The Top Priority for CxOs in 2025
In Part I of our 2024 SaaS Disruption Report, we found that 90% of tech leaders (CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, directors, and senior managers) agree — “retaining ownership and control over data is crucial.”
But, in Part II of the report, only 42% of those same tech leaders said that was at least a “high priority” when building digital products and services.
What’s going on?
Every tech leader has to juggle priorities. You can never have it all. Almost everyone’s real #1 priority, whether they admit it or not, is to get to production faster (and on budget). That means sacrificing other things for more speed. Or, less generously, just cutting corners for more speed.
As an ideal, disconnected from the pressures and expectations of actual software development, it’s easy to say things like “retaining ownership and control” are “crucial.” In reality, though, a lot of us tend to say, “Well…” when there’s a looming deadline or you’re pressing up against budget constraints.
Of course, none of us (at least 90% of us) like sacrificing ownership and control for speed. Those things really are crucial to building quality software and making enterprises more successful over the long term.
We still wind up sacrificing them.
And it goes without saying that’s, uh, not good.
The priority for CxOs, or any tech leader, in 2025 should be to figure out ways to get software to market faster without those sacrifices.
Why the status quo doesn’t work
Every other SaaS company does the same thing. They give you a solution, but they take ownership and control away from you in the bargain. This seems to make everyone happy, though, right? People aren’t using SaaS any less, after all.
Well, I think that’s a surface-level read on the state of things. If you dig even just the tiniest bit deeper, you find nobody actually likes the status quo.
I continually return to a quote from Ford CEO Jim Farley, describing a problem so many tech leaders we talk to seem to have to some degree:
“We’ve farmed out the software modules that control the vehicles to our suppliers because we could bid them against each other… the problem is the software is all written by 150 different companies, and they don’t talk to each other… we can’t even understand it all. Even though it says ‘Ford’ on the front, I actually have to go to Bosch to get permission to change their seat control software.”
Or there’s the time Slack tried to delete years’ worth of an online school’s data unless its owner, Austen Allred, paid them $70,000 in three days (luckily for Allred, he was high-profile enough for Salesforce’s CEO to solve the problem for him).
This is hands down the most unacceptable interaction I've ever had as a CEO.
— Austen (@Austen) January 29, 2024
Having paid Slack millions of dollars, exporting our data is failing. We tried a few ways, none of it works.
Slack's response?
"Sign a new contract or your data automatically enters deletion queue." pic.twitter.com/KWS8npiwN7
We can’t forget about when CrowdStrike essentially broke air travel for days because so many airlines were relying on its software when it pushed a buggy update.
And third-party data breaches are rising. Gartner previously predicted that 45% of all organizations globally will have been the victim of third-party data breaches in 2025. Our 2024 SaaS Disruption Report: Security and Data found that 45% of organizations had already experienced security incidents through third parties.
The SaaS model is broken.
We’re fixing it.
Control the data and the code
Onymos’ entire ethos is based on solving this problem: How do you build and scale software fast but keep the ownership and control you’d get if you could take your time?
We answer that question with our model — the Onymos model. We give you pre-built, enterprise-grade software solutions whose actual source code you can license and that you can deploy in your own environment. We never see or capture your data.
What are the advantages of using our model over traditional SaaS?
- Reduced security risks. No third-party black boxes. No mystery vulnerabilities.
- More agility. You can customize our solutions to fit your exact use case and scale the way you need to.
- You stay compliant. Keep data where it belongs, in your infrastructure, on your terms.
Tech leaders already know that retaining ownership and control is crucial. With Onymos, they can finally act like it is. Reach out to our team to explore our document processing, IoT, and rapid app dev solutions.