A well-known American idiom says,“Now we’re cooking with gas!” Its origins lie in the 19th century, with the advent of gas stoves. Stove manufacturers used the line in advertisements to suggest that cooking with gas was more efficient and effective than previously dominant wood-burning stoves. Even today gas is still preferred by many skilled cooks. Unlike on electric stoves, the burners on a gas stove take no time to heat up, and the heat level can be fine-tuned to the cook’s liking. Cooking with gas is still more effective, efficient, and convenient than most other cooking methods.
Software as a Service(SaaS) is the IT version of “cooking with gas.” SaaS can help you deliver applications to your users — and manage those applications — more effectively, efficiently,and conveniently than traditional models. BMC, for example, has adopted a “SaaS-First” approach to application adoption within its own IT organization,implementing at least one new SaaS application per quarter.
There are numerous obvious benefits with SaaS. Since the SaaS vendor takes care of building and hosting the product as well as maintaining and operating it, the in-house IT departmentis no longer responsible for these duties. IT is also “off the hook” for hardware procurement and installation, as well as for availability and disaster recovery management. Shifting these responsibilities to an outside vendor can result in significant savings in hardware and related costs, electricity costs, and operator support.
Adoption of SaaS tools allows IT to offer new capabilities more rapidly while also improving ROI for software investments. In terms of ROI, of course you should consider the initial purchase costs, depreciation, and maintenance of traditional software. You should also look at the costs of external consultants, internal labor, and other factors when you are trying to figure out the cost.
Pay special attention to the issues of maintenance and upgrades. Do you heavily customize certain licensed software? With SaaS, enhancements tend to be delivered incrementally over shorter intervals. Such piecemeal upgrades are more likely to be adopted quickly. End users can realize the benefits of enhancements much more quicklyand frequently, while avoiding costly maintenance fees.
SaaS can help you to reduce costs while also improving IT’s ability to offer new capabilities. Yes, taking a SaaS-First approach does come with its own challenges, but those are outweighed by the potential benefits. With the right management tools and prescriptive guidance,you can take advantage of these benefits. Time to get cooking!
By Anthony Orr, Director, Service Management in CTO Office, BMC Software