Roundtable: A software and services alternative

Software-as-a-service is coming to the fore as organisations look to rein in their IT costs and gain better software efficiencies. ARN recently hosted a roundtable with a group of industry representatives to talk about the pros and cons of an on-demand world.
“The customer demand is there and the vendors have reluctantly got a model for it. The gap is for the partners to be able to glue it together and do things like single identity access, to offer best-of-breed applications and bringing it all together for the customer in a single point.” - Michael Bosnar, MailGuard

“The customer demand is there and the vendors have reluctantly got a model for it. The gap is for the partners to be able to glue it together and do things like single identity access, to offer best-of-breed applications and bringing it all together for the customer in a single point.” - Michael Bosnar, MailGuard

  • “The customer demand is there and the vendors have reluctantly got a model for it. The gap is for the partners to be able to glue it together and do things like single identity access, to offer best-of-breed applications and bringing it all together for the customer in a single point.” - Michael Bosnar, MailGuard
  • “When every vendor not only has a perpetual licence, but also a per user, per terminal model, then that’s where SaaS take-up will be non-stop.” Stephen Chapman, AVC
  • (L to R) Steve Gross VMware | Max McLaren Red Hat | Stephen Chapman AVC |Doug Tutus NewLease | Michael Bosnar MailGuard | Anil Gupta NetRegistry | Warren Nolan NewLease | Nadia Cameron ARN | Steve Stuart IT Global | Adam Biviano Trend Micro | Rich Robards Intrapower | Greg Boyle Trend Micro | Phil Meyer Microsoft | Chuong Mai-Viet Brennan IT | Stuart Mills Macquarie Hosting
  • “Software companies historically aren’t great at running long-term relationships day after day, week in week out, and that’s what SaaS makes you do. It forces you as an organisation to focus on the customer every week.” - Chuong Mai-Viet, Brennan IT
  • “When every vendor not only has a perpetual licence, but also a per user, per terminal model, then that’s where SaaS take-up will be non-stop.” Stephen Chapman, AVC
  • “One thing about SaaS is that it’s a disruptive technology: It challenges what you think. A lot of the time, the reason why an organisation doesn’t want to go down the SaaS path is because of many emotional reasons – they are tied to the fact that have servers they can put their hand on, and their data is close to them. Events like the global financial crisis tend to kick the disruptive technologies along… the fact they can save costs and improve the balance sheet is the thing getting the focus.” - Adam Biviano, Trend Micro
  • “If you look at the perpetual world, you sell something based on the perception of how good it’s going to be. Where as in the SaaS world, you have to be able to sell the value of what you have there and then.” - Doug Tutus, NewLease
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SS: I reckon that pisses everybody off.

Anil Gupta, NetRegistry (AG): Business relies on a specific version, but they subscribe to SaaS and that version is automatically updated whether they like it or not. It means things have to change internally. What assurances does a company who signs up for SaaS have that they will have it working as it was when they subscribe to it? If they’re just signing up on a monthly basis, then fair enough, but if they don’t like it, is a company going to take their 200 employees, implement something new and change the way they do business?

Michael Bosnar, MailGuard (MB): Being from CA, I’ve introduced things into MailGuard such as roadmaps of technology, and we do have version control now for the very reasons that have been highlighted. We were introducing stuff, and then customers would tell partners, which is not a good scenario. So we have changed a lot of that, and version control is a key part.

MM: The other thing we touched on is cloud computing. We have a customer we share with Microsoft. They are a large construction company and have an internal IT team that delivers services to contractors. A guy turns up on a worksite, plugs in the laptop and he’s got the job costing and whatever else.

RR: How does that differ from what we’re talking about as SaaS?

MM: I think the concept is exactly the same – it’s providing infrastructure services, and then adding value with an application on top of that. SaaS has traditionally been application denominated, but my view is it’s a continuum. It’s from very basic, traditional outsourced infrastructure services to giving you the software to switch on like Salesforce.com.

SM: We as an industry globally are trying to tie down these definitions, because otherwise we can’t even have the conversation. There was a fine line from a hosted application, which tend to be more customised, and locally hosted where you run the app, through to the superscale Amazon and Azure offerings.

WN: SaaS is about adapting and moulding with the client. Incorporated into that service is software, platforms.

RR: So are there multiple definitions and interpretations of SaaS, depending on the situation?

AG: The general definition is having the software hosted externally and the company manage it and provide the service through a browser. You’re going to get people who are happy to use the software, but they won’t let go and want their own technical people using it onsite or using the underlying infrastructure. There’s probably a stage we’re going through to get from purchasing the licence outright to letting everything go and paying a monthly subscription fee.

GB: But it’s not down to a monthly fee – it could be a yearly one. SaaS is a delivery mechanism, not a payment mechanism.

PM: Should we position SaaS then not as a technology debate, but as a business discussion?

WN: If you let the definition be fluid, and make it about what you do because you fit into certain criteria, then it doesn’t need to be changed, because it is providing business services, software, mobility and all of those things.

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