Does “on-demand” mean less quality?
The alternative title for this piece could be, “The Dangers of On-Demand Software Services.”
The premise for this article is that due to the properties of the technology and business models of On-Demand Software Services (ODSS), there is a great risk that ODSS corporations sacrifice quality.
More below, but first some background
On-Demand Software Services (ODSS), formerly known as Application Service Providers (ASPs) is a software product that does not require any installation on the customer’s machines. SaleForce.com has become the recent poster child for ODSS trying to capture the lucrative and competitive Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market from the much more expensive enterprise solutions of Oracle, SAP and of course Siebel. They have been successful because they help small to mid-sized companies get the same level of software capabilities but without the heavy overhead that comes with an installed enterprise solution like the ones mentioned above.