More questions for your "SaaS" vendor
Posted by Rhett Glauser on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 @ 02:08 PM
So the legacy ITSM vendors are finally getting around to releasing so-called "SaaS" iterations of their decades-old, on-premise client/server applications. They are beginning to think they have answers to some of the questions I pose in my original "Questions for your "SaaS" vendor" post.
Before they get too comfortable, let's raise the bar a bit. Please ask your legacy ITSM vendor these more-pointed questions:
- Do you trust your application enough to allow customers to directly customize, extend or integrate with it?
- Do you trust your customers enough to allow them to directly customize, extend or integrate with your on demand application?
- Has there been a code fork to support both your legacy on-premise application and the on demand application? Do different development teams work on the two different products?
- What is the difference between the user interface of the legacy product and the on demand product?
- How does the Flash you use in your on demand application perform on the iPhone or iPad?
- Can you show me a demo of your on demand application in the Blackberry browser?
- Does your advertised availability of 99.5% include manual upgrades or other planned downtime?
Remember, these guys are never going to get SaaS right until they start new. Trying to fit a legacy application and business model into the new and modern world of true SaaS simply doesn't work.
BMC needs to take a lesson from Ellison and separate legacy business from SaaS business. In other words, never marginalize the existing cash cow of maintenance revenue. Instead, throw buckets of cash into a modern SaaS start up (e.g. Salesforce.com, NetSuite), then laugh all the way to the bank.
BMC, with Remedy OnDemand, is going the route of Siebel before it. By my count this is their third attempt at on demand. Sure they call it something different every time but the result always has been and will be the same.
To quote one modern philosopher, "That pig doesn't need lipstick, it needs drag." Or, I've heard Fred Luddy say, "Like a bad toupee, a web front end on a legacy client/server application fools exactly one person."
Maybe BMC should diversify and spread the risk a bit...get into the hardware or consulting business. Maybe they need to invent some acquisitions like HP is fond of doing...who am I to tell a multi-billion dollar software company what to do?