What's Up Dave Duffield's Sleeve?
I met last night with a contact from Accenture (Bob Suh, the Global Managing Director for Growth and Strategy) who is talking to the new company, which as one of its offerings will provide (surprise!) an on-demand application for handling human-resource tasks. Here's some more tidbits from a blog about the venture capital world written by Jeff Nolan of SAP Ventures.
Suh says Accenture's clients increasingly are adopting the on-demand approach although few specific companies have developed a following or reputation, in his mind, other than Salesforce.com, about which he is pretty positive. These offerings are great for niche applications. Given his name, Suh figures Duffield's latest venture could make a splash and turn the enterprise software market on its ear.
How can the channel play a role? Mainly in integrating this stuff into clients' existing architectures. Suh sees a play for Accenture and other integrators with vertical development expertise on Salesforce.com's new AppExchange. If a VAR structures its contract right, it can take the core component of a custom project and distribute it more broadly.
Where do you stand on the software as a service movement? Send your feedback and ideas to [email protected].