Stages of Adoption
The company I work for currently deploys all of its code through a package based deployment. This means that when a client would like to take a new set of code, I login to their environment, and install the code that they are requesting manually. I learned of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model when my company decided they wanted to take a more continuous delivery approach with their software rather than a take it when you want it approach. A continuous delivery approach means that the code lives in a cloud and is sent down a pipeline to all clients in that pipeline at one time.
I see myself in all of the five stages of adoption with the SaaS model. We have so many different solutions that we offer so they are all in different stages of adoption. Most solutions that we offer are still in the knowledge/awareness phase. Clients really do not have the options of persuasion or decision, but we do spend those phases trying to get the clients to see that it is a good thing. There are some solutions that have gone live with the SaaS model and have been live for some time so they are in the confirmation/continuation phase. Most clients in stage five are happy with the change and we look forward to seeing the other solutions at that phase.
Adopter Categories
I would see my company implementing SaaS models as either Late Majority or Laggards. There are tons of companies now that use a continuous deployment strategy, ie, Windows forcing an update on your computer. With EMR software, the platforms and the code are so old that everything has to be uplifted and rewritten to make it work correctly.
An example of an innovation where I have been in a different stage is with the Amazon Halo (“Amazon Halo Fitness And Health Band”, 2021). The Halo is Amazon’s version of the fitness wearable devices. It differs from the others because in the app you can take photos of your body and it determines your BMI from the photos. It also has a feature where it listens to the words that you are saying and tries to determine your tone based off of them. At first I thought it was trying to determine tone based off of how my voice sounded but it really just determines it based off of the words I use. I would consider myself an early adopter for the Amazon Halo because I was able to get the device before it was released for everyone to purchase.
Sources:
Amazon Halo Fitness And Health Band. (2021). Retrieved 31 January 2021, from https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Halo-Fitness-And-Health-Band/dp/B07QKP8125
Hi Heather. Great post on SaaS. I wasn’t a big fan or an early adaptor of SaaS but cloud technology has taken over in the last 7 years and long term software solutions providers like Adobe moved everything to cloud based SaaS. I took a few courses awhile ago and needed to use Audition and Acrobat and realized purchasing a student subscription was cheaper and easier to use granted you still need to install the software client on your machine but with a fast internet connection it takes minutes to install apps and they work on the fly so no need for a reboot of your computer.