Headhshift has an excellent if long blarticle on the future of enterprise IT. I recommend bookmarking this piece for future reference. Author Lee Bryant says (among other things) in the context of SaaS:
Despite the hype and hope invested in SaaS, at Headshift we still spend far too much time banging our heads against a brick firewall and sometimes overcoming the most absurd levels of bureaucracy to do some basic computing and networking tasks. Right now, it is far easier to integrate external data and application services and bring it inside the firewall to complement internal systems than it is to share internal systems with external applications. This is a problem for the SaaS model.
I see Lee’s point but I believe it is an issue that is already going away. The most common form of business problem is often expressed as What If? A classic spreadsheet style approach is required. I’ve always maintained that being able to share those resources makes a huge difference to productivity. It’s a bit like developing a cashflow forecast model for a specific industry. Once you’ve got it to work satisfactorily, it can be re-used as a template. Development costs on second use – zero.
Wouldn’t it make sense to have that template available as a discoverable ‘object’ or ‘component’ within the context of shared information. So for example the model might be improved over time as circumstances change. It might provide insights into business benchmarks. The key here is ‘sharing.’ Lee however seems concerned that access to legacy data could impede saas uptake.
I’m willing to admit that saas faces the problem of data integration just as much as other applications. But…Salesforce.com is showing us a way of approaching the world that takes the component assembly approach from standardised parts. It offers integration to EditGrid – an online spreadhsheet. In recent times I’ve been surprised at the number of businesses that are moving onto the SFdC platform. If their AppSpace offering takes off in any way then it has the potential to become the natural social computing partner to the main SFdC applications. That model has yet to be proven by the success of AppExchange service providers. Nevertheless, it has the potential to be game changing.
Although many of the article comments are aimed at the barriers to social computing, I am heartened by Lee’s observation that:
…more people thankfully are reaching out to use simple web tools to work around the organisational calcification of conventional IT. They are often the people you and I both talk to in many companies, and the encouraging thing is that they are to be found almost everywhere, even in what are ostensibly the most conservative organisations. Time is on our side.
I think it’s important to support the efforts of those who are doing interesting things – wherever they may be found. In recent months, I’ve seen a significant uptick in interest in these kinds of technology. Many are at the ‘curious’ stage but a few have taken further steps that clearly demonstrate a commitment to innovation.
Disclosure: EditGrid is a site sponsor
Technorati Tags: AppExchange, EditGrid, SaaS, salesforce.com
