Comments on: Gartner: The Great SaaS Debate http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/ Managed Services & Cloud Services Blog for VARs & MSPs Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:20:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joe Panettieri http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49347 Joe Panettieri Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:22:06 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49347 Scott: Your points reveal some deeper considerations. Thanks for offering them up. Even as SaaS experiences growing pains, I think the SaaS trend as a whole will continue to thrive and expand. Though that doesn't guarantee individual SaaS projects and SaaS providers will succeed. Scott: Your points reveal some deeper considerations. Thanks for offering them up. Even as SaaS experiences growing pains, I think the SaaS trend as a whole will continue to thrive and expand. Though that doesn’t guarantee individual SaaS projects and SaaS providers will succeed.

]]> By: Scott Bils http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49343 Scott Bils Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:17:45 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49343 Some of the decrease in SaaS satisfaction may be reflective of the fact that IT is now playing a much greater role in the selection, deployment and management of SaaS applications than it has in the past. In a recent survey here at Conformity we found that IT is now involved in management and administration of SaaS applications in 72% of multi-SaaS organizations. At the same time, most SaaS applications today don't easily integrate into the processes and tools that IT uses to manage their environments (directory services for example), which may be part of the 'technical considerations' factors that are picked up by the Gartner survey. It's probably not surprising that IT satisfaction may be lower, but at the end of the day it reflects 'growing pains' as SaaS becomes more mature. Much of the IT concern that we're hearing is driven by integration and manageability issues that should be addressable by the SaaS industry as it becomes more familiar with enterprise IT requirements. Some of the decrease in SaaS satisfaction may be reflective of the fact that IT is now playing a much greater role in the selection, deployment and management of SaaS applications than it has in the past. In a recent survey here at Conformity we found that IT is now involved in management and administration of SaaS applications in 72% of multi-SaaS organizations. At the same time, most SaaS applications today don’t easily integrate into the processes and tools that IT uses to manage their environments (directory services for example), which may be part of the ‘technical considerations’ factors that are picked up by the Gartner survey. It’s probably not surprising that IT satisfaction may be lower, but at the end of the day it reflects ‘growing pains’ as SaaS becomes more mature. Much of the IT concern that we’re hearing is driven by integration and manageability issues that should be addressable by the SaaS industry as it becomes more familiar with enterprise IT requirements.

]]> By: Brendan Cosgrove http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49068 Brendan Cosgrove Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:36:01 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49068 ahh...well that does change things. Sorry for the mis-read. ahh…well that does change things. Sorry for the mis-read.

]]> By: Joe Panettieri http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49067 Joe Panettieri Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:20:23 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49067 Brendan: 4.74 out of 5 would be awesome. But it was actually 4.74 out of 7. I apologize if I didn't make that clear. I misread the Gartner data the first time as well. Brendan: 4.74 out of 5 would be awesome. But it was actually 4.74 out of 7. I apologize if I didn’t make that clear. I misread the Gartner data the first time as well.

]]> By: Brendan Cosgrove http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49066 Brendan Cosgrove Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:34:05 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49066 Doesn't seem like a 4.74 out of 5 is merely "Somewhat satisfied." Of course there are times when customers would LIKE to move to SaaS but can't because of app vendors, legacy premise equipment integration, or just plain availability of their kind of app in a SaaS model. I guess those situations could leave a business "Somewhat satisfied" but that's not because they've moved to SaaS and not had a good experience, it would be because they couldn't move to SaaS. Doesn’t seem like a 4.74 out of 5 is merely “Somewhat satisfied.” Of course there are times when customers would LIKE to move to SaaS but can’t because of app vendors, legacy premise equipment integration, or just plain availability of their kind of app in a SaaS model. I guess those situations could leave a business “Somewhat satisfied” but that’s not because they’ve moved to SaaS and not had a good experience, it would be because they couldn’t move to SaaS.

]]> By: Joe Panettieri http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49064 Joe Panettieri Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:19:17 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49064 Aaron: Thanks for walking us through your transition and key considerations. I will check out Preation. Aaron: Thanks for walking us through your transition and key considerations. I will check out Preation.

]]> By: Aaron Houghton http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/09/gartner-the-great-saas-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-49060 Aaron Houghton Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:49:29 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3132#comment-49060 At Preation (http://www.preation.com) we have gone through the transition from selling installed single-tenant software to a multi-tenant SaaS solution over the last 12 months. We rewrote our primary application from the ground up starting in January of 2008 and began the process of selling our existing and new clients on the new model after launch in October of 2008. Existing clients are very attracted by the new offering mostly because SaaS provides them with ongoing bug fixes and new feature upgrades at a lower cost. At this time very few existing clients have actually moved to the SaaS solution because either 1) their existing installed software is still under a 12 month warranty that we provided at the original sale or 2) the upfront cost of the installed software required a 2-3 year period for ROI. The existing clients that have moved to our SaaS solution from our installed solution really enjoy the new cost structure and service model. New clients have absolutely no hesitation to begin using the SaaS solution as it has a lower barrier to entry (lower upfront costs) than our previous installed software solution. The single largest indicator of the success we've had in the transition from installed software to SaaS is shown in the increase in our Net Promoter Score as a company. As an installed software company we consistently had a NPS between 0% and 20% (low) and with all other things held constant (employees, customer service, target market, business problem addressed, etc) our NPS as a SaaS provider was just measured at 80% (industry leading). I'm a firm believer that the SaaS model will continue to bring increased satisfaction and efficiency to people who buy technology and will create new opportunities where barriers used to exist. This is particularly true and powerful within the SMB (small and medium size business) market. Preation's Eden Platform product is a website optimization system for small businesses. More information can be found at http://www.preation.com. At Preation (http://www.preation.com) we have gone through the transition from selling installed single-tenant software to a multi-tenant SaaS solution over the last 12 months. We rewrote our primary application from the ground up starting in January of 2008 and began the process of selling our existing and new clients on the new model after launch in October of 2008. Existing clients are very attracted by the new offering mostly because SaaS provides them with ongoing bug fixes and new feature upgrades at a lower cost. At this time very few existing clients have actually moved to the SaaS solution because either 1) their existing installed software is still under a 12 month warranty that we provided at the original sale or 2) the upfront cost of the installed software required a 2-3 year period for ROI.

The existing clients that have moved to our SaaS solution from our installed solution really enjoy the new cost structure and service model. New clients have absolutely no hesitation to begin using the SaaS solution as it has a lower barrier to entry (lower upfront costs) than our previous installed software solution.

The single largest indicator of the success we’ve had in the transition from installed software to SaaS is shown in the increase in our Net Promoter Score as a company. As an installed software company we consistently had a NPS between 0% and 20% (low) and with all other things held constant (employees, customer service, target market, business problem addressed, etc) our NPS as a SaaS provider was just measured at 80% (industry leading). I’m a firm believer that the SaaS model will continue to bring increased satisfaction and efficiency to people who buy technology and will create new opportunities where barriers used to exist. This is particularly true and powerful within the SMB (small and medium size business) market.

Preation’s Eden Platform product is a website optimization system for small businesses. More information can be found at http://www.preation.com.

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