The CRM Software Guide

September 28, 2007

FRI 28 SEP 2007

Software-as-a-service helps reduce Global Warming By Tom Greenberg | 1 comment Tag: global warming, software-as-a-service, saas, envir

Software-as-a-service helps reduce Global Warming

Yes! If tens of millions of marketing, sales and support employees at millions of small and medium size businesses world wide, where to use a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business solution such as Salesboom.com, instead of traditional install-base solutions global warming would be less of a problem.

Let me explain the theory. A typical company that needs to implement a CRM system for a team of 20 sales and marketing employees, will need to purchase a server(s), firewalls, routers, and other peripherals before the software arrives in a package that includes tens of CDs and hundreds of pages of printed manuals, order forms, etc via the mail. Do you think producing such stuff increases global warming?

One might argue that the software and manuals can be downloaded online, most vendors must do this to justify the tens of thousands of dollars paid by customers for the software. Also most companies prefer to have on-site copies of the software and manuals.

Once the system is in place, an IT staff must maintain and support the system, and when upgrades become available or bug fixes are released, such software is also usually shipped via the mail and also comes with tens of CDs and printed manuals.

On average the hardware investment becomes obsolete in 3-4 years which will force the company to purchase new servers, routers, etc. Many companies have multiple locations, and multiple purchases are indeed required. The hardware infrastructure hosting these business solutions requires electricity to maintain uptime!

Had these companies used software-as-a-service, only a fraction of the hardware infrastructure and the power to run it would be required, since it's a service and the software is centrally hosted at the vendor. Tens of millions of CDs, packaging materials, shipping boxes, software manuals, shipping/receiving paper slips, etc would be virtually eliminated.

Tens of millions of companies are doing this everyday, which increases global warming greatly and while I have no statistics to support this theory yet, I hope readers can help uncover how much of an impact can SaaS have on global warming.

Let's think outside-the-box for a minute and try to find new innovative ways to save our earth by reducing our footprint on the environment and global warming before it is too late.

7:24 PM | Permalink | 1 comment | Tag: global warming, software-as-a-service, saas, envir

Comments (1) for "Software-as-a-service helps ...

Wow! I thought you are kidding from the title, but then when i read your article about how SaaS CRM could save the world and reduce global warming, it makes sense. By CRM Software Reviews - 10/3/2007 2:48 PM