How To Make Money From Software As A Service (Saas)

Transcription

1 SALES PLAYBOOK SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS) SALES PLAYBOOK

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Software as a Service Overview... 3 SaaS Subsegments... 4 Equinix Value Props... 5 Personas... 7 Competitors... 8 Case Studies Objection Handling Qualifying Questions Sales Tools TABLE OF CONTENTS 2

3 SAAS OVERVIEW Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over the Internet or a private network. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies that support web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) mature. Meanwhile, international broadband service is rapidly becoming increasingly available to support global user access. Why SaaS customers are important for Equinix: SaaS is the fastest growing segment within the cloud ecosystem. With countless innovative and entrepreneurial business models for SaaS, this segment requires flexibility to scale and ecosystem diversity. SaaS development is synergistic to two important initiatives: first, our hybrid cloud solutions combine self-hosting with third party hosting; and second, our retail colocation business models start with relatively small footprints that can easily scale as needed. SaaS is the most visible layer to attract enterprise customers. SaaS apps aren t just a nice-to-have. According to an InformationWeek Analytics survey of 281 business technologists, three-fourths (75%) of companies using SaaS consider application services critically important to their organizations and approximately one-third (33%) describe their SaaS apps as mission critical. Saas OVERVIEW 3

4 SAAS SUBSEGMENTS Accounting and Finance: Includes all finance related products Analytics and Business Intelligence: Includes reporting and big data solutions Collaboration and Social: Includes storage, communications, social analytics Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Includes all sales, marketing, and configure price quote (CPQ) solutions Enterprise Resource Management (ERP): Includes supply chain, project planning, business process and procurement solutions ecommerice: Includes retail solutions Human Capital Management (HCM): Includes talent management, benefits and payroll solutions Platform: Includes development tools, security, integration and workflow solutions Security: Includes firewall, antivirus, antispyware and encryption solutions Vertical Solutions: Includes legal, small business management, healthcare, construction, shipping and other niche solutions saas Subsegments 4

5 EQUINIX VALUE PROPS For Saas companies looking to assemble a best-of-breed solution, Equinix offers unparalleled choices and very competitive rates of cloud components across the broadest range of networks with extensive compute and storage service providers (IaaS), cloud management platforms, and on site IT services providing complete flexibility to optimize services across infinite combinations of network routes. Cost-efficient, high-performance direct connectivity Direct connections to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure accelerates deployment of hybrid clouds or migration of data and services from public to private and/or hybrid cloud solutions. Access to 450+ cloud providers for complementary services. Connection to new services or switching to new providers as business needs change. Direct connection to multiple cloud platforms across multiple regions. Broad choice of worldwide locations places you closer to your customers 100 IBXs in 32 top markets on five continents Geographic coverage reaches the world s top markets within 20 milliseconds. Ready to support SaaS industry s rapid growth: we ve invested $4.4 billion in our global interconnection platform since All the services, tools and expertise to assemble a best-of-breed solutions Our unmatched variety of network service providers compete for your business: 975+ networks on Platform Equinix. Over 600 IT service providers (e.g., cloud management, storage and compute) are on Platform Equinix and available to rapidly launch your cloud solution. Equinix Global Solutions Architects advise on data center best practices and location optimization. Equinix Smart Hands services provide remote management and support. Proximity to end-users Locating services closer to end-users may be the single-most powerful strategy for SaaS providers. With the constant need to boost application performance in order to sustain business growth and drive revenue, our global reach provides necessary proximity. equinix value props 5

6 EQUINIX VALUE PROPS (CONT.) Proximity to providers / hosting companies / cloud service brokers For the various infrastructure partners necessary for successful services, proximity is also an important factor in success by providing: Best user performance Ease of applications management Broader avenues to distribute services Flexibility for different operating models As usage grows, SaaS providers reach a tipping point where public clouds become too inflexible to sustain long-term growth. SaaS leaders can slash 46% or more from cloud costs by shifting workloads from public clouds to their own clouds hosted in multi-tenant data centers. equinix value props (Cont.) 6

7 PERSONAS Business Decision Maker ---> Software Architects ---> Network Architects The recommended approach should begin with the business decision maker and then progress to working with software architects and eventually the network architects. We first need to understand their target customer and how their customers benefit from their offering. By understanding the customer category, their primary geographic locations, and the anticipated service needs, we can then respond with performance hubs and scalable connectivity options. Then, we work on the hybrid architecture and provide guidance on potential enablers, managed services, and hosting providers. Finally, we proceed to influencing the network personnel with proof-of-concept and trial testing. Business Decision Maker: responsible for driving sales, identifying new revenue and channels, and increasing operating margins of software services on a global basis. Software Architect: responsible for software design, identifying new technology that ensures availability and low latency, which translates to optimal end user experience. Network Architects: responsible for scaling infrastructure and addressing trends of software delivery on a global scale while improving performance and managing cost. PERSONAS 7

8 COMPETITORS Multi-Tenant Data Center Competitors Global Digital Realty Trust (DRT) While DRT is a REIT who traditionally only served customers above a certain size (1/4-1/2MW), they re now moving down market into retail colocation. Thus, we are seeing them compete on more deals today. In an effort to further penetrate the retail market, they are very active in the Open-IX initiative and have been aggressively trying to bolster their peering/interconnection capabilities. What complicates the relationship is that we are both competitors and customers. We lease certain IBX sites from DRT where it makes more sense than to build our own. Americas Switch SuperNAP Switch s main drawback is that they currently only have a single site in Las Vegas. It s a large site they acquired in a liquidation sale. They are well aware of this limitation and are building facilities on the East coast and abroad. NTT/RagingWire RagingWire is a relative newcomer to the Ashburn colocation market situated within minutes of our DC campus. With only one other location in Sacramento CA, they are aggressive on price allowing them to win deals with customers like Twitter. Recently, NTT acquired an 80% stake in RagingWire, bolstering NTT s North America presence. With NTT s financial backing, RagingWire has potential to become a potent competitor. Telx Telx is a private company providing premium network-neutral colocation space with a dense interconnection ecosystem. They have a strategic agreement with DLR to maintain and operate key Meet-Me-Rooms within Digital Realty s most interconnected buildings. Telx competes with Equinix in many of the Tier I/II markets except for Ashburn. And, they are expanding with recent data center openings in NY/NJ, Seattle, and Portland. They are actively marketing to cloud and enterprise customers calling their data centers Cloud Connections Centers. Internationally, Telx does not have a footprint outside of North America, but they ve partnered with Interxion to provide international presence. CoreSite CoreSite is a public REIT primarily focused in North America with presence in key interconnection buildings such as One Wilshire in Los Angeles and 32 Avenue of the COMPETITORS 8

9 COMPETITORS (CONT.) Americas in New York. CoreSite sells both retail and wholesale product. This allows them to cater to a wide variety of clients. They offer attractive pricing especially for marquee customers. Internally, there s been executive turnover at the top levels of the company. CoreSite s COO who led the company s cloud strategy and efforts with the CoreSite Open Cloud Exchange recently left the company. DuPont Fabros DuPont Fabros is a wholesale provider that builds and operates massive scale data centers. Key customers include Microsoft, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Google. They are active in 4 North American markets (CH, DC, NY/NJ, SV) and have plans to build a new facility in Ashburn next to our campus. They offer low-cost lease terms to large enterprises that need lots of space quickly. They are also trying to attract network carriers by offering free interconnection and waiving access fees. They have joined the Open-IX as a way to break into the interconnection market. Europe, Middle East and Africa Interxion Interxion is a regional data center provider competing in all of Equinix s European metros (as well as a number of others). They lack footprint in Italy (where we have access to a partner facility) and the UAE. Outside of our footprint they are also present in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. While most of these are tier 2 markets, a number of larger cloud providers have made Ireland their home to take advantage of favorable tax rates and over a decade of significant IT experience. Interxion is competitive on price but lacks global footprint requiring them to leverage partnerships with the likes of Telx to reach other markets. TelecityGroup Telecity is a regional provider present in all of our European countries except Switzerland and the UAE. While they lack our global footprint, they are competitive on price and maintain significant European presence: Asia Pacific Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) NTT is both a very large customer and a competitor who also maintains a global footprint. They offer colocation, managed and cloud services, and have recently been acquiring companies like DimensionData (also a customer) and RagingWire to build their portfolio. COMPETITORS (CONT.) 9

10 COMPETITORS (CONT.) Other Competitors Network Service Providers NSP bundle hosting and connectivity to attract the SaaS customer. To counteract, we should sell the value of scalability and expansion seamlessly at multiple markets. We likely should bring in a partner along to provide managed services. Application Hosting Providers Hosting providers will likely offer managed services to attract SaaS providers. When customers have challenges in a self-host or hybrid model, then we have an advantage by recommending a hosting provider that is already at our facility and can help grow incremental footprint. Cloud Providers This is likely the strongest category of competition including AWS and Azure. We should focus on our hybrid cloud architecture by illustrating how a SaaS business, operating with just cloud providers, becomes more expensive at scale. SaaS customers should plan and invest in architecture as part of their long-term strategy. Most of the non-colo competitors mentioned above are key customers of Equinix since we help enable their business. Their focus is providing end-to-end IT solutions. Colocation is only a means to an end for these providers For the latest competitive research data, please visit The Competitive Intelligence page on Sales Intelligence: If you are interested in receiving the daily bulletin Global Market Watch containing competitive and industry information, please send a note to [email protected] and ask to be added to the globalmarketwatch alias. competitors (Cont.) 10

11 CASE STUDIES Badgeville Case Study As the global leader in gamification, Badgeville s The Behavior Platform enables innovative businesses to measure and influence user behavior. Their need for real-time performance and along with the rapid growth of their business necessitated the migration from and expanding and expensive public cloud footprint to a hybrid solution. Their move to Equinix increased performance by 40% and also reduced costs by 40%. Box Case Study This secure content sharing platform originally hosted their own data center in California, but the rapid adoption of their services required a top-tier global solution. Box turned to Platform Equinix to provide the foundational components for Box Accelerator a global data transfer network that increased performance speed by 60%. case studies 11

12 OBJECTIONS HANDLING I self-host my application. Why would I give up that control? You can still self-host in Equinix, and gain the benefits not possible in a private, single tenant data center. We have the largest network-neutral global footprint. Our reach enables quick deployment close to your target markets to boost performance. We ve developed the most established and richest ecosystem in the industry. Our resources give you access to a broad spectrum of service and hosting providers, revenue opportunities and cost reduction possibilities. We design, build and operate the best data centers on the planet. Our on-site staff and Solution Architects are able to address any of your infrastructure, networking and IT needs. See the Box Case Study for an example of a SaaS provider who migrated from a selfhosted model in a private data center to a global solution that lowered latency and increased throughput. Why can t I just run my service in the public cloud? Public cloud providers can definitely help launch your service in the near term as a payas-you-use model. However, research shows when software deployments reach a certain scale, the operation expense of a pure public cloud solution becomes much more expensive than a hybrid model. It s easier to plan for growth and host within Equinix. When evaluating multi-tenant data centers, SaaS providers should consider more than colocation costs. They should also consider overall business value. Equinix offers these benefits: More Choices Reduce Costs: SaaS providers may choose from a wide variety of providers for the services they need at competitive market prices. All without having to build out their own network. Geographic Flexibility: Providing the application services as close as possible to endusers is critical for success. By utilizing leased data centers, Saas providers maintain maximum flexibility in selecting precisely where to deploy infrastructure. Data centers can launch where needed removing the limited boundaries of the provider s own facilities. objections Handling 12

13 OBJECTIONS HANDLING (CONT.) Choice of Cloud Components: To assemble a best-of-breed solution, Saas providers may combine the best cloud components such as colocation facilities offering a broad range of networks, compute and storage service providers (IaaS), cloud management platforms and IT service providers on site. This extensive range of providers allow SaaS companies complete flexibility to optimize their service mix and network at competitive rates. See the Badgeville Case Study for an example of a SaaS provider who migrated from a pure public cloud to a hybrid model and increased performance by 40% and also reduced costs by 40%. Equinix is too expensive. Our model allows the data center to become a revenue center. No one else presents the same access to providers, partners, and customers as Equinix. When you consider all our advantages, they far outweigh any price premiums. Also, we cost more because we deploy in the most populated urban areas in the world. Others deploy in remote locations where land and energy is cheap. They can t deliver <10ms latency to 90% of users. I m not planning to deploy globally. You may not have immediate plans to expand, but you may in the future. Or, your customers may have data sovereignty concerns. Or, you may find partners in other regions. These are all common scenarios and excellent reasons to deploy with Equinix from the start. objections Handling (CONT.) 13

14 QUALIFYING QUESTIONS Inquire where end users are located. Work with your potential customer to identify initial and future markets, scalability and rollout plans, and the network resources necessary for performance. Here are several important qualifying questions: 1. What performance metrics and best practices should you use to ensure end-user satisfaction and revenue growth? 2. Do you have an enabling architecture to support your business goals? 3. Do you have a blueprint for deploying SaaS services? 4. Who do you need to connect to? 5. What suppliers will you need to leverage to ensure performance and manage costs? 6. What is your plan for growth? How will you reach new customers and markets? Qualifying Questions 14

15 TOOLS Equinix Latency Modeler The Latency Modeler is an online tool that simulates user deployments and predicts performance for a given IBX configuration (e.g. Silicon Valley, Ashburn and Amsterdam). Users set the performance requirements of their application (e.g. 100 ms (priority)) along with current and future deployments. A global heat map is generated, along with a table of round trip times by current, future and percentage improvement. Below is a link to the tool. If you do not currently have a login for the Latency Modeler, please open a ticket with the Help Desk. TOOLS 15

16 Corporate HQ EMEA Asia-Pacific Equinix, Inc. One Lagoon Drive 4th Floor Redwood City, CA USA Equinix (EMEA) BV Luttenbergweg EC Amsterdam Zuidoost Netherlands Equinix Hong Kong Limited Suite , 65/F Central Plaza 18 Harbour Road Wanchai, Hong Kong Main: Fax: [email protected] Main: Fax: [email protected] Main: Fax: [email protected] About Equinix Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), connects more than 4,500 companies directly to their customers and partners inside the world s most networked data centers. Today, enterprise, cloud, networking, digital media and financial services companies leverage the Equinix interconnection platform in 32 strategic markets across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. By connecting directly to their strategic partners and end users, customers are forming dynamic ecosystems inside Equinix. These interconnected ecosystems enable companies to optimize the performance of their content and applications and protect their vital digital assets Equinix, Inc. XX-EN Cloud-IT-Services-Sales-Playbook 1F1 DD-JM