DM p12-17 Systems Feb09.qxp 29/01/2009 13:27 Page 14
Integrated Systems for Marketing
lower risk. The primary
The distinction between SaaS and earlier applica-
barrier to SaaS is
tions delivered over the internet is that SaaS is devel-
where you want
oped specifically for the web rather than pasting a
to integrate with
front end over a conventional application. SaaS appli-
cations also differ from previous standards like ASP in
another vendor’s
that they are built with a “multi-tenanted” back end, application in
thus enabling multiple customers or users to access a
another place.
shared data model and application. Because of this, Dave Annis, head of
SaaS software offers enormous economies of scale in
managed services, SAS UK.
deployment, management, support and software This need to reconcile data, working out data hier-
development. archies, change rules, and flows between different
SaaS has had success in well-defined business mar- applications and elements of a business, is the often
kets like video conferencing, human resources, “hidden” requirement involved in CRM implementa-
accounting, web analytics and email. Other benefits tions, and tying together SaaS applications is unlikely
of this type of technology include its suitability for to be the best way to satisfy it.
distributed users; delivered via the internet, it’s per- “There are some limitations in the customer intelli-
fect for companies with multiple locations. gence space for an uncustomised approach,” says
When marketing applications arrive on the scene, Dave Annis, head of managed services at SAS UK.
some of these SaaS benefits seem to turn into disad- “The primary barrier to SaaS is where you want to
vantages. Though a vanilla solution configured by a integrate with another vendor’s application in anoth-
client with generic requirements makes access to soft- er place. The integration between them might be less
ware upgrades much easier and more frequent, mar- rich and functional. There’s more room for standardi-
keting packages are often niche tools rather than sation and commoditisation in campaign manage-
standard business applications. Though vendors have ment, execution and fulfilment.”
made good progress in this area, it’s still much harder This area of integration is also pinpointed by Mark
to customise on-demand (as opposed to configuring Robinson, managing director of Marketing
existing options within the software) than an Databasics. “Putting targeting and modelling behind
installed application – and marketing tools tend to operational marketing activity is probably where the
require a high degree of customisation. dividing line is,” he says. “Midmarket vendors tend
“Point-based SaaS is often very good and cheap at not to offer these kinds of services. It could be hard
doing one thing, but this does not sit well with the or impossible to bring in scores properly in a SaaS
concepts of the Single Customer View (SCV) or ongo- tool.”
ing CRM, or the need to consolidate customer inter-
actions into one place to analyse them,” says Nigel Security challenges
Magson, managing director of Tangible Data. Linking to the back-end servers used by on-demand
“Customising SaaS diminishes some of the point of software has also historically caused security chal-
having it.” lenges, an unwelcome suggestion where customer
As Magson notes, marketing systems are often data is involved. Generally security is in theory weak-
reliant on good integration to get to the customer er with any system exposed to public IPs and reliant
data they deal with and to link to other remote appli- on the internet. But in reality many of today’s SaaS
cations they need to interface with. For example, a providers will have much better security and redun-
company may want to pull the latest list of respon- dancy tools available to them and security at the data
ders automatically from a fulfilment company or, in a centre is almost certainly going to be better than
more tightly-integrated example, push the latest what their clients have in-house. According to
model scores to the campaign management tool. At Underhill, “your data will be safer in a SaaS data cen-
Point-based the most basic level, mandatory database rebuilds and tre than on your desktop”.
SaaS is good
cleansing will require network links to the various As well as the total cost, there are other important
and cheap at
data sources and tools involved; if it’s only possible differences. Service options and flexibility can be far
doing one thing,
to import and export via CSV files or similar, then more limited than bureau hosting: will you need help
that will be a tortuous process. to get that next campaign out of the door? A generic
but this doesn’t
“Integrating with databases can be hard in SaaS SaaS CRM provider is unlikely to be able to run
sit well with the and it’s crucial to avoid creating new silos,” confirms model scores or handle data processing in the way
concepts of SCV
Underhill. “SaaS deployments typically silo an ele- that specialist marketing service provider can work on
or ongoing CRM.
ment of the data required in a SCV. Does it have a your hosted database behind the scenes.
Nigel Magson, managing
standard back-end database and can you plug into “Problems occur when organisations try to embrace
director, Tangible Data. it?” the solution in-house without the necessary resource
14 Database Marketing February 2009 www.dmarket.co.uk
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