This past weekend, I read Eric Ries’ New York Times Bestseller entitled The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Ries defines a startup as an organization that is dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. He points out that this definition holds for one person in a garage as well as a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. According to Ries, all startups have one thing in common—a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

In an industry where uncertainty has been the rule and not the exception, Ries’ book includes a number of key takeaways that are directly applicable to print service providers.

In the past, print service providers needed to buy, build, and maintain their own IT infrastructures in spite of exponential expenses. Today, however, SaaS (Software as a Service) provides organizations with a good substitute. These companies can now subscribe to an array of vital Internet services from variable data to cross-media for assistance with running their businesses. InfoTrends recently released its 2013 software forecast, which highlights the growth and adoption of SaaS/hosted solutions. The simple message is that solutions for new business initiatives can be rented rather than built.