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.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence 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.

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