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