Waiting for SaaS
It has long been recognized that the rental model for an application from a SaaS provider is a powerful enough alternative to traditional licensed software sales schemes. Content Management Systems (ECM) are also actively offered in the SaaS format, but if objectively, this segment is still developing at such a fast pace as you would like. The reasons why the “cloud” rental of ECM has not yet become widespread can be divided into subjective (fears and fears of customers) and objective (economic and technical). And the influence of the first is still decisive.
The scheme for the provision of ECM solutions for rent on the SaaS model in Russia is constructed similarly to other software products. There is a provider that provides access to the private cloud in which the software is stored. There is a customer who, under the contract, gets remote access to software that can configure, scale, etc. On the provider's servers, the customer stores its corporate documents, remotely administers, etc. In fact, to use the service, the customer only needs Internet access, a secure channel or a secure connection.
Nuance 1: issue price
SaaS is the ideal solution if you need fast application deployment and minimal upfront costs. At the same time, you do not think about where business processes are spinning, if you trust the provider.
But in what the "cloud" costs in the case of content management systems, it is necessary to calculate, assessing the range and scale of the tasks that you are going to solve with the help of SaaS. In particular, will the cost of SaaS be lower than, for example, the purchase of an internal system for working with corporate documents. On the one hand, the cloud eliminates depreciation costs, and a number of companies are already reporting good savings. But it is not a secret that prices for services of Russian providers are much higher than in the West, and the existing proposals are not yet sufficiently run-in and customer-oriented, and the schemes are not transparent. In addition, in the regions, the broadband penetration level differs, the prices for the Internet are higher, which is hampered, for example, by the development of “Electronic Government”. The above is the cost of using the "clouds".
But this is more likely to be the growing market ills that will take place as competition intensifies, including with the release of Western players in Russia.
Nuance 2: Configuration
Often the question arises how flexible is the rental software in terms of adaptation to the individual characteristics of a particular company.
ECM-solutions in most cases are delivered in a given configuration, without the possibility of fine-tuning, so that the user's inexperience does not harm the application. That is, it is mainly about AaaS (Application as a Service). This, for example, is convenient for SMB-companies that do not fully develop the resource of content management systems and which may have enough options for creating directories and document versioning. But for large companies this will not be enough, and just uncomfortable. In this case, it is more correct to talk about leasing a platform for developing specialized PaaS applications (Platform as a Service). Now this problem is technically solved when the company rents not just applications, but a ready-made platform, but here it is advisable to evaluate what is more profitable to take the platform for rent or purchase.
Nuance 3: risks
The Russian customer is out of habit afraid. Our experience shows that the lack of customer awareness, as well as the high risks associated with the transfer of their data beyond the perimeter of the company's security, are the main factors hampering the SaaS market.
For example, if the servers were attacked, the operator may simply not report it. Finally, the question of where your data is located is still relevant, so that providers do not talk there, especially when it comes to corporate information.
There are not so many outsourcing data centers in Russia. 80% of the sites are located in the metropolitan region. Moreover, there are no working data centers certified by TIER, while only one project is certified. An interesting perspective is represented by Microsoft Azure data centers with installed server software and database processing software, in particular, SQL. They are convenient for working with EDMS / ECM in terms of scalability, they have more opportunities, but this market is just emerging.
The list of other potential threats can be listed separated by commas: fear for the confidentiality of data transferred to storage by third parties, ensuring isolation from other provider subscribers, reliability of the serving infrastructure, reliability and integrity of the provider. Finally, in the regions, due to the effect of “digital inequality”, the quality and security of data transmission channels is an order of magnitude lower.
findings
It is clear that at least another 3-4 years (and these estimates are considered optimistic) providers will have to prove to customers their competence and reliability - in fact, we are talking about the need for high-quality information work. One of the most popular promotion tools today was the provision of software demo versions with the possibility of remote testing.
The scheme for the provision of ECM solutions for rent on the SaaS model in Russia is constructed similarly to other software products. There is a provider that provides access to the private cloud in which the software is stored. There is a customer who, under the contract, gets remote access to software that can configure, scale, etc. On the provider's servers, the customer stores its corporate documents, remotely administers, etc. In fact, to use the service, the customer only needs Internet access, a secure channel or a secure connection.
Nuance 1: issue price
SaaS is the ideal solution if you need fast application deployment and minimal upfront costs. At the same time, you do not think about where business processes are spinning, if you trust the provider.
But in what the "cloud" costs in the case of content management systems, it is necessary to calculate, assessing the range and scale of the tasks that you are going to solve with the help of SaaS. In particular, will the cost of SaaS be lower than, for example, the purchase of an internal system for working with corporate documents. On the one hand, the cloud eliminates depreciation costs, and a number of companies are already reporting good savings. But it is not a secret that prices for services of Russian providers are much higher than in the West, and the existing proposals are not yet sufficiently run-in and customer-oriented, and the schemes are not transparent. In addition, in the regions, the broadband penetration level differs, the prices for the Internet are higher, which is hampered, for example, by the development of “Electronic Government”. The above is the cost of using the "clouds".
But this is more likely to be the growing market ills that will take place as competition intensifies, including with the release of Western players in Russia.
Nuance 2: Configuration
Often the question arises how flexible is the rental software in terms of adaptation to the individual characteristics of a particular company.
ECM-solutions in most cases are delivered in a given configuration, without the possibility of fine-tuning, so that the user's inexperience does not harm the application. That is, it is mainly about AaaS (Application as a Service). This, for example, is convenient for SMB-companies that do not fully develop the resource of content management systems and which may have enough options for creating directories and document versioning. But for large companies this will not be enough, and just uncomfortable. In this case, it is more correct to talk about leasing a platform for developing specialized PaaS applications (Platform as a Service). Now this problem is technically solved when the company rents not just applications, but a ready-made platform, but here it is advisable to evaluate what is more profitable to take the platform for rent or purchase.
Nuance 3: risks
The Russian customer is out of habit afraid. Our experience shows that the lack of customer awareness, as well as the high risks associated with the transfer of their data beyond the perimeter of the company's security, are the main factors hampering the SaaS market.
For example, if the servers were attacked, the operator may simply not report it. Finally, the question of where your data is located is still relevant, so that providers do not talk there, especially when it comes to corporate information.
There are not so many outsourcing data centers in Russia. 80% of the sites are located in the metropolitan region. Moreover, there are no working data centers certified by TIER, while only one project is certified. An interesting perspective is represented by Microsoft Azure data centers with installed server software and database processing software, in particular, SQL. They are convenient for working with EDMS / ECM in terms of scalability, they have more opportunities, but this market is just emerging.
The list of other potential threats can be listed separated by commas: fear for the confidentiality of data transferred to storage by third parties, ensuring isolation from other provider subscribers, reliability of the serving infrastructure, reliability and integrity of the provider. Finally, in the regions, due to the effect of “digital inequality”, the quality and security of data transmission channels is an order of magnitude lower.
findings
It is clear that at least another 3-4 years (and these estimates are considered optimistic) providers will have to prove to customers their competence and reliability - in fact, we are talking about the need for high-quality information work. One of the most popular promotion tools today was the provision of software demo versions with the possibility of remote testing.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/124068/
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