(Ed. Note: Corliss Knowles is MiPro’s Workday Principal Consultant.)
I work almost exclusively with Workday’s technology, and over the next two
posts I will discuss two things about SAAS/on-demand software that I see my clients ask about frequently.
I’ll start by saying that Workday’s value proposition is very real: increased – perhaps never before seen – time-to-value. They’ve taken the old model and rebuilt it from the ground up, and the TCO, predictability and innovation Workday touts become apparent very quickly.
But there’s still work involved. As duh as that sounds, too many people think that going SaaS means they won’t need to do real planning, requirements gathering, design and testing.
As a Workday consultant, I’m called in when it’s time to kick-off the project and begin collecting business and functional requirements. That’s the way it was when I implemented traditional ERP applications, and that’s the way it is for SaaS.
Or is it?
Through generalist blogs and articles about SaaS, customers have come to believe that SaaS implementations are as easy as making instant oatmeal. As a result, clients have become convinced that SaaS applications such as Workday can and should be implemented in break-neck speed with little cost, planning or under-the-covers integration work.
Let’s be clear: enterprise SaaS apps such as Workday are advanced, comprehensive, new-breed systems that handle a wide array of critical business functions. They’re innovation-rich, flexible and get off the ground into production faster than ERP. But given all the data and touchpoints these systems have to interface with, we can’t pretend we’re just installing iTunes. Doing so is a disservice to Workday’s outstanding technology and its clients.
Yes, the time to implement SaaS and the cost is commonly less than what you’d see for traditional ERP deployments, however the content of the implementation cycles are the same. To reduce cost and shorten the go-live timeframe, customers often skimp on the content in each of the design phases – just as they do with rushed, poorly-organized ERP projects.
Example: on-demand does not mean you get to inform your implementation team of a new requirement during system test. They need to know all of your requirements before they design and build your system. From my experience, while I’m building the system, I need you to develop corresponding test cases applicable to your business use cases. When I deliver the built system, I really do need you to test it and report issues immediately. Otherwise, we run into the same snags as we would with an ERP deployment.
This isn’t a failing of the SaaS promise. This is common sense. This is Best Practices 2.0. Workday has an excellent whitepaper on this method and approach (registration required) to enterprise application deployment.
SaaS certainly is designed to be lighter weight and more adaptable and provide a quicker time-to-value. However, each phase of the SaaS implementation life cycle is as important as it is in a traditional ERP project.
I want to help set better expectations, because this discussion is one I have with many client, and left unaddressed, this disconnect causes problems. And I hate seeing that. Technology such as Workday is so powerful and innovative that I do everything I can to head off misconceptions – largely borne of generalist blog posts and high-level articles – before they become a project issue.
Have a comment or question? Email us and we’ll get back to you immediately. No sales pitch, no pressure. Seriously.
Related posts:
SaaS Booming in Enterprise Market
CIOs Say ERP Systems Considerably Underutilized
What Workday’s Cash Infusion Means in Today’s Markets
Workday Named #1 Best Place to Work in Bay Area
Big Hit: Workday Raises $75M in New Funding
How Economic Chaos Can Mean Opportunity for Smart, Daring Firms
Field Notes: Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri Kick-Off Workday Rising ‘08
Workday: Dave Duffield 2.0 Gaining Steam
Salesforce.com and Where SaaS Goes From Here (Eventually)
Related web content:
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
please also include security issues about saas in your next posts…
thanks -david
David,
Broad topic with lots of contexts. Have a particular one in mind?
Jeff
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