Obviously, since I work for Eloqua, I'm a big believer in SaaS - the quick deployment, lower TCO and the subscription payment model are compelling. But with all the advantages of SaaS, there's a big problem that has emerged as a result of the cloud based model - data silos.
With the advantages of SaaS, departments could deploy solutions without waiting for the help or oversight of corporate IT. SaaS solutions were about tactically solving the immediate needs of a department without suffering the drag of a corporate IT strategy.
But "rogue IT" practiced at a departmental or group level has its consequences. Bypassing this corporate IT "red tape" also meant bypassing any corporate level planning. What has occurred as a result is a preponderance of point SaaS solutions that aren't actively managed or integrated with one another. As a result, data integration has become a major challenge in many organizations. And it's not just SaaS applications that need to be integrated with each other. In many ways, the bigger challenge can often be the integration of SaaS applications with on premise applications.
This has led to a healthy business for integration vendors such as Cast Iron, Informatica and Boomi, three leading players in a rush to solve the integration problem created by these point solutions.
So what does that mean for your IT decision making? Forgo SaaS altogether? No, not at all. The advantages of leveraging SaaS are too great and too important to businesses to retreat from the cloud application model altogether. Instead, pay attention to integration before you make your decisions.
Just a couple of things to think about -
Does your SaaS provider offer integration to other key applications in your enterprise application ecosystem? Start by understanding the close loop business process that you wish to drive before you make your decision on the SaaS solution.
Does your SaaS vendor offer a comprehensive and open API, providing access to their data and services? It's important not only to have access to the data but to also have comprehensive access to the services that process the data. Without the services, you may have access to the data but find yourself needing to write extensive code to process that data for consumption.
The bottom line - when it comes to SaaS, think strategically about integration before you act tactically on your implementation.
Good post Andre. In the larger scheme of supporting efficient proccesses within an organization this will clearly present challenges.
What options do companies have to try to support cross functional, cross application processes where some of the applications live inhouse and some live in the cloud? Can today's BPM solutions bridge that gap?
I think the most obvious issues ignored in hosted models is indemnification and continuity.
http://bizcast.typepad.com/clients/cloudcomputing/
Most marketers need to realize, as well, that you can pull together all of the disparate data with a plethora of dashboard tools to provide one view of your marketing KPIs.
Second, with a good plan, you can assure that Eloqua, Salesforce.com and other applications seamlessly hand data back ad forth for an end-to-end solution with best of breed software in a cloud. There are many standard APIs for popular SaaS products (as you mentioned) that keep data silo issues to a minimum. Plus, you can also add middleware products to help mitigate silo issues.
So I'd simply say, silos only occur through poor planning. There are still a good deal of applications that don't play well with others. This is an intentional act by some marketing automation, CRM, and even email management solutions to make you rely on their products for everything.
Your point of askig "Does your SaaS vendor offer a comprehensive and open API, providing access to their data and services? It's important not only to have access to the data but to also have comprehensive access to the services that process the data. Without the services, you may have access to the data but find yourself needing to write extensive code to process that data for consumption." is advice all marketers seeking to add incredible analytic and automation tools should apply when entering the SaaS world.
Andre,
Thanks for this post. SaaS has taken the pain out of implementing and maintaining a new solution. That's good. What's lost in the rigor and rhythm of standard IT implementations is how the part integrates to the whole.
Always an important question to ask. As we in CRM seek to further surround our customers and understand all touchpoints to create an experience, so too our systems must circle together leaving no dead ends.
Any company implementing SaaS without their IT staff involved is missing out on the process of understanding how one system impacts the whole.
Alan - I think the point of my post is that the way SaaS emerged is as a compelling tactical answer to business problems ... a "just do it" mentality without the IT oversight. Now that it's mainstream and getting broader adoption, a number of issues including business continuity are getting some attention of IT and governance folks
Jon, if you mean that the tools are available to avoid data silos and disconnected business processes, I completely agree.
But poor planning has indeed occurred because when it came to adopting SaaS, many departments bypassed corporate IT strategy and planning... and ironically, were often rewarded for it.
Also, I appreciate that you got the point about access to services... it's not just about data...it's also about processing the data. Thanks!
Doug - what I didn't say but was implied in my post is that it's not just about data being silo'ed but really at the end of the day, it's about disconnected business processes. And, that's occurred less because of SaaS but because implementing technology at a departmental level is often myopic and ignorant of the broader business productivity issues like BPM.
Kevin - we're both in violent agreement...sadly, it happened in many orgs for the past 5+ years and it always costs more to retro-fit integrated processes. And, it continues to happen because in some companies, there is still a departmental "rogue" mentality when it comes to deploying SaaS apps
I notice your choice of three leading vendors in SaaS integration and was curious to understand what metrics you used. Traditionally leaders in the market are chosen by number of customers, market share, revenue, momentum, market visibility, etc.
I notice that you failed to include Pervasive in your list of leading vendors and by any common reckoning or determination, Pervasive is clearly one of the leaders, if not the leader, for SaaS integration.
Pervasive is a company that typically flies a bit under the radar due to its sales and marketing approach which markets significantly to OEM or other embedded vendors, however Pervasive has well over a thousand in production SaaS customers, and it has delivered integration solutions directly or through partners to well over 100,000 customers.
In addition, Pervasive for the third year in a row was named as a visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for data integration. Only 14 vendors were published in that quadrant and some of the requirements for inclusion in the quadrant included market presence, number of customers and neither Boomi nor Cast Iron appeared in that Quadrant or anywhere else in the reports, further confirms that Pervasive should be listed in a leadership position in any mention of SaaS integration.
Andre and fellow commentators make some valuable points, but a vital point that’s missing in regards to guaranteeing long term success of deploying SaaS applications is the importance of having a standards based approach in place. Some might say that relative to the excitement of SaaS and the Cloud, talking about standards is fairly dull and doesn’t excite analysts or vendors. However, being standards based is the all important “pre-nup� that enterprises need to sign before they place their SaaS/Cloud (or CIO career) bets.
One of the many benefits of having a standards based approach is the value it delivers to enterprises when they build their SaaS based applications and business processes. By having a standards based platform, enterprises can make the transition to the cloud or to a new vendor fairly painlessly.
This means that if an IT department deploys a Java based application (say on Amazon’s cloud) for their business, but after a period of time wants to improve commercials, SLA’s or even swap to or integrate a new application that’s become available, they can migrate to the next application and/or move this to the next cloud, for example Google, because there is no vendor lock-in! Additionally, all vendors have the added motivation to maintain the best value, service and innovation for their customer.
However, the same doesn’t apply when an enterprise chooses to build and run applications in a proprietary development world, running on its own propriety cloud, as it is “locked in� in a “till death do us part� contract, and may have to pay the consequences.
Without doubt, cutting out silos, being part of an IT strategy and benefiting from all the available SaaS model attributes are all very important factors when implementing a SaaS/Cloud strategy, but without a ‘standards based pre-nup’ large enterprises will find themselves locked into specific vendors more than ever before.
Noel Coloe
Oracle CRM