Boris Evelson tweeted a fine question yesterday morning, but it’s too easy: how to define Saas? If he’s going to all that trouble, why not also define Saas’s younger siblings: platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service. To be a real hero, though, he has to take on the real pain: how to pronounce “Iaas” and “Paas.”
Stay agile
Mark Albala witnessed something through a client that helps explain the cloud’s ascent: The client bought a $25,000 product, and got a bill from their technology group of almost $150,000 to install it. The client’s response: “What is this s—-?” They’re now seriously considering SaaS.
He is president of InfoSight Partners. “[SaaS] is not catching on because it’s cheaper. It’s not,” he said. “It’s not catching on because it’s more efficient. It’s not. It’s catching on because companies are tired of dealing with these technology groups.”
SaaS has what many tech groups don’t have: agility. Most large corporations, he says, have embedded, well-defined development processes that take things from conception to production, with lots of people involved for checks and balances.… Read the rest “Stay agile”
A sweet solution for cherry picking
Don’t say “cherry picking” to people at information-intensive businesses like banks, airlines, and telecommunications companies. You can spoil their lunch if a big customer has just run off to a competitor.
Mark Albala says he has a tool that will warn of such a move. He’s president of InfoSight Partners, and he’s about to offer a new Twitter and blog sniffer to companies in the upper-midmarket and bigger.
Customers often precede their moves with questions about the competitor. Asking “what do you know about …?” on Twitter could be the first and last hint. Albala’s tool monitors such chatter on social media, industry blogs, and other external sources to know when something’s up.… Read the rest “A sweet solution for cherry picking”