The Application Software Suite is Yesterday’s News

SaaS and other Internet-based software solutions are negating the original value of application suites by delivering superior value to companies today.

By Michael A. Braun, Intacct

I’ve been in the technology business for 36 years. I’ve got all the pluses and minuses of that experience, both scars and medals. When it comes to software – especially business application software - there has always been a large market for both best-of-breed (BoB) application solutions and multi-product “suites” – a group of applications from one vendor that is pre-integrated to work together. The wars between these vendors are legendary.

But the Internet has changed the balance of power in this long-standing battle. Today’s Internet-based computing platform and Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model enable customers to choose the superior function of BoB solutions with confidence. Indeed, the suite is “so yesterday.” It was born during the client/server computing era to solve a set of technology integration problems that the Internet and SaaS have rendered obsolete. And in the eyes of many customers, the suites did a mediocre job solving those problems anyway. Many view the suite as something that turned out being better for the vendors than the customers. Indeed, client/server computing and on-premise enterprise software will live on for decades; but they are yesterday’s news. The all-in-one software suite is part of that bygone era.

Register to Hear C.K. Prahalad at Software 2008 and Receive a Copy of His New Book

The software business elite are gathering at Software 2008, April 28-29, 2008 in Las Vegas. LINK TO http://www.software2008.com/ Attendees will share insight with their executive peers and hear thought-leading keynotes, including one by international management guru, C.K. Prahalad. Register now to be a part of the industry’s most prestigious event and receive a complimentary copy of C.K’s new book, “The New Age of Innovation: Mobilizing Global Networks to Unlock Co-Created Value in Your Company.” Visit www.software2008.com to find out more.

Selling Software? Find the Bully with the Juice

The economic downturn is making it tougher to close software deals. Steve W. Martin says the key is finding the “bully with the juice” – the final decision maker. Improve your sales strategies by reading his four rules for understanding sales dynamics involving this “bully” in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on sales best practices.

Insecure Software Hurts the Global Economy

The problem of software companies releasing products that are not fully secure continues today. David Rice explains why insecure software damages the global economy in this post to the SandHill.com Blog.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

DON’T MISS: Starting Up as CFO

There are a few critical tasks that all finance chiefs must tackle in their first hundred days. Read which jobs are the most important in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

Heads in the Clouds

More developments in the cloud; plus subcontractors encounter problems with open source, the rise of the socialprise and Database-as-a-Service and xRM may trump CRM. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: Death of the Software Suite?

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Microsoft acquired Komoku.
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Paul Pellman was named CEO of Click Forensics.
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Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“Perseverance is the most overrated of traits, if it is unaccompanied by talent; beating your head against a wall is more likely to produce a concussion in the head than a hole in the wall.”
–Sydney Harris

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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