Hosted Office? Been there, done that, no thanks!

106078 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1130337792189 1133095495661 Controlled Are all software applications worth offering as an on-demand service?

Practically speaking, No.

Read a <A href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=51">great online post</A> today by Phil Wainewright about an Australian Company that recently got out of the Office application hosting business. The article really helps to put on-demand, software as a service, solutions in perspective. Applications, like your desktop office word processor, have no business being offered as a service because accessing them over the internet has no real advantage to the user or the people who read the user's documents. Word processors and spreadsheets are applications that gain nothing from a native web interface, because they are not meant to be real-time collaborative. I work on the document, and then I send it to you and you work on the document. It is not as if we are working on the document simultaneously. This is the central benefit of software as a service: It enables a new level of collaboration among the people involved. A CAD drawing may be a whole different story. It's not too hard to imagine several people collaborating on a CAD drawing. How about your accounting package? (<A href="http://sightlog.sightlinesconsulting.com/public/item/106078">I wrote about this just yesterday</A>.) Is there a good case to make for a web-based accounting system? To meet the standard that we've set, the customer and the business office staff must find real benefit from online order entry and bill payment. Customer self-service when it comes to ordering and making payments can be extremely helpful to both sides of the transaction in many businesses. Taking a phone call, an email or a fax and then re-entering it into the order management system is wasted duplicate entry. The customer has a greater sense of control when they are able to order online themselves. They are in fact collaborating with you. They are less likely to make a mistake. When the online order entry is linked directly to the Inventory module the business staff can handle inventory issues before they become problems. In the situation where a company has several locations with groups of employees and/or partners a web-based accounting system is very attractive. Several locations can access the system without the need for a wide area network or VPN software, or, worse, a dial-up connection with the home office. But they work in a real-time data environment. Strangely the opposite situation is also common today. There are many businesses without a central office - everyone essentially works on the road. Companies in consulting and networking are often setup like this. A Web-based accounting system is perfect for these situations. Staff can get work done in the off hours from home, if need be. Of course there is an excellent case to be made for online CRM software. The better question in the CRM space is "Are there any software solutions not worth offering as an on-premise solution?" Yes! CRM! Especially when it comes to partners and the direct sales force. But even for Customer Service Reps who want to work out of the office, or marketing managers located in a satellite office. There is a lot of interest in software as a service today, and rightfully so. There is a great case to make for reduced IT overhead and maintenance. But at the end of the day you still need to offer software users and their customers a good case for making the switch from captive, on-premise solutions, especially desktop solutions. Customer self service is the case you must make. It gives customers control of the process and you lose - what? Duplicate data entry? 9 application/xml false accounting on the web web based accounting web-based accounting Hosted Office? Been there, done that, no thanks! Not all applications make sense for the web http://blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS/?p=51 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; T312461; YPC 3.0.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 69.218.156.212 69.218.156.212 tfoydel false true false false true 205861 false false true false false false true 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web