On Monday, January 4th, Salesforce.com’s customers experienced some unscheduled downtime. This is another glitch in the arena of Cloud Computing / SaaS (Software as a Service), which may make some already weary users even more uncomfortable. While the technology and the idea behind Saas are good, we need to remember that it is still relatively new, and there will be some challenges to work through before it can be perfected.

In a post last year we discussed Saas / Cloud Technology and would like to revisit it here…

Recently Microsoft® and their subsidiary Danger (a cloud computing service) sustained a major blow when their new Smartphone, Sidekick for T-Mobile, suffered a service outage causing an unknown number of users to lose all of their data. While at first it appeared as though the data would be unrecoverable, Microsoft was apparently able to create a tool with which customers can restore their contacts, however they are continuing to work around the clock to help customers restore the rest of their data including photos, notes, and to do lists. With this recent scare, added to the list of growing cloud computing glitches including: two outages for Google Gmail in September; PayPal’s crash in August; and Window’s Azure in March, users are concerned about data safety.

However, there are many advantages to using a hosted solution including web services integration, analytics, offline access, automated upgrades and real time reporting, to name a few. But there is good news! With Sage’s ‘Freedom of Choice’ option, you are able to move easily form hosted to on-site or even back to hosted again. Choose from an on-premise implementation which includes front to back office integration, the ability to support a large number of users, off-line access, and a virtually limitless scope for customization, or a hosted implementation which provides a risk free application with predictable budgeting and a limited amount of necessary configuration – and the added benefit of the option to convert to a server at any time.

Ultimately if the Cloud Computing and SaaS industries can work through the glitches they have been experiencing, they will be of great benefit to small businesses who can save a good deal of money with reduced costs on expensive hardware, software and maintenance. While the technology and the idea behind Saas are good, we need to remember that it is still relatively new, and there will be some challenges to work through before it can be perfected. It is also important to note that any company can experience similar operational problems internally. Hopefully Saas and other Cloud Vendors will be able to overcome their current challenges and increase their uptime rates, provide better information to consumers, and invite and act on customer feedback.

To read more about the Salesforce.com outage, click here.

In today’s competitive environment, sharing information and expertise can be critical in driving organizational success. To foster innovation, it’s important to create collaboration communities of employees, as well as customers and partners “outside the firewall.” The Culture of Collaboration is about changing business models and organizational DNA. Collaborative organizations promote sharing over hoarding, trust over fear and community over isolation. With these and other values, we can more easily replace linear, serial business models with concurrent, real-time approaches that are infinitely more compelling. Managers may blame the lack of collaboration on technological shortcomings. And, in fact, technology plays a role. In most cases, however, the overwhelming reason why collaboration eludes organizations involves culture. The fundamental premise is that maximizing time, talent and tools to create value requires a Culture of Collaboration.

An excellent example of a company with of this kind encouraged collaboration is 3M. Quite possibly best known for Post-its and tape, 3M is actually in the business of just about everything from health care, to safety, security and protection services, display and graphics and consumer, office business products and more. 3M is a science-based company producing thousands of imaginative products worldwide and bases their success largely on the collaboration of their employees, applying their technologies to meet real-world customer needs.

In an article on Businessweek.com, we found an inspiring story of how this encouragement produced some fantastic results when Sumita Mitra, a corporate scientist working in the research lab of 3M ESPE (the company’s dental products division) recognized a need in the marketplace for a dental composite material that was both strong as well as polishable. At that time there were materials that had one attribute or the other, but not both. Due to the encouraged collaboration environment at 3M, not only did Sumita find the information she needed, but she was actually able to meet another scientist, William Schultz who was able to help her develop the new product she had in mind.

Some of the great ideas implemented by 3M which allowed Sumita to achieve success included: a web-based social network that helped her find someone she could get more information from as well as the ability to work with a scientist from another department for several months in order to create the new product.

To read Business Week’s article, click here.
To read more about 3M, click here.