I was in a meeting the other day giving my board an overview of what the tech department has been working on and will be working on in the future. I had to put it out there that software as a service is not going away and our budget is going to have to adjust to plan for that. In the past we could write a grant and pay for something and we would be done. These days the budget needs to keep growing to allow us to use those services that we used to have as a one and done.
Interesting subject this. It seems companies/vendors are being a bit "cute" or sneaky, looking to monetise everything they can. I must say I much prefer a perpeptual license and one off known cost rather than having to raise POs and CERs on an ongoing basis. One and done is a far better model for the buyer and the buyers should be pushing to retain it.
It really depends on how much talent you have on site and the skill level they possess. For example, we use a hosted VoIP service versus hosting our own. That way we don't need house any servers or do the regular upkeep and patching of them. Instead, I just buy the phones, pay a fee per month and my vendor handles it all. If we were a bigger district I might have someone who could specialize in VoIP, but being a one man shop this fits better into our model.
In-house ICT services are being cut back I feel as there is less need for specialized people in some areas. However some industries will always have some level of on-prem service and infrastructure by need - for example military.
For sure.
Ya that's a good use case. My gripe is more on the switch and router vendor side where these Pay as you Grow models are being pushed on customer s. It's great to have an option, but it should be just that, an option.
There are some things I prefer to keep in house. Servers and networking is one of them.
Perpetual seems like a better deal for the buyer, but it depends on the product being sold. If it is continually being developed and advanced, the perpetual license falls a foul of being outdated quickly. If there is the expectation that it will be upgraded for free forever, that will never work, as there is no incentive to develop.
Yes, and while the overall cost might increase, there are also savings to be had in terms of productivity. With the perpetual licenses, the products tend not to update for too long, losing efficiency. SaaS companies have to keep developing in order to keep the subscription. The initial outlay is also far lower.
Yeah, I totally agree with that. Usually you get some kind of support too. Any time that I don't have to spend my resources troubleshooting is a good thing for me.
Yep. The support is a big thing, as well as the training involved. Most SaaS is cloud-based service, so there is less for the on the ground admin to do.