Tasos Christidis

Can the process of boarding new users in a SaaS application be automated? When deploying a big on-premise ERP or a customized CRM etc. one can surely expect that the system installation, parameterization and deployment will not be a matter of minutes! It will take consulting and the provision of other services before you can say that you have a truly operational system. In my opinion, SaaS is (should be) trying to tackle this issue, too. It’s not just about a different delivery and charging method. It is also about the ease of use and the streamlined way of “doing things”. And part of “doing things” is the way the environment is boarding new users and giving them the initial working environment. So, what are the challenges for a SaaS vendor who is trying to move towards an automated activation process ? And is this “automation” a panacea that every vendor should pursue? (Don’t be hasty and answer “yes”, because there is a catch to that…!). Let’s have a look at those challenges: First o...

In the previous post we talked about collaboration capabilities that a SaaS platform offers to its end-users. The objective is to leverage two elementary SaaS facts: The fact that other users in that same platform share a common business model with you and that you share a common work space with others (not necessarily in your line of business). In this post we shall discuss what are the tools that will enable collaboration among these users; be them of similar business models or not. I believe that these tools and methodologies remain powerful, regardless of the mission of the SaaS application itself. It could be a heavy-duty ERP application or a low-end sales CRM tool. The essence of the user comments, questions and “agonies” is still the same. Chatting. I see a chatting tool very attractive in the sense that the user would be able to communicate with his/her colleagues inside the enterprise but also in the “community” or the “SaaS ecosystem”. Although there is no breakthrough in co...

First of all, I’d like to wish you Seasons Greetings and the Happiest New Year you’ve ever had. I will think of an even stronger wish for 2012, but this is too far in the future, so I may as well relax, for now! A lot has been said and written about possibilities that a SaaS platform gives to the end-user, which a traditional on-premise model cannot provide. Today, I would like to focus on one specific issue that keeps me busy the last couple of weeks: collaboration. Let’s start with the fact that when you operate in a SaaS environment (let’s talk about multi-tenant, which is the generally accepted “best” model) you reside in one database with other users, beyond your own enterprise. What you share with them is one of the following two (or maybe both): A common software platform and user-interface. We can safely assume that even if the modules that you are using are quite different from the other guy’s, the general rules of user interface, system rules, logging etc. are the same. A si...

In this era of Economic Crisis, things are dramatically changing inside the enterprise. Not only low-level employee headcount is decreasing but is some cases high-level, too. It is even possible that department merging takes place. For example typical HR processes are directed to the Accounting Dept. or Marketing is merged with Sales Dept., under one “roof” and management. This is a “business transformation” that needs to be supported by Information Technology, in new ways. In a traditional organization, the HR dept. could have been executing their tasks using spreadsheets or even paper-based processes. This was a system that had been “developed” by an old fashioned HR manager (who is now close to his/her retirement and who will probably not be substituted due to downsizing). If a non-HR specialist is given these tasks, he/she will probably have a hard time finding his way around paper-based processes and custom spreadsheets. Therefore, the procurement of a new HR system is now a “must...

Anti-SaaS arguments can have their source in true technical concerns or (in some degree) by the buyer’s physical resistance to sign-in to something that they don’t own . This can become a critical factor in some parts of the world, where the sense of ownership is very strong (my country, Greece, is one of them; I hear it’s the same in India and I’m sure that there are a lot more examples like that). And this sense of ownership is strong in other aspects of everyday life, too. For example, the acceptance of leased car versus owning an automobile is not the same in all countries. Let’s go on to see some more examples: I want it up and running on Sundays. It is possible that what the vendor is providing “out-of-the-box” is hot-line customer support on working days and hours. Some prospects are challenging that by raising the argument that they do not just work “nine to five”. In cases like that it is only logical that you will be charged more if your require hot-line availability beyond ...

In this post I shall continue with the “anti-SaaS” arguments. In the previous post, we saw some arguments that are usually thrown to the table, from the first 5 minutes of discussion. If you get past these critical 5 minutes, then the discussion goes into more specific issues, such as the following: What happens if Internet fails? Assuming that SaaS is a synonym to Internet Technology, this is the among the first (and funniest!) arguments that I have heard. Some people (say that they) recognize all positive aspects of SaaS but they are afraid of what’s going to happen if Internet fails. My usual answer is that “internet DOES NOT fail”. It is more probable that the electricity in your neighborhood is going to fail, than the Internet lines. And what do you do when electricity fails? You just stop working because your PCs are not working; the elevators in your building have stopped etc. Or, if you MUST work then you switch to manual: You issue invoices from your hand-written statement bl...

In my efforts to sell SaaS I have been presented with a number of “anti-SaaS” arguments. Some of them are just irritating but some of them require a professional and comprehensive response. In this post I will try and enumerate these arguments and also provide a convincing response. You see, I believe that adopting SaaS is also an issue of people (customers) training. They still do not understand the benefits of SaaS but they clearly see its drawbacks, from the first minute of discussion. A few days ago, an accounting professional responded to me like this: My personal mentality drives me to always own what I am using. That’s why I don’t embrace the idea of SaaS. This person clearly understood the economic benefits of SaaS, but he still resists to adopting it. Where is my data? People tend to think of data as something “sacred” – and it probably is. Enterprise data is the enterprise’s asset. They have worked long and hard to create this clientele (i.e. customer file) and those economi...