Comments on: Top Ten Reasons Why On-Demand Services Will Soar in 2008

By: Pali Madra

Pali Madra — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:27:00 +0000

Jeff, a great post you have there. There are some points that I might differ on like the recession in the economy might have the opposite effect were ISV’s might hesitate to invest in developing new services.

Having said that I’m quite optimistic about the growth of SaaS. It is the ISV’s who have to take the initiative and fire on all cylinders.

By: neo phyte

neo phyte — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Great post, am wondering about services being recession proof though.. Will we see another IPO on the lines of NetSuite, speaking of NetSuite, the company's BOS operating system based on open standards could be the most exciting thing happening to SaaS in 2008, it could open the doors to open source as a service.

By: Julien Dionne

Julien Dionne — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Jeff,

Good article - I think your point 5 is particularly important. Many firms with SaaS offerings are obtaining their statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II to be able to provide these services, in line with SOX compliance. These firms will see new business opportunities and new markets opening up in the years to come.

In the field of Incentive Compensation Management this is particularly important since the information is extremely sensitive and SOX compliance is typically required.

Julien Dionne

By: Macel at Morph

Macel at Morph — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:32:00 +0000

Jeff,

Great post!

This pandemic buildup of software as a service gets us all excited.

By: Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Jeff,

Good article and summary. I think that Items #2 and #3 can be merged into a 2.5 item. Going Virtual and Utility computing will see some new trends this year, I predict, namely that of Hosted Grid Computing. There are hosting (and other) companies releasing virtualized hosting products (e.g., Amazon, Media Temple and the company that I work for, ServePath) that tap into the power of Grid computing. Couple this offering with SaaS and you will see the companies soon being able to rapidly deploy and scale virtualized hardware/networks and host SaaS applications quickly. Our Grid Series offering and soon to be released GoGrid product, like those of Media Temple’s (gs) Grid-Series and Amazon’s EC2, will help propel this trend into the mainstream in 2008, I believe. Keep up the good insights!

By: Summer

Summer — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:41:00 +0000

I was especially interested to see item 10 - what you wrote there is pretty much the path that Serena Software followed in 2006 when SilverLake took Serena private. Serena has used the investment to develop her SaaS and Business Mashup offerings. The eventual strategy is to take Serena public again.

By: ladygeek

ladygeek — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:34:00 +0000

I was interested to see item 10 - what you wrote there is pretty much the path that Serena Software followed in 2006 when SilverLake took Serena private in 2006. Serena has used the investment to develop her SaaS and Business Mashup offerings. The eventual strategy is to take Serena public again.

By: bharat

bharat — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:31:00 +0000

Its good article on why On-Demand services should Soar. I would like to comment on couple of points.
Point#1-Services are Recession Proof:
I think, as the name suggest ‘On-demand’ and in recession demand may decline and thus the services required by the industry/sector impacted by recession may decline. And as you mentioned in point#4 IT is a needless hassle and is not yet as easy as electricity and reliable as utility. Then how its recession proof.
Point#2 – Everyone’s Going Virtual: Sorry I didn’t quite get what you are trying to communicate there.

Overall, great article… will be waiting and watching to see how IT/business decision makers respond to On-demand services and how much benefit & advantages they see/get from On-demand services in 2008 recession, if any

By: chris

chris — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:50:00 +0000

What it comes down to is whether or not the tools will be there to make it easy to use these services. I still don't think we are there with the tools yet for main stream adoption of these services. I still think it's a few years off. The foundation is there but we are still awaiting people to build on these services and make consumable usable products i.e. a killer app that's a must have.

My Blog

By: David H. Deans

David H. Deans — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:34:00 +0000

Jeff,

As you rightly stated in your column for Channel Insider, entitled "Managed Services' Sales Problem," the key to accelerated growth in 2008 with be advocacy and education.

Nick Carr would probably remind us that On-Demand Services Doesn't Matter -- it's how you apply them for competitive advantage in business that really matters.

Therefore, hopefully 2008 will be the year when service providers develop an appreciation for market segmentation -- to target the right stakeholders with an appropriate value proposition, that goes beyond the myopic promise of cost-cutting.

That said, providers must acknowledge that value-based selling talent is in short supply -- instead of a talent pool, it's more like a talent puddle.

Frankly, enterprise or SMB decision makers should raise the bar of expectations, and demand that providers employ business savvy salespersons that can clearly articulate benefits in a meaningful and substantive way.

Solving the overall sales ineffectiveness problem should be the number one objective for forward-looking service providers. The upside opportunity is the primary motivation for this much needed change.

Also, new business-oriented marketing collateral, creative sales tools -- like user procurement guidelines and a service selection matrix -- should help to remove the mystery, and enable improved buyer facilitation.