
data reconciliation, like software that reconciles differing SKUs between
suppliers and retailers. Such products will increasingly rely on repositories
in “the cloud.”
What software vendors must do
Software developers that shift from a traditional licensed model to software
as a service will need to work hard to retain existing customers. Companies
that have purchased long-term contracts for updates and maintenance, for
example, will want guarantees of favorable subscription pricing under the
new model. Others may be so comfortable with their current setup that
they will switch only if the software vendor makes it painless, perhaps even
free. Additional issues to consider during the transition from packaged
software to software as a service include RD and customer support—not
all customers will switch at the same moment, so vendors may need to run
dual operations in these parts of the business.
Under the new model, the economics of the software and IT services
industries will also change. Vendors will have to adapt their financial and
operating models or risk losing their privileged positions (see sidebar “The
threat to BPO vendors”).
Adjust the revenue model
Software developers that deliver software as a service experience higher
sales and marketing costs relative to earnings than traditional vendors do.
There are at least two reasons. First, a subscription model for software
produces lower revenues during the growth phase, since payments are
8. PA 2007
SaaS McKinsey Quarterly Web exclusive, May 2007
The
Exhibit 2 of 3
Glance: Applications are likely to migrate from traditional delivery to software as a service at
different times for enterprise customers vs. small and midsize businesses.
exhibit 2
Exhibit title: Migration of software applications
Migration of software applications
Migration of applications from traditional delivery to software as a service
Already migrating Likely to migrate Unlikely to migrate Not applicable (application Pace of migration varies
in 3 years associated with hardware) among different customer
segments
Large enterprises
Small and midsize businesses (SMEs)
Infrastructure Security Identity, access Secure Threat Security and
management management management content management vulnerability
management management
Storage Backup, Storage Storage File system
management archival resource replication software
software management
System Change, Performance Event Network and
management configuration management automation/job service
management scheduling management
Development, Application Development Integration,
integration development, tools deployment
tools deployment tools
Core Enterprise Financial Payroll Human-capital Customer
business resource applications management relationship
applications management management
Engineering Product life Project Business
applications cycle management intelligence
management
Supply chain Product Inventory Procurement Logistics
management planning management
Collaboration, IP telephony Messaging Conferencing
communication applications applications
Content Authoring Web content Web analytics Document and
applications applications management records
management
Information Information Search tools E-commerce
marketplace services (online store-
front)
Niche Location-based
applications services
9. Delivering software as a service
The threat to BPO vendors
As more and more applications migrate to this new example, customer relationship applications based
delivery platform, software as a service could be a on extensive call center experience) rather than scale
disruptive force in the IT landscape by raising the efficiency or lower labor costs. ADP, for example, has
competitive bar for business process outsourcers. already moved in this direction, offering applications
As the products of software-as-a-service related to human-resources tasks as a service to
companies begin to rival those of outsourcing clients. OpenAir, another provider of human-resources
vendors, the latter will need to offer higher-value and financial-services outsourcing, offers online
services to remain relevant, or perhaps develop tools for tracking expenses. Ketera and SciQuest
and offer their own software delivered as a Technologies are emerging players in on-demand
service. The competitive advantage of business supply chain services, while Digital Insight provides an
process outsourcers in this area would likely be online-banking platform.
their deep knowledge of specific domains (for
spread over a period rather than made immediately in a one-off license
sale. Sales expenses in both models are expensed as incurred, however,
leading to a higher ratio of costs to earnings for the service model. Second,
a higher percentage of a service vendor’s customers are small and midsize
businesses: more effort is required to reach them compared with the large-
enterprise customers that make up more of the customer base of traditional
software companies. Over time, however, as subscription revenue streams
become steadier, the service model may look better, since the incremental
marketing and operating costs of adding additional subscribers and of
offering new services and applications for existing customers are minimal.
The cost structure for online software as a service differs in other ways
too. For example, software-as-a-service vendors have lower RD costs
than traditional software companies do because the former don’t have to
develop and maintain multiple versions of a product to run on different
platforms. While they tend to have lower customer support costs (partly
because they often limit customer service to self-help options rather than
telephone support) and do not incur any product distribution costs (such as
CD creation, packaging, and manuals), software-as-a-service vendors have
higher costs for delivery than their traditional counterparts do because of
the costs associated with hosting, bringing customers and users onboard,
and managing the application and data center environments. Traditional
software companies may also depend more on revenues from consulting
services, which can often amount to two to four times the license fees.
Consulting opportunities appear to be fewer in the software-as-a-service
realm, where implementation is less challenging.
10. 10 The McKinsey Quarterly Web exclusive, May 2007
Build a platform
As in other radical shifts that have affected the software industry over
the past two decades (PCs, client-server computing, and the Internet, for
example), players who respond quickly to emerging trends will often
be best placed. A first step, as noted earlier, is to understand which
applications will migrate when and to position one’s own offerings early in
the uptake. For example, Siebel lost precious time by initially dismissing
the idea of software as a service, allowing salesforce.com to steal a lead
in the online delivery of CRM applications. Tracking the receptiveness of
customers to the service delivery model is critical, so vendors will need to
build organizational capabilities to monitor and shape demand.
For traditional vendors, a broad platform that allows them to supplement
and enhance their applications is essential, as is deciding which platform
to join. Most large software companies are adept at building these
developer platforms in the licensed model (Microsoft’s Windows platform
being the best known). Platforms for software as a service are similar in
that they require vendors to establish and evangelize a set of application-
programming interfaces (APIs) and standards for data exchange among
applications. But platform partners in the software-as-a-service model
can also build onto the back-end infrastructure of applications, where
the billing, metering, provisioning, and advertising functions may reside.
This approach can reduce development costs for partners, but it also may
increase those costs for the platform provider.
A second key difference between the models is that version upgrades tend
to occur more often and in smaller chunks with software as a service
than with the traditional approach. A platform vendor typically releases
a major revision once every three to five years, and the company and its
partners go to great lengths to make sure that the new version works with
older machines and applications and that any upgrades from partners
don’t break the platform. The smaller but more frequent upgrades in the
software-as-a-service model allow platform providers and partners to
ensure compatibility continually with an ongoing investment in smaller
increments.
In the migration to the online delivery model, partnerships are likely to
change. Some competitors may become partners if their interests align on
a common platform. Just as likely, some intermediaries (especially resellers
and systems integrators) may find themselves cut out of a direct relationship
with the developer and the customer unless they can find a way to add value.
11. Delivering software as a service 11
The compensation structure, for both internal sales and channel partners,
will need to change. Specifically, commissions will have to be based on
ongoing customer usage and revenue rather than on the sale of large up-
front licenses.
Improve internal capabilities
In the new delivery model, the sales and marketing function should follow
the lead of those software-as-a-service vendors that are targeting the
business side of the customer organization. One reason for this emphasis
is that many of the early applications for online delivery—sales force
automation, human resources, CRM —are pure business applications. Once
they have demonstrated their value, IT managers may be more willing to
adopt this mode for applications within the IT realm, including e-mail,
security, and storage. Even CIOs who support the concept of online
delivery may be concerned about the security and reliability of this new
approach and so may hesitate to change if the current system isn’t broken.
The biggest capability gap for software companies embracing the new
model is in the operational and customer service skills necessary to deliver
software online. The operational challenge is to host the software rather
than shrink-wrap and ship it. Companies will have to develop capabilities
to handle massive data center operations, systems and network monitoring,
and billing.
Software vendors will also need to change their attitudes toward customer
service. Complaints frequently involve incidents that are mission critical,
thus demanding immediate attention. Systems outages and connectivity
problems can affect all customers at once, implying large fluctuations
in incident volumes, so first-line user support must be able to handle
unpredictable spikes in inquiries. In our experience, moreover, software-
as-a-service customers rely heavily on online tools, knowledge bases, and
forums and as such represent a savvy and demanding user group.
RD capabilities will also need to change. Smaller but more frequent
online upgrades will demand new attitudes on deadlines and quality. While
deadlines for upgrades can be flexible, the online release of a new version
to the entire user base will have to be bug free. Also, the RD department
will need to expand its focus from the product and its features to the
entire delivery model, including tools for serving the software, billing the
customer, and aggregating different software services. Last but not least,
to ensure a smooth end-user experience during releases RD units must
develop a customer service mind-set and collaborate with those parts of the