Unofficially, there are at least five others I can name: iPaaS, dPaaS, SECaaS, MBaaS and BaaS. Confusingly, BaaS may refer to backend as a service or blockchain as a service. I can’t get too excited about that, but do enjoy my count of five extending to six.
I would like to add another lesser known one into the mix: user experience as a service, or UXaaS for short (pronounced U-X-aas). It’s with mixed feelings I publicize UXaaS knowing the EaaS market (everything as a service; is that seven?) is bloated but having studied the existing taxonomies I just can’t seem to find a suitable alternative.
It’s a cloud user experience that replaces or supplements the user interface of an existing application. There is an abundance of software such as ageing enterprise applications (like Oracle E-Business Suite) that are powerful yet let down by a poor user experience. UXaaS lets you retain that power but replaces the dinosaur user interface with a modern cloud user experience.
UXaaS is not SaaS. With SaaS, the provider manages the underlying infrastructure such as networks, servers, operating systems and storage. With UXaaS, the provider is only responsible for maintaining the infrastructure related to the user experience itself. The consumer remains responsible for managing the infrastructure of the underlying application (which may be on-premise, private cloud or SaaS).
It’s also not PaaS. Whilst UXaaS may contain a platform component such as the ability to personalize, configure, customize or extend the user experience, it is characterized by out-the-box apps. PaaS, by contrast, may contain pre-packaged templates but is centered around software developers building custom applications.
The provider is responsible for managing the infrastructure related to the user experience. For example, at Applaud we:
A user experience that is hosted on-premise cannot, by definition, be UXaaS.
I’ve just returned from the OHUG (Oracle HR User Group) annual tech conference with this conclusion: UXaaS is on the rise. Originally starting outside the Oracle ecosystem a little while ago, and used by Applaud for some time, I spotted three other Oracle vendors specializing in just this. Interestingly, the demand for UXaaS is not restricted to legacy enterprise applications; two of the three vendors specialized in Taleo user experience – evidence that UX expectations outpace even the leading SaaS applications.
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