This quote from Microsoft from PC World article caught my attention.
For every $1 Microsoft makes on its software, partners make $8.70 in additional revenue servicing and customizing these products
I actually consider this a bug, not a feature of the traditional software model. It may be good for Microsoft and its partners for generating business. But look at it from a customer’s perspective. This means, for every $1 they spent on purchasing software, they end up spending $8.70 in customizing and servicing the software.
Among other things, SaaS makes integration easy. Our own integration, with both internal and external apps, is a great example of this. We launch a new integration almost every week. Try doing this with installed apps.
There is another advantage people don’t seem to notice with SaaS application integration. Once apps are integrated, all customers benefit from it. We integrated our CRM (among other apps) with Google Apps. This was done once and we have thousands of companies benefiting from this.
How does something like this work in the on-premise world? Well, software is integrated/duplicated in every, single, business. That probably explains the $8.70 for every $1 spent on software.
Oliver,Our CRM integration with Google Apps is available for Free, Professional & Enterprise customers. There is no additional charge for Google Apps integration.
Ok so look at Zoho CRM: your team is telling us that if we pay $12/month today, we'll have to upgrade to pay another $13/month just to get Google Apps real integration.So we would more than double our subscription just to get the sync feature. This reminds me of MS model, where you can buy something cheap at first, then need more and more licences just to be able to work.
Great post! I completely agree. Savings in the cloud is going to come from two sources: systems integration and systems management. Big changes in both are coming.