Meet "Generation SaaS"
The next generation of enterprise users will demand much more from their software. Here's why on-demand applications are meeting their needs.
By Treb Ryan, OpSource
Mar. 03, 2009
The enterprise workforce is in the midst of a transformation. Today's generation of technology users grew up on the Web, email and MySpace. Their expectations are dramatically different than that of previous generations of workers - they want their business applications to match the way they work rather than changing their behavior to match the way an application works.
We call this new workforce "Generation SaaS." Software vendors must understand their needs and adapt their current products to meet their needs or risk being passed by.
Characteristics of Generation SaaS
Traditional enterprise software products have been criticized for being expensive, difficult to use, challenging to integrate and complex to install. These characteristics don't meet the needs of Generation SaaS. The next generation of technology users will expect the following:
Hallmarks of Generation SaaS Business Apps
A similar transformation happened when I first entered the workforce in the late 1980s. Our company was standardized on a few DEC minicomputers and had only a few PCs. My first assignment was to build a training database and so I created it on a PC. It was a new technology environment for the company but it was the one that I was most familiar with. I knew I could finish the project quickly and hook it up to a set of scheduling applications very easily. The result was well received.
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We call this new workforce "Generation SaaS." Software vendors must understand their needs and adapt their current products to meet their needs or risk being passed by.
Characteristics of Generation SaaS
Traditional enterprise software products have been criticized for being expensive, difficult to use, challenging to integrate and complex to install. These characteristics don't meet the needs of Generation SaaS. The next generation of technology users will expect the following:
- Immediate access - Generation SaaS users expect to sit down at a computer and to have immediate access to whatever application, network or information they want. They don't want to install software or buy a CD, they expect to open a browser and find the experience or knowledge they seek immediately.
- Ubiquitous access - Generation SaaS will not insist on using a traditional workstation interface to find data. Whether a mobile phone, browser, PC, thin client, home computer or another device, these workers will need constant access to the right information regardless of platform.
- Easy to use - Generation SaaS has never sat through a training class for any application. All products must be intuitively usable or they won't be used.
- Sharing is essential - Generation SaaS expect to share and collaborate online - a great contrast to prior generations that were uncomfortable making certain information available to others. Sharing is an integral part of their technology behavior.
Hallmarks of Generation SaaS Business Apps
A similar transformation happened when I first entered the workforce in the late 1980s. Our company was standardized on a few DEC minicomputers and had only a few PCs. My first assignment was to build a training database and so I created it on a PC. It was a new technology environment for the company but it was the one that I was most familiar with. I knew I could finish the project quickly and hook it up to a set of scheduling applications very easily. The result was well received.
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