Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
I have been going over the editorial of this post for a long time. The other day, during a dinner with diverse managing directors that are of the same opinion as myself, I got the push I needed to start writing.
This may be a controversial article… Because I truly believe that this great change will sweep away those professionals who do not know how to adapt themselves.
We find ourselves in a totally historic moment in information technology management. Nowadays SMEs all over the world have within their reach, as powerful information systems in SaaS mode as much larger companies.
SaaS does not only facilitate software implementation in a faster and less costly manner, it also allows the price quota to be adapted to the size of the company.
The facts:
Today a company can be set up on:
- E-mail on google apps;
- Website on multiple providers;
- Blog on blogger or wordpress;
- Commercial system such as salesforce or zoho;
- Accounting on multiple providers;
- Social intranet and knowledge management on Zyncro;
And all of this in a week. Trust me.
The opposition:
Nonetheless, there are three great oppositions for these types of solution:
- Large consultancies that see their profit margins reduced by much faster and less costly initiatives.
- IT directors that defend their position of power maintaining inflexible, non-adaptable customized systems.
- Software licensing manufacturers that feel adopting this format could ruin their account of results at not being able to charge for the software cost in advance rather than over a period of years.
I am not criticising anyone, each must defend their own business.
The arguments for and against:
- Lack of security: in general, SaaS solutions have a much higher level of security than made to measure solutions. How much made to measure software is programmed with security requirements or passes an audit?
- The service level agreement SLA (also called availability, typically more than 99.nn% which is the service level of serious SaaS companies) is much higher than the majority of IT departments in many companies. How many companies offer 24/7 support? How many demand an SLA from their internal IT department?
The winners:
- 2.0 IT directors, let us say those who truly consider themselves a department that should provide a service and improve competitiveness of the company. Simply by verifying security, the SLA and overall the correct administration of this, they can add value to their company in record time.
- IT departments within large companies that can implement IT systems in a short space of time without the usual IT resource restrictions and within their budget departments.
- And overall, the SMEs that have the power of a (SaaS) System at reach with an infinite number of easy to install and use applications and tools.
In summary:
- SaaS applicaitons can drastically improve company productivity.
- They can be applied to companies of all sizes but are especially useful for SMEs and departments in large businesses as they can benefit from a fast implementation and the costs adapted to its size.
We face a revolution that will take a great proportion of the software we use (not all of it) to the cloud, opponents may create more or less barriers. But the change has begun in small businesses and is starting in the large. In accordance with this new paradigm, Zyncro is a solution.