SaaSy
Is an SaaS solution right for you? It’s a question we ask our customers frequently.
SaaS – Software as a Service – is very fashionable these days. The idea is that a vendor puts up an application somewhere on the web and you subscribe to it. You pay as you go. Start-up time is minimal and you can access the application from virtually anywhere.
Our customers have mixed reactions. Some confess that they haven’t formed an opinion yet. The remaining customers divide into three groups:
- The first group says things like, “Yes, it seems like a good idea, it would be simpler to have the vendor take care of everything – the hardware, software, communications, security – and we simply use the applications. The real benefit is simplicity.” (By the way, we’re paraphrasing here).
- The second groups says, “That sounds complex and constraining. Our business processes are complicated and we don’t want to be put in a strait jacket. We also want more control over our own operation. We want to decide when to upgrade and how to do back-up. Additionally, some of our data would be out of our control. It’s much simpler to have all the data on our premises where we can manage it efficiently. The real obstacle is complexity.”
- The third group takes a more nuanced view, “This would work well with horizontal solutions that run in standard ways. Human Resources applications, for instance, have certain legal requirements that don’t vary too much from one company to another. You can get economies of scale by sharing. On our core ERP applications, however, we want greater control – it’s how we differentiate ourselves.”
In sum, it’s like renting a home versus buying a home. Renting is right for some and buying is right for others. Still others want to buy a home and rent a vacation cottage.
At Lawson, we believe in offering more choices rather than fewer. We already offer some applications in on-demand mode and our Platinum program effectively converts our entire suite into a service. If our customers ask for more SaaS solutions, our architecture lends itself to that. Basically, we’ll do whatever our customers ask of us – that’s what we mean by software as a service.
As its name implies, The Lawson Opinionizer offers opinions. We believe we've got our facts straight but we don't guarantee it. A new Opinionizer appears every Monday. If you have an opinion, send an e-mail to Opinionizer@lawson.com
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