Go Hybrid (no not talking about the Prius)

Dennis picked up on this article by Bob Warfield, CEO Callidus Software. Warfield lays out a great argument for why On Demand vs. on premise doesn't have to be a religious debate. Should vendors offer On Demand or on premise? Yes. Should customers go On Demand or on premise? Yes.

What is the right strategy? Go hybrid. That’s the conclusion many established software vendors are coming to. Offering both on-premise and on-demand solutions enables vendors to best meet the immediate and long-term business needs of their customers - and avoids the religious fervor that can sidetrack many sales efforts.

First time this really hit home was last year at the Office 2.o conference when I was listening to Microsoft's Technical Evengelist Don Campbell.
I believe he said something like "the user decides what's online and what's offline." Yes. There are some things I may not want outside the firewall.

• Microsoft is pursuing this hybrid path with things such as Sharepoint Server and Excel Services

SAP is also pursuing a hybrid strategy. A great example is the CRM On Demand product. The On Demand version has real time integration with the on premise CRM product (mySAP CRM) as well as the ERP product. Also, if a division or subsidiary wants to start with the On Demand version and later go on premise, it shouldn't be too hard to do so given that the On Demand version is based on the architecture, data model, and user interface of the mySAP CRM application.

[SaaS][On Demand][Bob Warfield][Callidus Software][Hybrid][Don Campbell][Sharepoint Server][Excel Services][SAP CRM On Demand]