Page Turning-as-a-Service
As a provider of Software-as-a-Service in an emerging business, we frequently experience some fundamental questions. Fundamental in sense of questioning the business model and data structure of our solutions, which you may refer to as Page Turning-as-a-Service in this matter.
Software is still referred to the Microsoft way - It’s a physical item that comes as DVDs in a neat-looking package, you get a licence key and have full control of the data, which most often is saved on your own servers. This is the traditional client-server paradigm way of thinking of software. Let’s leave that for the 90′es and look forward.
Wikipedia refers to Software-as-a-Service as: well suited, where customers may have little interest or capability in software deployment, but do have substantial computing needs. By leaving the tough work to professionals, customers save ressources for other and more important things. Hotmail were early birds here, and for most people who grow up with the internet it is hard to imagine that anonomous e-mail accounts should be paid for. It’s pretty simple: If somebody spend time setting up software that you can simply access online and fullfill your needs, why spend time installing or configuring on your own servers or even developing it by yourself.
Reading this warm entry from HattersWorkshop reminded me about how people usually think of our ePublishing solutions. The first impression is the “Wauw”, when trying out the interface. The next impression is: “OK, so I can only rent the page turning feature - how do I get 100 % control of that”.
The client-server paradigm is still going strong in the ePublishing business.
Unless you are one of those insisting DIY-type who takes joy from building your own garden shed from timber you cut down with your own bare hands, putting things together from scratch is a waste of efforts. Especially when working with the web where most sign-ups are just so easy. Giving away a tiny bit of control of how the end result looks, is most often a really fair price when calculating cost-benefits on your efforts.
And that’s what Software-as-a-Service is all about. You can’t control everything - but you can control the things important to you and leave the complex stuff to professionals.
