Customization is the name of the game

In terms of the ability to customize a solution, it should be noted that today’s SaaS solutions are just as flexible, configurable, and adaptable than any software package you might implement yourself. In fact, many of them are far more so, since they were specifically designed that way.

SaaS vendors recognize the need to accommodate the unique business processes and specific needs of clients, for it is within those processes where a company’s competitive advantage lies. Certainly much more so than with their choice of platform or how their applications are hosted.

Unless of course, they are hit by a storm, a flood, an earthquake, or some other disruption. In that case, what you may have considered an advantage can quickly become a liability.

The bottom line is this: the migration to the cloud and embrace of shared SaaS infrastructure is the natural next step in the evolution of information technology.

Companies resisting this will quickly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Having seen computing transition from the mainframe to client-server, followed by the rise of the Internet, and now the move to the cloud and SaaS, we have seen companies resist change each time.

And each time nimbler, more innovative competitors would seize the opportunity to leapfrog them by disrupting their business.

Microsoft did it to IBM, only to have Google and SalesForce do it to them a decade later.