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Platform as a Service Magic from Coda with Google Apps and Force.com

admin · June 2, 2008 · 2 Comments

The value of platform as a service (PaaS) is not that you can take your on-premise applications and run them in the cloud – that’s so ASP! In my opinion (and what would a blog be without one), the real value is in enabling functionality that was simply impossible or too hard in an on-premise world.

For a great example,check out what Coda is doing with Force.com and Google Docs.

Coda is a Platform as a Service partner of salesforce.com building their next generation SaaS application on the Force.com platform.

In Andy’s own words:

Following the recent launch of the Salesforce and Google Apps offerings, we have prototyped our own CODA 2go-specific Google Apps integration! This has been built using a Google Gadget, Apex code and Visualforce and the result has got us and everyone we demonstrated it to at Dreamforce very excited about the possibilities this proof of concept opens up.

Our experience of producing finance software over decades is that accountants love manipulating transactions in spreadsheets! The success of our on-premise CODA-XL product (which extends Microsoft Excel) has been outstanding, with virtually all customer organisations adopting it enthusiastically. Now in the on-demand world we have produced an equivalent solution that uses Google Spreadsheets and Force.com.

The initial prototype can be used to perform a Cost Allocation over extracted transaction details from the CODA 2go product. The user can then apportion new values by editing the cells used by formulas in the spreadsheet; we then post back the results in the form of a journal back into CODA 2go from within the Google Spreadsheet user interface via a Visualforce-powered Google Gadget!

More at Coda2Go Blog…

Note that this functionality was conceived, designed and built in weeks. Let me know if you have seen this pace of innovation in the on-premise world.

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: SaaS and SAP

admin · May 22, 2008 · 4 Comments

From the Department of Irony and Confusion:

  • Businesses Reject SaaS as Core Platform
  • SAP’s Business ByDemand: The Perfection Conundrum
  • ByDesign, the younger person’s ERP
  • SAP Business ByDesign customers quietly confident
  • Decelerating ByDesign

See if you can find a common theme. The only one I could find: She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not,…

I really like the “rejection” of SaaS by customers that are in the middle of SAP implementations or run large SAP implementations.

As Upton Sinclair said: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Update: Dan Druker has a great, thoughtful post on challenges faced by traditional ISVs entitled Different is Hard: SAP – (Not Too Much) Business By Design

In India, with Force(.com) !

admin · May 5, 2008 · 4 Comments

The Tour de Force events across the globe continue to draw great attendance and interest from developers looking to build new SaaS applications. The event is yet to make its way to India but I have been traveling across India (Pune & Bangalore) meeting with partners, educating them about Force.com and Platform as a Service generally – and the response has been tremendously positive. At one of our partners in Pune, I delivered an hour long session on PaaS and Force.com – and the result was a lot of very interesting questions and interest in this paradigm shift. A similar event in Bangalore with over 100 attendees drew a similar response.

India is Ready

There was genuine appreciation about how difficult and wasteful it is to currently build, deploy and manage software applications. This is especially true for IT outsourcing firms that month after month see ISVs and IT departments of large enterprise burn time and money on infrastructure and platform, delaying and risking delivering business value to the end users.

Across Generations

India is a country of young people – over 50% of India’s population is under 25. And presenting to various audiences – I couldn’t help but wonder how many in the audience can even remember what computing without connectivity was like. The shift from client-server to SaaS comes naturally to this generation.

More interestingly, the senior executives and technology gurus – some that wrote compilers in 1980s by hand – were even more excited about this shift. The questions and discussions revolved around how to navigate this shift and understanding the new evolving SaaS ecosystems and not whether the shift is underway.

Here is a sampling of questions:

Is There a Whitepaper on SaaS?

Yes, we do have whitepapers on SaaS and PaaS. However, whitepapers are so 90s – I encouraged our audience to learn through building and engagement with the community – blogs, online forums, how-to wiki’s, informational videos.

What Kind of Applications Can I Build on PaaS?

Even as salesforce.com started out as a CRM company, the Force.com platform is being used by our customers and partners to build out applications that cover wide variety of solutions be it Finance and Accounting (Coda), Risk Management (Riskonnect), Life Sciences (Verticals OnDemand) and many others. Business Applications that are data and process driven is where Force.com provides the most value today

What about Security?

No one asked this question – so I thought I will mention it. This question that resulted from both genuine apprehensions and FUD created by certain vendors that did not have SaaS capabilities is increasingly becoming a non-issue. I think there are two reasons for this: First, as customers use more and more SaaS applications their experience invalidates the concerns. Second, initiatives such as trust.salesforce.com that educate and inform have re-assured the community of users, developers and investors.

Really?

Yes, this question was asked a few times. For example, when I explained that Force.com is multi-tenant not just for our direct customers but also for all applications written by end users and partners – and that everyone is on the latest version of the software. The response is: Really?

Salesforce.com’s success with the platform in releasing as many as 25 major releases in last 8 years – and comparing that to once in 3 to 7 years cycle for legacy software vendors also draws a: Really?

So yes, really!

The proof is in the pudding – you are welcome to get a free developer login and build an app.

Franchises are for Pizza and Burgers, Not SaaS and Banks

admin · April 3, 2008 · 3 Comments

I get a feeling that some mediocre MBA read a case study on franchising and the huge profits it has delivered to companies behind the big pizza and burger brands, and decided to apply it to software. Add the failed ASP model to the inappropriate franchise model borrowed from pizza and burger chains – and you pretty much can figure out the product and go to market strategy of the last generation software vendors when it comes to SaaS.

As a public service, I am providing a maturity model for these companies that aspire to be SaaS winners.

Pizza Pie Maturity Model for Franchising: Pizza and Burgers, Banks and SaaS

by avlxyz (CC)

This is a very simple maturity model. I know big companies like maturity models (see here) rather than straightforward examples. The following are the maturity levels I am proposing for those rushing to market with their half-baked SaaS offerings:

Level 1 – Pizza Delivery: Yes, pizza delivery is the first step in this hierarchy. In order for you to deliver a pizza consistently and of good quality, you need a set of tools, some training and then hire low cost teenagers – and you get the cheesy goodness of pizza, delivered to your home by a freckled teen. Most franchising opportunities such as laundromats, burger joints function well when you are delivering a simple product or service that is easy to deliver, has minimal security/quality/reliablity constraints and is easy to replicate. I recommend the INSEAD case study referenced in the MIT Sloan Management Review article.

Level 2 – Banking: As you can guess, delivering banking services is slightly harder. You need to make sure thieves can’t steal your customer’s money, that you provide certain level of services and if you have online banking – you need to ensure that customer’s accounts are not hacked and money stolen. As a customer, you entrust valuable assets (money) to your bank and it is the trust that a bank has earned over years, if not decades that helps you feel safe coupled with certain regulations and assurances from the federal government. Banks do not have franchises – you cannot pay Bank of America $50,000 – get trained and then start operating a bank with their logo, system and processes. The reason is that the trust earned by banks cannot be delegated away nor can the brand be put to risk or diluted.

Level 3 – SaaS: Yes, SaaS is higher on the Pizza Pie Maturity Model for Franchising than banks. As with banks, customers trust valuable assets (data) with the SaaS company. The SaaS provider must earn the trust of the customers one day at a time by providing the right service levels, ensuring security and business continuity. Just as with a bank, the trust embodied in the brand of the SaaS provider is of great value – and this trust cannot be delegated in a simplistic manner. Providing software (and perhaps some training and best practices) to the SaaS Franchisees does not take care of the most critical elements of SaaS:

  • Reliability: How do you ensure that the SaaS Franchisee has architected its end to end systems to provide reliable service?
  • Security: What kind of processes are in place to ensure data is not lost?
  • Performance: How will the brand owner ensure that the SaaS Franchisee provides the right performance?

You may be wondering:
Why is SaaS higher than Banking on the Pizza Pie Maturity Model for Franchising?

I have two good reasons for this:

  1. Data Loss vs. Money Loss: Data is lost when someone performs a successful read operation without your permission. If I read your mental health records, I don’t have to steal them. With bits and bytes, reading is stealing. With money, not so much. Just because you know my bank balance, I haven’t lost my money. (Yes, there is loss of privacy and trust is eroded but its not the same. You don’t call a cop because someone read your bank statement but if I read your critical health data you would have to call the cops.)
  2. No FDIC: A small bank or cooperative can be insured by FDIC and therefore provide sufficient protection to a customer but with SaaS you are relying on the trust earned by the brand. How comfortable do you feel having your data in a Uncle Billy’s HealthCare On-Demand App that runs on software from NanoSoft?

Reliable Platform, Trusted Brand: What you need is a reliable platform from a trusted brand in Software as a Service. A multi-tenant platform with customers sharing one single system ensures that all customers and ISVs running their applications and trusting their data with the platform are receiving the same high level of security, reliability, availability and that any issues that are discovered are resolved for all tenants.

The approach taken by some vendors to deliver SaaS without true multi-tenancy or even worse, entrust third-parties with running copies of their software takes the Level 1 Pizza Delivery franchisee approach.

What do you think? Want more debate on SaaS styles?

You may want to consider force.com Platform as a Service from salesforce.com for business applications. (Please read full disclosure at the bottom of the blog. No MBA’s were hurt in the writing of this blog.)

Cloud Computing: Its Raining Ideas – Want a Cup of Starbucks?

admin · March 29, 2008 · 4 Comments

I know I went overboard on metaphors in the title (cloud, rain, coffee) but then when you have the last few weeks like we have had at Salesforce.com, its hard to not to have your head in the clouds. I know.

So here is the scoop, if you have been living under a rock: Starbucks rolled out its website MyStarbucksIdeas.com powered by Salesforce.com (Jeff Nolan was one of the first bloggers to pick this up). The press has had nothing but the nicest things to say.

Courtesy: by emergent007

As the software guy, here are my key takeaways:

  • Focus on Innovation, not Infrastructure: Starbucks could have spent its own time and resources building out the infrastructure, renting bandwidth and compute capacity etc. but it instead chose to focus on customer feedback and was able to deliver greater value to customers (and therefore shareholders), faster.
  • Simple is Beautiful: Starbucks website is really simple to use. A few neatly placed icons tell users exactly what to expect. You can view the ideas without creating a login. Voting and commenting require a login which makes sense.
  • Business Value: For the budding technologist who wants to be an entrepreneur – notice how a simple concept forums+voting can become a great product/service. I have often met technologists who are looking for the hard problems to solve rather than looking for simple solutions to real business problems.

If you have an idea for Starbucks, Dell or Salesforce.com, please visit their ideas sites (all powered by Salesforce.com Ideas).

If you have an idea to build an entirely new service that customers like Starbucks and Dell should use, come build it on Force.com and market it on Salesforce AppExchange.

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