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$10K seems like a lot. If Slack is going to round out at $100/a/staff member ... then how on earth does that number creep to $10K? I think there might be some

by jariel 7y ago

$10K seems like a lot. If Slack is going to round out at $100/a/staff member ... then how on earth does that number creep to $10K? I think there might be some 'crossing of streams' in this data, for example, perhaps they're including general services like AWS in there, which I'm not sure makes sense because conflating product-related IT charges with other services isn't helpful. Also relevant is the fact that said AWS product or IT charges would be borne anyhow. I think dividing between 'productivity/IT' kind of spending, and product-related services would reallly help, also, comparing that $10K to historical, non-SaaS numbers would help as well.

bluedino 7y ago
>> If Slack is going to round out at $100/a/staff member ... then how on earth does that number creep to $10K? ERP software like NetSuite usually isn't more than $2,500 a year. Add in an identity provider (Okta), Email/office (O365), Chat (Slack), CRM (Salesforce), Conferencing (Zoom), Storage (DropBox), Payroll (ADP), VPN... Even the enterprise plans for those aren't much more than $50/month.
_jal 7y ago
Slack costs peanuts, comparatively. If your company has more than around 100 people, there's a good chance your employer uses Netsuite; ask around about what they're paying for that. Salesforce gets pretty spendy, too.
deleted 7y ago
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ChrisBland 7y ago
I think you're missing out on a few of the big SaaS players here and then some of the smaller ones you never see if you're not in that dept. Most companies will have some CRM (salesforce, dynamics...), an ERP system (Workday, NetSuite...) and some marketing system (Hubspot, Marketo...) each of those will cost you a few thousand. Then there are the smaller tools, HR / Recruiting, T&E, team planning (monday, pivotal...) and finally Email/Calendar - just look at what GSuite costs. All of those costs add up quickly for the rank and file employees.
Androider 7y ago
There's usually a few core systems like the CRM, the marketing suite, ERP (in bigger companies) that cost literally magnitudes more than your Slack's and G Suites. Even in a small company you may be spending most of your SaaS budget on just the first two. Not that companies tend to have a SaaS budget, it's more like a Sales budget, a Marketing budget, Engineering budget etc. That's why sales and marketing doesn't mind spending 5-6 digits on their software without sweating it if there's clear ROI. Hey, it's probably still cheaper than a single rep or two. If anything, Engineering seriously undervalues their time and overvalues building their own worse versions of popular SaaS software (no, your ad-hoc Lambda function hooked up to send an SMS is not better than PagerDuty), I see it all the time. Software that saves you an hour a month is probably worth at least $1K+/year as an engineer in the US, and most engineering tools are way cheaper than that.
runforthehills 7y ago
We just upped our lowest tier prices to over 10k a year and are still seeing companies falling over themselves to sign up and implement. I think it's 100% about how much value people see in something.

by jariel 7y ago

bluedino 7y ago

>> If Slack is going to round out at $100/a/staff member ... then how on earth does that number creep to $10K? ERP software like NetSuite usually isn't more than $2,500 a year. Add in an identity provider (Okta), Email/office (O365), Chat (Slack), CRM (Salesforce), Conferencing (Zoom), Storage (DropBox), Payroll (ADP), VPN... Even the enterprise plans for those aren't much more than $50/month.

_jal 7y ago

Slack costs peanuts, comparatively. If your company has more than around 100 people, there's a good chance your employer uses Netsuite; ask around about what they're paying for that. Salesforce gets pretty spendy, too.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ChrisBland 7y ago

I think you're missing out on a few of the big SaaS players here and then some of the smaller ones you never see if you're not in that dept. Most companies will have some CRM (salesforce, dynamics...), an ERP system (Workday, NetSuite...) and some marketing system (Hubspot, Marketo...) each of those will cost you a few thousand. Then there are the smaller tools, HR / Recruiting, T&E, team planning (monday, pivotal...) and finally Email/Calendar - just look at what GSuite costs. All of those costs add up quickly for the rank and file employees.

Androider 7y ago

There's usually a few core systems like the CRM, the marketing suite, ERP (in bigger companies) that cost literally magnitudes more than your Slack's and G Suites. Even in a small company you may be spending most of your SaaS budget on just the first two. Not that companies tend to have a SaaS budget, it's more like a Sales budget, a Marketing budget, Engineering budget etc. That's why sales and marketing doesn't mind spending 5-6 digits on their software without sweating it if there's clear ROI. Hey, it's probably still cheaper than a single rep or two. If anything, Engineering seriously undervalues their time and overvalues building their own worse versions of popular SaaS software (no, your ad-hoc Lambda function hooked up to send an SMS is not better than PagerDuty), I see it all the time. Software that saves you an hour a month is probably worth at least $1K+/year as an engineer in the US, and most engineering tools are way cheaper than that.

runforthehills 7y ago

We just upped our lowest tier prices to over 10k a year and are still seeing companies falling over themselves to sign up and implement. I think it's 100% about how much value people see in something.