Unless you have been living under a rock, you know exactly what Software As A Service is (SaaS, AKA Cloud Computing).  I wanted to put a different take on the SaaS acronym.  Instead of Software as a Service, I want to explore the concept of Software AND a Service as a business model.

Generally, a company is either a product company or a service company(I’m not referring to customer service).  This is because they identify themselves as the products/services they offer instead of identifying with whom they offer these products/services to.

A Different Spin

David Meerman Scott suggests that you build your websites with a buyer persona in mind.  I say that you should take it a step further.

For instance, why didn’t an accounting firm didn’t think to build a company like Intuit?  Accounting firms were already doing taxes for individuals and small businesses.  They knew the market better than Scott Cook did.  If they were successful, they had more resources than Scott Cook.  And yet, they either failed to do so, or failed to execute properly.

The reverse is also true.  Come tax season, countless accountants are re-upping their TurboTax licenses so that they can serve their customers.  It makes me wonder, how come Intuit hasn’t created additional revenue streams by partnering with accounting firms and CPAs or creating their own in-house accounting service?

Are the margins going to be smaller than just building technology?  Sure.  However, the upside of leveraging relationships with accountants is they are infinitely closer to the end user, allowing Intuit build a better product.  Oh, and the additional revenue won’t be a bad thing either.

I would love to hear your spin.