SaaS: Keeping Ahead of Moore’s Law
The relentless change brought to us by the consistent doubling of computing power that Moore’s Law describes continues and is now likely to change at least some SaaS applications in the near term. What do I mean? Consider – we now have a very competitive mobile application market and thanks to Google Chrome and now Apple Safari, it has crossed to the desktop on browsers.
Meet the New Paradigm
The event that brought this to mind was the announcements of the release of Safari 5.o. Leaving out the typical “improved performance” claims – two things were apparent – it is now a platform and it is designed for use in a cross-platform, mobile environment. On the platform side, Safari has joined Chrome in providing an extension system that allows developers to in effect, build secure and stable, rich clients into the browser. We’ve seen this for a while in the form of the “app stores” that are proliferating for mobile devices like smart phones and the “iPad” category (however you define it). On the mobile, cross-platform aspect, the browser is now tuned for mobile users. It is very noticeable if you try the new Reader function of Safari. It is quite usable on a desktop or laptop, but it really shines in the limited real estate of mobile devices. Multiple page articles merge seamlessly into one. Space wasting banners, sidebars and menus disappear. The browser becomes a credible, focused article reader for all devices.
What does this mean for SaaS? Take this evolving “browser as a platform” trend together with the announcement of iOS 4 (the artist formally known as the iPhone OS) and the growth of the Google Android and Chrome OS and you have a quickly changing landscape of operating systems tuned for a rich mobile environment and a browser-centric application implementation system. These advancements mean the expansion and adoption of HTML 5.0 is moving even faster than many of us thought. They will make the often tricky environment of JavaScript and Ajax less of an issue and the user experience of properly-tuned SaaS applications much more fluid and “desktop like.” It means that locally-installed, OS dependent applications are becoming ever less relevant and cross-platform, network-delivered services are becoming increasingly rich and useful.
Frankly, as interesting as this news is, it also points out that SaaS is a very fluid environment. Keeping ahead of it is increasingly difficult. Knowing how to manage a SaaS product and chart a plan to navigate development is critical. Knowing what you need to support scalable SaaS operations and what you should embed in the application is critical. Understanding your user environment and what is expected in your market is critical. The list goes on and there has to be a way to understand the landscape and to make the choices easier. And the point of this article is – there is – it is SaaS University.
As a company, Scio has stayed involved with SaaS University because it answers the need our clients and the SaaS community has to have current knowledge about our industry and important issues. Because Softletter produces regional events quarterly, you can plan to attend when and where it makes sense and take advantage of the evolving content as you need to. The tracks and workshops are well attended, but generally sized so the sessions can be interactive and remain relevant. If you’ve been to the larger, vendor-led conferences – SaaS University offers content that is focused on providing valuable insight to SaaS entrepenuers.
The next SaaS University event is in Washington DC, July 20-22, 2010. There is a full two-day agenda of sessions in two tracks covering a wide range of subjects and a third day that offers a choice of four in-depth workshops. On that point in particular, I want to highlight our own workshop, Charting Your Course to SaaS.
Charting Your Course to SaaS – SaaS University, Washington DC, May 22
This is the third time we’ve offered this comprehensive workshop on SaaS and it continues to evolve as we respond to the needs of our participants. Following our joint workshop with Jim Geisman of Software Pricing Partners, we’ve continued to tighten the content and for SaaS University, will offer a more interactive format for this workshop, especially during the afternoon. The aim is to keep it small enough to allow everyone a chance to move the discussion toward the issues that interest them most. It remains however, the only workshop that covers the business, operational and development issues that are critical to success in SaaS.
Companies that can benefit by attending this workshop:
- A new venture or as an ISV with on-premise products considering developing a SaaS offering
- A service company with significant vertical expertise than could be delivered and monetized in a SaaS model.
- An existing SaaS provider who made choices opportunistically that now constrain growth and cash flow.
- A SaaS entrepreneur with limited funding that needs to achieve positive cash flow early with products that evolve with the market.
Company challenges this workshop can help overcome:
- Building out a suite of products but are unsure of the strategies, metrics, and operational models needed to grow.
- Developing a framework for sorting out technical and strategic choices required to move to the SaaS business model.
- Facing significant operational problems including efficiency while keeping churn under control in an existing SaaS product.
- Developing a product roadmap and unsure of what can be accomplished and timeframes
Topics to be Covered:
- How is a SaaS Product and Business Different?
- Reference Framework for Creating Your Roadmap
- Making Strategic Development Choices
- Operating A SaaS Business by the Metrics
- 10 Ways to Fail at SaaS
- Applying Lessons Learned to Your Issues
Who Should Attend?
This workshop and seminar is important for anyone considering a SaaS product, in the process of developing a product or offering a product that hasn’t reached its potential, including: Entrepreneurs, CXO’s, product managers and key executives in startups, vendors moving to SaaS or existing SaaS companies.
Mike Dunham, Vice President, Service Engineering for Scio Consulting, has over 25 years background in the development and introduction of new technology working with startups, government and the largest enterprise software companies. He has worked with Scio for five years, regularly authors articles on SaaS and the software industry and hosts a series of podcasts on SaaS best practices. Mike leads Scio’s professional services helping companies develop and bring to market new SaaS offerings.
The workshop costs $695, but you can get an Early Bird Price of $495 when you combine it with your SaaS University registration - total package price of $1290. As a way to bring together a great amount of information in a short period of time, the combined package is a great opportunity. As we get closer to the event, I’ll expand on the agenda, but this is a great time to start planning and get your team together to attend SaaS University in Washington, DC! I hope to see you there…
