Comments on: Enterprises Looking For More Than Price In The Cloud http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/2009/03/enterprises-looking-for-more-than-price-in-the-cloud.html This blog examines the business implications of IT service trends ranging from software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing to managed services and other on-demand services. Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:38:58 -0400 hourly 1 By: James http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/2009/03/enterprises-looking-for-more-than-price-in-the-cloud.html/comment-page-1#comment-489 James Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:09:15 +0000 http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/?p=449#comment-489 Rackspace's new hybrid cloudservers cloud play seems interesting. You get the best of both worlds. Dedicated servers plus an enterprise cloud if you want. You think that helps with the trust issue? Rackspace’s new hybrid cloudservers cloud play seems interesting. You get the best of both worlds. Dedicated servers plus an enterprise cloud if you want. You think that helps with the trust issue?

]]> By: Lee Prevost http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/2009/03/enterprises-looking-for-more-than-price-in-the-cloud.html/comment-page-1#comment-461 Lee Prevost Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:22:52 +0000 http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/?p=449#comment-461 Jeff, I could not agree more. We are 10 years into our SaaS business. As you know, we serve education (k-12 and Higher Ed). Because of that, we have both the luxury and the challenge of only receiving 1 year contracts from our clietns due to the annual fiscal budget nature of our market. I say "luxury" because this has forced us to build the service program and client orientation that it takes to achieve high (95%+) client retention. Our client services team answers the phone by the third ring and they even do outbound proactive calls to those clients who show signs of non utilzation. we are very proud of our client services team who just won an international service award for customer service excellence (Stevie Award). http://www.schooldude.com/news/2009/2/12/schooldudecom-awarded-top-honors-in-2009-stevie-awards-for-sales-customer-service/ Regards, Lee Jeff, I could not agree more.

We are 10 years into our SaaS business. As you know, we serve education (k-12 and Higher Ed). Because of that, we have both the luxury and the challenge of only receiving 1 year contracts from our clietns due to the annual fiscal budget nature of our market.

I say “luxury” because this has forced us to build the service program and client orientation that it takes to achieve high (95%+) client retention. Our client services team answers the phone by the third ring and they even do outbound proactive calls to those clients who show signs of non utilzation.

we are very proud of our client services team who just won an international service award for customer service excellence (Stevie Award).

http://www.schooldude.com/news/2009/2/12/schooldudecom-awarded-top-honors-in-2009-stevie-awards-for-sales-customer-service/

Regards,

Lee

]]> By: Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/2009/03/enterprises-looking-for-more-than-price-in-the-cloud.html/comment-page-1#comment-458 Peter Cohen, SaaS Marketing Strategy Advisors Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:06:54 +0000 http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/?p=449#comment-458 Good point that enterprise buyers care about more than cost, and low-price alone won't sell SaaS solutions or clouds services. Despite the fact that the application doesn't run in their data center, IT executives are still concerned about support, security, integration, and configuration. SaaS marketers need to actively address these concerns. Good point that enterprise buyers care about more than cost, and low-price alone won’t sell SaaS solutions or clouds services. Despite the fact that the application doesn’t run in their data center, IT executives are still concerned about support, security, integration, and configuration. SaaS marketers need to actively address these concerns.

]]> By: Mark DeSotto http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/2009/03/enterprises-looking-for-more-than-price-in-the-cloud.html/comment-page-1#comment-450 Mark DeSotto Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:41:18 +0000 http://www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/?p=449#comment-450 Amazon does provide premium support services: http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/ Amazon does provide premium support services: http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/

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