Software as a Service for Government Changing the IT Timeline

Transcription

1 Software as a Service for Government Changing the IT Timeline

2 Software as a Service in Government: Overcoming Information Technology Challenges Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model with growing appeal to federal, state, and local government executives. More and more, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Department Heads, and Project Leaders alike are adopting a SaaS approach to technology when looking for ways to work out a viable solution to their business and IT challenges. SaaS is designed to make what is sometimes a complex process simpler, changing the dynamics of how software is purchased, consumed and maintained, and is quickly becoming an effective IT delivery option. What is Software as a Service? The term SaaS has become the industry preferred term, generally replacing the earlier labels of utility computing, Application Service Provision, and on-demand software. The concept of SaaS is simple and engaging: rather than buying a software license for an application such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), or customer relationship management (CRM), and installing the software on individual computers or networks, a customer signs up to use the application in an on-line environment, which is hosted by the company that develops and sells the software, giving the buyer more flexibility in the software s deployment and less frustration in maintaining the software over the life of that application. Using this strategy, software applications are able to scale from tens, to hundreds, or even thousands of users, while the growth and integration of that application is virtually transparent to the user. Essentially, SaaS solutions focus on delivering strategic value faster, and in a more controlled manner, than traditional on-premise or packaged software systems. SaaS enables organisations to meet their IT-related objectives by providing the following key features: Lower up-front costs More predictable costs during the life of the solution Faster implementation, up and running within a short period of time Easier to customise and integrate Always uses vendors latest technology; more seamless upgrade pathway No internal resources spent on maintaining systems. Businesses increasingly trust their most sensitive applications and data to Web-based service providers, and use SaaS applications to: Manage and build Web sites, intranets and collaboration environments Manage and store documents, images, video and other media Deploy communications networks Deploy core business tools in customer, financial and human resource areas Implement compliance, governance and risk management systems Create custom software solutions addressing internal and external business processes. SaaS is replacing on-premise software faster than anyone ever imagined, and is trusted across all business enterprise segments, including government.

3 Why Should Government Agencies Consider SaaS? Economic Accountability - At a time when organisations are discontented and frustrated with the hassles associated with traditional, on-premise, software development, there is a need to operate more efficiently in order to confront the escalating pressures of budgetary constraints, extended deployment cycles, ongoing administrative frustrations, higher-than-expected operating costs, and lower-than-expected return on investment (ROI). Value - In nearly every software category, the growing interest in, and adoption of, SaaS by corporate users is inspiring the acceptance of SaaS alternatives to traditional packaged applications. Market research and studies have clearly revealed that organisations of varying sizes are taking advantage of a widening array of functional and industry-specific SaaS applications to meet their IT and business objectives. These on-demand alternatives to traditional software can be seen nearly everywhere. There are SaaS alternatives to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Exchange. Almost every applications market is affected by SaaS, i.e. spreadsheets, graphics, project management, document management, and databases. The appeal is readily apparent: SaaS can be faster to deploy, simpler to use, scalable for any size business, and cheaper to own than traditional software, resulting in organisations being able to focus their technology budgets on performance, and providing competitive advantage, rather than maintenance. The growth of SaaS is being driven by both technological change and the demand from organisations for cheaper, more reliable, faster-to-deploy, and higher quality software. When to Use SaaS in Government When time is short, or when prototyping ideas for a group or department When costs need to be clearly defined and controlled, based on actual users (which initially may be low), as opposed to a large licensing strategy typically thrust on whole departments When scalability is unclear early-on, or when other stakeholders are involved, e.g state governmentto-local government, or government-to-industry collaborations. Short Timeframes and Prototyping Issues are sometimes so time-critical that they cannot wait on a normal IT process they must be resolved in 30 days or less. SaaS-style solutions are generally very quick to get running by comparison to their onpremise counterparts, which is especially important if you are prototyping ideas for wider deployment at some point in the future. BUSINESS VALUE TIMELINE 7 Days 15 Days 30 Days IT VALUE TIMELINE 30 Days 6 Months 1 Year

4 Business issues and IT issues don t always co-exist happily, because of differing timelines in creating value. Friction happens when you try and push short-term business issues through a long-term IT process involving specification, resource allocation, testing, piloting etc. The goal of SaaS is to create a new IT Value Timeline that ensures value is created for business issues that require a fast, effective resolution. SaaS ADDS VAUE HERE NEW SaaS IT VALUE TIMELINE 30 Days 6 Months 1 Year By providing highly functional software over the Internet as a service, SaaS-based strategies can reduce several cycles that would normally extend the time of getting to a successful outcome. Cost Control Value for Money Implementation and Maintenance Example - Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software (200-seat license) Cost Comparison Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)/$Thousand SAMPLE Implementation/Deployment - Customization, integration - Basic infrastructure testing, deployment - Application infrastructure testing, deployment Ongoing operations - Training Management, customization of business process change Data centre facilities rental, operations; security, compliance; monitoring of incident resolution Software - User licenses, subscriptions, maintenance Other - Unscheduled downtime - Unused licenses Software Premises on $108 $72 $54 $30 Software as a Service $0 $0 $101 $34 $94 $0 SaaS Source of Savings Reduced deployment time, limited customization, self-service through on-boarding scripts Requires no infrastructure and application testing Lowers training requirements through simpler user interfaces; self-training, service capabilities Requires no ongoing business process change management $750 $0 Includes vendor s costs to serve in subscription price (ongoing $480 $1,500 operations, back-end hardware and software) $308 $92 $0 $0 Total costs $2,017 $1,606 Provides 99.9% general-server availability; reduces unused licenses by 20%; users added as needed * The McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, May 07, Delivering Software as a Service, Abhijit Dubey and Dilip Wagle In this example, the customer experienced a 20% overall savings via implementing a SaaS-based solution over an on-premise option. Essentially, the points of savings are achieved in the testing, training and customisation areas, as well as in data centre or local network maintenance.

5 User License Controls Several computer-industry experts say that, globally, companies have purchased billions of dollars worth of software that they don't use - "shelfware" in IT parlance - inspiring forward-looking CFOs and CIOs to change the way they plan, purchase, implement, and monitor computer software. When Charles E. Phillips, managing director of enterprise software at Morgan Stanley, asked 300 CIOs whether they had unused software licenses, fully one-third said they had unused database licenses, 12 percent said they had unused CRM (customer relationship management) licenses, nearly 20 percent reported unused ERP (enterprise resource planning) licenses, and just over 10 percent reported unused SCM (supply-chain management) licenses. In a poll conducted by AMR Research of 42 companies that use SCM (supply chain management) software, a whopping 85 percent reported using only one or two modules (SCM suites typically contain a dozen or more). Of 60 companies using procurement software, only a third told AMR they would use it for direct procurement, the software's raison d être. And of 100 companies using CRM software, AMR found that most had implemented less than half their licenses. According to Gartner Research, 41.9% of CRM licenses purchased worldwide go unused just one example of how companies often invest heavily in software that is not utilised or, perhaps more commonly, under-utilised. Organisations frequently buy software licenses for everyone in the organisation because they are concerned about compliance or, more likely, because they do not have insight into which applications are actually being used or used enough to justify ownership of the licenses. SaaS-based strategies provide a tremendous amount of benefit in the control of user licenses, most notably because you are only paying for licenses for people who actually have an account on the system being used. The concept of buying advanced licenses is not part of the SaaS world. Application Scalability Two challenges that have always plagued on-premise software applications are that of scalability and integration. In regards to scalability, the discussions will always work their way over to so how much new hardware do I have to buy to get this new software application running?, to which the most common answer is well, it depends. When you purchase software that you are then going to install in your own premises or data centre, you are now responsible for selecting the correct hardware, keeping the hardware and software up to date, and ensuring that you have enough computing power to deliver that application to all of your users. This can be a challenge, especially when all you are really trying to do is get a business challenge resolved. A big advantage of a SaaS strategy is that it doesn t force you to wear the responsibility for the product s installation, computing power or long-term maintenance. SaaS allows you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your user requirements change, and it changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use.

6 Success with SaaS in Government Over the last several years, Faulkner Technologies has been involved in a range of SaaS projects within government departments, as well as their interactions with industry and the public. For the most part, these projects had the following key drivers: Packaged software was not available Internal development resources were not readily available Time was critical The challenges were cross-departmental and in some cases, involved both the public and industry collaborations. Therefore, technical responsibility would be a challenge; for example, deciding who would keep the solutions running Users and access frequency would vary dramatically heavy at certain times of the year with regards to access frequency, and unknown user growth rates early on in the project. Three of our most successful stories are highlighted below, and represent common government scenarios: cross-department, cross-state/federal and cross-city/council Intellectual Property Management - Queensland Government is one of the larger state governments in Australia, investing a tremendous amount of time and resources into its operations, creating a significant amount of intellectual property (IP) in the form of copyright, confidential information, designs, patents, plant breeder s rights, and trademarks. Its primary challenge was managing the IP assets at a department level, while providing broad public and cross-industry access to certain aspects of those IP assets, securely and confidentially. Faulkner Technologies created an on-line IP assessment and management solution to register IP assets, and manage the licensing agreements associated with the IP assets created through the deployment of ElasticApps technology. The solution is delivered using Software as a Service and is licensed on a monthly per user basis. National Export Awards Program Austrade (Federal) and five State Governments one of the most popular business awards programs across Australia is the National Export Awards Program. This program begins at a state level, whereby individual states run awards programs that select their best companies in up to 15 categories. The winners of the state awards programs are then entered into a national competition that is directed by Austrade. In order to assist this program, Faulkner Technologies developed, alongside of the awards experts in each state, a comprehensive application process that allowed entrants to easily enter an award, and for that process to be managed at a state level, and when the winners were selected, for them to be seamlessly moved to the national competition to be managed by Austrade. The solution is delivered using Software as a Service, and is licensed to them, on a per-manager basis, at both the Austrade and State levels. JEMA Joint Emergency Management Application 11 City Councils in Southeast QLD one of the challenges faced by local and state governments is the sharing of critical information between themselves at the start of an emergency or a crisis. Over time, a group of councils in Southeast QLD formed a team to coordinate communications on a large scale. The team consisted of both small and large councils, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast. After consultation with a number of crisis and emergency management experts, Faulkner Technologies assisted the councils in developing a solution that covers a range of important processes, including initial emergency assessments, situation reports, tasking and completion reports. The solution is delivered using Software as a Service, and is licensed to them on a per emergency coordinator basis. For more information on these and other cases in which Faulkner Technologies has successfully used its SaaS product technology to capitalise on business enterprise knowledge, visit our site at

7 Summary of Key Points Software as a Service (SaaS) is designed to make what is sometimes a complex process simpler, changing the dynamics of how software is purchased, consumed and maintained, and is quickly becoming an effective IT delivery option SaaS is provided through an on-line environment, which is hosted by the company that develops and sells the software, giving the buyer more flexibility in the software s deployment and less frustration in maintaining the software over the life of that application SaaS solutions focus on delivering strategic value faster, and in a more controlled manner, than traditional on-premise or packaged software systems When to use SaaS in Government When time is short, or when prototyping ideas for a group or department When costs need to be clearly defined and controlled, based on actual users (which initially may be low), as opposed to a large licensing strategy typically thrust on whole departments When scalability is unclear early-on, or when other stakeholders are involved, e.g state government-to-local government, or government-to-industry collaborations. Business issues and IT issues don t always co-exist happily, because of differing timelines in creating value. Friction happens when you try and push short-term business issues through a long-term IT process involving specification, resource allocation, testing, piloting etc. The goal of SaaS is to create a new IT Value Timeline that ensures value is created for business issues that require a fast, effective resolution Key points for cost savings when using a SaaS strategy are achieved in the testing, training and customisation areas, as well as in data centre or local network maintenance SaaS-based strategies provide a tremendous amount of benefit in the control of user licenses, most notably because you are only paying for licenses for people who actually have an account on the system being used. The concept of buying advanced licenses is not part of the SaaS world SaaS allows you to avoid the responsibility for the product s installation, computing power or longterm maintenance. SaaS allows you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your user requirements change, and it changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use There are 100s of successful cross-department, cross-state/federal and cross-city/council examples of SaaS in government providing a wealth of knowledge and security for making SaaS buying decisions.

8 A Specialist View - Faulkner Technologies Enterprise and Government SaaS Software as a Service for the Enterprise and Government is different from traditional Software as a Service because of the level of customisation that most Enterprise and Government solutions require, as opposed to the relatively low level of customisation required by small and medium business where SaaS solutions first emerged. Essentially, there is the traditional version of SaaS delivered by vendors, such as SalesForce.com or Google, where people go to one location and everyone uses the same product. However, if you require heavy customisation, or unique systems integrations, then you will have to consider more of a platform or tool-based Software as a Service approach. Such a tool is our ElasticApps product, which allows you to create the software you need using on-line editing tools, and then have that software delivered to you as a service. The major benefit of a product like ElasticApps is that it allows most IT software solutions to be defined by business people and subject matter experts using normal language, as opposed to using software code. This means that you can define what you need on a whiteboard or in a Mind Map as in the example below, write it up in a document that people can actually read and understand, and that becomes the basis for building an ElasticApp, which means that you won't spend months building complex specifications and use-cases to gain value from the solution. ElasticApps are built entirely on-line using drop-down menus, and drag-and-drop features, so that you can quickly configure business processes, adding reports and search features as well as interacting with other services throughout your business, or even connecting to other SaaS products. The end solution is able to be tested and modified in real time, meaning that the solution is available in a fraction of the time of traditional software applications. Once constructed, business processes can be deployed individually, or grouped together. Each business process is guided by a set of access and distribution rules that protect the business process, and ensure its proper usage. When finished, the business processes are delivered over the Web, via a secure, Software as a Service framework, which means that you can start using the applications immediately, and be ensured of safe delivery, data backup, and storage, as well as maintenance and upgrades, all based on actual users and demand. The broad nature of defining business processes and applications using questions, answers, events and actions means that you can use the same software application to construct a range of solutions within the same organisation. You can create individual systems around functions, such as compliance and risk, or customer and sales performance, that operate as their own individual applications, or you can group them into whole systems, which can anchor the entire organisation.

9 Example single independent systems Example grouped system.

10 Why Faulkner Technologies? Faulkner Technologies extensive development capabilities and data management expertise, coupled with its software solutions, make it an ideal partner in solving the challenges experienced by government in implementing software solutions. We have a continuous product roadmap focused on enhancing our products and services; we carefully control our fee structure, and diligently deliver quality support to our customers. Our customer support agents understand not only the technical requirements of our on-demand applications, but we also understand the business implications of our solutions, and how they can affect our government customers. Key elements of our SaaS platform and capabilities: We host all of our ElasticApps software products for customers worldwide We provide around-the-clock technical support from our data centres We provide automated data backup of customer files and systems from remote locations We utilise high-end data centres to deliver SaaS solutions to our customers. These data centres: Have 19x 1 Gigabit Ethernet Internet connections. Feature ample uninterrupted power systems (UPS), air conditioning, and power generation backup systems. Contain over 20,000 state-of-the-art Windows and Linux Web servers, making them the World s largest dedicated Web hosting provider. We protect customer data with a variety of industry best practice security tools and methodologies, including: Role-based security on all modules Single Socket Layer (SSL) encryption Servers located in secure facilities with access control and 24-hour access IP Tables-based dynamic firewalls on all machines Intrusion Detection Denial of Service (DOS) protection across all IP address ranges Virus and Spam protection on all servers. To find out more about Faulkner Technologies, visit