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■COVER STORY
IT processes
at your service
ALTHOUGH cited as ‘the next big thing’, SaaS is cur- commercial model, users pay to access the software
rently experiencing slow adoption, writes John but do not own any form of licence in the conventional
Kennedy. John Murphy, director of A&O Systems + sense,” Murphy explains. “The responsibility for
Services in Ireland, says that SaaS uptake is “slow, providing the necessary hardware, storage, security
but it’s the same everywhere at the moment”. and backup infrastructure rests with the service
SaaS is a way of using software without the costs provider, and this is included as part of the monthly
and complexities typically associated with an onsite or annual charge. Of most significance, however, is
implementation. A&O recently signed a partnership the fact that SaaS vendors also retain responsibility
deal with
Service-now.com, a provider of on-demand for applying service packs, patches and upgrades.
IT service management (ITSM), to deliver a new suite This further removes a major source of management
of ITSM software offered as a service via the internet. and support overhead from the end user.”
Established by IT veteran, Fred Luddy, Service- According to Murphy, paradoxically, traditional
now.com has taken Web 2.0 technologies, ITIL V3 ITSM tools require significant investment of time,
standards, plus a SaaS delivery model and packaged money and resources to implement and maintain.
them into an affordable, enterprise-scalable applica- “This places a burden on the very function that the
tion set. tools are supposed to be helping. As a result, a
According to Murphy, the benefits of SaaS typically business case can all too quickly become compro-
include lower upfront capital investment, as well as a mised by added complexity and cost.”
reduction in the cost and effort of ongoing mainte- Murphy says half the battle with properly managing
nance and support. Incremental benefits can also be IT infrastructure and applications is adhering to best
derived by avoiding hardware and data centre costs, practices. “However, the other half is putting technol-
improved service continuity and disaster recovery. ogy in place to automate, monitor and speed up prob-
Compared to traditional IT delivery methods, the lem resolution. We believe that an IT operation needs
service model can result in savings of between 50pc as much help with processes as it does technology,
and 80pc, Murphy claims. and that technology without best practices will
“By adopting a ‘pay-as-you-go’ subscription-based ultimately fail.”
32 Knowledge Ireland September 2008
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