Over on Rods blog, Paul from unreasonablemen posted this seemingly throwaway comment;
“Incidentally, POTS is the greatest SaaS ever provide”
This got me thinking, about telcos so I thought Id look at this some more.
Wikipedia defines SaaS thusly;
- network-based access to, and management of, commercially available (i.e., not custom) software
- activities that are managed from central locations rather than at each customer’s site, enabling customers to access applications remotely via the Web
- centralized feature updating, which obviates the need for downloadable patches and upgrades.
Given this definition it’s fair to say that POTS is SaaS.
With this in mind I decided to do some visioning of future telcos, using my SaaS/s and SaaS/v models. To date telcos have been pretty much using a SaaS/s play. Each new development is either a repackaging or a price change. I contend that we’ve not yet seen a true SaaS/v play from our telcos.
To me a telco SaaS/v play would be themed around problem-centric aggregation, creating (or at least aggregating) a host of solutions, aggregating diverse components, all of which are needed/wanted by their customers, and delivering it in one easily navigable, easy digestible way.
Facebook does SaaS/v (albeit in a somewhat low-brow manner). Telcos need to discover ways to do similarly but within their own skills, abilities and ecosystems.
clever