Thursday, January 17, 2008

News Analysis: SalesForce.com Refines SaaS Pricing and Software Development Tools

Salesforce.com announced a new pay-per-login utility pricing model for the Force.com Platform and the new Development-as-a-Service (DaaS) offering. Some quick thoughts:
  • Pricing by login entices casual users. Salesforce.com offers a lower cost alternative to companies that access applications in "the cloud". This new $5 per login pricing allows a users 5 logins per month at list prices. Promotional ricing is at $.99 per login until 2008. Traditional unlimited access pricing will be offered at $50 per user per month.
  • New pricing model increases pressure on competitors to improve ease of doing business. The SaaS pioneer once again changes the way enterprises access tools and applications. DaaS breaks down the cost barriers to innovation and provides a potentially effective forum for developers, companies, and customers.
  • DaaS is to Middleware as SaaS is to applications. With a set of API's and development tools designed for cloud computing, the tools provide users with access to the "stack" of database, logic, and user interface. Developers have full access to a wealth of tools including a new metadata API layer, Code Share, integrated development environment (IDE), and the SandBox.
The bottom line
Vendors too often focus on making their lives easier instead of their customers. Salesforce.com once again proves how software vendors can build customer centric offerings.

(The personal contents in this blog do not reflect the opinions, ideas, thoughts, points of view, and any other potential attribution of my current, past, or future employers.)
Copyrighted 2008 by R Wang. All rights reserved

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