Mr. Mook: My primary focus area is software as a service (SaaS), which over the past couple of years has emerged as the clear direction of enterprise application software. The concept of having software customers host and be responsible for maintaining their own software just doesn't make sense anymore, so they are focusing on core competencies and letting the vendors do maintenance and updates on the software, and take control of the system. We see the software industry moving in that direction, and that's why it's the key area that we focus on.
TWST: Are you finding that most people are already aware it's the clear
direction, or are many still trying to understand to SaaS?
Mr. Mook: It's a mix really. I think a couple of years ago, it was in question
whether or not the industry would move in this direction. There were doubters in
legacy companies that said that the industry wouldn't move in this direction -
that you don't want to put things outside your firewall, and you don't want to
rely on other companies for maintaining applications, that it's better to have
it internal. But I think now it's commonly accepted that it's a viable model,
that it's increasing in popularity and that there are financial benefits for the
vendors. So most vendors are trying to get there in some form or fashion. We do
see some companies that are clinging to legacy models, and unless they are
dominant within a particular niche, they are going to get left behind. There are
a lot of startups that are creating software-as-a-service models from the
ground-up, and they have a pretty streamlined business model. And then we see
others that are either trying to fully transition from legacy, on-premise,
licensed-based models over to the subscription model, or trying to offer flavors
of both.
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