David Carter won on points

" And the consistent response I’m getting from AccountingWEB is that they don’t need SaaS at the moment, and aren’t interested."

WOW! doesn't that one sentence sum up the profession perfectly?

1. "They don't need" - if that is the practitioners speaking about their own needs then fair enough but if "they" = businesses (ie clients) what sort of advice is that?

2. "Aren't interested" - once again if that is the practitioners speaking about their own needs .... QED. If they are talking about clients shouldn't they be helping them be interested?

John,
I've already posted specific comments on your AW piece (and avoided the one word answer), but your view seems to be really short sighted. David C's commentary on quite a number of technology topics seem to be completely out of touch e.g. hailing integrated CRM or workflow capabilities as something new in 2006. He's welcome to his views, but whether you listen to the likes of Gartner and Forrester, the mainstream technology media, the blogarati, or recent US and European web 2.0 and SaaS events, there is a depth of opinion, particularly on SaaS, which he seems to be missing completely.

Dennis is absolutley correct that the value proposition of SaaS has not been explained in enough detail on AW, except in a few places in Nigel's articles. You say you want the debate to be more informative, but that's only going to happen if your readership has more facts.

Thanks for your comments John which I respect and value. I was looking at the issue from a different perspective.

I'd argue the reason 'they don't need it' is because they don't understand the value proposition. That has yet to be articulated at AW. So far it has only been posited as an alternative delivery model.

My position is that it provides the potential for a different business model. That is more interesting to me because in my view, it allows professionals to move beyond where they're at in terms of providing compliance services to a model where they fulfill the promise of their training to become trusted business advisors.

Again, that has not been articulated at AW.

It is important to remember the incumbents have every reason to try and ignore the issue. Their business models are at risk. Sage already knows this which is why it is ramping service at the expense of the channel. I believe the new services provide a way for the channel to morph into something much more than simply being implementation shops for the big boys. That's another dimension I plan to explore in 2007.

But for me the telling point is that people who read my stuff are bringing others with them who are looking at least with some sense of curiosity at what will happen. If that is only my "1%" crowd at this time then I'm happy.

Dennis,

Thanks for the feedback & AccountingWEB posting. Rather than inviting single-word reviews of my review, you might at least acknowledge that I was looking at the SaaS market through the prism of AccountingWEB rather than as a global software analyst - after all, that's what I always do.

Some vendors might be experiencing high growth rates (from a very small starting point), but those suppliers who are most prominent in our market are still pretty small fish. And the consistent response I'm getting from AccountingWEB is that they don't need SaaS at the moment, and aren't interested.

As I mention in my piece, I expect that to change, but yes, for 2006 at least, the David Carter world view still prevails in the world of AccountingWEB.

If we all acknowledge that there are multiple dimensions to this debate, it will be much more informative and interesting.

John