Comments on: The Evolved CIO http://blogs.ingres.com/dougharr/2008/05/06/the-evolved-cio/ The Business of Open Source Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:14:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ed Marshall http://blogs.ingres.com/dougharr/2008/05/06/the-evolved-cio/#comment-27 Ed Marshall Fri, 16 May 2008 13:12:03 +0000 http://blogs.ingres.com/dougharr/?p=13#comment-27 As a SaaS provider, we are always interested in how to position ourselves to the CIO - are we viewed as an outsider based on previous platform choices for the legacy systems, or are we viewed as "cutting edge" and dealing with a CIO who is pushing the envelope, challenging us to be more tech-forward. We work with both kinds, but the realized benefit to the company of the Forward Thinking CIO is much greater. The Forward Thinking CIO's are the ones who are shaping the future of the SaaS industry. Much of the technology for next generation SaaS solutions already exists, it's the appetite of the customer that dictates the pace of adoption. For example, when integrating systems, are you going to go with batch file transfer, or are you going to leverage web services. No single answer is correct for every organization - CIO's have their internal customers of course. But leveraging web services introduces real-time benefits that legacy systems can't match, and SaaS point solutions then become part of a SaaS infrastructure that is superior to the cleint-server legacy infrastructure. As Doug points out, SaaS has traditionally been driven by the business need rather than the CIO's office, but we've seen this changing in 2008 as CIO's are becoming repeat-SaaS customers and the CIO's are now promoting SaaS solutions to their constituents, rather than being dragged into the discussion by the business side of the house. This is where the innovation around SaaS solutions will really start to take off. As a SaaS provider, we are always interested in how to position ourselves to the CIO - are we viewed as an outsider based on previous platform choices for the legacy systems, or are we viewed as “cutting edge” and dealing with a CIO who is pushing the envelope, challenging us to be more tech-forward. We work with both kinds, but the realized benefit to the company of the Forward Thinking CIO is much greater.

The Forward Thinking CIO’s are the ones who are shaping the future of the SaaS industry. Much of the technology for next generation SaaS solutions already exists, it’s the appetite of the customer that dictates the pace of adoption. For example, when integrating systems, are you going to go with batch file transfer, or are you going to leverage web services. No single answer is correct for every organization - CIO’s have their internal customers of course. But leveraging web services introduces real-time benefits that legacy systems can’t match, and SaaS point solutions then become part of a SaaS infrastructure that is superior to the cleint-server legacy infrastructure.

As Doug points out, SaaS has traditionally been driven by the business need rather than the CIO’s office, but we’ve seen this changing in 2008 as CIO’s are becoming repeat-SaaS customers and the CIO’s are now promoting SaaS solutions to their constituents, rather than being dragged into the discussion by the business side of the house. This is where the innovation around SaaS solutions will really start to take off.

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