DISQUS

Hal Peters · 1 year ago

Many sales people, especially in the SaaS (Software as a Service) world, strive to paint a picture of quick, easy, simple. This type of hype is nothing new, but it has been now evolved to an art form.

I think these unprofessional practices miss the mark, but they are still getting away with it, because no one has had the guts to call them on it. You are the first one RINGING the ALARM! I congratulate you for it.

As an experienced Project Manager, I feel your comments are close . . . “but no cigar”.

What some SaaS hype artists, unscrupulous Used Car type sales folks are doing is on purpose confusing the issues. When they hype 2 week, simple implementation . . . what they really mean is handing out Log on IDs. That is not implementation, and they know it.

There has to be distinctions made between such terms as:

Simple –- vs –- KISS (Keep it Super Simple)

Easy to use –- vs –- Powerful


And while we are at it, there should be distinctions made between:

irresponsible hype –- vs –- painting a realistic picture for users, sharing accurate expectations, so they can plan for and fund “true – real world” deployments.

professionalism –- vs –- the perceive need to claim (overstate) simple, quick, easy deployment


To paraphrase what you wrote . . . SaaS apps can be frustrating when they don't do what you expected them to do. When miss led by the vendor of what is TRULY involved . . . cost overruns and delays are inevitable.

Unprofessional vendor hype leads to frustrated users, gives a false sense of possibilities and is expensive (and embarrassing) when you have to replace them.

Because of vendor hype and the setting of cost cutting, fast, simple . . . unprofessional mind sets . . . surveys indicate that SaaS users are not happy campers.

Users embracing software need to get a Professional Project Manager on board. These experienced people will explain that there will have to be, for success . . . . user requirements definitions, business analysis, training, data conversion, workflow impact assessment and a dozen other task that STILL ALL have to be done . . . above and beyond the technologies involved.

SaaS is a mix of three (3) things: Remote infrastructure, desktop UI (User Interface) online, offline workflows and the use of other online and offline applications. Taken together, these things are a bit confusing.

But perhaps what makes for the most confusion is vendor hype.

VENDORS should be encouraged to say, SaaS or not:

 You still need to do the planning, analysis, deployment steps, user training tasks as the more senior professional Project Managers (and industry best practices such as SEI CMMI©, PMI OPM3© and PMBoK©, and Prince 2© ) recommend. And if you do not know what these are, go out and find out about them!!

 You need to do things in a quality way. You can’t sacrifice regulatory compliance.

 You better not sacrifice security and identity theft protection obligations either.

SaaS vendor hype misses the mark. I fully agree when you say that the “SaaS panacea” message is short-sighted at best, and at worst, irresponsible and unprofessional to both their customers and the wider computing community.

I fully agree when you say that the work that most people use a computer to do isn't simple. In fact, computers tend to complicate things even further!

SaaS . . . CAN . . . offer some compelling benefits (ie. eventual lower TCO, collaborative features, Web enabled world wide availability, no local infrastructure footprint, savings on not needing local servers, minimum System Administration - Capacity Planning and data back up / restore)

BUT:

 if the SaaS solution does not provide the minimum functionality required then it shouldn't be hyped by the vendors or used by naïve misled clients.

 it must be ALSO CLEARLY explained that there are NO COST SAVINGS as far as most of the software deployment life cycle components.


The most important comment, I fell that you made was that:

Customers should approach (SaaS based) products as they would any other: by defining their own needs carefully and then searching for applications that meet all of their needs. I would add: plan for PROPER funding and put in place ADEQUATE conversion and training costs.

Phenomenal money savings and instant deployment are just vendor hype. If something is too good to be true, it often just is too good to be true.

Ignore misleading vendors claiming 2 week deployments. Budget and plan for paying REALISTIC outlays. SaaS saves money in certain areas . . . but DURING INITIAL start up . . . if you want to succeed and not be in the 50% that fail . . . budget for “normal” TRADITIONAL costs!

Undertaking software deployment in a quality well planned manner, using SaaS infrastructure or not . . . implies proper funding.

By not buying into vendor hype on fast, simple, easy . . . you will avoid time line delays, user dissatisfaction, cancelled deployments, confusion, unmet training needs, workflow miss steps, user cultural resistance, decreased data quality, etc

As you correctly state:

Those who continue to preach the KISS principle and "simple is best" as SaaS panacea are, at best, short-sighted and, at worst, irresponsible and unprofessional to both their customers and the wider computing community.

So IN SUMMARY

Executive Managers need to expect that the initial TOTAL deployment costs will only be marginally cheaper.

On going maintenance and operations costs will be cheaper, BUT THE INITIAL rev up, user training, data conversion, ancillary system and workflow integration, and other costs will be JUST AS HIGH as if traditional (client / server) infrastructure was being used.

What some SaaS hype artists, unscrupulous Used Car type sales folks are doing is on purpose confusing the issue.

When they hype 2 week, simple implementation . . . what they really mean is handing out Log on IDs. That is not implementation, and they know it.