Much of the discussion of Software as a Service has focused on
technical details like multi-tenancy or on the way SaaS allows end-users
to bypass their IT departments. What has been ignored in my view are
the second order effects of both the technology infrastructure of SaaS
and the business model, which has become known as the Subscription
Economy. These second order effects are changing the requirements for
business software in a variety of ways that contain important lessons
for CIOs and CTOs.
What is a Second Order Effect of SaaS?
To make it clear what I’m talking about, here is an example of the
most obvious second order effect of the multi-tenant model: SaaS
software is much easier to configure than on-premise single tenant
applications. Remember in the SaaS model, there is only one version of
the software that everyone uses. The vendor takes responsibility for
upgrading everyone from one version to the next. The direct relationship
between the vendor and the customer means that any problems with
configuration directly show up as higher support costs, not as higher
revenue for implementation partners. As a result, SaaS vendors have to
focus a huge amount of attention on making the software easy to
configure and customize. In the on-premise model, channel partners who
help sell the software may be hurt by better configurability, which
could lead to lower service revenue.
Salesforce.com
in my opinion sets the highest standard. Its configuration system
allows both simple changes without too much fuss, but also allows
extensive customization. (See “Saleforce.com’s Secret Sauce”
for a discussion of multi-tenancy. Key quote: “The biggest value of
multi-tenancy is not the benefit that Salesforce points out but the fact
that it forced Salesforce into doing a better job of creating a
metadata-driven application.”)
[...]
>>> Ver artículo original completo en: http://www.forbes.com/
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