17 March 2009

Disasterous Launch of an Online Service

What a pity. Six weeks on and Sage Live, a new on demand Software as a Service (SaaS) web product from business management software providers Sage Group plc, is still offline. It was withdrawn at the end of January after less than a month of operation due to serious security flaws.

Screen capture showing the current Sage Live web site stating 'Sage Live update. As part of the development process for Sage Live we launched a Beta version which was open to the public. As part of the Beta process we gained valuable feedback from our user base as well as other third parties. We have taken the decision to take the site offline while we upgrade it and input some of the recommendations we received during the Beta test period. We will continue to listen and learn from the invaluable feedback that our community provides and will reinstate the site when we are happy that it will provide the best possible experience for our customers. If you are interested in business software, you can visit the Sage Store, or of you need to create invoices while the site is being updated, we have some new invoicing software that is completely free of charge.'

An article on ZDnet Sage Shows Why Bigcos Can't be Trusted with SaaS, describes the events leading up to the event which followed the blog posting on Sage Live - Serious SaaS Security Issues by a competitor KashFlow who Sage had previously complained about to Trading Standards. Despite 18 months in development, it took users of the public beta version to identify basic security flaws in Sage Live that have since been confirmed by more expert reviewers.

Developing web applications is not the same as developing conventional software, and Sage got it badly wrong. At least they have taken it offline—but it will take a lot of effort to rebuild the required trust in the service if it re-launches.

Posted on: 17 March 2009 at 09:16 hrs

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