Dennis Howlett
SELECTING A SAAS PROVIDER
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24th September, 2010
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ICAEW
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obligAtory advert
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MORE ADVERTS
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Former partner in UK firm of CAs
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Contract negotiator and selection
consultant
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Industry analyst
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SAP Mentor (1/100 out of 2 million+
community)
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ZD Net contributor (enterprise
applications)
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AccMan (PSA innovation)
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SAAS APPS GROWTH
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“Every SaaS vendor in the
Software Insider Index® drove
14% to 26% growth despite the
pick up in on-premises license
sales.” (Ray Wang - Altimeter: 20th
Aug, 2010)
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Salesforce.com +24.8%
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NetSuite +16.9%
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SuccessFactors +26.7%
AccMan
SAAS APPS GROWTH
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Kashflow - 100% YoY growth 2009>2010,
same 2010>2011
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Xero - near term expecting 100K
customers, 22K in 2010, may hit 40K 2011
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IDC sees SaaS accounting as the no.3
growing apps space
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AccMan tracking 10% month over month
growth in 2010 for major vendors in SME
space
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Close to 70 apps plays available in the UK
of varying types
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PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES
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Consider SaaS as your way of getting
closer to clients
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Can SaaS open the door to value
add?
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Benchmarking?
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SaaS as a way to reduce operational
cost tor you and clients
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Should you be bundling services?
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COMMERCIAL
BUSINESS
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Consider SaaS for fast track subsidiary
operations
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Move capex to opex
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Collaboration environments
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Moving finance to the centre of
operations
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Transformational change
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BROAD CHARACTERISTICS
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Pay as you go billing
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SaaS vendors carry infrastructure cost and
lion’s share of risk
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Modest implementation cost c.f. on-premise
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Fast track innovation cycles - typically 4x
pa
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Richer user experience/productivity
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CONSEQUENCES
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On-prem vendors become
disintermediated
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Utility computing models inherent in
SaaS lead to more innovation
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Potential for unpleasant lock-in is real
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Things go wrong (gasp)
AccMAn
WHAT DOES SAAS LOOK
LIKE?
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Collaboration plays with
dashboards
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Process plays across verticals
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Co-mingling social apps with
finance
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Vertical market specific
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Extensible apps through APIs
AccMAn
STATE OF READINESS
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Most SME apps are in a relatively early stage of development
offering nuanced capabilities
‣
Twinfield most advanced for professionals
‣
NetSuite most mature in commercial arena
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SAP Business ByDesign will be a fast follower
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FinancialForce making the funky process play
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Workday hitting the large enterprises
AccMAn
HOW TO SELECT?
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Determine your pain point
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Undertake needs analysis
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Match needs to solutions
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Due diligence
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Negotiate (where possible)
AccMAn
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
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Be prepared to experiment - not all apps will suit all clients
(throw away apps/multiple apps?)
‣
Analyse portfolio for client readiness - might include
shoebox types
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For SME clients: think end user not accounting types - UX
matters !!
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For larger clients: think business process and collaboration
AccMAn
COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS
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Cost/benefit analysis is critical in replacement situations
‣
Potential investment write off/closing out data centre
contracts?
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Business reach - strategic thinking (Salesforce
environments?)
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Speed to value (the Facebook effect)
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Data cleansing (all too often under estimated)
AccMAn
REMEMBER
IMPLEMENTATION
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Salesforce: the Facebook for enterprise? (Chatter and
Seesmic integration)
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Xero/FreeAgent obsessive about cust experience, zero
training
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NetSuite/SAP BYD require implementation services. Look
for 1:1/1.5 cost
AccMAn
DEALING WITH VENDORS
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“You don’t get a pass cuz yer SaaS” - Frank Scavo
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In most situations, this will be an IT style project like most
others
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Fake SaaS v ‘real’ SaaS - the multi-tenancy issue
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Examine contracts carefully, embody demos in contracts
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Do vendors embody the SaaS Bill of Rights?
AccMAn
DEALING WITH VENDORS
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Undertake TCO analysis in the buy cycle
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Independently source customer references (Google
vendors)
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Reserve the right to include 3rd party advisors
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In large scale deployments ensure you include all moving
parts
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Data management?
AccMAn
ISSUES TO CONSIDER
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Security should not be an issue - c.f. on-premise
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Availability should be superior to on-prem
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Data centre location is NOT an issue
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BUT - you must run detailed checks on these issues
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Due diligence on the vendor is vitally important
AccMAn
ISSUES TO CONSIDER
‣
Security should not be an issue - c.f. on-premise
‣
Availability should be superior to on-prem
‣
Data centre location is NOT an issue
‣
BUT - you must run detailed checks on these issues
‣
Due diligence on the vendor is vitally important
AccMAn
AVAILABILITY - INTACCT
AccMAn
WHEN IT GOES WRONG
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ClearBooks outtage w/e 29th August is a
classic case of not understanding the
underpinnings required for SaaS/cloud
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3 days data lost
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No user communication except on
GetSatisfaction
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No user data download
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Audit should not be overlooked
AccMAn
BEWARE INCUMBENT FUD
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It’s not Sage/Microsoft/MYOB etc
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It’s not
secure/available/customizable etc
etc
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Hybrid is better (if you must)
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It doesn’t do Excel
AccMAn
DUE DILIGENCE AND FUD
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Claim: “NetSuite has never
made money in its 10 year
history.” Untrue.
‣
SaaS vendors can make
incumbents look incredibly
foolish very easily.
AccMAn
SAFEGUARDS
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There are NO standards - CIF but
beware
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Customer Bill of Rights
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Data location - DPA is NOT as rigorous
as it sounds
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Data retrieval - your rights?
AccMAn
YOUR JOB
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BEWARE INCUMBENT FUD
AccMAn
BUT...
Do the math (honestly) for
yourself (or get help)
AccMAn
GOOD NEWS EXAMPLE
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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Dennis Howlett
Q&A - RESOURCES
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AccMan - http://accmanpro.com
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Irregular Enterprise - http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett
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DealArchitect: http://typepad.dealarchitect.com
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Software Insider: http://blog.softwareinsider.org
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Software as Services: blogs.zdnet.com/SAAS
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Enterprise Systems Spectator: http://fscavo.blogspot.com/
Certification 5
Dennis Howlett
CONTACT
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email: dahowlett@gmail.com
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Twitter: http://twitter.com/dahowlett
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Skype/Facebook/LinkedIn: dahowlett
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te: +34 953 708 636/+34 607 482 739
AccMan
Dennis Howlett
THANKS & CREDITS
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Thanks for your attention
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Thanks to Hugh MacLeod: http://www.gapingvoid.com for use of
his art
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Thanks to iCanHasCheezBurger.com for humor additions
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Thanks to colleagues at EIs/EAs
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Thanks to Compfight for providing CCC Flickr images
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