Analytics for the Business

 At last week's SAPPHIRE 2009 keynote, Léo Apotheker talked about the idea of timeless software.  This notion has been introduced before and discussed by SAP CTO Dr. Vishal Sikka.

Léo talked about innovation without business disruption and benefits including less time deploying and less time managing the software.  These are truly benefits of cloud computing or timeless software.  However, more importantly, the idea of innovation quickly delivered is where the real value lies.  Software-as-a-Service solutions are typically deployed very quickly.  In the case of SaaS Business Intelligence, these solutions are up and running in weeks, often providing unique insights into the business that were previously not visible or simply took a laborious manual process to achieve. 

And the hits keep coming.  SaaS models allow for continuous enhancements in the form of functionality, unique analytics, and best practice approaches to be rolled out seamlessly to customers and users.  That is, innovation out of the SaaS providers engineering department right to the customer with an upgrade over the weekend. 

Innovation in the SaaS model is not one way.  Customer feedback, usage and requests for enhancements play a role in identifying where the next innovation lies.  This isn't new in the software industry.  However, the ability to take that input, incorporate it into the solution and roll it out to the user base in 3 months is unheard of in the traditional on-premise software world.

In summary, timeless software is really about real-time innovation.  Getting ideas understood, incorporated and deployed faster than previously possible.  At the end of the day, software is an enabler for people and processes.  Improving that software as quickly as possible to "move the needle" for users is where the value lies. 

What do you think?  Are the biggest SaaS benefits around getting innovation in the hands of the users quickly or around the well told total cost of ownership?

Recommended Reading:

• Calculating ROI for Business Intelligence Solutions in Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
• What You Need to Know About Business Intelligence TCO
• BI for SMBs, Part 3: Driving Down TCO
• Managing the TCO of Business Intelligence