Great post on transparency. Inspired me to write a response blog post which can be found here (http://resource.onlinetech.com/transparency-in-saas-iaas-and-all-as-a-service-companies/).

I added in some game theory to your reasoning and applied it to all as-a-Service companies.

Would love to hear your input on it!

Thanks,
Chris

Twilio: clearly addresses how the Telephony Web Services works, displays clear service levels & pricing, provides good product/implementation documentation, and invites customers to openly discuss service & support related questions via their Forum.

Vertical Response: while there are several SaaS e-mail marketing suites out there, VR does a good job of fostering community interactions. They have nurtured a loyal following of users/customers, who assist with addressing questions & concerns through the VR Forums (aka “VR Marketing Lounge”). They also product Blog content and follow-up educational pieces that further address the questions and concerns raised in the VR Forums.

Amazon Web Services has done a really great job and clearly thrown lots of cash/man hours into the transparency strategy with clear ROI. They provide detailed system stats, a great security overview, and very open, active user forums. Salesforce.com has always touted their transparency, since the introduction of their trust center. WRT application functional performance, I don’t think anything can compare to Google AdWords. But, its also important for up-and-comers to set the right culture from the get go.
They may not have the cash that AWS has, but they can focus on their differentiators. At, Xignite we follow an e-commerce approach complete with shopping cart with detailed, public pricing, as well as standard SLA terms and support plans in conjunction with the system performance stats guaranteed by the SLA. Marketo also does a nice job with its trust center.

Would love to see other examples from interested readers. Please comment!

Cheers,
JY

Thanks in advance for your help…another great post!