Musings On An Evolution.... SaaS

A long time ago, when I was CIO for a large enterprise with lots of locations that had from 3-15 users in each location, I needed to place a dedicated IT network engineer at each site for the initial install and to be on hand for the occasional technical support crisis. This was costly.

I decided I needed to find a better way to support the basic desktop needs of the company without compromising quality of service. I found a European company, based in Florida, who was in the business of providing outsourced desktop support. Wow! This could eliminate the need to have an on-site network engineer at each site!

Let’s go through the scenario of what was really going on at these remote company locations. The VP’s in each site insisted on personal on-site technical support. In most cases these engineers were hired “just in case” they needed to fix a computer, install software, replace a router, etc. Most of the time these $50-75k employees were doing PowerPoint presentations for the VP’s, setting up internet access, installing laptop software, buying mobile phones, etc. These employees were providing more of what I would term as an IT Valet Service than delivering any real technical support. In any case, they were much more likely to be running their own private consulting services while on the company payroll than delivering any real value to the Company. No on-site supervision and woefully under-utilized in their chosen technical profession, what else could one expect?

The European company had the perfect solution! Turn each phone, PC or laptop into an "appliance". Provide hot swap capability in the event of a failure. With each employee’s laptop or desktop configuration and personal data stored remotely, the hardware could be swapped out in minutes with no loss of functionality or data. With minor adjustments for special circumstances and the needs of company executives, the solution seemed flawless!

The PC hardware was just the hardware. Given any particular location, we could purchase a spare PC for much less than the annual cost of an employee. If a PC was corrupted or disabled, the spare from the back room would be deployed and that user’s desktop would be completely restored to mirror the disabled equipment with a simple network download. In effect, the PC became just an appliance since it was completely field swappable by any non-technical individual. What could be better?

The ROI and the annual savings were incredible! Every scenario was challenged and addressed with solutions that resulted in minimal impact on individuals and the business as a whole.

The project was promoted and showed tremendous promise. But it never got off the ground.

Why? At the time this was completely “out of the box” thinking and there was a general lack of trust in relying on “the network” as remote host for the “computer”- especially MY computer! Having an IT-provided computer valet right there, no matter how talented or inept was far more comforting than reliance on some remote service. Yes, we very much liked our IT Valets who come to your desk on demand, and help you!

That was in 1998. We were all less proficient back then…. And truly, much of the software was more “challenging” to learn. Client-server applications were delicate and often required some on-site or individual tweaking…. All of this support incidentally, could have been provided more effectively from the remote provider, but comfort once again was derived from having a human appear, maybe talk to you (or maybe not…we IT folks…are not very chatty…) and then fix it for you!

My how far we’ve come! Clearly, business was just not READY – in 1998 - to let the network be the source for information, process, data, feature and function. .

Roll forward to 2009. We are in a completely different place! We’ve learned the many lessons of security breaches, spammers and the need for filters, the need to prevent hijacked email servers, pfishing pirates, wireless spies, laptop vulnerabilities and learned the hard way that we don’t want the only copy of critical company information stored on individual laptops or computers. Now we know that the NETWORK linked to a secured application or repository is the answer! We no longer feel so vulnerable. In fact, we actually like having it somewhere else! We know that our data is safe – and accessible. We know that we don’t need our own laptops or desktops WITH us to get to our data. And we know that we can connect to the network from anywhere, including Disneyland, Starbucks or from our cars, hotels, or vacation spots via internet, cell or satellite connection!

Slowly we’ve migrated more and more of “our stuff” to centralized, controlled, managed and secure places. We have relinquished a lot of control at the local level. Why? We can GET MORE FOR LESS and….. we can ACCESS IT FROM ANYWHERE !!

My dream from 1998 is being realized in many new ways! Let go of your local stuff and let someone else worry about the details. Focus on your business, your goals, your markets, your customers and take the technology issues off the table! Centralize and rely on the network to deliver what you want, when you want it and how you want it.

Is this a panacea for all things technical? No, not at all. Somebody, somewhere in your organization must chart the course, steer the ship and train the stewards. But, the tools and resources today are much more intuitive, user friendly, user configurable and responsive. What is new is that more and more basic and advanced tools are becoming indigenous to the network and are being provided by “experts” who do NOT work for your company!

Take Salesforce.com. IT did not provide this product and has nothing to do with it. They probably don’t even know what it does and why it’s important. If this tool, can be completely embraced, deployed and managed by non-technical business units, why not other business tools?

Well, the time has come! Those tools are now migrating into business use. While the transformation is still underway, there are some innovators and leaders who are paving the way to elevate and empower business users by removing the IT complexity and replacing it with very powerful user tools! Adoption becomes more of an integration task than a development and engineering task. The question becomes, “How do I blend this new feature or data into what I already have in place”? (vs. How many IT people will I need? How much hardware? What skills? When will it be ready? Etc. etc. etc.!). Well, there are plenty of experts and tools to integrate new features with existing information and processes!

Wow. What progress.

Now, let me throw in a little commercial here…a little bonus to those who have read this far!

I've spent several months investigating a company who is a foremost innovator in the SaaS space. Their approach to a feature rich solution is both inventive and powerful. As a result, I decided to join ViVO Concepts as a ViVOpartner because I believe this company is actually delivering products and services that go far beyond my dreams of 1998! Business should be focused on business issues, not the underlying technologies. Technology challenges are long-standing distractions and resource vampires to SMB’s in particular! As a 17+ year CIO in SMB's I know the issues well and believe the next generation of software will be delivered by hosted solution providers with tools rich in individualized tailoring features that allow businesses to maintain their own methods and market differentiators!

ViVO Concepts has successfully actualized the goal of removing the technology barriers for business people and has provided a flexible, configurable, expandable toolkit of hosted features and resources so that companies can focus on customers to produce added value in the market. This translates to better information (analytics), more sales, better service, and stronger customer loyalties.

How refreshing. I’m so happy it is finally 2009 !! And, I'm particularly happy to be a partner with ViVO Concepts! You can find them at www.vivoconcepts.com