“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” Attributed to Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of IBM 1943
Software as a Service (SaaS) What is it and why do we care?
What is Web 2.0 Bumper sticker slogan with no real meaning? A way of noting the natural evolution of the web Collaborative information (many to many publishing) Web as a platform (no client other than the standard web browser to do tasks) Social/technical changes in approach to authority and information There seems to be a loose visual style associated with web 2.0 Theories about how information is gathered and presented
What is Software as a Service? Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers do not pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service
Some History... The company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice were acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999 for US$73.5 million.
What is Software as a Service? Strictly speaking, it is about corporate productivity
Enter: Google Apps Premiere Edition Announced in February 2007... For $50 per year per user you get... Gmail with your domain name and 10GB of storage (versus 2GB for the free version) Google Talk Google Calendar with shareable schedules a Google Start Page that can include company info Google Docs and Spreadsheets (the neat hosted word processor and spreadsheet) Google Page Creator (a very basic Web site designer)a control panel to manage everything and some sort of hooks into your company's existing IT infrastructure mobile access to some functionalit (such as Gmail) 24/7 tech support (including phone help) and a 99.9% uptime guarantee for Gmail (but not for the other applications) Who is using these tools? Check out the Google testimonial page Source: http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/003783.html
What Are Other People Saying? “As usual with virtually anything that anyone identifies as a ‘killer,’ the label is pure hype –there are many, many things that Microsoft Office does well that Google Apps doesn't do at all.” Links: PCWorld.com Computerworld.com Eweek.com Informationweek.com Text “Given all the features and tools that come with the free Standard edition of Google Apps, businesses may have a hard time justifying $50 per user per year for the Premier edition.” “Google has yet to iron out all the wrinkles in its suite.”
So where do we stand? Benefits Concerns Cost Savings Time Savings Scalability Simpler Upgrade Path Consistency for users Data Security Data Control Available Features Working Offline
Don’t Forget About Yahoo! Yahoo's purchase of Zimbra for $350 million
Why do we care? Because many of these tools are FREE Because it is not just about productivity for large companies Because it is not just about the Big Boys (Google and Yahoo). There are many small companies exploring productivity tools delivered via the web. (Some are free, some have a fee.)
rememberthemilk.com
SideJobTrack
Coghead
Even More... FreshBooks BaseCamp Meebo ConceptShare GoToMeeting SpongeCell MyStickies Qoop EyesOS next
Further Expansion of SaaS The SaaS delivery model brings unparalleled collaborative opportunities Many of the productivity tools we have looked at have collaboration built in at their core Web 2.0 is also about collaboration and social networks Include social networking tools as part of SaaS
Linked In
design:related
Ning
Summary: SaaS strictly refers to productivity tools for large organizations who need to save time and money We expand that to included productivity tools that can be used for personal use, and small businesses We further expand the definition to include social networking tools because collaboration is key Also, we saw tools such as CogHead and Ning which could be called meta-tools – they allow you to create and deploy your own web based tools right through the web browser.