The Private Deployment Era: 1980s–1990s
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 4:41 am
This market shift may feel huge—and it certainly has a huge impact on the way companies do business—but it’s not exactly revolutionary. The software industry has been moving toward the era of connected work for some time, and smart companies have been adapting to keep up.
So, how did we get here?
Back in the 80s and 90s, software was something you installed sri lanka mobile database from an actual physical box. Building and purchasing large-scale, monolithic on-premises software programs was expensive—think 6- to 7-figure CAPEX purchases.
“Sales-led growth” was driven by field sales reps who schmoozed with the buyer the CIO over dinner and on the golf course. The key decision criterion in this era was simple IT compatibility.
The Cloud Era: 2000s
In the early 2000s, Salesforce and other companies disrupted the old way of doing things by moving software from the data center to the cloud. On-premises deployments became on-demand, and development costs plummeted.
Outbound sales in the early 2000s and marketing-led sales in the late 2000s targeted a new buyer: non-technical executives. Executives looked at the following standard key performance indicators KPIs and return on investment ROI to assess how well a given software helped their team achieve its goals.
So, how did we get here?
Back in the 80s and 90s, software was something you installed sri lanka mobile database from an actual physical box. Building and purchasing large-scale, monolithic on-premises software programs was expensive—think 6- to 7-figure CAPEX purchases.
“Sales-led growth” was driven by field sales reps who schmoozed with the buyer the CIO over dinner and on the golf course. The key decision criterion in this era was simple IT compatibility.
The Cloud Era: 2000s
In the early 2000s, Salesforce and other companies disrupted the old way of doing things by moving software from the data center to the cloud. On-premises deployments became on-demand, and development costs plummeted.
Outbound sales in the early 2000s and marketing-led sales in the late 2000s targeted a new buyer: non-technical executives. Executives looked at the following standard key performance indicators KPIs and return on investment ROI to assess how well a given software helped their team achieve its goals.