Discussion on: SaaS: Probably worth a look, despite the overwrought pitches http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cio/saas-probably-worth-a-look-despite-the-overwrought-pitches/ A proportional mix of news and wit for the midmarket Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:43:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: Zchurch http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cio/saas-probably-worth-a-look-despite-the-overwrought-pitches/#comment-13 Zchurch Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:27:28 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cio/saas-probably-worth-a-look-despite-the-overwrought-pitches/#comment-13 I honestly couldn't pick one industry over another where SaaS adoption is having broad adoption right now. I think a big part of this will be seeing what companies do as they decide it is time for a change in infrastructure. Most midmarket companies aren't going to phase out legacy systems, be it ERP or a sales op information program like LucidEra hopes to replace, until they absolutely have to. So this will take time. Check out [A href="http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid183_gci1301840,00.html"]this story[/A] to see how even a big-time vendor like SAP has been slow out of the gate with its new SaaS offering, Business ByDesign. As for metrics, that's a tough one. The easy answer is customers. But since so many SaaS programs sell by seat, should we be measuring the number of companies using a product or the total number of users? And come to think of it, even that wouldn't be a great measuring stick. After all, another measure of a good SaaS product could be how well it works in companies with only a handful of users. Concerning Salesforce, I mention them because they have some key factors in achieving success. Name recognition and partners (in a sense, at least). I notice that LucidEra has a "for salesforce.com" tab on the website. Intacct was pretty pumped about the connection as well. If smaller vendors are in a rush to say they work with salesforce.com, that's some form of success. Anecdotal, of course. I honestly couldn’t pick one industry over another where SaaS adoption is having broad adoption right now. I think a big part of this will be seeing what companies do as they decide it is time for a change in infrastructure. Most midmarket companies aren’t going to phase out legacy systems, be it ERP or a sales op information program like LucidEra hopes to replace, until they absolutely have to. So this will take time.

Check out this story to see how even a big-time vendor like SAP has been slow out of the gate with its new SaaS offering, Business ByDesign.

As for metrics, that’s a tough one. The easy answer is customers. But since so many SaaS programs sell by seat, should we be measuring the number of companies using a product or the total number of users? And come to think of it, even that wouldn’t be a great measuring stick. After all, another measure of a good SaaS product could be how well it works in companies with only a handful of users.

Concerning Salesforce, I mention them because they have some key factors in achieving success. Name recognition and partners (in a sense, at least). I notice that LucidEra has a “for salesforce.com” tab on the website. Intacct was pretty pumped about the connection as well. If smaller vendors are in a rush to say they work with salesforce.com, that’s some form of success. Anecdotal, of course.

]]> By: Crooked http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cio/saas-probably-worth-a-look-despite-the-overwrought-pitches/#comment-11 Crooked Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:41:49 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/cio/saas-probably-worth-a-look-despite-the-overwrought-pitches/#comment-11 Hi Zach - A nice read. So what, if any, tech sectors do you think are on the right path with SaaS? I work with an analytics - BI SaaS company called [A href="http://lucidera.com/"]LucidEra[/A]. What are some metrics - which I'll open up to the community - to gauge a successful SaaS company on? OK SFDC has customers, great they win. But I mean is massive SaaS adoption coming from finance? BI? ERP? Where are CIO's at mid-market comanies comfortable deploying SaaS? With their Sales Ops information?(LucidEra is hoping so). Finance? Spend management? Hi Zach - A nice read. So what, if any, tech sectors do you think are on the right path with SaaS? I work with an analytics - BI SaaS company called LucidEra. What are some metrics - which I’ll open up to the community - to gauge a successful SaaS company on? OK SFDC has customers, great they win. But I mean is massive SaaS adoption coming from finance? BI? ERP? Where are CIO’s at mid-market comanies comfortable deploying SaaS? With their Sales Ops information?(LucidEra is hoping so). Finance? Spend management?

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