Buyer SaaS/Cloud Expectations: It’s a Different World Than It Was Two Years Ago

A new Strategic Perspective from Saugatuck Technology uses our latest data and analysis to show how, and why, buyer/user expectations of benefits from SaaS/Cloud have changed dramatically since 2010. The net of it is as follows:

What is expected of every solution and provider is a combination of cost reduction and speed to implementation. If a provider can’t demonstrate those two things in any situation, they can’t get a seat at the table.
Meanwhile, almost all expectations of business improvement from SaaS/Cloud are also rising quickly, implying that buyers are not only much more comfortable with SaaS/Cloud than ever before, they are buying and using it in more areas – and therefore are more susceptible to disappointment when their expectations are not met.

The impact for providers is a need for new and different types of partnerships, from solution architecture and engineering that enable more agile and adaptive development and delivery, to micro-niche developers and providers able to deliver complementary capabilities not thought of when most solutions were engineered. Customers may not swap out SaaS/Cloud offerings that don’t grow to meet their expectations, but they will turn to other, complementary providers if the original provider can’t step up.

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Bruce Guptill

Most research firms can explain what happened; some can explain what is happening. Saugatuck Technology excels at understanding both in order to explain what else is likely to occur, and to guide its clients toward the actions that deliver them the greatest business value while enabling the safest business path.
To accomplish this, and to continually improve the value of Saugatuck’s work to clients in a Cloud-obscured marketplace, Saugatuck SVP and Head of Research Bruce Guptill pushes his team to continually re-examine and re-invent the company’s research programs to focus more on the costs, benefits, effects, and value of an ever-changing mix of technologies and providers in different markets.
Guptill’s own technology and business background laid a solid foundation for such a flexible, yet stable, approach to IT research value for clients. His technology research work includes mobility, collaborative IT, telecom, data networking, web commerce, and electronic marketplaces; his research work for enterprise IT and business clients includes return on IT investment, total cost of IT ownership, and business planning for IT. His research and guidance on vendor channel management, market identification and development, and buyer behavior analysis has enabled hundreds of established and startup IT providers to find, enter, and profit from new and traditional markets, while helping to guide user enterprise leaders toward optimal IT procurement and vendor management.
Guptill’s research background includes several years as a VP and research director with Gartner, senior positions with TeleChoice and Robert Frances Group, and editorial work within the IDG companies, including four years as a writer and editor with NetworkWorld. His marketing business focus was honed as VP of marketing for firms ranging from custom development providers to non-IT firms in aviation and other industries. His sales and channel experience started by traveling with a sample bag, then working for IT VARs, then advising telecom and wireless carriers on partner choices, to developing partner programs for traditional and Cloud-based software development firms and ISVs.
Guptill holds an MBA in marketing and finance, and a BA in the psychology and business of mass media communication. He is licensed to fly airplanes, drive boats, and sell houses; he is also a certified baseball coach, serves on the boards of regional civic groups, and is a serial home renovator. Married with three children, Guptill resides on Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, and is a lifelong fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

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