Software as a Service, Platform as a Service

I just got back from a Salesforce developer event today.

Just wanted to open it up for discussion, how do you think the SaaS model, compounded with the recent developments with Chimes, affect the VMS and staffing industries?

My two cents on this trend, and I hope you will discuss: emerging platforms make it relatively easier to develop and deploy new custom applications. Several things can happen:

1) Staffing firms that didn’t have proprietary end-to-end solution will now have the opportunity to offer it to their clients as development costs dramatically go down.

2) Clients will have a lot more choices than they currently do.

3) End-to-end/VMS solutions will be a standard offering from staffing firms. There will be greater weight placed on staffing than the technology piece.

4) Eventually, clients will take advantage of the PaaS model and require vendors to work with their respective platforms.

5) Which brings us back to square one. Staffing.

Just my two cents.

Any thoughts?

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January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Software, VMS 

Comments

4 Responses to “Software as a Service, Platform as a Service”

  1. Brandon Gallagher on January 18th, 2008 4:43 pm

    I agree that it’s getting easier to develop and deploy VMS applications. By now, the VMS process is pretty generic, and most of the products do basically the same thing. Staffing firms or MSP’s can use one of many off the shelf systems, or if their process is more unique, they can build and maintain their own system without a lot of overhead, especially if they integrate existing technologies, such as resume parsers and job board aggregators.

    Since technology isn’t really much of a differentiator anymore, it comes down to how the MSP or staffing firm uses the technology. The technology is only there to support and streamline the efforts of the people involved, not to replace them.

  2. lisa on January 18th, 2008 9:34 pm

    Thanks for the comment, Brandon.

  3. Benjamin Adegoke on May 1st, 2008 2:07 pm

    Hi Lisa, I’m new to blogging but I’ve been enjoying the postings since yesterday when I stumbled upon your site. I do agree with Brandon that most VMS process is generic, and most of the products do basically the same thing.

    I’ve studied Staffing and VMS for a while and the most inhibiting factor to VMS was cost (#1), and usability (#2). Cost in the sense that the good ones are too expensive and are geared toward the big staffing companies thus isolating the smaller mom & pop firms which actually makes up a large population of the staffing industry. And usability because most (even the best ones) have too much features that easily overwhelms even the most technological advanced staffing firms.

    Before I completed my doctoral program last year, I started my own staffing software company to address both issues (I think). I came up with a simple approach that empowers both the staffing firms and their clients, maximizes efficiency of daily staffing operations, simple to use and affordable.

    I’ve spent the last 2 years financing and developing this software while collaborating with a medium staffing firm and it’s now ready for marketing. I would gladly welcome inputs and guidance from you and your bloggers.

  4. name on July 19th, 2008 11:13 am

    neploxo tak, i`m glad,

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