SaaS: You Have Questions. We Have Answers.

When you wake up tomorrow morning, there will be one question you can stop asking yourself: Is cloud for real?

While end users have not yet flocked to or embraced the idea, Tier 1 communications service providers and other cloud providers are going to make it work come hell or high water based on the investments they are making in data centers around the world. But they aren't the only ones. The cloud and one of its key components--software-as-a-service--has a lot to offer Tier 2 and Tier 3 providers as well, maybe more. And there are solutions providers just as determined to bring those benefits to this sector as well.

So there are only two other questions you still need to ask yourself when you think about the cloud—and given you are in the BSS/OSS community when you think about cloud you think about software-as-a-service (SaaS): Will it save me money and will it help me generate more of it? The answers to these questions will lead you down one of two paths, and based on what makes sense for your company there are no wrong choices—at least in the short term.

If the answer to one or the other is affirmative and that affirmation addresses a critical need for your business, you will find yourself embarking on one helluva transformation thrill ride. If the answers come back negative, you will find yourself secure in the knowledge that you are currently doing the best for your business and embarking on only a slightly less thrilling mission to maximize your operations. Either way is fine.

But if SaaS is in your future, from the morning after that decision and every morning for the foreseeable future you will wake with new questions: What now? Where do I begin? What do I need to be on the lookout for? How secure is the cloud? What the heck is a subscription model? How much control do I retain? How can my SaaS provider help me maintain differentiation? What should be my first step in transitioning to the cloud? How long is the transition time frame? What are the risks and the real benefits, not just the ones I read in the marketing material? What is the next step and the step after that? What if I don’t know the right questions?

That’s why we at B/OSS created the Advantage SaaS conference, to help you answer these questions. Advantage SaaS is a one-day conference in Chicago on October 10^th (it won’t be 100 degrees then.) We are bringing together people from the cloud trenches who can provide real-world answers to your important questions about SaaS. People like:

• Rob Ewing, senior vice president of systems and technology at Intercall
• Rick Lievano, worldwide industry technology strategist for the Microsoft Telecommunications Sector
• Tom Stergios, vice president and general manager at Advanced Technology Group
• Marc Hayden, executive vice president of the client services business unit at CHR Solutions.
• Michael Holleran, senior product manager of SaaS Operations at IDI Billing
• Brian Bell, CMO at Zuora
• Jeff Meyers, vice president of global systems development at Savvis, a CenturyLink Company
• Maureen Moore, vice president of consumer services, GCI Alaska
• Jeff Betteker, chief operating office at One Source Networks 
• Dan Morris, senior director at Primedia

Each one of these speakers has direct, hands-on experience deploying SaaS-based solutions for both their back office and for their enterprise customers. They have learned very important lessons about what can be a frightening and risky process—for those who have not asked the right questions in advance.

So if SaaS and cloud have risen beyond your dreams and are a strong potential for your future, you should consider getting yourself in front of these folks who can not only answer your questions about SaaS, but tell you what questions you are forgetting to ask. And they can answer those, too.

Here is the link.