Comments on: Going From Software Developer to SaaS Developer Without Giving Up The Ghost http://www.saasblogs.com/business/going-from-software-developer-to-saas-developer-without-giving-up-the-ghost/ Understanding the "as a Service" Revolution Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:11:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Matt Ammerman http://www.saasblogs.com/business/going-from-software-developer-to-saas-developer-without-giving-up-the-ghost/#comment-22 Matt Ammerman Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:58:10 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2006/10/13/going-from-software-developer-to-saas-developer-without-giving-up-the-ghost/#comment-22 Roman,
Thanks for the response.

I do agree with what you’ve said re: learning a proprietary language – a developer should be able to do it. The concern comes with all the rest of the things they give up by making the shift to a new proprietary platform. As I tried to illustrate – they lose a lot more than the time spent to learn a new programming language. They lose marketing resources and partnerships (although they may gain some new ones, it will still take time for them to optimize the new options available to them), they lose support, they lose familiarity, and most importantly they lose their own identity as a X developer (where X is the technology they’ve used to build/sustain their business). All these changes threaten a developer’s bottom line because the resources needed to cultivate the ‘new’ platform presumably come from resources that are currently directed at maintaining existing business.

One major concern for shops making the switch from traditional development to SaaS development is the cannibilization of their existing business.  How can we maintain our existing revenue streams long enough during the transition to avoid a catastrophic loss of business?  And, suppose it doesn’t work out and I need to fallback to my existing business… if I’ve gone in a proprietary direction I’ll be left with very little to show for my attempt.

If you ask me, stopping everything to go towards a proprietary platform that changes my company at the very core is risky business.

For example, if I’m a .NET house, I’d sure like for there to be a SaaS platform that let’s me stay a .NET developer, but gives me the benefits of SaaS enablement.

Cheers,

Matt

]]> By: Roman Rytov http://www.saasblogs.com/business/going-from-software-developer-to-saas-developer-without-giving-up-the-ghost/#comment-20 Roman Rytov Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:40:04 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2006/10/13/going-from-software-developer-to-saas-developer-without-giving-up-the-ghost/#comment-20 I like the questions you rise. Moving from fully controlled application development to SaaS makes you feel like you changed the profession. I think that to bring a real value to your identity and to build or enrich your brand you need to become more an architect or an analyst than a developer. Otherwise you're a vehicle, as you mention. But if you realize right how to utilize SaaS to achieve your customer's needs your importance and an attraction of the new profession grow exponentially (simply since you, together with the vendor, deliver final results much faster and make deployment and support safer and simpler). Said that I don't believe in the danger of being locked by a proprietary language. All in all, it's just a language. If you know only a language and are young and, hence, a coder rather than a developer or an architect you still have to learn new languages. If you're an experienced geek it shouldn't frighten you either - you've learned a dozen of different technologies and another (relatively simple) is not a negative advantage. Again, presumably that you grow with the profession shift to business. Very like the questions you rise. I tried to answer a similar question for a developer: "how to evolve from a software engineer to..." http://roman-rytov.typepad.com/miles/2006/08/evolving_from_a.html I like the questions you rise. Moving from fully controlled application development to SaaS makes you feel like you changed the profession. I think that to bring a real value to your identity and to build or enrich your brand you need to become more an architect or an analyst than a developer. Otherwise you’re a vehicle, as you mention. But if you realize right how to utilize SaaS to achieve your customer’s needs your importance and an attraction of the new profession grow exponentially (simply since you, together with the vendor, deliver final results much faster and make deployment and support safer and simpler).

Said that I don’t believe in the danger of being locked by a proprietary language. All in all, it’s just a language. If you know only a language and are young and, hence, a coder rather than a developer or an architect you still have to learn new languages. If you’re an experienced geek it shouldn’t frighten you either – you’ve learned a dozen of different technologies and another (relatively simple) is not a negative advantage. Again, presumably that you grow with the profession shift to business.

Very like the questions you rise. I tried to answer a similar question for a developer: “how to evolve from a software engineer to…”
http://roman-rytov.typepad.com/miles/2006/08/evolving_from_a.html

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