Set aside all the hype and hubris that goes along with software-as-a-service, and you know what is really cool? SaaS means that software actually has to work – to deliver what it promises.
Think about it. Fortran hit the streets in 1956 as the first programming language, and since that time, armies of programmers have cranked out code that is expected to fail. We have entire segments of the technology industry that exist only to isolate and repair bugs in software. Another to apply “patches” to faulty code. Our tolerance for poor quality in software is unprecedented. Could you imagine if users of other products were as forgiving?
At the local hospital: “Yes, we emphasize quality, especially in our maternity ward. Our nurses understand that dropping more than one baby per day is unacceptable.”
Or home appliances: “You mean you expected that washing machine to be compatible with standard tap water? You’ve got to be kidding?”
Could you imagine if corporations had to run other functions like they run Information Technology? “Our company takes pride the core competency we’ve developed in the field of hydraulics. Our CSO (Chief Sewage Officer) manages a team of highly trained plumbers who have built one of the industries finest systems to insure the unimpeded flow of effluents through the company. Bottom line: our employees know that, unlike our competition, when they push that lever, our toilets flush.”
So software is quirky, buggy, and unpredictable, it doesn’t play nicely with other software, and therefore requires legions of highly trained caregivers to watch it. And since IBM 360 computers starting showing up on raised floors back in the ‘60s, we’ve all been conditioned to believe that that’s the way its supposed to be: only the high priests of IT are allowed to visit the temples of the technology, and it is OK to rule their unwashed masses (that’s anyone not in IT) with FUD: fear, uncertainty, and doubt: “I’m telling you boss, if we don’t get the $2M budget for the TurboTech Release 3.5.b to the Layer 7 Middleware load balancing platform subnet infrastructure, there is no way I can promise that we’ll be able to collect payments from our customers.” Huh?
So we’ve built another industry around ERP (Eternal Revision Prescribed) software. From the megaliths who develop the code, to the legions of consultants who integrate it, to the staffs that maintain it and tinker with it, we’ve built a multi-billion dollar industry around making the stuff you were sold actually work. I have a friend who worked for one of the big ERP software companies – he says he didn’t sell software – he sold Power Point. Meaning that the stuff he sold was so complex, took so long to install, and never really had to deliver all the features promised in the Power Point anyway, because about the time it was declared ready to try, the promises were either forgotten or it was time to upgrade to the latest revision.
But SaaS is different – it actually has to work. There are no multi-month (year) implementation cycles – you get to try before you buy. And you don’t get to sell hit-and-run; once sold, you actually have to deliver a “service” (the second-“S” in SaaS). It’s not like ConEd selling you an electrical power generator and a bunch of wires: “Good luck – I’ll be back next year to collect our fee for some upgrades – like the connectors we forgot to put on the wires in this release.” No, a SaaS provider has to actually prove their worth – has to deliver - every day. In fact, as I sit here at home on this Sunday morning, I’m looking at the tool we use to monitor our meetings and events currently underway. We call it “Weather Map.” It’s simply a map of the world with a bunch of green dots on it. And every one of those dots represents a WebEx meeting, training session, remote IT session, or marketing event going on right now, all over the world. There’s a dot in Morocco, one in Tel-Aviv, another in Bogota, Columbia, and literally thousands more. But this is a quiet time, after all: Sunday morning, 7:52 AM Pacific Standard Time. Nonetheless, thousands of people are depending on this service as I write this. I don’t know why they are using it on a Sunday morning (which is I guess is already late Sunday night for the dots I see in Taipei, Tokyo, or Bangkok, but it must be important if they are in a meeting on Sunday and not on the golf course.
And that is the point: customers are depending on this service to do their job. These customers don’t want to hear about bugs, and they certainly don’t want to have their own staff on site making it work. These customers, like others who increasingly demand on-demand solutions, simply expect it to perform. Just like they expect the babies will not drop and the toilets will flush.
So maybe we should rethink this whole SaaS thing, for it’s really not about software at all. It is about business processes, and it is all about service and accountability. And it is definitely changing the way people will think about technology and the way they work.
And by the way, if you want to check out the Weather Map to see for yourself, you’ll find it at www.webex.com/activity-map.html
Gary Griffiths, Vice President, Products and Operations
November 12, 2006
