The ‘SaaS’y Life!

Posted by Aparna on Apr 10th, 2009 | one comment

Most people hate new technology. So, product development should be totally based on the needs of the customer. Technology has become a necessary evil in most cases. You cannot live without it. Everyone is looking for integrated experiences in whatever they use in life. For example, the iPhone – a phone with music, games, internet – is a device that does everything. Services like Flickr, YouTube, GoogleVideos (Picasa), Twitter are taking over.

There have been numerous articles on how Twitter and the likes have been better at providing news than news channels. No one can deny the convenience of having services like GPS integrated with one’s car.Software developers are one of the few species of people who believe that they can change the world – sometimes they really can!

In this age of the internet time, which is faster than fast – practically instantaneous (considering one is still not on dial-up), companies must adapt quickly. Traditional strategies would fail in these days of internet time no matter what the business is. They must keep up with every whim of the customers they cater to.

So, what does internet enable us to do? Primarily, it helps companies cope with competition by allowing them to manage huge databases of employees, products and customers. Through virtual marketing, the technology helps businesses cut traditional business costs and provides 24×7 communication tools like email and web chat to name a few.

All this said, what would the cost be for getting the best software product out there with all the support required?

The answer to that question is SaaS or Software as a Service model. Herein, the developer licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. The application could be hosted on the developer’s own web servers or could be downloaded to the consumer device, disabling it after use or after the on-demand contract expires.

On-demand licensing and use alleviates the customer’s burden of equipping a device with every conceivable application. It enables software to become a variable expense, rather than a fixed cost at the time of purchase. It also enables licensing only the amount of software needed versus traditional licenses per device. SaaS also enables the buyer to share licenses across their organization and between organizations.

Using SaaS can also conceivably reduce the up-front expense of software purchases, through less costly, on-demand pricing from hosting service providers. SaaS lets software vendors control and limit use, prohibits copies and distribution, and facilitates the control of all derivative versions of their software.

The sharing of end-user licenses and on-demand use may also reduce investment in server hardware. SaaS is generally associated by software professionals and business associates with business software and is typically thought of as a low-cost way for businesses to obtain rights to use software as needed versus licensing all devices with all applications.

Having listed the advantages of SaaS, a mention of certain drawbacks – Data transfers happen at Internet speeds (so advisable to subscribe to better speeds) Widespread implementation of SaaS requires well defined services as well. Availability of open source applications, inexpensive hardware, low-cost bandwidth push customers to operate their own software.

In conclusion, one can say that communication is key between the software developers and the business personnel. The motto must be “We are listening!” and we definitely are.

Choosing Between A Blog And A Website

Posted by Nikhil on Apr 5th, 2009 | 2 comments

“Of course I want a website,” is the response that you’d expect from more than half of the people you’d ask the question. The fact remains that there is no right answer to this question. I think its more need-based than what’s ‘in’, because one of the primary reasons why a business may choose a website is to sell its products. Stats show that 55.8% of all websites have something or the other to sell. But why do people think that blogs are becoming synonymous with websites, perhaps overtaking them? I see five major reasons:

Ease of use You don’t have to be a techie to put up a blog. You don’t need to know any programming languages to start a professional blog, and with blogging platforms becoming increasingly user-friendly, anyone with access to an internet can get a presence on the internet. Most blogging platforms are offered in the SaaS model (Software as a service), which means that they do everything from give you a domain name to hosting your blog to give you a lot of gigs of free upload space. Which brings me to my next point.

Economical Blogs are way cheaper to put up than a professional website. Most blogging platforms are free to use and the only investment a business has to do is perhaps buy a domain name. And domain names are as cheap as $7 a year. On the other hand, putting up a website involves starting from scratch – the templates, the content, the design, the encoding, search engine optimization, maintenance, hosting, and just about anything else. There are SaaS models available that promise to put up, design and host your website for you, but they’re expensive. The cheapest one I could find costs $5 a month. Compare that to the investment in a blog, and you’ll see the difference.

Interactive Almost everyone who blogs will tell you that one of the coolest things about blogging is the discussion threads and comment forms. Its an instant feedback to whatever content goes up online, and its a great networking tool. With the right message and the right optimization procedures, you can reach out to a global audience who will be your end consumer for whatever services you’re offering. They have a chance to interact with you directly and more importantly, you have a chance to speak to your consumers in real time, with appropriate plug-ins.

Classroom Example, outlining the advantages of a blog

Widgets and Plug-ins Compared to a blog’s flexibility in terms of customization, a website is disappointingly static. There are plug-ins for almost anything – right from basics like a ‘Calendar’ and an ‘Archives’ widget to an ‘All-in-one SEO Pack’ to frills that make the blog look that much more beautiful. And none of these require an extensive knowledge of any programming languages. Anyone can do it. Perhaps the most useful widget for a business is the live-chat widget. Enabling this would help anyone who visits the blog to chat with someone from the company in real time, right there on the blog, with no logins and passwords required.

Content Management Blogs have the advantage of giving you complete freedom when it comes to your content. You can manage it anyway you want, make changes to the way they appear, the order in which they are listed, the ease of access and anything else. Its like being able to play with a bunch of building blocks without the fear of going wrong anywhere. Websites, on the other hand, are cumbersome and not very receptive to such flexibilities. They just exist.