Comments on: The Right Tools for the Job http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/ Understanding the Software as a Service Revolution Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:24:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Diana http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-7289 Diana Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:44:34 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-7289 Check out "Vaakya", the World’s smallest, comprehensive technology (1.5mb) (On-demand Computing Environment and SaaS Platform) to build, test and deploy enterprise software applications www.vaakya.com Check out “Vaakya”, the World’s smallest, comprehensive technology (1.5mb) (On-demand Computing Environment and SaaS Platform) to build, test and deploy enterprise software applications

http://www.vaakya.com

]]> By: Matt http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6409 Matt Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:39:51 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6409 Hi Peter, Surprisingly, answering that question requires wading through a drastic amount of ambiguity. As we've noted many times on SaaSBlogs - too many call themselves or their offerings a 'SaaS Platform' (i.e. some call a platform a hosted environment, development libraries, hub & spoke style service buses, etc.) So, a comprehensive list of SaaS platforms might not exist just yet. If one does, I'd love to see it too so we can find the imitations and point them out; although it is a great idea for a near future article ;-) There are, however, good sources for finding products and services in the broader realm of SaaS enablement. Check out Jeff Kaplan's SaaS Showplace - specifically the SaaS Enabling Technology Suppliers <a title="Enabling Technology Suppliers (SaaS Platforms, etc...)" href="http://www.saasshowplace.com/saasenablingtechnologysuppliers.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">here</a>. From the perspective of a true SaaS platform, I have to pursue shameless self promotion - www.apprenda.com is a good place to look at SaaSGrid, our comprehensive hosted SaaS platform. ;-) Hi Peter,

Surprisingly, answering that question requires wading through a drastic amount of ambiguity. As we’ve noted many times on SaaSBlogs - too many call themselves or their offerings a ‘SaaS Platform’ (i.e. some call a platform a hosted environment, development libraries, hub & spoke style service buses, etc.) So, a comprehensive list of SaaS platforms might not exist just yet. If one does, I’d love to see it too so we can find the imitations and point them out; although it is a great idea for a near future article ;-)

There are, however, good sources for finding products and services in the broader realm of SaaS enablement. Check out Jeff Kaplan’s SaaS Showplace - specifically the SaaS Enabling Technology Suppliers here.

From the perspective of a true SaaS platform, I have to pursue shameless self promotion - http://www.apprenda.com is a good place to look at SaaSGrid, our comprehensive hosted SaaS platform. ;-)

]]> By: Peter Koning http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6320 Peter Koning Fri, 01 Jun 2007 23:53:14 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6320 Hi Matt - is there a list of saas platforms? I've tried to read most of your postings but can't find the proverbial blog checklist or top 10. Coming from the internet marketing world there's lots of php/mysql scripts and some hosted offerings, but it's hard to find the actual platforms to build saas on. Apologies if this is a noob question. Hi Matt - is there a list of saas platforms? I’ve tried to read most of your postings but can’t find the proverbial blog checklist or top 10. Coming from the internet marketing world there’s lots of php/mysql scripts and some hosted offerings, but it’s hard to find the actual platforms to build saas on. Apologies if this is a noob question.

]]> By: Bill http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6225 Bill Wed, 30 May 2007 20:07:04 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6225 Matt, I agree with you in your last post. "Business users don't want to be psuedo-developers". The key to understanding where these products fit is to segment the problems that are being solved as well as the people solving them. For a business user who has a project that needs tracking over a few months it doesn't make sense to hire a developer. However, packaged solutions may not effectively solve the problem. That's where a "do it yourself" solution makes a lot of sense. If you've ever spent time in a business environment these problems get solved all the time. Mostly by horrendously ugly Excel spreadsheets, paper, or email. There are other problems like the genomic calculation that you referenced that are big, important, and warrant getting the best developers to use the most powerful (and not the easiest) tools they can. As for a business to business example, Intuit has 15,000 users of QuickBase even though we only have 8,000 employees. We use it for all sorts of partner management applications such as outsourced customer service agents, supply chain partners, marketing agencies, etc. These are problems that our IT department would never get to solving but business users can solve on their own with QuickBase. So, I think the key is segmenting not only the users, but the problems that they are trying to solve. -Bill Matt,

I agree with you in your last post. “Business users don’t want to be psuedo-developers”. The key to understanding where these products fit is to segment the problems that are being solved as well as the people solving them. For a business user who has a project that needs tracking over a few months it doesn’t make sense to hire a developer. However, packaged solutions may not effectively solve the problem. That’s where a “do it yourself” solution makes a lot of sense. If you’ve ever spent time in a business environment these problems get solved all the time. Mostly by horrendously ugly Excel spreadsheets, paper, or email.

There are other problems like the genomic calculation that you referenced that are big, important, and warrant getting the best developers to use the most powerful (and not the easiest) tools they can.

As for a business to business example, Intuit has 15,000 users of QuickBase even though we only have 8,000 employees. We use it for all sorts of partner management applications such as outsourced customer service agents, supply chain partners, marketing agencies, etc. These are problems that our IT department would never get to solving but business users can solve on their own with QuickBase.

So, I think the key is segmenting not only the users, but the problems that they are trying to solve.

-Bill

]]> By: Jonathan Sapir http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6224 Jonathan Sapir Wed, 30 May 2007 19:53:17 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6224 Matt, absolutely agree - the last thing business users want to be are programmers. For one thing, their mind sets are completely different - programmers think in a highly structured manner, business users do not. So the approach has to be radically different if we expect them to want to build meaningful systems. Matt, absolutely agree - the last thing business users want to be are programmers. For one thing, their mind sets are completely different - programmers think in a highly structured manner, business users do not. So the approach has to be radically different if we expect them to want to build meaningful systems.

]]> By: Matt Ammerman http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6207 Matt Ammerman Wed, 30 May 2007 13:24:57 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6207 @Jonathan: I think you hit the nail on the head by highlighting the intended targets of these tools. I didn't mean to denounce CogHead as a business tool... but as an enterprise software development tool, I think it falls short. Now, its target is the DIY business person, so of course it may become wildly successful. My personal feeling on this that I alluded to in the post is that business users don't want to be pseudo-developers. That's why they hire developers. Same reason that most of us bring our cars to mechanics instead of learning how to sort-of fix them. @Ted: Thanks for the comment. I've watched the demos of BungeeConnect on the Bungee Labs website. The tutorials led me to believe that while it is a super (SUPER) impressive web-based IDE, it is meant for building data mashups - i.e. pulling Google data, Amazon data, etc. Kind of like Yahoo Pipes and so on. Granted, I think this is a hugely valuable tool and I do see the features that lend towards customization and developer tools.  Bungee Connect is probably the most impressive of this type of environment I've seen yet,<em> </em>I just wonder if, like Jonathan said, it falls between the business camp and the developer camp. I'd be happy to get an under-the-hood demo. I'll follow up on that privately. @Jonathan: I think you hit the nail on the head by highlighting the intended targets of these tools. I didn’t mean to denounce CogHead as a business tool… but as an enterprise software development tool, I think it falls short. Now, its target is the DIY business person, so of course it may become wildly successful. My personal feeling on this that I alluded to in the post is that business users don’t want to be pseudo-developers. That’s why they hire developers. Same reason that most of us bring our cars to mechanics instead of learning how to sort-of fix them.

@Ted: Thanks for the comment. I’ve watched the demos of BungeeConnect on the Bungee Labs website. The tutorials led me to believe that while it is a super (SUPER) impressive web-based IDE, it is meant for building data mashups - i.e. pulling Google data, Amazon data, etc. Kind of like Yahoo Pipes and so on. Granted, I think this is a hugely valuable tool and I do see the features that lend towards customization and developer tools.  Bungee Connect is probably the most impressive of this type of environment I’ve seen yet, I just wonder if, like Jonathan said, it falls between the business camp and the developer camp. I’d be happy to get an under-the-hood demo. I’ll follow up on that privately.

]]> By: Jonathan Sapir http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6178 Jonathan Sapir Wed, 30 May 2007 02:48:51 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6178 Matt, the bottom line is that a tool that targets a business user cannot be the same tool that targets a developer. This is where all these tools fail - they fall between two stools, trying to please both camps and ultimately failing everyone. My blog "The top 10 rules for long tail software tools (as illustrated by Coghead)" at http://www.longtailsoftware.com/2007/05/top-10-rules-for-long-tail-software.html tries to address this issue. -Jon Matt, the bottom line is that a tool that targets a business user cannot be the same tool that targets a developer. This is where all these tools fail - they fall between two stools, trying to please both camps and ultimately failing everyone.

My blog “The top 10 rules for long tail software tools (as illustrated by Coghead)” at http://www.longtailsoftware.com/2007/05/top-10-rules-for-long-tail-software.html tries to address this issue.

-Jon

]]> By: Ted Haeger http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6148 Ted Haeger Tue, 29 May 2007 15:53:41 +0000 http://www.saasblogs.com/2007/05/29/the-right-tools-for-the-job/#comment-6148 "[These web toolkit providers] alienate...software developers and engineers...those that have been schooled and trained in the complex sciences of computer programming and application engineering." Matt: I think that this assertion is hits the mark for many of the tools that have recently emerged, but I hope that Bungee Labs does not fall into that category. Bungee Connect was designed specifically to address a developer/engineer audience. If you haven't had a chance to see it in action, please drop me a line. We'd love to give you a full under-the-hood look at it. --Ted “[These web toolkit providers] alienate…software developers and engineers…those that have been schooled and trained in the complex sciences of computer programming and application engineering.”

Matt:
I think that this assertion is hits the mark for many of the tools that have recently emerged, but I hope that Bungee Labs does not fall into that category. Bungee Connect was designed specifically to address a developer/engineer audience. If you haven’t had a chance to see it in action, please drop me a line. We’d love to give you a full under-the-hood look at it.
–Ted

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