About SaaS Opinions
This wiki has been set up as an experiment, initially intended to produce an "Opinion piece" for AccountingWEB. As well as getting a group of SaaS evangelists to collaborate on an article, AW will use this as a case study on use of wiki technology for collaboration. It might be that we'll use this area to collaborate on similar material in the future.

The article and comments that inspired this:
Opinion: Don't be frightened of software as a service. By Mark Holland

How to use this wiki:
In general use wiki pages for content that we are developing, or major static items such as John's guidelines for the article. Only use comments if we need a conversation around issues associated with the content. The help pages and videos accessed above and to the right will show you how to find your way around Wetpaint, but it is reasonably intuitive. (DT)

Editorial guidelines:

Title = The Financial Software as a Service Manifesto

That's my suggested headline - but feel free to change it. Further to my comments on the Aweb discussion, the SaaS evangelists have expended many thousands of words on our site on the subject and to be frank, I am beginning to view the debate a little like medieval theologists arguing about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.

One gripe I would have with blog-driven conversations is that they operate like mind maps, leading you off into all kinds of tributaries and diversions. they are not good at distilling knowledge and insight down into logical, easily digested formats that get the message across more powerfully. In this way, a well structured article is pretty much like a piece of computer code that programs the reader to think and behave in a certain way.

This is your mission - deliver me 500 words or so in an agreed, signed statement that tells accountants :

• what SaaS is
• why it should be important to the financial management community
• the benefits it can confer
• the risks (perceived and real) it may involve and why they should not be frightened of it
• what they should look for from a potential SaaS partner

(You can go up to more, if you need it, but the more verbiage, the less clear your argument will be, I suspect. If required, I am happy to run a series of articles on the topic - as typing the brief, I have already expanded the envelope a little)

I'm interested to hear Dennis' latest stance, which I take as a bit of a wake-up to the debate. It gels with my attitude that focusing on the tech is an age-old mistake. Experience suggests that the accounting software market has become very brand-driven and I don't see SaaS putting a dent in that yet. (JS)

Title = The Financial Software as a Service Manifesto part 2 (or Manifesto II: The Sequel)

JS to add guidance/mission for Part 2 here.


SaaS Evangelists - start here
I've followed John's brief as described above, and added a first draft "Aunt Sally" article on the page "Opinion: The Financial Software as a Service Manifesto". This is just a starting point that we can adapt or tear to shreds and re-write. Dennis has added his view on another page. We should try and combine his view as an indication of the way the market is heading. Please join in and suggest changes, either by changing the page directly, or by adding in page comments so we can have some dialogue over the suggestions. Create additional pages as you see fit if you think that will help the process. Thanks for joining in. (DT)