January 19, 2008

Gov't Endorses SaaS - Shouldn't You? Robert Scoble Writes Why

If you have been on the sidelines about whether you should use software-as-a-service technology in your business, consider that the government is championing its use.

The government admits that its software development is slow, it's terrible at managing large projects and it needs to share data better. A perfect case for Software as a Service - SaaS.

Karen Evans, administrator of the OMB's Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology said that some agencies haven't embraced the service approach, often because they want hands-on control of software development, Evans said. But government agencies can't afford to keep developing their own software without sharing with other agencies, she said.

What does this mean to you?

if the government can consider SaaS why not you?

Many of you (most of you) already know the power of SaaS but have not yet considered it a strategic part of your business operations. You should.

In the latest issue of Fast Company magazine, total-geek Robert Scoble writes why hosted applications are the way to go -illustrating his point perfectly.

"Hey, Scoble," you might be saying, "my company uses a server to store files, and we even have Microsoft SharePoint to help us collaborate on them. What's the fuss?" Good for you, but that's not how most people work. See if this sounds familiar: You put together a slide presentation, then email that mammoth file around to everyone who needs to see it. People send it back, or drop it on your chair, and you spend lots more time making all the changes. Then you send it around again. Before you know it, you have 72 versions of the same presentation clogging your inbox, with no clue as to whether you've dotted every i.

With Office Live, all that is done over the Internet automatically for you. People you're sharing documents with don't even need to have Office loaded to open and edit them. A password system keeps prying eyes out of your documents, and you can not only control who gets editing versus viewing privileges but also roll back to a prior version if you don't like the changes another person made. You can even save to Office Live from inside Word or Excel.

tags: hosted applications , office live , saas | 0 comments