Vinnie Mirchandani, Joshua Greenbaum, Bob Warfield respond.
I certainly agree with Mr. Debes that we have been here before. Technology analysts grab hold of the next great thing and see how far it will bend before it breaks. SaaS is a collection of ideas exemplified by Salesforce. Each idea could be implemented by traditional software vendors. We want to understand what makes Salesforce successful, but we must recognize the difference between Salesforce and an ERP system. Sales pipelines can be abstracted from the daily operations of a business. Salesforce does not need to understand backflushing with 3-level bills of material with multiple currencies and the impact on materials planning in a cellular manufactring environment. Thankfully.
Mr. Mirchandani says the problem is that enterprise software vendors are not listening to their customers who are asking for Salesforce features and a Salesforce pricing model. Perhaps for some that makes sense, but what makes Salesforce and other SaaS companies successful is the tight scope of their product. Enterprise software has a huge scope and it must be completely customized in certain areas. Areas that are different for every type of business.