Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has more than proved itself when it comes to its first “S”: Software. As a disruptive model of software licensing, it has shaken up the traditional product-licensing model. But in order to establish itself as a sustainable option for enterprise adoption, it has to meet the expectations associated with the other “S” — services.
It is a difficult task to achieve, considering that the traditional Independent Software Vendors (ISV) never made their hands dirty with services, which they left to the integrators and Value Added Resellers (VAR). Their challengers — the pure play SaaS providers — focused all their energy on matching or bettering them in functionalities and working on network reliability. The sum of these two is not necessarily enough to qualify as good services for the typical IT user today, thanks to his exposure to the best in service delivery, as a result of an immensely competitive and global IT services marketplace.
In short, there is clearly a gap. Some, of course, see it as an opportunity. So, not so surprisingly, there is a set of players emerging to fill this “services gap” around SaaS. Often described by different names, in the absence of a common phrase yet, these players engage in multiple roles — built-for-SaaS platform provider, integrator of services, solutions hub for different SaaS applications and so on.
Saugatuck Technology, a research and advisory firm, which recently released a report on next generation SaaS, termed SaaS 2.0, calls these players “SaaS Integration Platforms or SIPs.”
“As users add SaaS applications over time, SIPs will play a critical role [especially in large enterprises] as a solutions ‘hub’ that provides integration, delivery and management services,” says Bill McNee, CEO, Saugatuck. “These will include application sharing and integration services to support multiple applications simultaneously [as well as to provide tight linkages to remote and or behind-the-firewall applications], common interfaces and data models, as well as bundling, provisioning and configuration services,” he adds. So far, there are three players that are trying to emerge as strong SIPs — all with different positioning and backgrounds. They are, AppExchange, promoted by the pioneering SaaS software maker, Salesforce.com; PivotPath of Jamcracker; and Optimal-on-Demand started by OpSource, a knowledge-oriented, evangelistic firm promoting SaaS.
The Saugatuck report describes further roles for them. “SIPs will offer a variety of user management and administration services on the back-end (e.g., authentication, authorization, auditing controls, monitoring, billing) – as well as the key systems-focused services required to help optimize performance. SIPs will also provide fee-based or commission-based aggregate licensing, billing, invoicing and payment services for software and services vendors, in effect, acting as an aggregator/e-marketplace for SaaS users and providers,” states the report.
If that happens, even partially, these SIPs would be the equivalents of system integrators in the traditional software world.
