Here is a very interesting article I found today:
What everybody Doesn't Know about Software-as-a-Service!
The Software-as-a-Service industry must be looked at seriously by the rest of the world, and for many reasons beyond speculation.
First, it's the same industry affected most by the Internet bubble era, and therefore has been the black sheep of the IT industry when it comes to VC money. We all remember when the term ASP (as in Application Service Provider) comes along, it usually strikes in our minds, more often than not; a picture of a failing business with a worthless business model, doesn't? This sector has been neglected.
Here is the Full Article
Elton John is against software-as-a-service!
The Legend Elton John has just came out and proposed that the Internet should be shut down for 5 years!
Not only will his proposal shut down the Internet, but with it every business from the hundreds of thousands that depend on it, in the sake of Good Music.
I am a fan of all music, and in particular Elton's, but he must've been on some illegal substance when he said that.
How could students and researcher do without Google, Yahoo or MSN? How could companies do without a CRM systems such as Salesforce.com and Salesboom.com or Netsuite? How could the USA military and governemnt live without the blackberry?
Here is parts of what he said to the British tabloid “The Sun” :
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole Internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.”
As I said, Elton is against software-as-a-service!
Here is the original article here
3 Reasons a Weak Dollar is Good for Software-as-a-Service
In the same period the software-as-a-services industry has taken off, the American dollar has lost more than 40% of it's value against world currencies such as the Euro.
When business software such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was first offered as a service by numerous companies like Salesforce.com, Netsuite, Salesboom.com, RightNow, etc, the American dollar equaled to 82 Euro cents, Now it is something like 1.32!
Here is the three reasons why I think a weak Dollar is good for the SaaS industry:
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While SaaS products already offer more than 50% savings over installed-base systems, the price of SaaS products is now 40% cheaper for International customers thanks to the weak dollar. Since most online marketing companies are USA-based, marketing to international customers will not cost anymore.
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A Weak Dollar will deter SaaS vendors from hiring offshore customer service call centers and developers, which is bound to increase customer satisfaction and/or keep jobs at home.
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A Weak Dollar will deter North American businesses from purchasing International SaaS solutions; since they became 40% more expensive since 2003! This means more business for the software-as-a-service industry in North America.
6 Reasons why Ajax will transform software-as-a-service
In 2006, only few of the information technology buzz words actually represented technological break-throughs like Ajax. Ajax is nothing more than a new term coined to explain technical specifications of 10 year old browser technology that have gone unnoticed by the pros.
Asynchronous Java Script is the ability for the browser to connect to a server and update information in a web page without resorting to the usual clumsy page refreshes. While Java Applets were capable of doing just that in 1994, DHML and Java scripts were often used to achieve the same result.
For some weired reason, what Ajax did then and does today remained to be a design ambiguity without a prober name to define it. It is hard to say why a technology is ignored for 10 years then when re-discovered explodes ridiculously!
Maybe it was the bandwidth, low-performance desktops, the ignorance of web developers, user adoption or all of those reasons behind such a late debut.
Many online applications such as Google, Salesboom.com, and others have introduced Ajax-rich Internet solutions (Mail, CRM, Accounting, etc) in what has been classified as Web 2.0.
Whatever Ajax is, it is good for the software-as-a-service industry because it will bridge the gab between the desktop user interface and it's Internet cousin. That alone is bound to greatly reduce the time it takes to accomplish CRM and ERP tasks and will increase user satisfaction and adoption thus raising the expected return on investment- ROI of such CRM systems.
Here are my Six Reasons why Ajax and Comet will transform the software-as-a-service industry for good:
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It will reduce the amount of click-throughs needed to accomplish everyday tasks in a hosted CRM/ERP system.
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It will reduce the dependency on users to update and synchronize data on the screen, which is more real-time than traditional web based applications.
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It will help companies obtain real-time information from their hosted CRM and ERP solutions.
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It will increase the time available for sales reps to sell.
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It will make for an overall better user experience with an intuitive user interface.
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Increased user adoption of an Enterprise system makes for a much better ROI.
March, 2007
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