As you may be aware, as well as being specialists in on-premise Lotus social collaboration solutions, Collaboration Matters is also a LotusLive design partner and Google Apps, SalesForce.com and SocialText partner, and have successfully sold and implemented many SaaS solutions for our customers.
Therefore, we can demonstrate the pros and cons of cloud-based offerings and can help our customers to make business-value judgements on whether migrating to SaaS is the right option for them.
However, it is usually good to get the viewpoint of industry analysts to reinforce the argument, and thus I was excited to see the publication this morning of this report from Karen Hobert at the Collaborative Strategy Guild:
Gauging the Real Value of Software as a Service (SaaS) E-mail for Small and Medium Businesses
The e-mail market is rapidly evolving as new business-grade software as a service (SaaS) e-mail options become a viable alternative to the traditional on-site e-mail by competing on price and value. Information Technology (IT) decision makers are pressured to reduce costs, so they’re considering a move to SaaS e-mail solutions, which is driving businesses to scrutinize current e-mail strategies. Making a SaaS e-mail decision depends upon the unique needs of the business and how available options not only offer cost savings, but also productivity value.
In this paper, Collaborative Strategy Guild founding member, Karen Hobert, focuses on the SaaS e-mail market, its impact on small and medium businesses (SMBs), and how to find the real value in different product offerings.
This is a truly excellent research report and I recommend it to all that are considering migrating their email to a SaaS offering.  Karen’s conclusion echos my viewpoint that no straightforward mail-to-mail migration will deliver real value, unless the resulting solution better supports the aims and needs of the organisation and its users:
Although the competition for SaaS e-mail market share is being waged over cost, the decision to choose one vendor over another is a matter of value. Customers who design an e-mail strategy and test their assumptions prior to moving to another service are better prepared to mitigate any issues that arise as a result of their decisions. SaaS e-mail offers huge gains for SMBs in business-grade e-mail functionality as long as the offerings support the needs of the business. Without knowing its real value, e-mail can become a cumbersome application, no matter what it costs or where it is managed.
Recommended…
