Monday, February 19, 2007
The Power of Apex - On-Demand Platform Represents a Paradigm Shift
A recent eWeek article adeptly articulated a cross section of the ‘wish list’ developers had for Apex, and their excitement regarding the platform itself. In this blog, we wanted to reorder the points (and our comments in the article) to ensure emphasis on the most critical point, the paradigm shift an on-demand platform represents; rather than the individual feature/functions wish list.
Salesforce.com’s Apex platform represents an inflection point for the industry. By providing the industry’s first on-demand platform, salesforce.com brings the advantages of on-demand to potentially every application developed by customers or ISVs.
Focusing on What’s Important
 Source: Appirio |
For most customers, building an application represents a significant undertaking. Often multiple selection processes have to occur before the actual application can even be discussed. A vendor/solution must be chosen for every horizontal gray layer (Hardware, Network, Database, etc.). In addition, for all of these layers, performance, administration, security and configuration management must be planned and integrated.
All of these activities detract from the act of creating an application that generates specific outcomes (business value). In fact, based on our experience, we would estimate that in certain cases the gray activities can represent up to 70% of the effort for the initial application. By leveraging Apex, customers and ISVs can focus 100% on creating an application that meets the business need.
Technology Advantage
Every capability Apex provides is unique because of its support of multi-tenancy. Its database-like capabilities (e.g. queries), application logic (e.g. workflows), and user interface is scalable across an entire customer base.
Predecessors originally focused on solving much more specific problems, Oracle’s PL-SQL provides a database centric approach, SAP’s ABAP focused on business logic. These vendors are now patching together other products/languages in hopes of eventually creating one integrated platform. Yet, even when these are completed, they will lack the ability to provide an on-demand multi-tenant platform.
Conclusion
Apex, like any technology ‘platform’ available today, has room for advancement. Yet, by providing a true on-demand, multi-tenant platform, it begins its journey from a fundamentally higher plane than its predecessors. It eliminates activities that do not directly contribute to creating business value and allows both customers and ISVs to leverage the benefits of on-demand. In the future, on-demand platforms like Apex will dominate the creation of most applications.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Day 1 at the Credit Suisse Disruptive Technology Conference and the Salesforce.com Keynote
Investor's version of "Show-and-Tell" Offers Interesting Insights for CIOs
Marc Benioff, CEO of salesforce.com, keynoted the first day of Credit Suisse's Disruptive Technology Conference. Other presentors included established and new world technology companies, such as Appirio, from across the infrastructure and application landscape.
Among our favorite quotes of the day where:
- "In reality, content is critical. I like Madonna, whether it's an AM radio or a Hifi stereo. Sometimes we get caught up with the details instead of the core message." - Director of IT for CSFB, discussing why SaaS and mashups are compelling
- "Is a database the same as a communication network? It's really apples and oranges - you can't compare the two, they serve different purposes." - Marc Benioff, when asked about potential competition from Webex Connect
- Greg the Architect - SOA This. SOA That - A must-see video for anyone selecting an SOA. Highlighted by Vivek Ranadive, CEO of Tibco Software.
- "We simply just innovate much faster than on-premise software. We can even extend our solutions with customers at a much lower price point because we can leverage the solution across the customer base" - Mark Culhane, EVP and CFO of Demandtec (We find this particularly compelling because it came from their CFO, not their VP of Engineering. Their entire organization recognizes that SaaS is a strategic advantage).
Our earlier blogs have highlighted the difference in vendor economics, ability to innovate, customer TCO, and user experience. We believe you either have the on-demand religion, or you don't. As SaaS continuees to emerge, sending mixed messages is a presciption for failure. Only companies with a pure focus on leveraging all capabilities of this new paradigm will be able to drive systematic change.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Services 2.0 - Bringing SaaS and Web 2.0 to the Customer
Check out the below analysis where Appirio describes the impact of On-Demand on the Services industry. It compares how application providers like salesforce.com are disrupting on-premise applications (like those from SAP and Oracle), and the similar impact on Services firms 'hooked' on on-premise application services multiples.
Excerpt from: “Services 2.0” – A New World for System Integrators. Specialty Solution Providers & Social Networks Will Dramatically Alter the SI Landscape, Gearing Up the Enterprise for Web 2.0 and SaaS 2.0 [Read Full Analysis]
Services 1.0 | Services 2.0 |
Dominated by Accenture, IBM, Deliotte, Bearing Point and Cap Gemini | Led by newly emerging specialty solution providers such as Astadia,Appirio, Bluewolf, Okere and Theikos |
Overly broad focus, with partnerships with hundreds of competing on-premise vendors | Sharp focus on accelerating on-demand in the enterprise – taking a strong position that advocates for market-changing solutions |
Multi-year waterfall-style mega projects | 3-9 month iterative micro projects |
| $1 in software licenses = $10- $15 in services | $1 of subscription fees = $2-$4 in services |
“Tell me” approach. Project teams that fill binders with screen shots, process diagrams, etc. which are read once, then collect dust | “Show me solutions”. Productized SaaS prototypes and working applications launched in weeks |
| Overall opportunity shrinking as companies rely less on SAP, Oracle, and other on-premise vendors | Opportunities growing rapidly, derived from specialty business, technology and process services to extend and integrate SaaS solutions |
Complex and costly hardware, infrastructure and integration software | No hardware or infrastructure required, integration via open APIs and real-time mashups |
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Why the salesforce.com Incubator Should Excite You - An Early Peek from the Initial Occupant
Recently Appirio added an office in salesforce.com's Incubator in San Mateo and became one of its anchor tenants. In fact, we had several historic firsts - we were the first ones in the door when it opened, we made the first pot of coffee, and we held our first management team offsite in one of the many conference rooms. We have already established links to some excellent AppExchange partners located in the building! For Appirio, a salesforce.com partner and a true believer in the power of on-demand, the benefits are clear. We accelerate the rate of innovation of our own work and salesforce.com. By easily chatting about what customers are doing, their future needs, and where the market is headed, partners can collectively find ideas that will change the industry. Savvy partners can establish networks of complementary firms that allow the group to compete with any ecosystem or firm in the industry. We also believe that the incubator represents a much broader trend. Collaboration among customers, partners (SI/ISVs), and software firms will become the key to success. Customers will add to the synergy via extended value chains; software mashups will become as prevalent and valuable as hyperlinking; and complementary partners will come together "on demand" to provide what customers need. This is far more powerful than a single firm's marketing department independently trying to determine what customers want. Whether you believe the salesforce.com Incubator will change Appirio and the industry, or you just want to try variants of the morning coffee, we welcome you to come over and see what all the excitement is about. We'll have more firsts in the next few months, including training sessions, customer roundtables, and thought leadership seminars. We're also hoping to be the first to break in the Nintendo Wii, XBox and PS3 when they arrive! And rest assured, we've cleared out this tower of all the Siebel on-premise demons...
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