On-demand software and services have the potential of changing the way software is used and implemented. I believe in this fact so much that I founded and am now the CEO of InsideSales.com, a provider of an on-demand CRM application with integrated dialers and telephony tools. Despite all of the advantages that come with on-demand solutions, on-demand software faces one of the same major challenges as does premise based solutions - executive driven implementations.



What I mean by this, is that unless an implementation of a CRM application (or almost any new software implementation) is dictated, driven and defined from the executive level of an organization, it is likely to fail. Why is this? – No software will fit your needs exactly (neither premise based nor on-demand). When this happens (and it always will), the only way to save an implementation is to work around the problem. There are usually ways to make a solution do what you want, just not necessarily the way you want it to do it. However, at this same point, the person who just selected the produce or service is looking like they made a mistake. What's more, these issues in the software will often become the scapegoat for employee underperformance. At this point, the organization will usually either fight the product of service and not accept a different way if doing things for a while then scrap it, or just scrap the implementation at that point.

The solution for this is to have complete buy off of the product or service from the executive level of the organization. This will convey to the company that a persons job is not at risk for having selected the ‘wrong' solution, and that will send the message to the employees that the product or solution will not be an accepted excuse for underperformance.

What I am saying is nothing new. However, there is sometimes a cloud of excitement around the ‘on-demand' solutions; though they do offer to make many things to make an implementation go more smoothly. They are not the fix to all implementation problems.

On demand solutions are not impervious to all the problems premise based solutions experience.