Comments on: Office by subscription? What?

By: Peeling the onion - Microsoft’s S+S.. at diversity.net.nz

Peeling the onion - Microsoft’s S+S.. at diversity.net.nz — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:59:47 +0000

[...] Microsoft revealed Equipt the other day (Diversity coverage here) there was much discussion as to whether it amounted to the totality of MS’s SaaS [...]

By: The UM

The UM — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:45:26 +0000

So maybe this is a debate of SaaS V S+S.

By: stuartm

stuartm — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:26:06 +0000

Just to clarify some misunderstanding – Microsoft are not labeling this as SaaS, they have coined their own new buzzword called “S+S” which is Software plus Services. For example: Microsoft Office installed locally on your maching is “Software”, “Plus”, Microsoft Office Live is an online “Service” that complements the software.

Obviously Microsoft want people to think that S=S is the same as SaaS so that it gets them in the cool crowd, but because something like 90% of their revenue comes from locally installed software, they have no reason to stop supplying locally installed software. So they are adding online services to complement their core produts like Windows (Windows Live) and Office (Office Live).

On the other hand, you can consider their new Hosted Exchange service to be classified as SaaS as it’s a fully hosted email/groupware solution that requires no software installed locally apart from a web browser.

By: The UM

The UM — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:13:41 +0000

Hey Falafulu,

My understanding is that pure SaaS has no installed component. SaaS as a buzzword has a lot of crapola software being lumped with it and using its good name.

For that reason others have tried to rename the beast to webware, internet delivered services etc….

I have no issue with offline tools like gears, i think that they play an important role in SaaS.

By: Falafulu Fisi

Falafulu Fisi — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:51:11 +0000

Unreasonable said…
Confusingly some are calling this part of their S+S play but it seems that the software is locally installed so its not really “SaaS” – just the update feature…

Umm! I think that it could be called SaaS although I am not a SaaS expert. I think that it is immaterial of where the app lives as a guideline to define SaaS. Java WebStart technology is exactly the same, ie, installed locally but it is being updated in realtime, when the local copy detects that the server has a new version (even if there was only a single class file that was updated the previous night). WebStart only downloads that single file itself and not the damn whole thing all over again. It is fast ( a few seconds for small incremental update). Such technology is appropriate for heavy UI and graphics which HTML or even Flash-based web apps lacks, ie, things like visualizations, interactive plottings, imaging, etc… The other advantage is that some of the heavy computation has be handed over to the local machine rather than doing it on the server.

By: The UM

The UM — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:23:00 +0000

True enough. If this is the reality of S+S then its kind of underwhelming

I had expected more.

By: stuartm

stuartm — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:54:44 +0000

And I forgot to mention that it also includes Office Live Workspace, which is the “+S” part of S+S.

By: stuartm

stuartm — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:50:02 +0000

This qualifies as a S+S product as it isn’t just MS Office, but is an integrated package of Office, Live OneCare, and other Live products (Mail, Messenger, Writer, etc.) Don’t forget that Microsoft’s definition of S+S is not the same thing as SaaS.

By: The UM

The UM — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:42:34 +0000

Not sure Julian. I seem to remember that just this year they beat the hell out of a service provider in England who was offering something along these lines…

Major hurdle to get over is the “license…to print money” vs subscription and rule of 78…

By: julian stone

julian stone — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:19:02 +0000

Didn’t they try that 5 years ago and it crashed and burned for them?