[SoftTalker]

Small business practices used to work for small enterprise sales, e.g. a manager or individual can buy if the sale is within the limits of their credit card or discretionary budget.

But now software sales to enterprise has to run through a lot of security and audit and configuration management approval, the days where an individual or group within a larger enterprise can just buy and use software are pretty much over.

[ethbr1]

SaaS is a huge part of this.

When software was installable on-prem and didn't communicate outside the corporate network, more things could fly.

SaaS brings data classification, data residency, network security adjustments, and a whole host of other enterprise stakeholder opinions.

[pclmulqdq]

I sort of assume that when you aren't a SaaS and you aren't phoning home, the old rules still basically apply. However, making SaaS the normal model of business closes this off for many companies.

[pm90]

This is surprising as I thought the whole premise of SaaS was you just bring your credit card and bam youve got access.

[antonvs]

That only works for companies that are small enough not to have stringent security requirements, and that aren’t covered by any regulations about things like data residency.

Here’s a rule of thumb: if the saas company is much bigger than your company, chances are you can easily use them, because they’ll have all the necessary compliance boxes checked, documented, and certified. If they’re much smaller than your company, it may be a different story.