Scheduling Chronicles

APIs the Key to Business Development and Customer Aquisition

The importance for SaaS vendors to have an API has never been greater than it is today.  That’s the latest from a panel of experts at the recently completed Interop Las Vegas event.

APIs are critical to any SaaS business with a channel partner strategy.  Why?  Because at the end of the day APIs accelerate the integration of SaaS applications with legacy solutions, therefore improving the adoption rate of those applications. 

As Network World notes in a recent article, SaaS applications can be an easier sell because customers traditionally don’t need (or require) the input of CIOs or the IT department – at least initialy – when reviewing potential solutions.  There’s no doubt that there’s involvement and, in fact, CIOs in particular are becoming more engaged earlier in the process as their awareness is heightened over SaaS applications.  But there’s certainly less resistance to new product adoption using the SaaS model than the traditional licensing model. 

When it comes to business development, however, an API is the backbone to a successful partnership.  In many cases, companies are looking for a variety of solutions to meet their needs but they also don’t want to have to manage a series of disparate systems as this creates a number of headaches across multiple departments.  An API can bridge this gap by integrating multiple applications that ultimately provide a more complete solution with greater "value add."  And the panelists at the Interop session claimed that using an API among partnering companies could cut the cost of acquiring customers for SaaS vendors which is a big plus since, as Tim Dilley of NetSuite notes "Customer acquisition is the biggest cost."

"'It's stunning to me the number of SaaS companies that don't even consider an API as part of the development cycle,' says Treb Ryan, session panelist and CEO of OpSource.  'Lord knows two Web developers in a garage know to put out an API. [For SaaS vendors not doing this it's] killing them.'" 

Energy management merges revenue goals with environmental goals

Analyst firm Aberdeen Group recently issued a report that outlines how organizations are using energy management to achieve their cost saving initiatives as well as to suport their corporate sustainability programs.  That's the latest from Plant Engineering.

The article goes into great detail about the Aberdeen report.  Specifically, it provides details into the processes and technology used by leading businesses to generate "quantifiable business value."  These leading businesses, identified as "Best-in-Class," had several characteristics in common:

• Best-in-Class companies are over three-times as likely as Laggards to invest in energy management solutions to gain real-time visibility into energy data

• Best-in-Class companies are over two-times as likely as Laggards to consider energy costs while scheduling production

• Best-in-Class companies are nearly four-times as likely as Laggards to consider energy efficiency while scheduling maintenance required actions 

To learn more about this Aberdeen report, click here.