Contract Negotiation – What changes are driven by SaaS?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Bella Solutions

By Brian Sommer | April 16, 2012 | ZDNet.com

Summary: Thinking about signing on the dotted line for a SaaS solution? Guest columnist Tom Ryan tosses out a few points to ponder.

For about a decade, I’ve worked along side Tom Ryan on various projects. He’s a former Gartner Group analyst and West Pointer. He also knows more re: RFID, WMS and transportation technology than I’ll ever get.

Tom penned the following post and I agreed to turn over the space to him. I’ve also added a couple of bits of my own at the bottom. Enjoy

The SaaS Contract

Once you select a SaaS solution, you still need to negotiate your contract. Not much has changed with respect to contract negotiation, but those things which have changed are important.

First, intellectual property ownership: With SaaS, you don’t own the code; you don’t have a license to use like you do with on-premise solutions. Instead you have a subscription to use the software. Changes are typically data driven so there is little if any new code developed for your project. If there is, it is typically rolled into the base SaaS offering and is made available to you and others. This is supposed to be one of the big selling points for SaaS, so IP ownership shouldn’t really be an issue.

Second, services: With SaaS, implementations should be easier, shorter, and more straight forward. Most of the effort will be directed towards configuration and data migration from the old world to the new. The contractual key here is to insure that since this data is stored in the cloud that you retain ownership to it. It was yours before and should remains yours forever. You also want to insure that no subset of your data, even if it is “genericized” or “sterilized”, can be shared with any other entity.

There will probably be no professional services agreement separate from the subscription agreement. You want to make sure that it is clear what services, if any, will be provided by the vendor. It is not uncommon for these services to be priced separately as a one-time expense. You may also see them rolled into the subscription fee.

Third, upgrades and code maintenance: With SaaS, this should be included. There should be no annual maintenance fee or price escalations. All of this is supposed to be a part of the subscription fee. Contractually, you want to make sure that upgrades of or improvements to the base code are included and that the contract spells out how such upgrades/improvements are tested and verified as well as how they are rolled out to the user base.

Finally, changes in ownership of the software vendor: With on-premise software, having your vendor acquired or having them go through Chapter 7 or 11 is disturbing but not immediately disruptive. After all, you have their software running on your own hardware. You will keep running, perhaps indefinitely, on what you already have installed. There is time to decide what to do and to plan for it.

This may not be the case with a SaaS vendor. Remember, your data is running on their hardware in their data center (or the third party data center they have contracted with). If there is a change in ownership through a merger or acquisition, there will be time to understand the impact and negotiate with the new owner. If there is a bankruptcy filing, someone may walk into that data center and pull the plug with your firm dead in the water. You must negotiate this with your vendor ahead of time – you must have a plan. The likelihood of it happening may be low, but it can be catastrophic to your business operations.

Don’t look to escrow to solve this problem. Escrow can’t be executed immediately and even if it were, you would still need to stand up your own servers and redo your implementation. That could take days if not weeks. Don’t look to receiving frequent copies/backups of your data as a solution. Although this is certainly helpful and more effective than trusting in escrow arrangements, you will still need the vendor’s software, new computing hardware, and time to re-implement your operation. This will be faster than the escrow situation but it still takes time and during that time your operation is down.

You can look to something like a prepaid off site third party data center that can seamlessly take over running the vendor’s software and your implementation. This is somewhat akin to an off-site disaster recovery operation. It has the advantages of being a fail-over type of occurrence which can mitigate your downtime and operational disruption exposure. This is probably the biggest risk associated with SaaS software. You can negotiate on this point and mitigate your risk exposure but that mitigation will only happen if you plan for it up front.

Contracts can be a scary read. It is best to remember that contracts describe how to handle various scenarios. They don’t try to assign a probability of occurrence to those scenarios. It is important to consider those situations most likely to disrupt your business or adversely affect your relationship with the vendor and then address them in the contract. Plan ahead and mitigate your risk should any one of the nasty scenarios occur.

Learn more about SaaS at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Oracle’s cloud launch: solid takeoff

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Source: ZDNet.com | By Oliver Marks | April 18, 2012

Summary: Oracle appear to be executing very efficiently to serve the cloud era and are accelerating hard, while some of their competitors continue to discuss disjointed constructs, ideas and future plans

Oracle’s public cloud strategy was bought into focus this week, along with their enterprise vision across their vast catalog of products, and my first impressions are that compared to this time last year their messaging is looking very strong and compelling.

I’ve just spent some time being briefed on Oracle’s enterprise strategy at their Redwood Shores HQ in a variety of analyst sessions that covered a dizzying array of topics. After appearing like an out of touch, on-premise anchored dinosaur twelve months ago Oracle have taken the covers off what they have been working on and demonstrated a very rapid ramp up of Fusion, their next generation middleware. Steve Miranda, Senior Vice President for Oracle Fusion Development, said in a round table discussion he was confident that Fusion would prove to be the fastest ramp up in enterprise computing history in terms of uptake by customers, and looking at the momentum Oracle appear to have with their vast client base looks to have a point.

While some of the sessions and individual slides were under non disclosure (including a refreshingly honest and informative five person CIO panel discussing today’s realities and Oracle strengths and weaknesses) Oracle today look like a company who have carefully watched, learned from and absorbed the great wave of 2.0 technology and mobile innovation. Their formal move to offer public cloud computing options at Open World last October will be live ‘in a couple of months’ according to Thomas Kurian, EVP of Oracle Server Technologies Development, and more importantly the middleware available there looks pretty compelling and useful to their vast customer base.
While competitors have been pretty windy in talking about their future plans and aspirations, Oracle have accelerated from publicly dissing the cloud computing movement to offering a well stocked set of enterprise class scalable cloud applications in remarkably short order. Enterprise vendors have to support the past, present and provide a compelling vision for the future simultaneously, which is much harder than it looks. Where Oracle look to have really scored is in noting what competitor innovations have been working for business users today and producing feature sets within their offerings. We saw the vision when Fusion was unveiled, and I’ll admit to having been dubious about whether what were essentially proof of concepts would ever fly in an Oracle cloud. From the client enthusiasm and rapid uptake of Oracle’s Fusion offerings it would appear that the Oracle mothership is enjoying a pretty spectacular launch which should give enterprise competitors who have had plenty of room to maneuver in the cloud until now cause for concern.

Efforts to recapture mindshare from Marc Benioff’s brilliant evangelizing of Salesforce – most people now associate the term Customer Relationship Management as being synonymous with their stock ticker symbol CRM – are probably now going to begin in earnest. Oracle are attempting to supercede that term with efforts around ‘Customer Experience’ just as the word ‘collaboration’ is now often used as part of a larger ’social computing’ vision.

As is the case with politicians, we do well by ignoring what enterprise software companies say and instead watch closely what they do…Vinnie Mirchandani said to me this afternoon as we swapped notes clients have pretty low expectations of what vendors will actually supply. Unusually in the slow moving world of enterprise software Oracle appear to be movie very fast and confidently, and many of the familiar faces I know at Oracle projected a newfound sense of enthusiasm and confidence.

While Engineered Systems can ‘move Faster Than the Speed of Thought’, to use Oracle’s ‘parallel everywhere’ Open World phrase, the reality is you have to have the relevant thoughts in the first place for that to be useful. A client point came up around the currently fashionable ideas for slicing and dicing ‘big data’: the tools and speedy computing power is in place but you have to know what you want to extract and analyze and what value that has.

In the same way the Oracle Social Network (’A secure collaboration tool for everyone you work with‘) has the attributes of modern collaboration tools but not the human intents to use it. Nevertheless, Oracle appear at this moment in time to have excellent timing in positioning themselves ‘during innings three’ in the cloud game (’it’s early yet’) with a very solid set of offerings that position them very nicely on the hockey stick of end user capex/opex uptake of cloud options to take out cost and complexity. It would appear that while the competition have been moving a lot of air talking about the future, Oracle have efficiently executed on their vision in remarkably short order and are accelerating pedal to the metal into a suddenly very mature cloud era.

Learn about cloud software with Bella Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Ideas To Start Out A Pool Cleaning Service

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Bella Solutions

If you are dwelling in a very community and also the properties have swimming pools, it might turn out to be a superb strategy to start out a online business in pool cleansing system. Definitely, this small business seriously isn’t as very difficult as you think. The foremost stage for which you ought to be concern all by yourself with is how to wholly know ins and outs of swimming share repair.

This home business also gets to be a superb corporation given that it should not cost a bunch of money if you would like to obtain started. Just learn on the following points below prior to you start your personal corporation in swimming pool brushing program with the Fresno and Clovis community.

The first thing you choose to need to do is always to figure out the kind of organization license that is certainly necessary for beginning your home business. Corporation license can in general be performed at town hall in your regional metropolis. This license is mandatory for legally working your business in swimming pool cleansing service plan.

This license not simply can legally guard you, but this can also assist you to comfortably acquire any supplies that you really might need for ones enterprise at wholesale price.

The 2nd detail for which you should certainly do is usually to invest in the components and resources that you will will need for operating your company. These are the whole lot that essential to wash and services a swimming swimming pool area. Equipment and materials that you’ll will need consist of testing package, pool skimmer, and also chemical substances which have been implemented to deal with swimming billiards. Besides, you will even have to have vehicle for carrying your supplies. You can actually pick compact trailer, station wagon, or smallish trailer.

The third situation is to arrange online business playing cards, contract types, and invoices. These gadgets is often conveniently observed while in the workplace provide merchants close your location. Truly, you can also make these things by yourself as opposed to choosing from the outlets.

By producing these goods at dwelling, you’ll be able to personalize them primarily based on your requirements for your share cleansing service.

Lastly, you might want to promote what you are promoting everywhere. You possibly can endeavor to give your home business cards to your family members, acquaintances, or virtually anyone else who will probably be interested inside your combine cleansing system. Other than, you can also stop by condominium and neighborhood apartment communities to locate if they’re seeking for a billiards care assistance.

Filed under: Field Service Management | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The Upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Advancements in mobile market technologies breeds new products that promise to provide highly advanced capabilities and functionality for consumers. Mobile giant Samsung never fails to deliver in terms of advanced mobile devices. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab is the latest addition to Samsung’s roster of multifunctional smart phones. This new mobile device takes the mobile phone industry to a whole new level. With its sleek body weighing only 380 grams and its 7-inch TFT touch screen display, this new mobile device will surely make heads turn.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab packs a lot of impressive features. It boasts a 3.2 megapixel back-facing camera with auto focus and an LED flash. It doesn’t stop there. Samsung provides more by creating an impressive 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera that allows face to face video calls. This can be used as a convenient way to follow up on business deals or to simply keep in touch with loved ones, no matter where you are. The Galaxy Tab also comes with either a built-in 16 GB or 32 GB internal memory. Both models can have an external memory of up to 32 GB. This is a huge space for storing files and data. Powered by Android 2.2 (Froyo), this device has access to hundreds of Samsung applications as well as applications available from the Android Market. This highly portable gadget is also excellent for e-reading books, magazines or newspapers. Watching movies or checking out picture galleries is a real pleasure with its generously – sized screen. Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories like the stylus and the desktop dock adds up to an extremely comfortable browsing and reading experience.

For those consumers who use their mobile phones as extensions for their computers, the Galaxy Tab provides you with several notable features. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB, WiFi and HSDPA, enabling users to access the Internet or their workplace network wherever they may be. It has an integrated e-mail and calendar which can use MS Exchange ActiveSync and Google services. There is also an integrated social networking interface (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and others). Music savvy people will love its multi-function music player. Instant messaging, MMS, SMS, RSS and Push Mail capabilities are also included. Value-added features include Adobe Flash player support, Swype, Thinkfree Office and Hybrid Widgets.

There is also no shortage in Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories. Car chargers, vehicle docks, stereo headsets, Samsung Galaxy Tab screen protectors and TV-out cables can easily be found in stores or on the Internet. Samsung Galaxy Tab cases come in leather pouches with pockets for accessories. Cases are envelope-type or plain sleeve that looks somewhat similar to a book cover. There are also rubber and plastic cases that are available.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab combines touch screen tablet functionality along with smart phone features in a single package. With its multiple connectivity options, multimedia applications and advanced phone functionality, it can cater to different types of users. This amazing and innovative tablet will surely be appreciated by those who like a hybrid of fun and functionality in their mobile devices.

Filed under: Field Service Management | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Best Practices in Parts Return, Refurbishment and Repair

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Source: Aberdeen Group | April 2012 | Aly Pinder Jr., Sumair Dutta – Best Practices in Return, Refurbishment and Repair 2012

All service organizations aspire to be Best-in-Class. In order to migrate from Laggard to Industry Average and eventually to Best-in-Class status the following actions highlight a roadmap to success in regard to more efficiently managing the return, refurbishment and repair operations.

Laggard Steps to Success

  • Catch and release product / part data to relevant stakeholders. Without having data available to necessary and potential users, the data might as well have not been captured. Access and action are key differentiators in regard to what happens with information and specifically return, refurbishment and repair data. Industry Average organizations are 69% more likely than Laggards to have a centralized database for return, refurbish and repair data (54% vs. 32%, respectively).
  • Don’t let quality suffer. Continuous improvement should not only be a goal for lean manufacturing, but needs to be a mainstay mantra in the service operations in regard to the repair of parts and products. Only a quarter of Laggard organizations (26%) test repair products and link the repair data to quality improvements, compared to 37% among Industry Average firms. The customer has, and will continue, to clamor for more reliable parts and products (top pressure facing service organizations, Figure 3), and therefore all companies need to leverage valuable repair data to improve the quality, serviceability and efficiency of parts and products.

Industry Average Steps to Success

  • Set the right expectations (definitions) for return procedures. Customers have a role in the service in which they receive. For this reason, it is imperative that the service organization set the right expectations up front when creating service contracts so both the customer and the organization understand how a good service experience will be measured upon. Best-in-Class organizations are more than twice as likely as Industry Average firms to have standardized definitions for return procedures and include in service contracts (71% vs. 34%, respectively). Organizations that have standardized definitions in place for return procedures incorporated in service contracts see a 75% level of customer satisfaction and 70% level of SLA compliance, compared to 70% and 42%, respectively for organizations that do not. The customer experience is directly linked to increased revenues as an unhappy customer, in this current competitive environment, can easily go somewhere else for the service they expect and require.
  • Link analytics tools to improve service operations. Best-in-Class organizations are more than twice as likely as Industry Average firms to use business analytics tools to improve and better manage service operations (75% vs. 37%, respectively). Leveraging business analytics to better manage the service operations will not only impact the efficiency of service provided, but can also help in the identification of new service offerings in regard to the return, refurbishment and repair processes.

Best-in-Class Steps to Success

  • Show them the money. Service organizations do hope that their employees have the greater good of the company at heart in all of their decisions and actions. However, the desired behaviors need to be incented properly. Currently fewer than 40% of Best-in-Class companies incent their field techs on timely or efficient return of parts / products back to the repair depot (39% and 32%, respectively). In recent Aberdeen research on Field Service 2012: The Right Technician (February 2012), 44% of top performing organizations provide non-cash incentives to their field service employees. The most used non-cash incentives are gift cards (89% of top performers) or internal recognition (76% of top performers). Organizations that incent behaviors on the timely and efficient return of parts and products achieve better performance in meeting / exceeding SLAs and spare part fill rate.
  • Sell service and repaired parts / products. Establishing a dedicated sales team that is knowledgeable about service offerings and motivated to sell service is a key step to achieving established service revenue goals. Currently, less than half of the Best-in-Class (43%) have an established sales and distribution team in place to sell refurbished and repaired parts / products. Even though less than 50% of the Best-in-Class have a dedicated sales teams for refurbished and repair parts, those that have established these teams have been able to achieve a 23% level of annual product sales from refurbished / repair products as compared to 12% for those that do not have a sales team in place. These organizations with a dedicated sales team expect their refurbished / repaired product sales to increase by 6% in the next months as opposed to a 5% growth for those that do not have these teams in place. Despite only a 1% difference, when considering that organizations with a dedicated team sell more parts in the first place this difference is measurable. This added revenue stream goes directly to the top line and allows the service organization to maximize the value of products that have already been produced as opposed to needing new products to satisfy customer demand.
  • Automate tracking of all service parts and products throughout the service lifecycle. Currently, just over half of all Best-in-Class organizations track service parts and products throughout the service chain (i.e., initial shipment, asset recovery, repair, return, replacement) (54%). Without insight into location, quality and condition of parts and products throughout the service lifecycle, management and service workers will be in the blind in regard to whether these assets can be leveraged in delivering service or if these parts / products are just clogging the system. Organizations that have automated tracking of service parts and products throughout the entire service lifecycle have seen a 4% decrease in total repair and refurbishment costs as compared to 3% decrease for those that do not as a result of having visibility into the type and number of returns that will be coming in. this has also led to the service operations being better prepared to handle the parts needs and in turn the service organization more efficiently can manage, repair and refurbish the returns that flood in. Though only a percentage point difference the any added costs of return, refurbishment and repair has a negative impact of the profitability goals of the service organization. Beyond costs associated with improved tracking of service parts / products, organizations that automate all tracking have been able to reclaim 28% of the initial value of the part or product as compared to 19% for those that do not automate. Automation is needed to help provide the insight necessary for all stakeholders to be able to make real-time strategic decisions that can transform the service experience for the customer and ensure that Best-in-Class service is provided at all times.

Learn more at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NEW SOFTWARE FEATURES ALERT – April 12th, 2012

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Bella Solutions

1) Include file attachments with Work Order email alerts

  • Upload and attach files to a Work Order such as photos, contracts, PDF’s, spreadsheet’s, and more.
    • Take photos with your mobile device and upload while in the field!
  • While uploading a file you have the option to include the file attachment with Work Order email alert.
  • Email Work Orders with file attachments to assigned Technicians and/or the Customer.

2) Email Estimates, Work Orders, and Invoices to Customers and Parent Customers

  • Estimates (Quotes / Proposals)
    • Email Estimates directly from Bella to your Customer.
    • Option to email the Estimate to the “Parent” Customer.
    • The “From” address is your email address.
  • Work Orders
    • Email Work Orders directly from Bella to your Customer.
    • Option to email the Work Order to the “Parent” Customer.
    • The “From” address is your email address.
  • Invoices
    • Email Invoices directly from Bella to your Customer.
    • Option to email the Invoice to the “Parent” Customer.
    • The “From” address is your email address.

Learn more at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Bella Features and Support, Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NEW FEATURES ALERT – April 4th, 2012

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Job Payments / Deposit / Prepay

  • Payments may be entered directly on the Job page with the “Payment/Deposit” button.
  • Deposits or Prepays may be entered directly on the Job page with the “Payment/Deposit” button.
  • “Total Paid” and “Balance Due” display on the Job page.
  • Payments and Balance display on Work Order and Invoice forms to send to your Customer.

Color Codes Displaying in Lists

  • Customer List – “Location Zone” column displays assigned Location Zone color codes.
  • Job List – “Job Status” column displays assigned Job Status color codes.
  • Employee List – “Employee Name” column displays assigned Employee color codes.
  • Vendor List – “Vendor Name” column displays assigned Vendor color codes.

New Customer Address Default

  • A State/Province “set as default” check box has been added on the Customer page to select a State/Province as the default value each time you create a new Customer.

Invoice “Bill To” Options

  • The Invoice page now allows you to select either the “Parent” or “Subsidiary” Customer as the “Bill To” Customer.

Learn more at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Bella Features and Support, Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

iPads Have Helped Some of This Company’s Salespeople DOUBLE Their Sales

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Bella Solutions

By Eric Lai | March 19, 2012 | ZDNet.com

Summary: Home security company ADT wants to transform into a ’smart home’ vendor. Using iPads and iPad apps are a key enabler of this strategy.
iPads have been an incredible tool for salespeople. Companies like IBM, Genentech, General Mills and SAP have deployed thousands of iPads – and reaped the financial benefits.

Most of the beneficiaries have been in the B2B arena. Not surprising, as B2B dwarfs B2C by a huge margin. But retailers are starting to catch up. Sears, for instance, is arming 5,000 in-store salespeople with iPads. And ADT is arming all 4,000 of its salespeople with iPads. Their full strategy, though still being realized, will be impressively integrated when it is realized later this year.

Half of ADT’s salespeople, who still visit homeowners in their homes albeit usually after a customer inquiry, dumped their presentation folders in favor of iPads five months ago. The iPad helps the salespeople in four ways today, said Joe O’Connell, vice-president for residential direct sales at ADT, in an interview last week.

First, the iPads allow ADT’s salespeople to demonstrate the ADT Pulse mobile app. Running on iOS devices, BlackBerries and Android, ADT Pulse is the company’s full-fledged move from the increasingly narrow market for home security to the broader area of home automation and smart homes (or what ADT’s marketing team prefers to call “lifestyle management”)

Besides letting homeowners monitor their house security from far away, ADT Pulse also lets them control their heaters, lights, video cameras and indeed any electronic gadget or outlet that has Z-Wave wireless technology. The app is already used by 105,000 homes today, O’Connell said.

ADT’s iPads also run a Salesforce.com-based CRM app that help the salespeople be more productive. It lets them see their appointments, map where their customers are, download information on their customers and prospects, and share such information with other salespeople via the Chatter instant messaging tool.

Salespeople use the iPad 2’s camera to take pictures of the electronic devices in the home they may want to connect to the Pulse automation system. These pictures are transmitted back to the office, and augmented with voice notes about the house from the reps transcribed by the Dragon Dictation software.

Finally, the salespeople use the iPads to show what the neighborhood crime statistics are, said O’Connell, a key tool for helping to convince customers of the need for an ADT system.

So what’s the ROI?

According to O’Connell, ADT salespeople are cutting time it takes for them to present to potential homeowner customers by 30% – from one hour to 40 minutes or less. Not only does that make it less hassle for the customers, it enables its salespeople to make correspondingly more sales visits.

Moreover, in places like Texas, iPad-armed ADT salespeople have basically doubled their sales revenue, said O’Connell, due to making more sales visits, and also enticing customers into pricier contracts.

“With the iPad, the product really sells itself. All we have to do is just put it in the customers’ hands,” he said.

Training for the salespeople only took a total of 8 hours, O’Connell said.

Sales managers like himself have access to a dashboard that lets them get a top-level view of sales, into which they can drill down all the way to the individual salesperson level. The data is refreshed daily, O’Connell said.

As a security company, ADT naturally has made sure the 3G-enabled iPads are controlled from a mobile device management (MDM) perspective. They are managed using both MobileIron and Soti Mobile Control, which provide password protection and remote wipe if lost.

So what’s coming that’s so impressive? First, ADT expects to have all 4,000 salespeople using iPads by May. Second, it plans to deploy two more apps – a pricing configurator, and the ability to take electronic signatures. This will allow reps to quickly show different ADT systems and options and let customers sign their contracts all using the iPad.

This will let ADT’s salesforce go 100% paperless, boost their productivity and sales results.

Interestingly, O’Connell doesn’t see the need for ADT’s salespeople to adopt the new iPad, saying that the screen, connectivity and camera of the iPad 2 are plenty capable for what they plan to do in the near future.

“Our guys are mostly fact finding, so the new iPad is not super necessary,” he said.

Learn how your Sales and Service team double your business with Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Top 50 iPad Rollouts by Enterprises & Schools

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Summary: To all the remaining skeptics: there’s one bit of evidence that to me pretty much proves that the iPad – and tablets – won’t be a one-hit wonder.

By Eric Lai | March 2, 2012 | ZDNet.com

List updated March 15, 2012 with: Air France (5,000), San Diego Unified School District (20,000), Encinitas School District (1,200), Cathedral Catholic HS (1,810), and Chicago Public Schools (10,000). From March 5: Cisco (8,144 iPads), US Air Force (up to 18,000 iPads) and IBM (10,000 iPads) Back in June 2011, the WSJ had a fascinating article about one-hit wonder products like the Baby on Board sign and, more recently, Silly Bandz. That got me thinking: have the past three months proven that the iPad is no one-hit wonder?

Why, yes, I do believe it has. There’s the many tens of millions of iPads sold in more than two years, the huge pent-up demand for the iPad 3 and Apple’s continued domination over the PlayBook, Xoom and Galaxy Tab.

In October 2011, Apple said that 92% of the Fortune 500 are deploying or testing iPads. Meanwhile, 2,300 school districts in the U.S. are using the iPad, including 600 that have 1:1 iPad:student programs.

However, consumers are fickle. Tastes change, fads fade. In one year, couldn’t the tablet market look completely different?

Sure it could. But it won’t, I think, for a very simple reason: apart from isolated examples like American Airlines buying 6,000 new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1s, enterprises (and schools) are only deploying iPads widely today.

Why is this important? Enterprises plan their budgets and upgrade cycles years in advance (with hardware, that is typically 3-5 years).

The reason is because no IT deployment is as simple as the actual hardware/software purchase. There is training for IT staff and employees. There are the new regulations that must be complied with (and paperwork to be filed). There are budgets to managed and anticipated. There are applications that need to be built, rebuilt, purchased or upgraded.

In other words, any IT decision, no matter how seemingly quick and tactical, usually ends up getting rolled into a larger strategy with a many year impact.

My point is that none of the large organizations that are deploying iPads today are making that decision capriciously. As a result, they won’t dump them hastily. No, anyone who has deployed iPads to hundreds or thousands of employees and has started to use real enterprise apps is basically committed to expanding that usage for the medium term, and very likely the long-term.

Which brings me to the iPad deployment list that I co-maintain with Jim Siegl. The list just won’t stop growing, with about 500 organizations deploying 168,000 iPads.

(Note: this number is lower than Apple’s states above because it only includes deployments we have verified through public sources like news articles and press releases.)

At the top of the list, there is some movement. SAP is now up to 14,000 iPads, up from 3,500 in the spring. United Airlines plans to deploy 11,000 iPads, equipping all of its pilots. Teach For America has taken 9,000 refurbished iPads from Apple and handed them to its teachers.

Hyundai announced in August that it had given away 2,000 iPads to buyers of its 2011 Equus luxury sedan (but alas, is discontinuing the promotion for 2012 models).

Ottawa Hospital is now up to 2,300 iPads – not surprising considering the strong interest by healthcare, and Alaska Airlines, which plans to replace its bulky flight manuals with iPads and PDFs for its 1,400 pilots. And I was able to verify that Korea Telecom actually gave away iPads away in January to all 32,000 employees.

Other newbies to the list: the Singapore military announced in late June it plans to give iPad 2s to new recruits as standard issue (along with their rifles, apparently). Verizon is deploying 3,800 iPad 2s (only fitting, since it is a leading provider of hosted mobile device management software-as-a-service and, full disclosure, a Sybase partner). Walt Disney Co. is deploying about 2,000 iPads to employees and the Clark County School District for Las Vegas, Nevada is spending $1 million on 1,859 iPads for students.

Learn how to use iPad’s and other tablets for your manage your business at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

SaaS Business Intelligence Compelling Economics

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Bella Solutions

Source: Aberdeen Group | February 2012 | David White, Nick Castellina – SaaS BI – The Compelling Economics of Cloud-Based Analytics

Organizations are realizing that SaaS solution can be comparable to, or better, than BI implemented in the traditional manner. That said, Software-as-a-Service is not for everyone. Many organizations still harbor reservations about giving up control of vital corporate data. From a practical perspective, BI applications that need to shift large amounts of data across the internet can be challenging. Organizations considering the adoption of, or already using, SaaS BI should consider the following points:

  • SaaS has strong appeal for small organizations taking their first steps with BI, as well as divisions and departments of larger organizations. For small companies, the economics of Software-as-a-Service are very compelling. No capital costs, pay-as-you-go, few or no professional services required, software and server maintenance built-in, and a transparent and predictable pricing plan are all very attractive for cost-sensitive organizations. For business units in larger organizations, the shorter time to value and the ability to fund on-demand computing as an operational expense (see below) are key attractions.
  • SaaS can be financed as an ongoing operational expense, rather than a large upfront capital expenditure. This shift in budgeting methods enables business managers to finance IT deployments directly as an operational cost. Conversely, traditional software deployments would often be financed by the IT department as a capital expense. In many organizations, it is easier to get approval for operating expenses than for capital investments. As a result, this shift in financing increases the ability of business managers to operate independently of corporate IT. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of managers in organizations using SaaS BI indicate they have autonomy over their choice of company-supported BI tools. By comparison, only 26% of organizations not using Software-as-a-Service grant this degree of independence.
  • Overall, organizations that took advantage of SaaS BI spent 40% less per user last year than those that did not. Savings accrued across all categories surveyed – software licenses and subscriptions, hardware, professional services and maintenance, and internal support costs. However, Software-as-a-Service is still very early in the adoption cycle for most organizations that are using it, so the long-term cost benefits – assuming they exist – have not yet materialized. As noted earlier, software licenses that are purchased are generally depreciated over a 3 year period and so have no accounting cost after 3 years (for the licenses at least). That is not true of SaaS pricing models, which follow a rental cost structure where you pay a fee for as long as you use the software. Currently, only 38% of the enterprises using solely SaaS BI track their project costs versus budget. Further, only 23% measure the cost of each stage of the project lifecycle. Companies should take care to track their accumulated BI costs over the full life-cycle of their BI projects, to ensure that their investments in SaaS continue to offer good value in the long-term.

Learn more at Bella’s Mobile Field Service Software

_

Filed under: Field Service Management, Service Management Software | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 72 other followers