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Code of Conduct for SaaS Companies
SaaS companies sell to the invisible. Hence, it becomes even more challenging to create an exceptional experience for their website visitors and customers. The vision for this Code of Conduct (CoC) is for companies to play by a set of standards so that they can delight their prospects/ customers and create a better conversion rate to grow their business.
Instant Signup
You should be able to come to our site and sign up instantly and try out the software. You will never have to fill out a form to contact sales.Online Payments
A positive trial will allow you to subscribe to one of the paying plans. You can pay online through a credit card and once successful, you will be taken to you activated paid account immediately.SSL Encryption
We take security seriously and any traffic to and from your computer to our server is encrypted using atleast 256-bit encryption. As proof you can see the ‘lock’ symbol on your browser’s location bar when you visit any of our secure pages.Clear Pricing
We are transparent in our prices and plans and list out what you get when you subscribe to any of our plans. We even mention if we have a free plan to get started.Feature/ Tour
Even before your try our software you can see a range of screenshots on what you can expect when you signup. A tour will present our value proposition and benefit to your business.Customer Casestudies
We wouldn’t be in business without our customers. See how others have benefited from using our software by reading their stories.System Status
We are committed maximum uptime of our software. Hence, we have made this information public to let you know our server’s past performance and downtime (if any).Active Blog
In a virtual world where we don’t even meet our customers clear communication is becoming important. We write our candid thoughts on our blog and keep an open discussion for all our visitors.Export Data
As a customer you own your data on our servers and are free to take a backup of it at any given time.Help/ Support
We have a robust online help section with videos, forums, faqs so that you can self-help yourself if you get stuck. Our dedicated support email will always be open if you wish to contact us with your queries and we’d be happy to email you within 24 hours.If there are any more points that I have missed then do let me know in the comments. If you support this CoC then do put your name and company you work for in the comments.
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Thoughts on the Amazon Cloud downtime - one step back, two steps forward.
Today, what happened with Amazon Cloud was I would say a big hiccup. “Amazon Cloud Failure” doesn’t happen often and incidents like these should not mean the “death of the cloud” or “the Cloud is not ready for the enterprise”. These events are learning to a successful Cloud future. We won’t learn if we don’t fail every now and then.
This reminds me of an interesting analogy - a bank robberry. This does not mean that “banking” has not evolved and you would stop putting your money in the bank. The robbed bank will learn from the problem, hopefully innovate, fix loopholes and spring back up to a better performing institution.
Similarly, Cloud providers will educate themselves from hiccups. From what Amazon has given the world, a few hours of downtime is not that much of a show stopper.
Chill out.
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How I explained Cloud Computing to the non-tech generation [Speaker]
A couple of days back, I was a guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Bombay Mid-Town held at The Taj Mahal Palace. I was addressing a group of people who were mostly 40+ years of age and non-technical. My presentation (below) is on Cloud Computing for dummies, maybe, even simpler. I wanted to just touch upon the basics, give some examples and show them how the Cloud is going to change everything - work and life. The examples I chose were mostly day to day examples except for the Google Document slide - I don’t think any of them had every used Google Docs.
With every great inflection point (i.e. Cloud Computing) comes skepticism. There were a few in the audience who were extremely doubtful of the success of the Cloud for businesses - especially related to data security (in fact, in my book I have a chapter devoted to SaaS Myths). I don’t blame them - afterall parting with something (in this case, data) that they believe they control is a huge deal. Ironically, they were comfortable with their money being in the bank and their stocks in the demat account. I believe that anything great is going to have it’s share of skeptics. Not a problem.
In the meantime, check out the slides and the video I showed them after…
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Cloud Opportunities in Emerging Markets [Speaker]
As part of the R&D Globalization Council (3.0) initiative, Zinnov hosted a networking Meet in Bangalore last week@ The Chancery Pavilion.
I was happy to be a part of a panel discussion on “Cloud Opportunities in Emerging Markets” with Karthik Anand (Director, Zinnov), Rahul Kulkarni (Product Manager, Google) and Anand Ramakrishnan (General Manager & Head - Cloud Computing Services, Wipro Infotech).
The audience was mostly comprised technical folks from large enterprises (McAfee, Cisco, IBM, Manhattan Associates, Intel etc.) who wanted to see if there was an opportunity in the Cloud (from India) and if so, then how big.
The points we discussed (and that I remember) were…
There is a huge opportunity in the Cloud today. Businesses can operate efficiently by not owning the software but by renting it out. Capital expenses can be converted into operational expenses. Emerging markets are rapidly growing and need to do more with less resources.
Speed for Cloud services is a huge factor. Google tests it’s app’s latency and the overall experience it delivers to the end users.
Marketing to the Indian customer is much different. Deriving value from a non-tanglible source (software) is a tough sell.
Companies need to deliver the product to their customers faster. Act like a startup and get your product out there before your competitor does.
Democratization of IT. Anyone in your company can try and recommend a Cloud service. Earlier, the key decision makers were the tech guys. Today, Cloud service providers need to learn to sell to the business team.
Bandwidth and Internet penetration has improved in India. Things are just going to get better.
Data security is a battle every Cloud/SaaS vendor is going to go through. Your data is much more secure with the SaaS/Cloud vendor than your office.
India is a huge market for mobile-driven Cloud services.
In order to compete agility will count more than how big you are.
Key partnerships with SI’s, ISV’s will be crucial in succeeding in these markets - especially to cover the last mile.
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Gmail’s Fiasco - It is not Cloud Computing to blame
Google’s latest fiasco of disabling/ resetting 150,000 Gmail accounts over the last week has once again started a barrage of trash-talking articles on cloud computing and how putting your data out there is not a good way to run a business. I completely disagree. In the tech world, like it or not, SHIT HAPPENS! It used to happen before when you would get the Blue Screen of Death (courtesy Microsoft Windows Family) but all you could do is to cry alone in your misery. You then would have to go running around like a headless-chicken to find someone who could fix your computer and salvage any data that could be retrieved. With the Cloud, at least that is shifted to the vendor who is more of an expert than you are at restoring your computer/ server.
The problems in technology are similar. You just hear about it more today because of social media and a lot of chatter online.More importantly, it is important to see how fast the service provider (in this case Google) addressed and fixed the problem. Here is the official announcement from Google - Gmail back soon for everyone - it is timely and shows how they are working on to restore the affected accounts. Here is the latest update on the Apps Status Dashboard which keeps you up to date with the restore process.So, the next time you sign up for a Cloud service, remember, SHIT WILL HAPPEN.On a side, I am assuming Cloud Backup services are going to have high conversion rates this week as they play on the fear mentality of consumers.
