http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/ As part of our everyday reading and networking at Catalyst Resources, we regularly come across or are referred to articles, blogs, events and interesting tidbits relevant to SaaS application design. In this listing we try to share a little bit about what we have found compelling or worthy of note. en media [at] catalystresources.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-04T10:55:39+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices A SaaS company that does not have a senior executive in charge of Customer Success (i.e. controlling churn) is one that doesn’t understand its business model and not one likely to get VC-funding. SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2010-03-04T10:55:39+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/migrating_the_enterprise_to_saas http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/migrating_the_enterprise_to_saas The challenge of coming up with a SaaS incarnation when you have a established on-premise customer base is nothing short of what the Big Three Auto manufacturers are going through in re-inventing themselves. The entire thinking software design to delivery and maintenance changes. This articles takes a look at some of the key challenges and potential solutions. Migrating the Enterprise to SaaS 2010-03-04T10:49:23+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices SaaS isn't shrink-wrapped desktop software and it demands a unique architecture to be easily customizable, and extensive user interface design to allow users to successfully adapt to a hosted SaaS application. This whitepaper identifies fundamental elements that can be used to achieve the goal of right-engineering your SaaS product. It includes detailed information on architectural strategies, best practices, databases, virtualization and challenges associated with SaaS products. SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2009-12-07T12:52:04+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/migrating_the_enterprise_to_saas http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/migrating_the_enterprise_to_saas While there will be times where it makes sense financially to stick with an equipment based call center platform, make sure when you are comparing the two that you are taking into account all factors, benefits and costs into consideration before making your decision. In this article, a former Fortune 50 call center director shared his thoughts. Migrating the Enterprise to SaaS 2009-11-19T22:34:18+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud At its core, cloud computing is nothing more than the ability to buy computing as a service, paying only for what you use. I often compare it to buying electricity from a power company, rather than buying and maintaining your own generator out in the parking lot. Cloud computing not only saves money for businesses; it allows them to focus on what they do best, rather than on buying and maintaining servers and software. On-Demand Infrastructure (a.k.a. the Cloud) 2009-11-06T12:24:29+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/innovation http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/innovation Be frugal with financial resources but generous with human resources. What holds disruptive innovation back in most organizations isn't a lack of money. It is a lack of committed people, a surplus of inappropriate mindsets, and a whole series of standard operating procedures that run counter to the fast-cycle decision making, in-market learning, and iterative approach to strategy required for disruption. Ideas and inspiration for innovation 2009-11-04T17:27:19+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices Despite the fact that the objectives and tactics are similar to marketing on-premise applications, SaaS targets different audiences (the people involved in the purchase decision ), presents different messages (needs to articulate the value of the full customer experience and isn't confined to just product features), and requires different processes (equire a marketing process geared for new releases every quarter, not once every two years). SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2009-10-29T09:53:14+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/ria_technology http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/ria_technology A series of articles on how to build out an new application using Silverlight 3 and .NET RIA Services RIA Technology 2009-10-27T10:07:27+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs The Healthcare IT market is highly suited to SaaS, including: a) Hospitals to substantially reduce their capital and operational requirements, b) Physicians for patient management, lab, prescriptions, and billing, c) Insurance Companies for online connectivity and interaction between hospitals, providers and patients, and d) Patients to consolidate and manage their interaction between insurance companies, physicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers. SaaS UI and Application Design Blogs 2009-10-09T09:56:20+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/mobile_saas http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/mobile_saas Presentations from Mobile HCI 2009 Tutorial Day on how to build effective visual interfaces on mobile devices. Mobile SaaS 2009-09-17T06:51:40+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices The essence of cloud computing is openness to connectivity, mobility and collaborative endeavor. Privately hosted, virtualized infrastructure may look like a cloud, but it is ‘fool’s cloud’ — like iron pyrite, the appearance is deceptive. Survival of the fit-most emphasizes: community aggregation; openness to connectivity; agile adoption of new resources; and better mobility SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2009-09-14T09:33:37+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs A discussion around the idea of an Experience Portfolio, the collection of factors that influence the overall customer reaction to the transaction they’re consumating with a vendor. SaaS UI and Application Design Blogs 2009-09-14T09:30:19+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_white_papers_industry_reports http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_white_papers_industry_reports Observations on SaaS and cloud computing from Saugatech: 1) Core systems of record (e.g. Finance, HR and BI/EPM) are growing rapidly – both SMB & Enterprise are adopting, 2) International is beginning to grow., 3) Workflow/Collaboration and Measured/Monitored/Managed business processes, 4) Customer satisfaction is generally quite high with high annual renewal rates. Some other data: 40% of large enterprises will seriously consider SaaS-based ERP, HR, order management, and procurement solutions. 30% will choose a new next gen SaaS solution provider. By 2012, only 20%-40% of software will be sold under traditional perpetual license model SaaS White Papers & Industry Reports 2009-09-04T09:38:34+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_conferences_web_events http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_conferences_web_events The Conference theme is “"Bringing the Economics of the Web to Enterprise IT Through Cloud Computing" SaaS Conferences & Web Events 2009-08-17T17:50:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud The author condenses down some top level points while writing "Cloud Computing for Dummies": 1. The cloud is both old and new at the same time; 2. There are lots of shades of gray with cloud segmentation; 3. Market leadership is in flux; 4. The cloud is an economic and business model; 5. The private cloud is real; 6. The hybrid cloud is the future; 7. Managing the cloud is complicated; 8. Security is king in the cloud; 9. Interoperability between clouds is the next frontier; 10. The cloud in a box. On-Demand Infrastructure (a.k.a. the Cloud) 2009-08-15T15:11:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices SaaS adoption is now occurring in areas once reserved exclusively for on-premise applications, including mission critical applications such as ERP and HR in both small and large enterprises.. This blog covers best practices that software vendors can deploy to help smooth the operational disruption inherent in SaaS deployments - and to help grow sales in the process. SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2009-07-23T11:26:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_and_user_experience_best_practices Many of the calculations routinely used to compare the cost of SaaS to conventional software are based on completely bogus assumptions. This isn't an act of deliberate deception, it's simply a case of people shoehorning SaaS into the same criteria framework they'd use to compare two competing licensed software products. SaaS and User Experience Best Practices 2009-07-17T20:16:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs On-demand BI addresses many of the issues that had plagued on-premise BI solutions and offers some unique advantages making such solutions possible for more and larger segments of the market. As such it warrants serious consideration by small and large companies alike. SaaS UI and Application Design Blogs 2009-07-02T15:40:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/on_demand_infrastructure_aka_the_cloud A visual map of the Cloud, SaaS and PaaS industry that divides up the buckets into Infrastructure: the core computing resources and network fabric for the cloud deployment; Platform: the software infrastructure that allows sys admins and developers to deploy an app to the cloud; Services: additional services that can be woven into the cloud app, such as billing, storage, integration; and Applications: the ultimate cloud end product - Software as a Service (SaaS) applications that the user touches. SaaS applications are available over the internet, are quick to provision a new account, are offered in a pay-as-you-go model, and allow some level of customization. On-Demand Infrastructure (a.k.a. the Cloud) 2009-06-24T11:09:00+00:00 http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs http://www.catalystresources.com/saas-design/category/saas_ui_and_application_design_blogs The current generation of on-demand BI solutions integrate a query application with a database management system both of which reside in the cloud. The questions are how such applications should be partitioned among the various types of cloud-based vendors and the clients themselves. SaaS UI and Application Design Blogs 2009-06-16T14:31:00+00:00