On-Premise or SaaS: The Great Debate

On-Premise or SaaS: The Great Debate
Install your software on-site (on-premise) or contract with a software as a service (SaaS) provider? That is the great debate within the confines of your own organization, and certainly among us in the IT industry. No doubt On-Premise is here to stay for the foreseeable future, but what about this SaaS thing? Is it applicable to the ECM application stack, and more specifically, what about a Document Capture process?

Stepping back for a moment and speaking in the context of IT, there is a fundamental shift going on in how software, hardware and IT professional services are acquired, used and paid for today, and will likely affect the future of computing by you the customer.

In the past, either you outright bought the technology or leased it.
Now, with SaaS as a viable emerging option, you pay as you go.*

*No doubt you have heard of Salesforce.com. It has nailed SaaS as a viable delivery option for Customer Relationship Management software (CRM). Microsoft CRM is another vendor to watch in the CRM SaaS arena.

SaaS as a viable option, and the numerous emerging SaaS business solution offerings, are taking the concept far beyond first-generation application functionality and deployment. SaaS alternatives are now in a prime position to service mission-critical business applications and operations for small, mid-size and large firms. (Microsoft and its partners, for example, offer Exchange, CRM, SharePoint services over the web – and the application offerings won’t stop there.) And contrary to conventional wisdom, ...

Think about it for just a moment – is anybody in your organization eager to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on any IT solutions in today’s economic climate? Or, alternatively,...

As a result of these ongoing changes in the way software and solutions are delivered, there will be a fundamental change in the way customers desire to use the next generation of computing technologies – including ECM.

You, the customers of SaaS-based applications, have the opportunity to gain enormous competitive advantages to mission-critical applications for far fewer dollars than ever before. And, from a time to market perspective, there flat out is just no comparison between bringing up a SaaS based application versus the traditional, belabored, deadline-fraught, time-consuming, and never-ending CAP-EX budgeting and appropriation process of a full software installation.
Aren’t you tired of beating your head up against the wall trying to get that six-figure budget approved for your ECM solution? The time to market difference is substantial ...

The Promises of SaaS
Let’s review a short list of fundamentals:

• Minimal downtime, 24 x 7 access, no more upgrades, service patches and hot fixes to install;
• Time to market – measured in days or weeks, not months or quarters;
• No CAPEX, minimal upfront costs;
• many more revealed in my upcoming book....

Think about that value proposition for a moment…can your firm afford to build out an ECM or Capture solution with that kind of “SaaS” value proposition behind it?

SaaS: A Rather Compelling Value Proposition
Let’s revisit some of the other harsh realities of an on-premise solution model: you are still left with having to put in place the necessary infrastructure to operate the ECM application – people, processes, support systems, and of course, vendor software and equipment....

In a SaaS model, you typically are not required to procure any hardware or software, you sign a multi-year agreement, pay a nominal setup charge...

So this SaaS alternative is all sounding pretty good, but can it be done within the ECM industry?

That’s a great question. The answer is ...

The reason is rather obvious. Their software is ...

As previously mentioned, ECM industry members for the most have been ...

FileBound from MarexGroup and SpringCM by far have taken the lead in the industry by our account. Our hats are off to both firms for being the innovators and sticking it out. Hyland On-Base is working hard in this area, too. While these companies are largely ....

Here is a rather quick and simple test of SaaS go-to-market readiness you can perform with the Capture vendors yourself: When you are engaged with a Capture software sales rep...

The point here is that many Capture software vendors are ....

A Final Pearl of Wisdom on the Subject of SaaS

Even if you are not fully convinced at this point in time that you should embrace a SaaS-based ECM solution (Capture, Workflow, Repository, Storage, etc.) for whatever business or technical reasons, at least contemplate the following thought: You do ...

Why is Capture viable in SaaS form? ...

If you are looking to save budget money, ...

Remember, if you are working with the right ECM vendor you should have the flexibility to choose...

Above copy is from my upcoming book, "The Case for Distributed, Web-based Document Capture."