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Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

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Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#351

Post by pageandrew »

analog31 wrote: post #346
SonicScrub wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That number doesn't surprise me. Your quick $1000-$2000 estimate is probably accurate for a typical office worker, but the more specialized positions skew the average. I work in mechanical/aerospace engineering for a large company. A lot of the software we use is very specialized and very costly. Here's the yearly costs from the top 4 softwares I use based on a quick google search: 1) $35,000 2) $15,000 3) $10,000 4)…

Even for a typical office worker, based on my experience at a large company, there might be 10 to 20 enterprise apps that include: * Tracking work hours * Communicating within teams * Entering and managing yearly performance reviews * Managing IT tickets * Catching spyware, phishing, etc. * Key and click logging * Personality and other screenings for job candidates * Health insurance management * Jira being used outs…

Key and click logging?!?!?

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#352

Post by kunglao »

stiray wrote: post #245
JakeWesorick wrote: post #11

Lots of the SaaS products we use mean we don't have to hire more employees. So I'm not sure if dollars per employee is a meaningful stat.

Just an interesting idea, if no one wants to have employees (lets face it, they are a mess, they waste oxygen, they fart, producing CO2, are corona virus friendly, produce road accidents... and you need to pay them so they can live) maybe everyone is having wrong bussiness plan. Whole world should transform to produce only SAAS products for SAAS people as they are the only customers who will in long term still have m…

Hmm, there are many companies where what you proposed make sense. But there are also many that I think it's hard to debate that SaaS doesn't offer value.

Running the mail server is simple enough, but then you need to set up storage. Emails are sensitive and often can't afford to lose. Then you need to set up backs, monitor and regularly test DR scenarios to see if your failovers, recovery plans are operational. Of course you need to maintain your data centers as well if you don't want subscriptions.

Then think of login. Employees don't want to log in to 15 different software. So they are going to ask for SSO. You are going to have to deploy and maintain something like active directory. Sometimes they need to be maintained across networks between different offices that are far from each other. After all this, you will still have to buy support packages from principle vendors for times when things go wrong (and they go wrong all the time when you host your own stuff). Shit escalates mate.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#353

Post by soapboxrocket »

SonicScrub wrote: post #265
crazygringo wrote: post #247

Look, either it's worth it or it's not. Costs may be soaring, but companies wouldn't be buying them if they weren't providing more value than they cost. But: > enterprise companies are spending an average of more than $10,000 per employee per year on software Sorry but I can't wrap my head around this. Is that really accurate? Between Office and cloud and HR/payroll and a few other tools I can imagine $1,000 /year. A…

That number doesn't surprise me. Your quick $1000-$2000 estimate is probably accurate for a typical office worker, but the more specialized positions skew the average. I work in mechanical/aerospace engineering for a large company. A lot of the software we use is very specialized and very costly. Here's the yearly costs from the top 4 softwares I use based on a quick google search: 1) $35,000 2) $15,000 3) $10,000 4)…

CATIA is a beast of a bill!

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#354

Post by IggleSniggle »

analog31 wrote: post #346
SonicScrub wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That number doesn't surprise me. Your quick $1000-$2000 estimate is probably accurate for a typical office worker, but the more specialized positions skew the average. I work in mechanical/aerospace engineering for a large company. A lot of the software we use is very specialized and very costly. Here's the yearly costs from the top 4 softwares I use based on a quick google search: 1) $35,000 2) $15,000 3) $10,000 4)…

Even for a typical office worker, based on my experience at a large company, there might be 10 to 20 enterprise apps that include: * Tracking work hours * Communicating within teams * Entering and managing yearly performance reviews * Managing IT tickets * Catching spyware, phishing, etc. * Key and click logging * Personality and other screenings for job candidates * Health insurance management * Jira being used outs…

> * Key and click logging

What kind of dystopian Corporate hellscapes have you worked in?

This is totally unacceptable. I would not submit myself to that kind of scrutiny or micromanagement, no matter how benign the intentions of it's implementor. Nothing good can come of it.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#355

Post by carterehsmith »

tunesmith wrote: post #341
Rury wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'd agree. I find SaaS is just outsourcing, and for whatever reason, management types need to come to understand that outsourcing is not always cheaper. It entirely depends on the circumstances. Most businesses typically see IT as a cost center because they don't understand what IT is. The ones who outsource don't realize that a highly competent IT staff will both cost a lot of money and appear like they aren…

This is also part of why I find B2C SaaS so aggravating. Sometimes it feels like there's not a more effective way to get in the way of my retirement plans. I mean, sure, in the prime of my career I like buying a new laptop every year or two, but there will come a time when I want to stop spending and just hold on to my assets until they break. You can't do that with yearly software licenses or subscription services.

Sure but you will still be paying property taxes, utilities bills, food and so on. It is not clear just how one would just "stop spending". Unless you want to spend your retirement foraging for food, sleeping under the bridge etc.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#356

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #354
analog31 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even for a typical office worker, based on my experience at a large company, there might be 10 to 20 enterprise apps that include: * Tracking work hours * Communicating within teams * Entering and managing yearly performance reviews * Managing IT tickets * Catching spyware, phishing, etc. * Key and click logging * Personality and other screenings for job candidates * Health insurance management * Jira being used outs…

> * Key and click logging What kind of dystopian Corporate hellscapes have you worked in? This is totally unacceptable. I would not submit myself to that kind of scrutiny or micromanagement, no matter how benign the intentions of it's implementor. Nothing good can come of it.

Some people do. I still blame the human for the software we have today.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#357

Post by IggleSniggle »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #338
leetcrew wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if GP works in aerospace, those are very likely per-seat license costs.

Completely out of curiousity -- what software costs $35k per seat per year??

VxWorks is about that I believe. When you reach these kinds of price tags though it's hard to evaluate them on a per seat basis, because they tend to come with built-in consultants, etc.

CryEngine 3 is notoriously $1.2 million, but I believe that's a "total cost" rather than a per seat style license.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#358

Post by mint2 »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #254
crazygringo wrote: post #247

Look, either it's worth it or it's not. Costs may be soaring, but companies wouldn't be buying them if they weren't providing more value than they cost. But: > enterprise companies are spending an average of more than $10,000 per employee per year on software Sorry but I can't wrap my head around this. Is that really accurate? Between Office and cloud and HR/payroll and a few other tools I can imagine $1,000 /year. A…

> but companies wouldn't be buying them if they weren't providing more value than they cost Companies do stupid shit all the time. It only takes one person with authority to spend money to sign up for a service. Personally I've seen many software subscriptions that are complete garbage.

And don’t forget the vendor lock in.

why change what works and redo all the work done in that system. It would require a huge expense and time cost to port to another platform.

And there’s the fact that longterm employees and more importantly managers are likely familiar with the old software and will see little reason to even test the waters with something else.

And that’s how programs like emblem stay around.

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#359

Post by hexl »

crazygringo wrote: post #247

Look, either it's worth it or it's not. Costs may be soaring, but companies wouldn't be buying them if they weren't providing more value than they cost. But: > enterprise companies are spending an average of more than $10,000 per employee per year on software Sorry but I can't wrap my head around this. Is that really accurate? Between Office and cloud and HR/payroll and a few other tools I can imagine $1,000 /year. A…

> companies wouldn't be buying them if they weren't providing more value than they cost

At first, but value may decrease in time and companies will still be dependent because it may not be possible to take the data out, logistics, contracts, bureaucracy, etc...

Re: Companies fret as costs soar for software subscriptions (2019)

#360

Post by earthshot »

prepend wrote: post #350
adjkant wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sheets will fit a lot of excel use cases for those not doing serious heavy lifting with it. FWIW, I'm a software engineer and our IT department actually let people opt out of Microsoft office if they weren't using it to save money, and encouraging people to use Google Docs/Sheets (as most do anyways). I'm guessing a good deal of software engineers did that but there are plenty of non-engineers that probably also did…

I am a big fan of sheets, but it is not Excel. Some of the functions are missing after all these years, not to mention charts and pivots. I think Google gave up on trying to compete with excel on features.

Sheets has had pivots for years. It's become very rare that Sheets doesn't have a feature I want, whereas it's become more common that I'm in Excel and wish I could use Sheets' query function.
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