Sorry for the rant and to change subjects slightly, but I completely agreed with the authors comments about the expanding SaaS market and the opportunities that it brings. Keep up the great posts guys, I look forward to more

Customer updates / upgrades; Cherwell upgrades the server for our customers. Client upgrades are automatic, via Cherwell’s auto deploy feature. When users login, they are prompted to install the new upgrade. Simply click “Run” and within minutes clients are using the new version. There’s no additional fee – it is part of the subscription fee. And remember, customizations stay put!

I think both on-premise and on-demand versions of help desks make sense. I am sure it is making sense to lot of customers too. Both have its benefits and doubts. But I am happy to see vendors take the step to feel the water and more. It is just a matter of time when customers realize the value and take the plunge.

Ross: I understand your pessimism but I still like the idea of SaaS-based help desks. From where I look at it, it solves a lot of problems. Of course nothing is perfect.

Nelson: Rich client? So doesn’t that bring the hassles of upgrading/updating those clients? I thought that browser-based clients make sense in today’s broadband, so-many-MBPS world..

But seriously guys, kudos to all of you for taking it to the cloud!

1. First, let me say as a company, we – Cherwell pride ourselves on the “Customer is always FIRST”!! Our leadership team strives to select the most viable long term approach for the customer vs. a short term profitable approach (i.e. when the customer wins Cherwell wins). We believe that a large portion of current SaaS demand is primarily being driven by the economy and the requirement to take dollars from the operations budget vs. the capital expenditure budget. The long term ROI of SaaS is still difficult to justify and many companies will eventually bring the solution back in-house to control cost and take ownership of the software. Cherwell has created a “Credit” program that allows you to accumulate ownership. For each quarter you operate under the Cherwell hybrid SaaS model you get a reduction “Credit” in the price when / if you decide to bring the solution in-house. This innovative idea shows Cherwell is at least as focused on the customer as we are on the bottom line. This “Credit” approach is difficult with a browser based SaaS model.

2. The core argument for Hybrid SaaS is simple – it offers customers a choice of using whatever model best matches their needs and so reduces the risk for the buying manager. Start-up risks are minimal because if the application does not meet your organizations requirements, it can be simply be canceled or once it has proved itself, the application may be purchased to remove the long terms risks.” At Cherwell we offer quarterly terms not annual terms. If for any reason such as budget concerns or a change in business operations you need to cancel you risk very little!

3. This blog provides some additional insight: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Greenbaum/?p=177 Here is an excerpt: Harry had said the SaaS model will collapse because a pure-play SaaS model is, in the long-run, untenable. These same forces for customer choice will also dictate that hybrid SaaS/on-premise business models will be the ones that truly succeed in the long-run, precisely because customers, being only human after all, want to be able to do two things that, right or wrong, mean some version of on-premise is here to stay. Those two things are: Customer choice #1 is customization to fit a specific business model and Customer choice #2 is local control over data and process. We see this as a pretty strong argument towards the “Customer is always FIRST”!!

4. True SaaS models provide browser based technology vs. a true rich client experience that operates over the internet (i.e. as a Hybrid SaaS model). This whitepaper give some great advantages of why a rich client is more viable vs. a browser-based SaaS model http://www.collaboratemd.com/wp/?p=281 Cherwell Software offers a rich client experience in both the on-premise and on-demand model see Rich Client Experience.

5. Also, Data caching is not available in browser-based programs which allows the program to locally store commonly used data for instant retrieval of information without delays caused by Internet traffic, resulting in increased office efficiency at significantly lower costs. Do you want to take this risk?

6. Another key advantage to the hybrid SaaS model is greater speed. When accessing records or data, a hybrid SaaS model pulls only specific data from the software secure server. With a browser-based solution, however, your software would also have to fetch all of the graphics required to render the new screen—despite the fact that they rarely change—each time you send a request to access your information. I will have to ask you; would you rather listen to your “pre loaded” iTunes or try streaming your music thru your iPod or iPhone? You would look pretty stupid caring and infinite length T1 cable

A hybrid SaaS model requires less bandwidth to gather the same information as a traditional SaaS model because it pulls only actual field data and not the complete graphical screen. This translates into a lower monthly Internet bill for those users who pay for Internet in proportion to the bandwidth they consume. Stated another way, an office utilizing hybrid SaaS software can, without incurring any additional cost, employ a higher number of simultaneous users working heavily on its system than if that same system were weighed down by the comparatively higher volume of data caching common to browser-based solutions.

7. Another advantage of the hybrid SaaS model is the ability to customize the solution to fit your business needs. Cherwell recognize that your business requirements are not static and that regulations, market fluctuations, leadership decision, mergers and acquisitions, etc. etc. will happen. By leveraging the Cherwell hybrid SaaS model you will have access to the Cherwell Development Platform™. Your IT staff can utilize the Cherwell Development Platform™, a Codeless Business Application Technology, to customize the blueprints for your specific work-flows and business processes. Our pricing is not based on how many business applications you build or utilize with Cherwell, but by how many concurrent users access the system.

8.Last, beware of the Vendor that says “sure we can integrate to other applications”, we just use web-services. With Cherwell you have the option of using we services or a more reliable source, the Cherwell API’s that are open and exposed to ensure integration capabilities.

Nelson Huffman
Cherwell Software

Here are my personal challenges with On-demand SaaS help desk solutions vs. in-house installed server licenses (and the thoughts expressed herein are not a reflection of the company’s thoughts and ideologies) but what about the on-going costs of SaaS? Let’s think 5 years from now. Nobody seems to discuss them…

At some point, not too far in the future, the repetitive costs of on-demand software, which is the SAME investment from year to year to year, will cross-over and far outweigh the cost of the *potentially* new server (you may already have one with capacity) needed to run the in-house licensed model….and the in-house licensed model typically charges only a 20% annual maintenance fee vs. purchasing the entire SaaS plan over and over each year at 100% of the previous year.

There is a lot of hype about “cloud computing” and on-demand SaaS help desk solutions right now, but I honestly can say that I haven’t seen anyone actually take the cost of the server (servers are quite cheap these days), bandwidth, electricity, maintenance to software on server, etc. over 2, 3, 5 years and compare it SaaS costs over 5 years.

I would honestly like to see what the cost of these license models is over 5 years when comparing MINIMUM annual SaaS on-demand costs of $10,000, $20,000, and +$50,000 PER YEAR which you will need to shell out with year after year after year for the likes of vendors that rhyme with Barature and Pervice-Now.com (…and we are not talking about plans for enterprise sized businesses either…we’re talking SMB.)

ZenReck, with it’s highly offensive “mascot” mocking buddha, is cheap but that’s about what you get for the feature set also…which fits the bill for most small, small businesses. BUT, they do give you a piece of plastic that plays watery chant music that makes you want to go potty!

In the end, Web Help Desk has you covered feature-wise, is web-based to all end-users, but can be installed in-house if you have the minimal infrastructure required to run Web Help Desk OR you can go with a very cost-effective Web Help Desk On-Demand, SaaS, ASP, Hosted…did I hit all of the buzzwords? …wait, “data cloud”, “cloud computing” help desk plan…phew, that’s a lot of boardroom bingo! ….waaait…”synergy”…BINGO!

Any thoughts?

(end rant)

Maybe next time I’ll rant about why organizations don’t rent a server or virtual server from a server farm (like most SaaS-only help desk vendors do) and buy & install the lower on-going cost of the in-house licensed software….which then grants you no server software maintenance, redundant backups, 99.x% up-time guarantees and simply the maintenance of upgrading the in-house licensed help desk software. …for another day though!

Ross