IBM (News - Alert) has established a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

This CoE will deploy decision-support tools and implementation assets developed specifically for the SaaS (News - Alert) platform, to help organizations worldwide in evaluating, implementing, and driving value from SaaS for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

 

The CoE, part of IBM Global Business Services and being developed by IBM's CRM practice, will bank upon IBM subject matter experts' experience in enabling the organizations to understand how SaaS differs from traditional software delivery models, and how to manage these differences.

 

Nelson Lin, chief information officer at Konica Minolta (News - Alert) Business Solutions, USA, said that as a company with a complex sales coverage model, his company stretched the capabilities of its SaaS platform, and the company ultimately succeeded because it approached the project as a business transformation, not simply a software implementation.

 

The IBM CoE for Saas has established an internal network of SaaS subject matter experts, so that various consultants on project teams can easily identify best practices and bring proven approaches to the implementation of SaaS solutions for their CRM clients.

 

Apart from this, it has developed evaluation models to assist with decision making and planning, and demonstration environments to preview SaaS capabilities. Relying upon IBM's cloud computing infrastructure, the CoE provides a uniform and consistent platform where IBM CRM experts worldwide can link together to rapidly deliver these services.

 

Daniel Hirschbuehler, global leader of customer relationship management at IBM Global Business Services, commented that the IBM CRM CoE will help organizations determine whether SaaS will be a suitable platform for driving CRM value, and then help them capture that value through implementation projects.

 

Hirschbuehler said that the company's goal is to be sure clients understand all the ramifications of these new delivery models, and help them choose the right one for their business.