The Hotline Magazine
The Redefinition of Customer Support
The SaaS & Success Project

Thursday September 9, 2010




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The SaaS & Support Project Research

As the Software As A Service business model continues its rapid advance, the inherent changes for both vendor and customer are both substantial and significant.  But once again, Customer Support is in danger of getting shoved to a back burner.  I’m sure you’ve heard the usual statements of “strategies:”  “SaaS doesn’t need Support, it’s included in the subscription.” “We’re going to do it all via web self-service.”  “The social networking community will take care of it for us.”  And, of course,

More on page 562

SaaS, Success and Counting

“How many SaaS companies are there?”  At the recent On Demand conference in San Jose, I asked several key members of the SaaS community this seemingly simple question.  “Around 2,500,” one said. “Most of whom you’ve never heard of because they’re too small to attract much notice.”  Other estimates I’ve heard  in the past few weeks give the current number of SaaS players at 1,600  to 2,000.  More companies are entering the SaaS ecosystem every day, as existing software manufacturers create on dem

More on page 633

SaaS & the Contact Center Technology Market

The accelerating shift to the Software As A Service/Cloud distribution model inevitably brings the end of large dedicated Sales teams for software vendors.  The new profits-realization methodology, being based on incremental gains from many income streams rather than from bulk up-front events, does not allow for the costs of large direct sales forces.  It also doesn’t allow paying for large customer support staffing levels either -- a fact which has vital significance to two different groups.  T

More on page 546

The Contact Center Management Technology Research Project

It's time for a change, for something new. Currently, there are at least 70 manufacturers of what might be called Case Management Systems for customer contact centers. The function of a CMS product is to capture and track the details of a customer interaction with the company, to record the specifics of a request or problem and to help the support or service rep find a satisfactory resolution. Obviously, a good CMS resource is key part of the standard contact center technology suite, a requireme

More on page 105

The SaaS & Support Project in 2010

Almost five years ago, Bill Gates warned Microsoft about the significant challenge to the company and industry posed by the advent of SaaS.  While the new business model has yet to fully reach the gains predicted for it back then, the momentum is building.  An ever-accelerating number of traditional perpetual-license software companies are readying SaaS products or have already quietly released them.  In the process, a lot has been learned about the magnitude of the change that is SaaS.  As comp

More on page 711

By Mikael Blaisdell

tssf print 6x3in 300x150 The SaaS Support Forum (TSSF)The SaaS tsunami has had profound impacts upon the software industry, and it isn’t over yet — especially for Support, where it’s just beginning.  While traditional software vendors and their customer contact center teams desperately struggle to keep ahead of the expensive floods of “It’s Broken; Fix It NOW!” calls, Support in SaaS companies is different.  A new era has begun; what was once a despised but necessary evil in the traditional software game is fast turning out to be the key to long-term corporate success in the new SaaS ecosystem.  For Board members, CEOs and senior management teams of SaaS manufacturers and their partner organizations, it’s time for a conversation about redefining the role, profession and practice of Customer Support.  Facilitating and extending that conversation is the purpose of The SaaS Support Forum ™.

TSSF as a Resource

TSSF is hosted by LinkedIn.com, and will be managed by a team led by Mikael Blaisdell, Publisher of The HotLine Magazine.  While the main audience for The SaaS Support Forum are the members of SaaS company boards and senior management teams, the resource is open to all interested professionals.  (A LinkedIn membership and profile is required in order to access the Forum or to post comments in it; there is no cost for the membership or for participation in the Forum.)  All who post comments in the discussions are fully identified by name, company affiliation and title, which aids both civil discourse and credibility.  Although the conversation will focus on Support in the SaaS community, there will be a lot of value therein for support professionals and senior management teams from traditional software manufacturers as well.

As with The HotLine Magazine, the ongoing TSSF conversation will deal with the Strategy, Process, People and Technology of Customer Support.  A link will be added to appropriate THL articles here on the Magazine site, enabling visitors to join in the discussion of the particular topic on TSSF.  Topics on TSSF will often include links to THL articles and other resources.

Joining TSSF

If you already have established a free LinkedIn profile & basic membership, follow this link [ http://tinyurl.com/cwnwbl ] to request admittance to TSSF.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, here is a link to the starting point at www.linkedin.com

TSSF Policies & Administration

When appropriately managed, online discussion forums have proven to be popular and very useful resources since CompuServe forums became widely available in the early 1980’s.  Keeping the discussion on-topic and the content well-managed are the keys to success for any forum, and TSSF’s administration team will work towards those goals.  Questions about TSSF’s policies may be submitted through use of the Comment button below.