At EchoSign we didn't attend SaaSCon this year -- with limited time, we went to Web 2.0 Expo instead, and it looks like maybe we made the wrong call.
It looks like there were several interesting dialogues on why SaaS and web services adoption is really accelerating (beyond the hype), with real ROI stories.
Here was a neat one than Jnah Dash picked up:
"One CIO [on the panel] explained how he reduced his IT spend from $607K in 2007 to $259K in 2008 by switching to SaaS (Google Apps for gmail, videochat, documents, spreadsheets, charts, etc.). He adopted Netsuite as the core ERP/CRM application and picked other packages like WorkOasis (facility management), Halogen (performance management), ADP (payroll. HRIS), and admin tools like Webex, Echosign, eFax, Zoomerang, and VisualCV. His staff cost was reduced from $166K in 2007 to zero in 2008. Hardware cost was reduced from $52K to $8K. His is a small size company selling exercise equipments. No wonder the first adopters of Saas are the small to medium size companies."
This is the heart of what's happening. A combination of best-of-breed web services -- including EchoSign -- cut this CIO's IT spend in half, and his staff cost to, ahem, zero. Total savings: $514,000 a year, or a 66% cost reduction in his budget -- with a positive impact on revenue. Where else can you cut costs in 2009, and also make more money by doing so?
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