Another of the single process business software sites I have come across is Bill.com. Created by the former founders of Paycycle.com, the service automates the process of paying vendor payables. Information on the product can be seen here.
The product essentially allows you to email or fax a scanned copy of your vendor bill into a specific drop-box for your account. Once online, you categorize the expense and add a due date. When the due date approaches, a notification is sent to you to approve paying the bill. Once approved, the bill is deducted from your bank account and mailed by the service to the vendor. Prices begin at $24.99 a month and the service prepares entries for download into Quickbooks or Intacct.
Tax time is also made easy by having all source documents available online for audit.
This is another example of taking a singular process and perfecting its workflow with automation. Rather than reinventing the accounting process, this company has identified a specific area of concern in accounting and focused on creating a workflow process for SaaS that perfects it.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tax time receipt help
Found a terrific program for those of you who have to keep tabs on deductible items for either home offices, consultants or perhaps for self-employed or non-reimbursable expenses and is an excellent example of a singular process business concept. The product is called Shoeboxed and information for the program can be found here.
Generally the product allows users to receive a postage paid envelope with which to insert receipts and then forward on to the company. The service then scans the receipts and lists some basic information. The user has control over tagging the receipts and categories as well as basic reporting. Others, such as your CPA can have access to the files to view for tax information or you can download basic reports in Excel to print out for tax time. Audit in this case also becomes a breeze. Mobile users can also access via iPhone app or other mobile phone app. Business accounts run $49.95 per month and personal accounts $9.95 to $19.95. A free self scanning option is available with free trials as well.
Program video shows a nice clean interface with easy and logical user experience.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Singular process examples
Am currently working on identifying quality singular process type applications on the web. By singular process I mean programs dedicated to one singular business purpose. Most will be around accounting topics, but I hope to find other SaaS companies that illustrate the concept of modular direction.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Apple tablet expectations
Just finished an article on the hype surrounding the Apple Tablet PC. There are two things that appear apparent if history serves itself. One, Apple has created plenty of free press on the hype and why not, the iPhone is a HUGE success, so it breeds itself. And two, the user experience will likely be one of the best in computing. It appears a late January announcement is imminent.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Clean user flow
I've been a fan of 37 Signals, a Chicago company that makes Backpack and Highrise products for the Internet (www.37signals.com). Their products offer excellent user interface design and the principals in the company are cult legends in the SaaS world. I recently took notice of a new blog for them called Design Explorations and it is an excellent narrative on the way software designers come to make decisions regarding user interface design.
I was especially intrigued by the posting regarding due dates on to-dos and not so much for the actual thought process, but more in the actual UI flow. You can find the post with a video at 37signals.com/designexplore/Basecamp_To-dos.
One of the principals at 37 Signals was one of the original architects of Ruby, an object oriented programming language. There is some Javascript here as well but the interactivity is outstanding with no screen refresh to accomplish the experience.
I was especially intrigued by the posting regarding due dates on to-dos and not so much for the actual thought process, but more in the actual UI flow. You can find the post with a video at 37signals.com/designexplore/Basecamp_To-dos.
One of the principals at 37 Signals was one of the original architects of Ruby, an object oriented programming language. There is some Javascript here as well but the interactivity is outstanding with no screen refresh to accomplish the experience.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
How to fail as a SaaS company
I've just finished reading a brief article on moving to SaaS by Abraham Sultan, an EVP at Apprenda. The article was entitled "How To Fail Miserably as a SaaS Company" and is a follow up to his presentation on the same. The article can be found here: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3842451/How-to-Fail-Miserably-as-a-SaaS-Company.htm.
One of the bullet points caught my eye and is similar in tone to one of my earlier posts on delivery model. Mr. Sultan states, "...customers are expecting the software to be updated frequently and to stay on top of current trends both in your industry as well as with general environmental events."
I believe customer expectation changes quickly in SaaS and is partly a result of the way it has been marketed as well as due to our expectations of what the Internet holds. The Internet is the holy grail of business potential, or so we have been led to believe for years now. It is the culmination of the social experience, it lets us reach markets and customers we never could reach before and its technology is the purple pill for all our previous business technical failures.
A cornerstone marketing statement I have heard over and over is that the IT responsibility is moved from your business to ours and updates are quick and seamless. This is a SaaS tenet. However, expectations must be adjusted for SaaS to succeed long term. Granted, the IT responsibility has shifted and for many smaller businesses, this is a boon. However we must remember what it takes to run one of these data centers and provide 99.98% up-time. We must be careful to market it as a quality improvement and not a magic bullet.
It is true, SaaS companies must deliver change frequently, but more importantly it must be change that is meaningful. Change for the simple sake of change is not change, it is controlled chaos. Meaningful change takes into account the specific needs of the users and targets that business need completely and efficiently. SaaS succeeds when expectations are marketed honestly and meaningful products are delivered. It is then that we understand the Service part of Software-as-a-Service.
One of the bullet points caught my eye and is similar in tone to one of my earlier posts on delivery model. Mr. Sultan states, "...customers are expecting the software to be updated frequently and to stay on top of current trends both in your industry as well as with general environmental events."
I believe customer expectation changes quickly in SaaS and is partly a result of the way it has been marketed as well as due to our expectations of what the Internet holds. The Internet is the holy grail of business potential, or so we have been led to believe for years now. It is the culmination of the social experience, it lets us reach markets and customers we never could reach before and its technology is the purple pill for all our previous business technical failures.
A cornerstone marketing statement I have heard over and over is that the IT responsibility is moved from your business to ours and updates are quick and seamless. This is a SaaS tenet. However, expectations must be adjusted for SaaS to succeed long term. Granted, the IT responsibility has shifted and for many smaller businesses, this is a boon. However we must remember what it takes to run one of these data centers and provide 99.98% up-time. We must be careful to market it as a quality improvement and not a magic bullet.
It is true, SaaS companies must deliver change frequently, but more importantly it must be change that is meaningful. Change for the simple sake of change is not change, it is controlled chaos. Meaningful change takes into account the specific needs of the users and targets that business need completely and efficiently. SaaS succeeds when expectations are marketed honestly and meaningful products are delivered. It is then that we understand the Service part of Software-as-a-Service.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Modular marketing
In an earlier post I spoke briefly about companies who choose to migrate their large enterprise products to a distributed software as a service model. In doing so, I believe many make mistakes in the transition by failing to see "the trees in the forest". There are opportunities hidden in the application that may present a restructuring opportunity for the organization. As mentioned before, I see this concept called "modular marketing".
Say for example you have a law office management system that handles things such as document management, scheduling, CRM functions, research, and the accounting functions of the firm. Traditionally, for a law firm to purchase your software they would need to purchase all of the integrated components in one management system package. You've likely identified your target market and sold many contracts and have a pretty good client base. The client base may be on a client-server environment or already on SaaS.
The key to modular marketing is looking at the individual business opportunities in the entire product. In our example above, there are 5, but there may be more. Instead of offering the entire product, it makes better sense to offer the products standalone and integrated. Once a data transfer model and format is agreed upon by the individual teams, each component can then be broken up. For example the team that is assigned to work on document management can build a standalone application for document management on its own deployment schedule. Provided the data components needed to make it communicate and integrate with CRM and other functions remain pristine, the company has now freed up the team to be autonomous and for QA to be more focused on that product and less on regression testing the application as a whole when that component is modified.
Secondly, from a sales perspective, the company has reopened the market to be viable for that component. They may have found a unique advantage in document management. Provided that a standard for data transfer is met, such as .xml, it can become easier to integrate with your competitors products by allowing your market to drive them to do so, without purchasing your entire product. As a company, you get your foot in the door by providing a complete solution to a specific business need. Many companies, especially in this economy, are reluctant to make global changes to their infrastructure for fear of the impact of change on their productivity. In this manner, your modular product provides them with a small change with big upside. You will have an easier time later integrating your other products as they change them out because you have the all-important foot in the door.
Lastly, from an internal capital perspective, modularizing allows companies to work on components and deliver faster to market on something salable. They do not need to wait for the restructure of the whole product and can see a quicker return on investment on the components.
Say for example you have a law office management system that handles things such as document management, scheduling, CRM functions, research, and the accounting functions of the firm. Traditionally, for a law firm to purchase your software they would need to purchase all of the integrated components in one management system package. You've likely identified your target market and sold many contracts and have a pretty good client base. The client base may be on a client-server environment or already on SaaS.
The key to modular marketing is looking at the individual business opportunities in the entire product. In our example above, there are 5, but there may be more. Instead of offering the entire product, it makes better sense to offer the products standalone and integrated. Once a data transfer model and format is agreed upon by the individual teams, each component can then be broken up. For example the team that is assigned to work on document management can build a standalone application for document management on its own deployment schedule. Provided the data components needed to make it communicate and integrate with CRM and other functions remain pristine, the company has now freed up the team to be autonomous and for QA to be more focused on that product and less on regression testing the application as a whole when that component is modified.
Secondly, from a sales perspective, the company has reopened the market to be viable for that component. They may have found a unique advantage in document management. Provided that a standard for data transfer is met, such as .xml, it can become easier to integrate with your competitors products by allowing your market to drive them to do so, without purchasing your entire product. As a company, you get your foot in the door by providing a complete solution to a specific business need. Many companies, especially in this economy, are reluctant to make global changes to their infrastructure for fear of the impact of change on their productivity. In this manner, your modular product provides them with a small change with big upside. You will have an easier time later integrating your other products as they change them out because you have the all-important foot in the door.
Lastly, from an internal capital perspective, modularizing allows companies to work on components and deliver faster to market on something salable. They do not need to wait for the restructure of the whole product and can see a quicker return on investment on the components.
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