Considerations when selecting a SaaS eCommerce vendor

Ben AdamsFounder & Directorwww.function22.co.uk

A balance between flexibility and cost

OnDemand

Out of the box

FullyCustomisable

LicensedSoftware

More Flexible

Hig

her s

et u

p co

sts

Licensed Software is “so last season”

Custom Licensed Managed SaaS

Component, CPU based pricing

Rolled-into-one usage based pricing

More retailer involvement

Less retailer involvement

‘Enterprise’ licensed software

Number of mentions of ‘enterprise’ in a sales pitchNumber of mentions of ‘enterprise’ in a sales pitch

CIO

Par

anoi

aCI

O P

aran

oia

What does ‘enterprise’ actually mean?

To the CIO To the Business

True in the world of licensed, on premise

software

SaaS removes these issues as it takes the reliability, support and security aspects away from the organisation

Enterprise means nothing in true SaaS eCommerce

“By 2013, 40 % of e-commerce deployments will use a complete SaaS e-commerce solution and 90 % of e-commerce sites will subscribe to at least one SaaS-

based service”

Gartner Inc, SaaS Impact on eCommerce, 2008

On Demand delivery model

On Demand delivery model

Automated upgradesAutomated upgrades

Merchandising ControlMerchandising Control

Access anywhereAccess anywhere

Multi-tenantMulti-tenant

Low TCOLow TCO Low RiskLow Risk Out of the boxOut of the box

It’s a confusing market…

6 Lessons Learned

…and easy to make mistakes

Lesson 1Define the platform scope

“It’s not a CMS?!”

A platform means different things to different people

PIM CMSCommerceEngine

Search Engine

DAM

Promotions engine

Personalisation engine

Reporting

MV TestingCRM engine

I.T. Commercial Marketing Web Team Finance

Benefits of a consolidated platform ecosystem

Product

Merchandising

Testing

Targeting

Reporting

CRM

Social

Promotions

Lesson 2Start with the business user

The old world of platform as a product

PromotionsProduct info

Banners

SitesNew pages

New LayoutsTransactional capabilities

SEOWidgets

MicrositesAnalyticsTagging

IntegrationHosting

Business IT

The new world of platform as a service

Initial set up

Legacy system integration

SitesNew Pages

LayoutsTransactional capabilities

SEOWidgets

MicrositesAnalyticsTagging

Business IT

Never underestimate the bits the customer can’t see

Storefronts

WebsiteWebsite FacebookFacebook MobileMobile

In storeIn store AffiliateAffiliate Call CentreCall Centre

Business & Developer tools

APIsAPIs MerchandisingMerchandising Personalisation

Personalisation

PromotionsPromotions TestingTesting ReportingReporting

It is relatively easy to create these when you have the right business and developer tools

These tools enable you to create and manage storefronts

Lesson 3Define ‘out of the box’

What’s in the box?

You will never get everything out of the box

Customizations

Reference Application

Back office Integration layer

Back endBack end

The split between these could be costly

Ask for a reference application

Businessrequirements

ReferenceApplication

Reference app functionality

you actually use

Think about the 80:20 rule…

Requirement: the platform should cater for a telco data model

‘Out of the box’

Phone

Tariff

Bolt-ons

Client interpretation

Phone

Tariff

Bolt-ons

Insurance

Bundles

Sim only

Customisation is costly and causes problems down the line with ‘out of the box’ upgrades

The best of both worlds…

Standards based server side scriptStandards based client side script supportAPIs Web services Business configurable data model extensions and business logic, True multi-site and international

Truly Unique Storefronts

Reference application

DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT

…and don’t forget about pre-integrations

Retailer applications and web services

ATG CommerceATG Content Admin

ATG Business Control Centre (BCC)ATG Search

ATG Customer Intelligence

Middleware

Lesson 4Ask for a Roadmap

Be thorough when defining your roadmap

Strategic CustomerBusiness User

Roadmap

Vendor roadmap

Client requirements Customisations= cost

A product roadmap does not necessarily mean more capabilities

TimeTime

Capa

biliti

esCa

pabi

lities

Regular relevant product releases and consider upgrade impact of customizations

This usually varies according to the amount of customization you do

Vendor roadmapClient roadmap

TimeTime

Lesson 5Think about performance

A ‘global’ datacentre…

…and don’t forget content caching and delivery

CDN

Don’t get stung by boring compliancy issues down the line

VAT

Distance selling

Lesson 6Shape your organisation

Your organisation – is it ready for SaaS?

Agile

DevelopIn-house

FullyOutsource

Waterfall

Reduced flexibility

Long

er ti

me

to m

arke

t

Here you will struggle with time to market

Here you will struggle with constant change

This is the perfect balance between time to market and business flexibility

It is fashionable to migrate your web platform

“you generally migrate your web platform every 3 or 4 years”

Changes in leadership

New

web

pla

tfor

ms

SaaS doesn’t mean no portability

Picking a SaaS eCommerce

vendor is easy

Things to look for in a vendor pitch or RFI response

Focus on value and not just cost

No mentions of the word ‘enterprise’

Live reference application demo deployed on their cloud

Clear roadmap focused on delivery of business capability and not just gloss

Pre-integrations with other Third Party solutions

Developer tool-kit based on open standards

Robust, global infrastruture including DR, CDN

Security ‘out of the box’

Clear platform scope

An agile way of working

Ben Adams – Founder & Director

benadams1@gmail.com

/in/benjadams

@benadams2009

Thanks for listening!

www.function22.co.uk 39