Renting KM applications in the CLOUD

Every single time buyers take the SaaS route, they still need to carefully gather requirements, design a service that meets their specific requirements and not only roll it out in a considered and managed way, but also ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the firm as requirements change over time. Swiping a credit card and having instant access to a KM “system” is only the beginning. So it also benefits all concerned if SaaS vendors help in that dialogue, since too many of them prefer to maintain the illusion that with SaaS, all the buyer needs to do is pay the subscription fee and all will be well.

For some readers, this might all seem like common sense, but at Digital Clarity Group, we regularly see buyers skipping phases, accessing inappropriate software, accepting the seller’s spurious claims of instant success and ending up in an expensive and messy situation. SaaS can be a good thing; the cloud has many benefits, but business needs and planning and configuring and changing an organization to leverage new technology remain as difficult as ever.

Be picky and proactive

Let’s be clear that the technology available today for KM (largely via SaaS) is in the main excellent. It is a huge improvement over earlier KM offerings, and whether you look at Jive, Slack, Bloomfire, Redbooth, IBM Connections or the multitude of others out there, it’s pretty darn good. The technology is not the critical failure point these days; it’s the application of that technology that falls apart.

A good consulting partner complements the needs of both the technology vendor and buyer, and you likely need one early, a partner that understands how to manage the change process and can get you up and running effectively as soon as possible. So the question is how to choose or recommend the right partner? I wouldn’t recommend that you ask the SaaS vendor for a recommendation because the reality is that vendors seldom have good insight into their channel. They tend to measure success in dollars, not on performance and the quality of the work. In many cases, a vendor will simply recommend a partner based on limited criteria—whether it is a premier partner of some sort and its geographic location (are they close to you?).

As a buyer, you need to be pickier than that. You should be proactive and ensure that the partner you choose not only has the right technical skills to meet the business requirements, but also is trustworthy and someone with whom you actually want to work. Some partners will do a poor job, drag things out and charge a fortune; others will do a much better job and honor the budget and timeframe. Remember, you will likely be spending a lot of time with the partner and success or failure in the project is largely dependent upon that relationship.

Some progress

Realistically, all concerned need to play a part to decrease the disconnect among buyer, vendor and partner, yet in the SaaS world progress is slow and at best patchy. Too many SaaS vendors continue to sell the my-technology-is-a-silver-bullet deal. However, some progress is being made. Adobe, Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, Box, Dropbox and others are now proactively looking at not just the revenue generated by their channel partners. They are also looking at how their partners operate with buyers and working to have more insight and control over the quality of those relationships.

Yet SaaS vendors, particularly KM-related startups, have yet to fully realize that building a base of loyal, happy and invested customers takes much more time and effort than providing simple billing and a cloud service. Until then, our advice is to take the selection of a partner to implement your KM solution (and it likely will be in the cloud via SaaS) as importantly, if not more importantly, than your choice of technology.