Transportation management Special technology report
“
TMS users are no longer just a handful of employees in the transportation department, but hundreds or even thousands of people across the enterprise and value chain executing a wide range of business processes.” – Fabrice Maquignon, Transwide.
The Software as a Service model
Taking a closer look at Software as a Service, this is undoubtedly as big a point of discussion within the world of transportation management IT systems as it is in a variety of other branches of IT. And it is not hard to understand why. As Coughlin explains, the SaaS model can provide shared costs between multiple companies, enabling sophisticated enterprise level systems, with benefits such as an Oracle database, delivered in an affordable ongoing way. “As systems are supported centrally then enhancements and new features are deployed rapidly, ensuring that the entire customer base is at the cutting edge of technology and functionality,” he said, adding that, traditionally, a server based at each customer site has been costly to maintain and support and can easily become outdated technology. “The systems providers have a high support cost too, meaning that less is spent on new development,” he continued. “The SaaS method enables the systems provider to allocate more resource to the development of the product due to the simplified support structure, but will also ensure that the hardware and software
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MANUFACTURING &LOGISTICS
IT October 2010
versions are up to date, allowing customers to focus on their core operations.”
Felten remembers that, historically, companies were required to buy, build and maintain their IT infrastructures; SaaS gives companies an alternative. For Felten, the summary benefits of the SaaS model for users include: the fact that ‘deployment’ of software is not needed; there are no roll-out and update issues; and the lack of upfront capital expenditure reduces the commercial risk for SaaS users. Another benefit, according to Felten, is that availability of software and data is independent of the user’s current location. “Not every company will jump on the SaaS trend immediately, but we believe that SaaS and Cloud Services will be a success,” he said. “The potential will be leveraged step-by-step and successful early adopters will convince followers.”
Pieri sees SaaS as a business model that delivers substantial benefits over the traditional software licence and install model by aligning costs with value received, and by alleviating the bottlenecks found in most IT organisations that can hinder the initiation of a new software project. Pieri adds that since a SaaS solution is ‘in production’ at all times, technology providers have perfected and packaged implementation programmes to quickly configure and deploy a solution,
Fabrice
Maquignon, Transwide:
Companies must think beyond their four walls and factor in inter-enterprise capabilities.
offering a much faster time-to-
benefit than a traditional software implemen - tation. “So, for subscribers, SaaS offers advanced functionality that can be quickly delivered with an invest ment profile that is aligned with value received; in summary, more ROI for less risk,” he said. Moreover, Pieri comments that a SaaS business model also benefits the technology provider by creating a more predictable stream of revenue and reducing the number of software configurations that must be supported. “This provides for a higher allocation of software development dollars to new value-added features and less in maintenance and configuration management,” he remarked. “It’s a ‘virtuous circle’ of investment that delivers more advanced functionality for subscribers and ultimately leads to higher customer satisfaction, a stronger backlog, and even more resources for software development.” >>
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