Last day - March 4th

On Sunday Richard and I headed over to the hotel to pull together our final set of slides for the session and to work through exactly how we would run the workshop. Concerned that we might struggle to get a good debate going we ultimately generated 2 hours of content as slides and demos - for a 2.5 hour Workshop. This was clearly far too much if the folks in the room ended up engaged in the discussion - but we both felt we needed a "plan B" and in theory it would be easy enough to be flexible on the day.

We also decided to use pictures extensively in the slides and to avoid bullets lists for the bulk of the slides. This actually turned out rather easy to do thanks to http://search.live.com and is something we will likely both repeat in the future.

The final "plan" we came up with at 2:30am (!) on the Monday was:

  • PART1
    • "Survey the audience "- Richard
    • PPT: Introduction to SAAS - 30mins Richard
      • What it is. High level impact on Enterprise and ISV releationship
    • PPT/TALK: 3 view on SAAS
      • Why should an ISV do it- 10mins Eric
      • How can a hosters help make both successful - 10mins Will
      • Why should an Ent do it- 10mins Richard
    • NOTE: So far "all is good"
    • DISCUSSION: 30mins All  - Richard to kick off
      • The challenge statement "Every ISV application should be delivered as on-demand."
        • Foster a discussion of why people agree, why people do not agree
    • PPT: Advertise Part 2 Eric
      • Here about the Architectural impact on an ISVs solution
        • As an ISV this is guidance and we need your validation
        • As a customer you should know what to ask, what compromises there may be
      • What MS and Industry is doing
      • Outputs from Workshop
  • PART 2
    • PPT: Architectural Impact/Choices for an ISV - 10mins Eric
      • DEMO: LitwareHR - 20mins Eric
    • DISCUSSION: 10mins All - Eric to Kick off
      • The challenge statement "I'm 100% bought into multi-tenancy - I see no problem with it"
      • Capture the concerns expressed. Likely to includ
    • PPT: What is Microsoft up to - 5mins - All - Eric to create PPT
      • With the hosters, CRM "titan", OfficeLive, Livemeeting
      • SAAS companies out there using MS
        • MySpace etc
    • PPT: What is the industry up to - 5mins - All - Eric to create PPT (NOTE: ditto)
      • Salesforce with AppExchange, RightNow, Netsuite
      • Cast Iron appliance
      • SAP and SAGE
    • DISCUSSION: 10min All - Richard to kick off
      • The challenge statement "SAAS - Fact or fiction?"
      • Capture
        • Revisit any real world experiences from earlier
        • What else do you expect from Microsoft in this space
    • SUMMARISE:
      • PLAYBACK: Learning from the workshop 10min All - Richard to kick off
        • Top 3 things to tell your boss about SAAS if you are a customer
        • Top 3 things to tell your boss about SAAS if you are an ISV
        • Top reasons to do, top reasons not to do for ISV/Customer
      • PPT: Resources/Call to Action - Generated by All