Indicee » software as a service

Ghost of Software Salesguys Past

Geoff Devereux — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:45:57 +0000

We are greatly influenced by our experiences. As a child, the hand reaches out to a hot stove only once.

The last couple posts have talked about legacy issues; legacy IT systems, legacy education. Today I’d like to talk about another actor in the Legacy IT Show, the classic software salesman (circa. 2004).

This guy (above) may or may not be selling software, but does the song and dance sound familiar? I’ve sat on both sides of the table. Listening to salesguys pitch software to me as a purchaser, and doing the accounting & finance work in a company selling enterprise software. Software, as an industry, is still an infant relative to most other industries; and with youth, comes growing pains. Here’s the story on both sides.

Listening to pitches, sitting through demos, taking notes only to be asked by a Director, “what would it cost if we just built our own?” was crushing. Or, hearing about how easy a rollout will be (“it’s like lego”) and then, months later, hearing about how it won’t do all that stuff we thought it would do. Did we send out that cheque yet?

On the sell-side, working with salesmen who could barely operate a computer or use excel well enough to complete an expense report. There was one colleague who seemed to continually be calling me from the middle of a war zone, god bless ‘em. The path to hell is paved with good intentions, indeed.

Over the years, I think we were selling more than software. We were selling a dream. And the dream was that somehow this product would magically work and fix all reporting and organizational problems. Presto!

Inevitably, due either to the vagaries of the software development cycle or to a salesguys overly optimistic nature, enterprise software was erroneously peddled as a solution to all life’s problems and the answer to all our prayers. Coding is an art and the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) didn’t work in a Web 1.0 kind of world. It’s easy to forget this was all being pulled out of the air, out of imagination. We can probably lay a bit of blame on the buyer’s side; I mean, we fell fer it!

Vapourware is the term used to describe selling software that’s still in development although, you could say the same for a solution not fit for the intended purpose. Which gets us back to our salesguy, our classic software salesman.

A lack of technical expertise, in large part, meant they were simply oblivious to whether it would work or not. The incentive structure certainly didn’t encourage it. Once the papers were signed, they’re gone (in some respects that’s as it should be, most of these companies were hemorrhaging cash). So, it’s a tough rap. You can’t fault the guys. There was a level of belief there; they wanted to believe the product would work. They wanted to believe they could be the next Microsoft. They wanted to believe their stock options would be worth something. But they could only believe it because they didn’t know how the product worked. You follow?

It’s just average guys trying to scratch out a living. That Beamer doesn’t pay for itself! If you’re willing to pay for it, we’re willing to do it!

We carry these experiences and memories with us. Failed implementations. The project that wouldn’t end. Lack of adoption. The work-arounds. The broken promises, heartbreak, loathing. It’s all still there lying dormant. Fool me once and that.

Looking at Saas, the cloud, open APIs, etc, the question now is… can we let go of this baggage and start to trust that the dream is no longer so distant from reality in the software space? Are we really in an era where systems can talk to each other? Can share information? Can snap together like lego? Or, is it just Vapourware 2.0?

What do you think? Yes? No? Let’s hear it.

Post Script. After finishing this post, I went to hear Julian Smith (co-author of Trust Agents) speak and he used the “hot burner” analogy. I’m going to go ahead and call that external validation.

SaaS…The Holy Grail?

Mark Cunningham — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:35:50 +0000

During my daily Twitter feed scan I came across a poll published by Shawn Rogers (@shawnrog – Editorial Director of the Business Intelligence Network) on what technology will impact business intelligence the most in 2009. At first, I was most intrigued with the post because I wanted to see how he created a poll on Twitter! Turns out that @twtpoll has created a cool little application for creating these types polls. But after following the poll for a week I became more interested in the results. As of January 19 the clear leader was Software as a Service(SaaS).

Which technology will impact Business Intelligence the most in 2009

	Total: 129 votes
	Software as a Service (SaaS) [ 42% (54 votes) ]
	The Cloud [ 9% (11 votes) ]
	Appliances (DW, BI, Application) [ 16% (20 votes) ]
	Performance Management [ 18% (23 votes) ]
	Search (unstructured data) [ 16% (21 votes) ]

I realize the sample size is small (88 votes as of January 19) but I believe this trend is indicative of what is going on in the market as a whole. At Indicee we have bet the farm on SaaS but we didn’t need a poll or a bunch of analysts to tell us we should do this. We did it because we have been in the trenches doing BI for 20 years and we have seen the trend coming by listening to the business users that work with BI products every day.

Why is SaaS growing in Popularity?

While still in its infancy the SaaS market is maturing at an extremely rapid pace. I believe that SaaS is the future of software and that almost all software can and should be delivered as a service. The biggest unknown is how long will it take for the business world to adopt to this new way of working with software. The consumer world has been using SaaS for a number of years with applications like gmail, facebook and the thousands of other basic services that are available. The business world faces a few more barriers to adoption but they are being knocked down at a fairly rapid pace thanks to the demand of the business user community. Here are a few areas that I see to be the main drivers to the expansion of the SaaS market.

World Economy is a Changin’

We have all seen the doom and gloom on the news about our disastrous economy. I am no expert in macroeconomics but I know enough to see the significant impact the most recent implosion has had on the world economy. When I hear about bail outs, bankruptcy protection and mergers of the worlds largest corporations it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this will have an impact on the software world. Purchasing a SaaS solution is much more compelling than enterprise software in a down market. Enterprise software requires capital expenditure and the market uncertainty will apply more pressure on businesses to avoid any unnecessary capital outlay. SaaS, on the other hand, is a much lower risk proposition with its pay as you go services.

The Technology Enablers

I remember the days of ASP (Application Service Providers) when software companies were hot on this idea of hosting their software on a server where businesses could access them remotely. Interesting idea but the world wasn’t ready for it. The problem was that the underlying technology foundation was not in place. The need for simplifying IT involvement and management of software projects is imperative given the limited access to these resources. In response to this our market has developed a number of enabling technologies that facilitate the implementation of true SaaS solutions. SOA, virtualization and cloud computing are reducing costs and creating greater efficiencies that are critical to the long-term success and adoption of SaaS solutions.

Getting to the Masses

Let’s face it….traditional enterprise software is kinda broken. Archaic architectures, cumbersome business models, expensive and complex installations and terrible usability are all factors driving a new breed of software. Getting to the mass of users in any size organization is not going to happen until the software accessibility, complexity and cost is brought down to a level that a much larger user base can access. The concept of consumerization is driving innovation in the business world. Business users like you and I expect to find, buy and use software in the same way we access consumer applications like Amazon.com, Gmail or Facebook. Don’t believe me? Go and talk to all the business users I chat with. I have heard them gripe about how hard it is to use their enterprise BI, CRM and ERP applications. “Why can’t it be like Flickr?” I have heard many say. The drive to reach a wider a user audience, the proliferation of the Internet and the booming mobile market are pushing technology vendors to innovate like never before and this innovation is pushing technology to a much wider audience.

I am a big believer in SaaS. It is only a matter of time before we see almost every type of business application offered in a SaaS format. The wave is building and the early innovators will be able to ride it. What about those who wait? If you are surfer you will know what I mean when I say that the wave “closed out on you.” If you are not a surfer….think rag doll and a bunch of white water!