An interesting opinion piece by Michael A. Braun of Intacct, a SaaS ERP/Financial company, looks at traditional installed application suites, claiming that they are “yesterday’s news”.
More interesting is the response it generated. The article is interesting, framed very much as a PR flier, but with some interesting points nonetheless. Commentators have lashed the author for the efficacy of his own product, the hyperbole they claim he uses in the article, and the general poor construct of the case he puts forward.
Looking past all that, his central premise is that;
Today’s Internet-based computing platform and Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model enable customers to choose the superior function of [best of breed] solutions with confidence. Indeed, the suite is “so yesterday.” It was born during the client/server computing era to solve a set of technology integration problems that the Internet and SaaS have rendered obsolete.
I can’t help but agree…..
Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. 