Comments on: Appian Funding Will Boost SaaS Efforts http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/ Bruce Silver's blog on business process management Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:28:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Lombardi Update - BPMS Watch http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6827 Lombardi Update - BPMS Watch Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:52:09 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6827 [...] and Marketing VP Jim Rudden has been sparring with Appian Anywhere GM George Barlow in a BPMS Watch comment thread about which is the SaaS-ier of the two offerings.  I’ll stay out of that one, but I was [...] [...] and Marketing VP Jim Rudden has been sparring with Appian Anywhere GM George Barlow in a BPMS Watch comment thread about which is the SaaS-ier of the two offerings.  I’ll stay out of that one, but I was [...]

]]> By: barlowg http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6825 barlowg Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:02:47 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6825 Jim, using these blogs as a way to try to suggest that Blueprint is anything like Appian Anywhere is misleading. Blueprint is not a BPM Suite it is a design and documentation tool. To somehow suggest that because Appian curently offers our product through our sales force and that because we have not yet released our full multi-tenancy product, Appian Anywhere is not of great value to our subscribers is absurd. In fact, your field sales people have repeatedly tried to offer similar server hosting (but with your modeler on PCs at the customer's location because it won't run in the cloud) to compete with Appian Anywhere. To the best of my knowledge in the last few months we have gone head-to-head with your "SaaS" BPMS solution at least six times and been named the vendor of choice in every case. Sell your Blueprint documentation tool as SaaS but don't compare it to Appian Anywhere. As for your BPMS TeamWorks, I have yet to see it offered as a real SaaS product. Jim, using these blogs as a way to try to suggest that Blueprint is anything like Appian Anywhere is misleading. Blueprint is not a BPM Suite it is a design and documentation tool. To somehow suggest that because Appian curently offers our product through our sales force and that because we have not yet released our full multi-tenancy product, Appian Anywhere is not of great value to our subscribers is absurd. In fact, your field sales people have repeatedly tried to offer similar server hosting (but with your modeler on PCs at the customer’s location because it won’t run in the cloud) to compete with Appian Anywhere. To the best of my knowledge in the last few months we have gone head-to-head with your “SaaS” BPMS solution at least six times and been named the vendor of choice in every case. Sell your Blueprint documentation tool as SaaS but don’t compare it to Appian Anywhere. As for your BPMS TeamWorks, I have yet to see it offered as a real SaaS product.

]]> By: jimrudden http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6818 jimrudden Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:47:22 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6818 "the application economics often preclude very small groups from participating"?? What? One of the chief benefits - for customers AND providers - of a well architected, multi-tenant SaaS offering is that the incremental cost of adding accounts or users is small. That is what allows us to service thousands of companies of every size in a hundred countries. Just about every viable SaaS offering you can name - starting with our Blueprint product and extending to Salesforce.com, 37Signals applications, Socialtext, DabbleDB and others are accessible to any company - from one person to thousands - located anywhere in the world. The only economics to consider for the customer are whether the monthly fee is worth it. And they can try it by signing up - usually for free - on the website. On-demand. Now, if you are a provider trying to sell a single-tenant hosted offering that requires a new blade server turned up each time someone is interested .. I can see how the economics don't work for small orgs. But then that is hardly the on-demand SaaS model people are excited about. That is the application hosting business - and it has been around for decades. “the application economics often preclude very small groups from participating”?? What? One of the chief benefits - for customers AND providers - of a well architected, multi-tenant SaaS offering is that the incremental cost of adding accounts or users is small. That is what allows us to service thousands of companies of every size in a hundred countries. Just about every viable SaaS offering you can name - starting with our Blueprint product and extending to Salesforce.com, 37Signals applications, Socialtext, DabbleDB and others are accessible to any company - from one person to thousands - located anywhere in the world. The only economics to consider for the customer are whether the monthly fee is worth it. And they can try it by signing up - usually for free - on the website. On-demand.

Now, if you are a provider trying to sell a single-tenant hosted offering that requires a new blade server turned up each time someone is interested .. I can see how the economics don’t work for small orgs. But then that is hardly the on-demand SaaS model people are excited about. That is the application hosting business - and it has been around for decades.

]]> By: barlowg http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6814 barlowg Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:09:50 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6814 Sandy, we currently take Appian Anywhere (A2) subscriptions through our field sales force rather than sign up on the site. While A2 subscriptions can be acquired by anyone or any group through our sales force, the application economics often preclude very small groups from participating. Making applications inexpensive and easy-to-get is the role of the Appian Anywhere Marketplace. When we open that (Q1 2009) we will also provide go-to-website credit card sign up and numerous free and low-cost applications. That being said, it may also be of interest to know that today, in addition to enterprise-type subscribers, we have partner developers, our own field personnel and hundreds of users in small groups running development and production applications on our A2 platform. So A2 isn't restricted - it just isn't currently available for web site subscription sign up. Sandy, we currently take Appian Anywhere (A2) subscriptions through our field sales force rather than sign up on the site. While A2 subscriptions can be acquired by anyone or any group through our sales force, the application economics often preclude very small groups from participating. Making applications inexpensive and easy-to-get is the role of the Appian Anywhere Marketplace. When we open that (Q1 2009) we will also provide go-to-website credit card sign up and numerous free and low-cost applications. That being said, it may also be of interest to know that today, in addition to enterprise-type subscribers, we have partner developers, our own field personnel and hundreds of users in small groups running development and production applications on our A2 platform. So A2 isn’t restricted - it just isn’t currently available for web site subscription sign up.

]]> By: Sandy Kemsley http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6813 Sandy Kemsley Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:21:47 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6813 George, by "GA" do you mean that anyone can go to your website and sign up, as in, it's generally available? Or is it still in a restricted release to a number of enterprise clients? George, by “GA” do you mean that anyone can go to your website and sign up, as in, it’s generally available? Or is it still in a restricted release to a number of enterprise clients?

]]> By: barlowg http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/2008/07/21/appian-funding-will-boost-saas-efforts/#comment-6812 barlowg Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:53:50 +0000 http://www.brsilver.com/wordpress/?p=360#comment-6812 Bruce, thank you for the mention. I just wanted to clarify one detail. Appian Anywhere is already in General Availability status supporting dozens of production accounts. The Q1 2009, release date represents the next level of SaaS product availability which will include some additional multi-tenancy features, uniform per-user per-month pricing, and the Appian Anywhere Marketplace. George Barlow VP & General Manager, Appian Anywhere Bruce, thank you for the mention. I just wanted to clarify one detail. Appian Anywhere is already in General Availability status supporting dozens of production accounts. The Q1 2009, release date represents the next level of SaaS product availability which will include some additional multi-tenancy features, uniform per-user per-month pricing, and the Appian Anywhere Marketplace.

George Barlow
VP & General Manager, Appian Anywhere

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