SaaS vs. Traditional Software Demos

Posted by Peter Cohan on May 2, 2011

0 comments | 1526 reads

What are the challenges of presenting SaaS offerings vs. “traditional” software products? I’ve been looking into this and note the following three major challenges (at least):

- Vendors are trying to differentiate SaaS from “traditional” offerings, in spite of messaging that says that the SaaS offerings provide the same functionality as the traditional behind-the-firewall products. Many of my (vendor) customers note that changing the way they demo has strongly helped SaaS positioning and uptake.

- Customers are concerned about performance when operating SaaS products over the web. Demos need to take this rather strongly into account to minimize clicks and other performance-related challenges.

- Customers more and more expect to see a broad range of devices supported by SaaS product vendors, including “traditional” PC’s and Macs, iPads and smart phones. New practices are needed to adjust and reframe demos to address this.

Other thoughts?

Republished with author's permission from original post by Peter Cohan.

Peter Cohan

Peter Cohan is the founder and principal of The Second Derivative, focused on helping software organizations improve the success rates of their demos. In 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange on software demonstrations. He is the author of the book Great Demo! - how to prepare and deliver surprisingly compelling software demonstrations.

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