SaaS: The New Distress Call

For business information-technology needs, software as a service (SaaS) applications are the wave of the future. Pro or con?

Imagine you just bought a new shirt. It fit great when you tried it on, but shortly afterward you realize it’s scratchy.

Now imagine you take it back. The clerk says, "Sorry, no returns. But we’ll make alterations for a fee." Alterations won’t help—the entire shirt feels scratchy. But you can’t afford to buy another. So you get used to the scratchy shirt. You never like it, and you complain about it.

Not fun.

That’s essentially what happens to many companies that buy software to handle crucial processes encompassing accounting, human resources, or customer service. The software initially may be customized at great expense. Neither the business nor the vendor, however, can tell how it will "fit" in the months to come.

 

Sure, the vendor can tweak the software—for a fee, every time. Eventually the vendor’s attentiveness and responsiveness will wane. So the company struggles with software that can’t adapt to evolving demands.

Reality check: Business is a moving target. Needs change. Good tools are solutions, never obstacles. That’s why software as a service (SaaS) makes sense.

Read more at: www.businessweek.com

A new version of Google Maps, do not need GPS to locate the user.

Google is this week lancing version 2 of the map application Google Maps for mobile phones. News in this version are among others the new beta of what Google is calling "My Location"-technology, witch is using ID-information from the base stations in the mobile infrastructure to calculate the users position.

This technology shall make it easier for users without GPS support to use the maps. Also Phones with GPS support can take advantage of the technology. Special on places with poor GPS signals, like inside buildings..

An add-on is that Google’s solutions demand less power than normal GPS receivers.

The program is taking information that is broadcasted from the base stations and analyze it with some special algorithm developed by Google. Google says that the company not is attach localization data witch can identify persons. The functionality will also be ease to turn of.

Most of the smart telephones will be able to use the “My Location- functionality. This includes all Blackberry units, all units with Symbian Series 3rd Edition, most of Windows Mobile units, new versions of Sony Ericsson units and some Motorola units.

Google Maps v2.0 can run on most phones with support for Java (J2ME).

Version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile is available for downloading her , directed from you phone or from the browser in your computer

Firefox Is Going Mobile

PC Magazine reports: "The developer team behind Firefox has announced plans to bring a mobile version of the technology to the market in 2008. 'People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it,' Mike Schroepfer, a Mozilla developer known as 'schrep,' wrote on the Mozillazine blog."

There are rumors that it's going to be available for Windows Mobile. We have not seen absolute confirmation of this fact.