Have you ever been to the magical place where your technology projects are the top priority?
If you have NEVER used a software-as-a-service provider, you have been trained to say something like, “my I.T. department does everything possible to make sure marketing projects are #1. If I need something now, they tell me I can have it within the year then actually deliver it in three years. You don’t get any higher prioritization than that so take your magical place and shove it!”
I have met some marketers that like to use their internal I.T. departments because they need excuses for why things don’t get done; an I.T. scapegoat, what a great way to avoid accountability. When it comes to review time, they just say, “I handed off the project to I.T. but they are swamped, should see something next year sometime.”
If this is you, the software-as-a-service model will just not work. Your sense of practicality is skewed because you think that you can get more done by relying on installed software and your I.T. teams versus software-as-a-service providers. No need to read any further, you’ll be looking for a job soon anyway.
Software-as-a-service providers allow marketers to expand reach, build equity, and grow profitability without having to worry about all the nuances related to installing and maintaining software within your infrastructure. The I.T. teams don’t like you anyway, so get over it and start taking control of your projects. Be a champion for the marketing cause, not someone that makes excuses for why your stuff doesn’t get done.
Let’s take one of the industries that Widen participates in as an example: digital asset management. This software technology allows marketing and creative professionals to centralize, manage, and distribute branded materials such as video, images, and other digital media.
What reason would you have for purchasing software and running it internally?
One reason is that you may need digital media available at local area network speeds for internal marketing and creative users so the “through the internet thing” just won’t work.
To further define, software-as-a-service doesn’t mean all digital media is hosted and the only access point is through the internet. Software-as-a-service architectures mean you don’t worry about the software and hardware implementation, setup, configuration, integration, and maintenance – that is why you selected Widen (in this example). Your digital media will be made available at local speeds using the Widen Appliance (www.widen.com/appliance) with integration all the way to the desktop.
You know man’s best friend to be a dog, now you know I.T.’s best friend to be the Widen Appliance. It keeps marketing and creative out of their hair and it addresses something they don’t want to deal with – large, complicated, cross-platform material. Words that make most I.T. people nervous: managing terabytes, Macintosh.
Using the Widen Appliance in conjunction with hosted software-as-a-service for digital asset management throws a wrench into the ongoing debate of hosted versus installed. You can have the best of both worlds and not worry about getting into a drunken fist fight with your I.T. counterpart at the Holiday party.
More pros for software-as-a-service architectures as the ramblings continue...
Matthew
