SaaS Underwhelming
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
"When I joined, I was really excited to get a chance to use Salesforce for the first time. I had held up Salesforce as a great example of the death of enterprise software and why apps were best delivered over the web.
Now, after having access to it for two months, I have to say, its pretty underwhelming… or maybe I just don’t get it.”
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/thisisgoingtobebig/~3/24046476/salesforce_mayb.html
Discussion
Ian, this seems more an indictment of a particular product to me - not the mechansim of delivery. Salesforce.com may or may not be a good product. I don't know because I have never used it. But that isn't an indictment of SaaS. There are plenty of crappy traditional software products as well. As a provider of hosted web apps, I'd like to know why you seem to harbor such a dislike of SaaS. I don't think SaaS is the right solution in every problem domain, but there are many for which it is a perfect fit.
Created by Sam on 09.22.2006 2:05 am
I don't actually harbor a dislike of SaaS and have been the producer of a SaaS product in the past. My issue is mostly with the web 2.0 crowd who seem to think that any software that's downloaded/shipped will go under when faced with a SaaS alternative. I think that's nonsense since a SaaS model will never give you control of your data as a hosted solution can. Salesforce is often help up as the poster child of this model so it seemed appropriate to link to this post.
So I agree with you completely that for some people it's a perfect fit, but not for everyone. Just like a downloadable product isn't a perfect solution for all.
Created by Ian on 09.22.2006 8:58 am
Sounds like we're pretty much in agreement then. But you wouldn't know that from your posts, since they seem to be invariably negative with respect to SaaS. It would be nice to see a positive comment regarding a SaaS product some day! 
Not to plug our own product - OK, who am I kidding? - but we've found SaaS to be the perfect model for delivering software to assist in non-profit fundraising, event management and volunteer organization. When you need to get a bunch of very busy volunteers to collaborate in spite of differing and unpredictable schedules, a hosted web-based application, when done right, is the perfect solution. Oh, and we use HelpSpot as our help desk. It is integrated into every page of the app.
http://www.readysetauction.com
Created by Sam on 09.22.2006 1:13 pm
I guess I just figure there's enough positive stuff out there already 
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I love a good software pitch!
Created by Ian on 09.22.2006 1:33 pm