I get a regular stream of people telling me they are looking for a SaaS/cloud upgrade to Sage Line 50. They’re ready to move on and don’t see the remainder of the Sage line of products as particularly appealing. They’ve usually found out something about this ‘cloud stuff’ and are curious to know more. This may come as a shock to some people but there are very few alternatives.
In a recent article, I postulated that the real runners and riders here are NetSuite or SAP Business ByDesign. They’re the ones with the market clout although in comments and back channel conversations I was pointed to a slew of others, mostly US based offerings. I also know of a few open source offerings but at this point in time find that most people shy away from that method of computing as it is deemed to carry too many risks as in…who supports it?
SAP has a reputation of being big, heavy, slow and expensive. Fine for the Nestlé’s and Colgate-Palmolive’s of this world but hardly a fit for an SME business. That’s simply not true. ByDesign can be used by companies as small as 10 users. 20 users would be nice but 10 is OK. If you’re moving from say Line 50 then implementation and data transfer can be handled for less than £10K. You’re going to do a good amount of work yourself in learning how this thing works but SAP has provided plenty of guided learning material to help.
I’ve spent since late 2007 closely following this story. While it has had plenty of bumps along the way – effectively getting canned for more than a year – ByDesign is ready for prime time. SAP has the problem of adjusting its corporate marketing head to the SaaS/cloud world both in approach and presentation. I sense this video will go some way towards presenting a different SAP. One that is more attuned to the kind of creative thinking the SaaS/cloud market is known for presenting.
But is that enough to make you think twice? The thing I hear more than anything is that SAP is still perceived to be too expensive. Expensive compared to what? SAP BusinessOne?Microsoft Dynamics? Sage Line 1000? What are we talking about here? Those who worry usually have not done the calculations to understand what it means to run a fully integrated SaaS/cloud suite compared to running the mish mash of non-integrated packages they envisage.
Neither have they considered the benefits which compress ROI while delivering tangible and potentially transformational value. The same holds true for those considering NetSuite. I don’t hold them to account on this because it is not an easy calculation to perform. In this situation, buyers need to take a strategic view of their IT assets. If you think that’s just for big boys then you’d be mistaken. Considering a suite approach is just as valid for the SME as it is for the larger business. After all, you wouldn’t be doing any of this unless you though there was something in it for you. So why take half measures?
Another argument I hear is that professionals don’t want to change. I say that’s bunk. If you don’t know or understand the value of something then I am not surprised. Yet vendors seem only too willing to roll over at the first sign of resistance without making the right case up front. Instead they go hunting for the low hanging fruit. Understandable but hardly what I would call optimal.
In a conversation with Rick Telberg the other day, we were discussing this very point. Our shared observations are remarkably similar. One interesting thing that came out of it is that professionals don’t care about technology. It could be on disk for all they care. They want to understand benefit and solve pain points. If the existing system is working just fine then what might those be? The vendors don’t seem to know or if they do they’re keeping them very quiet. Here’s a broad brush summary that might help you get started.
Moving on in the current environment is not an easy decision. Natural conservatism will hold many back. However, those that do make the jump will find that the suite world has much more to offer than they might have anticipated.
