Systems Integrators in a SAAS world


Picture the scene.   You are a SAAS provider.  Your products works for SME’s as well as large corporates.   You know you will need to sell through the channel to get to the larger enterprises.   You engage with the ones who have the best profile for your offering.    You have a great first round – they love your stuff – they say “ we want to sell your service.”   

 But first…………. we have a few questions.  

 Now you roll back the clock.   Sigh.   You are in a time warp as you read the questions : 

 • Where is [ product/service  name]  hosted ? 
• Please give us Network, Application and Security Architecture diagrams
• What is the models for enterprise clients to sign up?. 
• What toolkits are available? 
• How will we be able to assist our clients with implementation ? 
• How do we monitor and support our clients ? 
• Is your product IP protected?
• Please provide reference clients.
• Please give us white papers
• Typical project plans, with list of activities from sign up to going live and support ...

 And then you explain… actually it doesn’t work like that.   This product does not need a professional services team to implement it.     The customer just needs to cut and paste a few lines of code – like mashing up Google Maps into your site.  It’s that simple.  

 Huh ?    Blank stare.  

 Yes this is a self-serve mash-up integration.  No IT required.   The developer at the customer can do this all himself.  

 But,  the SI says,  they wont want to ?  They want someone to do it for them.    Fine then,  there is a role for the SI.  Help the customer implement -  what is a very simple implementation.  

 Oh - and be on standby as a second line of support.  That’s because first line of support is the web portal.  

 And so on.    If you are an enterprise customer of Facebook which SI do you get to implement it for you?  Or Twitter or PayPal.   What white papers do you need?                 Exactly !!

 In this age of SAAS the role of the SI will need to change.   They continue to provide that level of comfort that the CIO of a large enterprise needs.   But that is because the IT division is shrinking fast.   The CIO needs some external help but not to implement the traditional ol’ software solutions – rather to navigate the SAAS waters.   

 So I see a future where SI’s become strategic ‘partners’ to SAAS providers where they share in the SAAS revenue because they can no longer bank on professional services as their staple.   

 The Cloud is forcing changes across the board and SI's  will need to adapt fast or risk being marginalised.   It's called the evolution of the business model - isn't it ?


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