Comments on: A response to Zoli’s SaaS observation…

By: Donovan Johnson

Donovan Johnson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:35:00 +0000

G’day – great blog, learned a lot.

You don’t happen to have a link to that Gartner customer survey do you? We’re a Christchurch based Saas company that is just starting out and it seems like it’d be a great reference for us.

Check us out and let me know what you think – we provide compliance management solutions for Quality, health & safety, and risk management.

Cheers,

By: Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:20:52 +0000

I’ll aim to live up to the responsibility!

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:16:19 +0000

Hey, I have you in my reader

By: Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:35:52 +0000

Zoli

Firstly I’m stoked that you read my post (or maybe it was just the trackback that got your attention!)

Agree with your points re the demarcation between office productivity apps and all the “heavier” stuff. And again agree that installation is only a small part of the implementation for these heavy apps but still I contend that total implementation (including training, process etc etc) is quicker and easier for SaaS than on-premise.

We are however splitting hairs seeing we’re both SaaS evangelists – cheers for the thoughts

By: 3 Half-Truths about SaaS| Zoli’s Blog

3 Half-Truths about SaaS| Zoli’s Blog — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:34:26 +0000

[...] but I forgot to specify that. Instead of replicating the argument, why don’t you read my response to his response at Ben’s [...]

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:27:26 +0000

Ben, you got me there, I will update my post. I wrote it in a specific context while participating at an internal SAP Marketing Meeting (virtual… as in SaaS) and forgot to revise it when I posted it on my own blog. So let’s see:

- If we’re talking about productivity tools like editors, spreadsheets, calendars..etc, then you are right, since their “implementation” is nothing more than the technical installation and updates, so SaaS is clearly a lot shorter / easier / cheaper.

- In the context of business process software, be it CRM, Accounting, HCM, ERP ..etc the technical installation is a fraction of the entire implementation effort, and that’s what I am talking about.

I would leave the long-term ROI out, it’s an entirely different story.

Btw, you do know I am as pro-SaaS as it gets, but over-hyping does not help.