2008 A Breakout Year For SaaS

No matter whose IT predictions you look at for 2008, software as a service (SaaS) looms big. For those not familiar with this term, SaaS is software that customers do not pay to own. Rather, it is an on-demand system usually hosted through a third party and customers access the software’s applications via the Internet.

The SaaS model has seen tremendous growth in the last few years primarily because it is easier and costs less to implement than large enterprise systems that reside on a company’s own servers. Some fast-growing SaaS vendors include companies such as Salesforce.com, RightNow, and NetSuite, but there are many companies charging hard to catch-up in this sector including software giants Microsoft and Oracle.

There are a number of stories that have surfaced in the last few months indicating SaaS has reached a crucial tipping point, and 2008 may be the year that it begins its breakout to become the norm for most companies:

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Are You Selling Aspirin or Vitamins?

Paula Stout recently offered an interesting analogy in a Business Week article that illustrates the divide that often exists between sales and marketing at many companies. She said sales often uses the aspirin approach: sell to the pain points a customer might have. On the other hand, marketing often uses the vitamin approach: they assume clients want to grow so they offer longer-term solutions that will fortify future performance. It’s an illustrative comparison. The problem, of course, is that unless sales and marketing are on the same page, there is a good chance that your customers or prospective customers will be confused about your brand.

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Supercharging Revenues: Integrate Sales, Marketing and IT

Several representatives from our company have attended three big conferences this year: The Forrester Marketing Forum, the Forrester IT Forum and most recently, Dreamforce in San Francisco. The takeaway from the first two conferences was clear: if you want to be a player in tomorrow’s business world you better find a way to integrate marketing and IT. The takeaway from the Dreamforce conference was equally clear: if you want to be a player in tomorrow’s business world you better find a way to integrate sales and marketing.

So just imagine how powerful your revenue machine would be if you could integrate all three functions: sales, marketing and IT. This would have significance for both the B2C and B2B worlds, but it could literally supercharge the new business process for many B2B companies.

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