LeanLogistics

106192 Resource 102302 102466 102466 1130459642210 1133095680285 Controlled Part 2: Are all software applications worth offering as an on-demand service?

There are a lot more companies in software as a service than you might guess

When I first started with Google Adwords a few months ago I thought I'd be clever and bid on 'software as a service', in the hope that people interested in using NetSuite to run their business would click through.  I got a ton of traffic and a lot of people who signed up for my newsletter, etc.. But as it turns what they were really interested in was offering their software as a service. I had requests for a whitepaper that I wrote about the difference between Software as a Service and an ASP from companies like Novell. Needless to say I stopped that particular ad campaign. (The whitepaper is still available, just send me an email by writing a comment and I will happily send it along.) It was amazing to me the number of different companies that are starting to understand the value proposition of SaaS. It's hard enough trying to sell software these days, but when you have to include a database, a server, an operating system and other infrastructure in the value equation it makes it damn near impossible to get approval. Senior people have to have a huge pain before they sign up for another system. They have seen the IT department swell like crazy over the last 10 years. Are we really that much better off with new systems when we have to hire several new people to maintain it? Just here in Michigan, not normally thought of as a hotbed of information technology, there are several companies doing some really interesting projects with SaaS. LeanLogistics, a company on the west side of the state, has a Transportation Management System that they offer as a service. I attended one of their webinars a while ago and was really impressed with the strong testimonial from one of their clients. You can <A href="http://www.leanlogistics.com/">read more about their offering here</A>, but suffice to say that they have a very impressive client list. Another company that I have come across, and whose Supply Chain Management service is very intriguing, is Osiris Innovations Group. Using the Internet for sourcing and procurement makes all the sense in the world. Again, the key to SaaS is the value of collaboration to the applications offered as a service. <A href="http://www.osirisinnovations.com/index.htm">You can read more about Osiris here.</A> There are many others, too many to name them all. I have no doubt that, as I said earlier, <A href="http://sightlog.sightlinesconsulting.com/public/blog/102363#104491">SaaS has crossed the chasm</A>, and is currently ramping up for an assault on the mainstream software market, in those area where people are demanding greater collaboration. 9 application/xml false netsuite software as a service LeanLogistics Read more about a SaaS Transportation Management System http://www.leanlogistics.com/ Osiris Innovations Group Read more about SaaS in Supply Chain Management http://www.osirisinnovations.com 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 102302 blog blogsite/SightLines/web