Saas Hype

Saas (Software as a service) is a growing market. Check the wikipedia definition of Saas if you are unsure of what it is.

However, I think it is missing an important aspect that prospective customers will need. And that is a level of service and consultancy that most customers will want but seems lacking with a lot of recent Saas offerings. It is all very well building an online application (a web app), hosting it somewhere on the web and offering the typical 3 tiered pricing of “Free”, “Standard”, “Enterprise” editions of your web app. But what about offering a complete consultancy and expertise with it, after all the web app is just a piece of software!

How about offering an initial consultancy to figure what the customer wants, how best your web app can solve their needs, full training, ongoing customisations and close support. So how long before we see “SWAS” – Software WITH a Service?

I don’t see a future for many of the adhoc Saas apps that don’t have a complete business behind them or don’t at least plan to offer more that just a web app. Saas is currently too much about technology, too much about the perception of making easy money, too much about marketing buzz.