The Main Impedance to SaaS: One Just Doesn't Know What One Doesn't Know!

I can very well understand why Microsoft is not jumping on the SaaS bandwagon, but can't figure out why some other applications don't.  My only explanation is: They just don't get it.

Yes - Microsoft has been struggling to deal with SaaS and cloud computing.  Google has been pushing cloud computing, and a whole bunch of companies are now providing their software in a SaaS model.  You can even run TurboTax (Intuit) on a "cloud".  Microsoft's struggle happens to be because they would end up alienating their own franchise on Windows and Office.  They're seeing the trends and have had some offerings through SaaS, but it's a complex situation for them.  That - I get!

Someone suggested to me that I should be using stamps.com for its convenience.  So I went ahead and signed up on their website, put in my profile, my credit card number, etc.  I was then taken to a window to download their application.  That was the last thing I wanted to do, but since it does offer certain conveniences, I bit the bullet and moved forward.  The next thing I noticed was that an .exe file was being downloaded on my computer.  That's normally not a problem, but I happen to do most of my business on a Macintosh, and an .exe wouldn't do anything for me!  I looked all over the website for a Mac OS version of the application but didn't find one.  To cut the story short, I ended up canceling my account shortly after.  I'm not going to go into how/why I was being charged automatically for months for my membership - that's a whole different story - though it does go to shed some light on their concept about "user-experience". 

I couldn't figure out why a platform such as stamps.com which does have a large user-base would not go the SaaS route.  From the software development standpoint, a SaaS implementation would have almost the the same "backend" and perhaps even a slightly simpler "frontend".  From a business and market reach standpoint, a SaaS implementation would give them far greater access to users, and provides them with a better user-experience.  The only explanation that I could think of was:  Stamps.com just didn't know they could do it this way!!!

I have seen this situation in multiple examples and it all leads to not-knowing-better ("ignorance" is a stronger word than I would want to use).  Software development teams that are comfortable with desktop applications continue to recommend it to their users.   After all, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem in the world looks like a nail.