Introduction: In the face of digital transformation, traditional industries are often “lost” into the “dead end” of informationization. So, what are the characteristics of large enterprises’ informationization? How is it different from the informationization of small and medium-sized enterprises? How to adopt new technologies and models?
This paper draws on the experience of Wanda’s informatization application and practice, which is of great reference and reference for the digital transformation of traditional enterprises.
What is SaaS?
SaaS is the abbreviation of Software-as-a-Service. Users no longer need to purchase software, but instead use the order service and the length of time to pay the manufacturer, and there is no need to maintain the software, commonly known as “online software.” “. Salesforce launched the world’s first SaaS model of CRM in 2001, and its revenue has exceeded the $10 billion mark in FY18. Gartner expects SaaS service revenue to grow by approximately 22.2% annually in the next few years, reaching $73.6 billion by 2018, and SaaS will account for 45% of total application spending by 2021; IDC reports that SaaS accounts for all public cloud spending in 2018. Nearly two-thirds, by 2019, this portion will account for more than half of all public cloud service spending.
What Are The Advantages of SaaS:
SaaS can be divided into two categories according to the range of customers it serves. The first type of SaaS service is general-purpose SaaS, and the second type is industry vertical SaaS. Universal SaaS does not distinguish between the customer’s industry and provide common services, including CRM, HRM, collaborative OA, ERP, etc. The industry vertical SaaS provides SaaS services for specific industries. Wanda’s application requirements are both general-purpose and specific industry types. Because Wanda’s needs are relatively unique and the management and control concept is strong, it is tailored to suppliers when there is demand, and has been independent in the past few years. Development model. This results in a longer on-line cycle for each new system, and at least half a year.
For Party A, the biggest benefit of SaaS services is that they can be deployed quickly, “out of the box”, and can be used by business units as long as business purchases are completed.
The second benefit is lower total cost of ownership. SaaS is a cloud-based software service that eliminates the need for enterprise users to prepare hardware facilities such as computer rooms, which can significantly reduce operating costs. SaaS vendors can provide highly scalable “standardized” solutions. Different customers can reuse and synchronize the latest versions, greatly reducing the developer’s R&D costs and enabling them to invest resources in the development of new technologies. . SaaS applications are typically priced at “all inclusive” and include the usual application license fees, software maintenance fees, and technical support fees, which are unified for each user’s monthly rental fee.
According to the Gartner report, the total cost of ownership is only about 25% of traditional software. Usually, after a new application is launched, it is impossible to continuously invest a lot of resources for secondary optimization. SaaS service has the advantage of maintaining its product competitiveness through rapid iteration, continuous optimization and improvement. Enterprise users can continue to enjoy better features and a better user experience.
Third, you can improve usability. Wanda has its own data center in Langfang. The previous operation and maintenance was carried out by Wanda Infrastructure Department. SaaS services have nodes in different cities in China, and even nodes in different countries have better nodes than network software. Compared with traditional software, SaaS operation and maintenance are very professional and reliable. .
China’s SaaS started with a setback, and the real SaaS model has gradually landed in the industry since 2012. For many small businesses, SaaS is the best way to adopt advanced technology that eliminates the need for businesses to purchase, build, and maintain infrastructure and applications. For large enterprises, after years of construction, the enterprise’s IT system generally has a certain foundation, and adopting the new model of SaaS is not an easy task.
The challenge of applying SaaS in large enterprises
The challenges of SaaS services in large enterprises can be summarized in four areas:
First, how can large enterprises, especially the big business leaders and employees in the traditional industry, understand what SaaS is and accept the SaaS model? The business unit is worried that the adoption of SaaS will no longer fully comply with Wanda’s business needs as before with custom software. Worried about whether data is safe to store on the cloud, the cost department sees business models from buying products or custom development to paying for services. It is unclear how this approach affects total cost of ownership in the short- and long-term perspective. The elimination of these concerns requires a process, and choosing the right SaaS service at the right time is very important, and pushing or being too aggressive may be counterproductive.
The second is how to control. For large enterprises, security, operation and maintenance and data strategies are set according to the traditional model. When switching to SaaS services, how to match and even adjust the existing IT management system is also a problem to be solved. .
The third is integration. This is also where large companies use SaaS services and small businesses are not the same. Because enterprises already have very large IT systems, SaaS services cannot exist in isolation. It is a challenge to integrate SaaS services into existing systems.
The fourth is the experience. If it is a consumer-oriented application software, it is a trend to design the characteristics of the new generation 00 and after 90, but the age of the employees is large, and a considerable number of leaders and employees are 60, 70, 80, after the enterprise. In the development process, a relatively fixed operation mode familiar to the inside of the enterprise has been formed. How to get insiders to accept and get used to new designs is also a question to consider.
SaaS services have brought great changes to large enterprises. Such as procurement mode, operation and maintenance mode. Compared to the past, whether it is custom or not, buy a software deployment, its product management mode is completely different, which requires a change process. The enterprise information management department should be able to fully understand the changes in all aspects brought by SaaS, and gradually influence the business department, cost department, and procurement department step by step, so that they can accept this slowly, and must have rules and regulations. Strategy.
