Evolution of Software. SaaS. Not the beginning nor the end

Posted by Mathew French

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6 May 2010

Evolution is inevitable, everything evolves, if it doesn’t it dies. Take cars, they have become more efficient, user friendly, attractive, faster, more reliable… the list goes on and on. Take the humble telephone… its evolution has seen it go from cups linked by wires to bell ringing desk bound things to mobile devices that can almost predict what you are going to want to eat for dinner (and how much weight you may put on as a result). Technology is amazing. It inspires and motivates, it challenges us and dictates (subliminally) to us what we do, how we do it and why we are doing it. It is the focus of our everyday lives, or should I say it focuses us every day.

We will see innovation driving technology even further given the tough economic times. Individuals and Business want and need to do more with less. We will all be challenged to become more resourceful and dynamic. Our buying behaviours will develop and change further than they already have over the past 12 months. There is going to be new mandate based on analysis of what we have done and how we can do it better and differently, finding the best possible solution taking into account cost, reliability, value and future proof. Providers of goods and services will be challenged by providing new ways to deliver upon this to increase market share and create differentiation to facilitate this new age of consumerism.

Timing is everything in life. For me, there is no other saying that encapsulates success and non success better than this. 8-10 years ago there was buzz around the tech world relating to hosted services, hosted software, ASP etc. There were many, many fad sceptics and many who we evangelistic about how outsourcing would define that was we do business. To date there are many, many successful businesses that have been forged by supplying BPO and Outsourced Software Services.

Evolution + Economic challenges = Fundamental Change. Enter Mainstream SaaS. SaaS momentum has been building over the past years and once again there have been many sceptics say that there is no way On-Demand SaaS systems can offer the scalability, reliability and Flexibility to deliver tangible business benefits to SME and Enterprise business and therefore, it won’t last. In reality, the Internet became the backbone of business even before the words SaaS were muttered. Take Payment gateways, internet banking, File Sharing. These are all areas of SaaS. Take Google, Facebook, Twitter. All SaaS apps. Take Salesforce, Workday, Successfactor, Taleo. SaaS applications, on-demand. What about The success of all these companies have driven SaaS past the point of fad and have defined the way we utilise the web in our personal and business lives. SaaS in-fact has been around for 40 years in the airline and hospitality industry. Now we are seeing ISV’s developing more and more business applications leveraging of this model, to deliver truly scalable, flexible, reliable service based application delivery platforms over the Internet. In the past, cost has been a prohibitive factor in harnessing the Internet to deliver information, collaborate and communicate to the mass market. This this cost has become low enough that the majority can use the Internet, every day.

Microsoft/IBM/DELL drove the evolution of software and computers and made it feasible for consumers to have their own super computer sitting on their desk at home, to use for entertainment, work… Now, the batten has been passed to a new group of pioneers with a different DNA.

 

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Topics: Facebook, BPO, consumerism, Economic challenges, Evolution, Google, SaaS Apps, successful businesses, SaaS, Salesforce, Taleo

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