With the sudden shutdown of Bench, a software as a service accounting and tax platform, comes affirmation of what old schoolers knew all along. Its simply a bad idea.
Software that is owned and runs on locally owned hardware has always been a solid choice. Safeguarding data with offsite solutions was never difficult and redundant hardware made it a rock solid approach. The drawback was a requirement for dedicated staff – something companies simply didn’t want to pay for. Many were sold the utopian SAS concept which promised dedicated staff, hardware, and software without human resources expenses or responsibility. Bean counters could easily show cash flow benefits due to staff cuts and almost everyone ignored potential risks.
SAS meant trusting someone else for security, assumed organizations would always be run appropriately, and avoided realities such as the Bench shutdown. The tradeoff and short term gains were just too enticing despite old schoolers warnings of long term danger.
Some have also discovered its rarely as cheap as the sales pitch and enticing promotions claimed. Once a company has transitioned and the initial contract expires, the price goes up along with the difficulty of moving to another provider. To make matters worse, the organization no longer has the hardware and expertise to move back. Essentially held ransom unless willing to invest heavily to regain what they had or get help moving to yet another provider.
Yes, it costs to have your own resources up front but in the end the SAS model maybe just as much with even less flexibility and more headaches especially when a provider just shuts the door.