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MS SaaS Offerings Microsoft Clouds Dont Rain On Small Businesses
MS SaaS Offerings Microsoft Clouds Dont Rain On Small Businesses
Flashback
Used to being the unchallenged leader during the early days of information technology, Microsoft never had it as easy since the advent of the internet. No matter the hot new internet technology, Microsoft was forever caught napping. It was never the innovator and forever a laggard in terms of success. Google trounced it at search and online advertising, Yahoo at instant messaging and consumer mail, Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad were far better at blogging software, it never even appeared on the battle ground of social networking with MySpace and Facebook ruling the roost. But there were certain markets, especially corporate markets, in which Microsoft continued at have a strangle-hold, which kept its cash registers clinking, and at a frantic pace at that. These were the PC OS market with its Windows series, MS Office for Office suites, and its prize cash cows - MS Exchange and MS Sharepoint for enterprise messaging and collaboration. Now, the above mentioned software are essential for every enterprise, and 5 to 10 years back, Microsoft did undoubtedly offer the most robust solutions available. In those days, since every body was eyeing the juicy big business enterprise segment, with their thousands of users implementations and IT budgets bursting at the seams, it was for that audience these software were developed. So although Exchange and Sharepoint required dedicated servers, complicated implementations and dedicated IT to man and maintain the system, nobody really minded, because these mega enterprises had the money and staff to spare.
The Present
But there was a segment which minded it, the small to medium size business (SMB), segment which had neither the staff, nor resources, nor the inclination. Since not many alternatives were available, they either had to bear the burden, or do without these technologies altogether. But in recent times, things have started to change. In the past 3 years or so, a new approach has emerged, spurred on by technology improvements and increased bandwidth - the software as a service approach. And its primary market is the small to mid sized business segment.
What is Software as a Service? Earlier, to use a software, you had to purchase a license, and load in on your local systems. Under SAAS, the software is hosted at the vendors own servers and access is allowed to customers over the internet as a service. By eliminating the need for you to install the software locally, SAAS saves you the burden of implementation, maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. SAAS also saves you from the need to buy and own expensive software, substituting it for an affordable monthly subscription.
It is true that there was some initial skepticism initially about the viability of SAAS solutions, in that it involves letting go of some control and allowing the organizations critical data lie on a third party SAAS vendors servers. But the benefits of this approach have been so overwhelming, and due to providers like salesforce.com and HyperOffice providing SAAS solutions effectively over the years, that organizations across the board, from small to mega enterprises, have been converted.
In a recent SaaS survey conducted by Cutter Consortium, nearly threequarters (72%) of the people who responded reported that they are using Web-based solutions to fill unmet needs. More than a quarter of the respondents (28%) are hoping that these solutions will cut their costs by 20%-30%.
With the enterprise market saturated, Microsoft has also been eyeing the relatively untapped small to mid sized business market in the past few years. Considering the success of SAAS with this segment, Microsoft has introduced offered a succession of software offered as a service in recent times, under the Microsoft Office Live banner. But the real success story with this segment was hosted Exchange and hosted Sharepoint solutions offered by independent vendors; many of them certified Microsoft partners. First, a little refresher: What is Hosted Exchange (and how it differs from Exchange Server)? Every company needs dedicated company email for its employees, as well as some basic productivity solutions to lubricate everyday working (task management, calendars, address books). To cater to these universal needs, Microsoft developed Exchange Server whose major features consist of electronic mail, calendaring, contacts and tasks. The front end client for Exchange through which employees access all this information is usually Outlook, but Exchange also supports mobile and web based access (called Outlook web access or OWA for short). But implementing Exchange is hardly easy, as it includes setting up a dedicated server, undertaking a complex Exchange implementation, in addition to additional anti spam and anti virus implementations for the security of the server. Also, dedicated staff needs to be hired to monitor the system and keep it running, and to manage a myriad of complexities that may arise, since Exchange is a vast solution. Under hosted Exchange however, all aspects of implementation and maintenance of the Exchange implementation are outsourced to the servers of a specialized hosted services provider. Customers still get the most of the features of Exchange dedicated email, shared calendars/contacts/tasks, and premium features like mobile and web access to information (typically at an extra cost). But unlike an in house implementation, where everybody accesses Exchange over the local network, in this case it is accessed over the internet. This approach is especially beneficial for small to medium businesses which are saved the huge costs of in house implementation and instead have to pay a reasonable monthly subscription. What is Hosted Sharepoint (and how it differs from Sharepoint Server)? Apart from basic email capabilities, companies also need the ability to manage the companys information, stored in documents, and the ability for employees to work together on this information. This is what SharePoint, Microsofts browser-based collaboration and document management platform does. It can be used to host and create a companys web site that includes shared workspaces and documents, as well as specialized applications like to do lists, discussion boards, wikis and blogs. But Sharepoints power is coupled with its complexity. Its implementation is no less cumbersome and costly than Exchange. Moreover, it is not end user friendly. Subject matter experts cannot share their knowledge directly; they always have to either go through IT intermediaries, or undergo specialized training which consumes time and diverts attention from competencies. Knowledge is not dispersed freely through the organization, but is choked by having to pass through the IT bottleneck.
As with hosted Exchange, under hosted Sharepoint, all aspects of a companys Sharepoint implementation and management are outsourced to third party vendors. Customers can still access all of Sharepoints features over the internet, but for a reasonable monthly fee.
An Assessment
Great Solution?
At first view, it would seem that Microsoft has come out with a great offering. The entire range of Microsofts best of breed enterprise applications, rolled into one, available at a very affordable monthly fee. Exchange online for email, calendars, address books, task management and access over the web and mobile; Sharepoint Online for collaboration and customized portals for teams and partners; and LiveMeeting to conduct audio and video conferencing with multiple participants no matter where they are. All at the customers disposal, in a single offering, at an imminently reachable $15. A good opportunity to validate the parts as in they have the right idea messagin, project collaboration, document management, Outlook sharing, couple with online meetings.
Think Again
Whenever something seems so perfect, it always makes sense to bring ones guard up, and look closer. The first phrase to reconsider is rolled into one or all in one. Does it mean that all of Microsofts great offerings have been integrated into a single, seamless solution, with all aspects communicating with each other? Or does it mean something else. Well, it means something else. All in one refers more to all in one pricing. The services remain exactly as they were; only they will cost less when purchased jointly. Individually, Microsoft sells hosted Exchange Online for $10; SharePoint Online for $7.25; Office Communications Online for $2.50; and Office Live Meeting Online for $4.50. So a joint pricing of $15 means a saving of $ 9.50 per user per month. Moreover, even the separate components of Microsofts new offerings are bare bones solutions, requiring implementation and configuration, before a workable solution is set up. This is effort most small to mid sized businesses are not equipped to make, nor do they want to make. Although the pricing of Microsofts bundles may be very tempting, a major reason companies go to hosted service providers in the first place is that in addition to hosting they also offer managed services. All aspects of configuration, integration and maintenance are their hassle. If all the components Exchange, Sharepoint, LiveMeeting and Office Communications; are to be integrated into a single seamless solution, that will require massive implementation.
So, although Microsofts offering looks enticing from a distance, it is hardly the end to end, ready to use solution businesses are really looking for. Microsoft offers all pieces of the puzzle, but they remain separate pieces that dont fit together. Even the measly priced Deskless worker suite has attracted a lot of flak. The verdict is that it caters to an imaginary class of worker who needs only read only access to company information. Although real life workers of this class dont access the companys information systems as much, they often interact with the system in critical ways. An example is a nurse who may need to keep the hospitals drug stock updated.
There is Hope
Although hosted service providers who provide bare bones hosted Microsoft products will feel the competition from Microsofts new offerings, but there barely are any vendors who do just that. A vital part of what these companies do has always been adding value by offering integration, consulting and management services on top of the basic Microsoft products they host for their customers. And this need for integration, management and consulting still remains because Microsoft will merely offer basic hosting of its products, while end customers need ready to use products, without the hassle of implementing and managing the application. So, these companies can continue to do what theyve been doing all along and still attract customers - host Exchange and Sharepoint on their servers, and build solutions on top of that and offer them to customers as services. Alternatively they can resell Microsofts hosted services by adding value added services on top of that, and attract a premium price. One example could be offering support for email on iPhone and Blackberry that stripped down hosted Exchange does not. Or a company could integrate all the components of Microsofts bundle Sharepoint, Exchange, LiveMeeting and Office Communications, into a single seamless solution with a centralized console.
So, do end customers have to wait for a couple of years before somebody else takes up this challenge? The answer is a resounding certainly not!. Although Microsoft may make it seem like it was the first to serve this compelling need (not that it really did serve the need), it was for the precise reason of pressure from rival products that Microsoft took the bundled hosting plunge. Google for one offers many compelling alternatives to Microsofts Exchange and Sharepoint with Google Apps, Google Pages, Gmail et all. But even Googles star products are piece meal, and it hasnt so far come up with a truly integrated end to end solution. Moreover, it doesnt have a web conferencing solution at all, which would be vital in a totally complete solution. But there is a another category of solution providers, who may not be as big as Google and Microsoft, or get that kind of frenzied airtime, but they have for years offered very compelling solutions to small and mid sized businesses. Many of these solutions would put the biggies to shame, and are in intimate touch with the real needs of the small to mid sized business segment. To present my case, I shall discuss the web based application HyperOffice. HyperOffice has been operating in the Exchange and SharePoint Alternative domain for years, and theyve built their solution bottom up, based on experience. It would not be wrong to say, that theyve been doing for years what Microsoft promised to do just now, and did not do even that. Now to assess HyperOffice on the basis of the parameters we have defined for a truly end to end solution.
Exchange Features
HyperOffice includes the Exchange like abilitiesy to set up business email, shared contact management, shared calendars and shared task management. It also includes Outlook integration and can be used to power the Outlook accounts of your employees as if Exchange were running in the background, only that its not. Users can access their accounts on their desktops using Outlook or online using any Mac or PC browser and all information is automatically kept in synch. Moreover users can also access and synch their accounts from mobile devices like iPhone, Blackberry etc.
Sharepoint Features
As an alternative to Sharepoint, HyperOffice includes a publisher tool which can be used to set up dedicated intranet and extranet workspaces for employees, departments, partners or clients. The publisher allows for deep customization of the workspaces according to user needs. Users can finely manage the appearance, layout, pages, interlinking of these workspaces. In addition they can choose from a range of collaboration tools to add to each workspace document management, calendars, address books, to do lists, task management, forums, IM, polls etc. HyperOffice also includes a rich online document management tool. It allows for easy online storage and organization of all file types and allows people to collaborate on documents using features like versioning, notifications, locking, overwrite protection etc.
Web Conferencing
Keeping with growing travel prices and increasing openness of companies to web conferencing as a mode of communication, HyperOffice has recently introduced HyperMeeting, its web conferencing tool. It is as robust as any web conferencing solution, with the ability to conference with upto 125 participants, file distribution, presentations, application and desktop sharing, whiteboard etc.
Integratedness
The best thing about a solution like HyperOffice is that all parts fit perfectly into the whole. This makes sense, because even in a business, all parts are forever interacting with each other, and so it should be with a collaboration solution. Consider the following scenario A web conference needs to be set up. Since it is a meeting, invites need to be sent
out to all the participants. So an automatic invitation tool will be involved. The invitation tool will need to talk to address books so that the right recipients are selected. Moreover, to ensure that participants dont have clashing schedules, calendars will need to be compared. Before the meeting is undertaken some documents may need to be distributed to the participants, and collaborated on. So the document management tool would be involved. The conference may relate to an important milestone in a project. So the project management tool would be involved. This is only one situation in which one can envision different parts of the system having to interact with each other; there may be a myriad of other such situations. The synergies that are to be had in such a system are tremendous. In HyperOffice, different parts of the system come together simply, logically and effectively. Its no wonder that its been nominated for many awards under the design category. The solution allows users to set up workspaces for individuals with tools like email, personal document libraries, address books, calendars, to do lists, links, reminders etc. On the second level workspaces can be set up for groups with looks like document management and collaboration, shared calendars, shared address books, group tasks, web conferencing, forums, polls, chat etc. This is a great example of the coming together of messaging, collaboration and web conferencing features. Moreover, HyperOffice includes a myriad of other features which can only come after years of experience working with clients. These are the ability to integrate the solution with Outlook, mobile access for devices like iPhone and Blackberry, and the ability to manage documents and drag and drop upload documents directly from the desktop. Another great aspect from an administration point of view is the ability to manage everything from a central console. All aspects of collaboration are contained within HyperOffice and users dont have to look in different directions and learn a myriad of software for different uses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although Microsoft has opened its hosted solutions to all, they still remain suitable for organizations which are largish if not large. Vendors could also resell Microsofts bundles by throwing in integration and management services, but then they will ask for a premium price and the low price tags wont remain. Frankly, even in their hosted avatar, Microsoft tools are still not suitable for small businesses because they never were developed for this segment, and the effect will always be of trying to squeeze a big foot in a small shoe. Clearly, the lesson for growing organizations is that although Microsoft and other big names have rather belatedly gotten on the Small to medium sized business bandwagon, one has to cut through the hype, and look in all directions for the best solution. And more often than not, the most compelling solutions will come from elsewhere.