I’ve been writing software for about 20 years, implementing retail solutions for the last 12 years, one year in between implementing web sites for non-profit organizations, and yet I’ve never been as touched by a potential client’s visit as I was a couple of weeks ago.

In the span of a couple of days we visited a pediatric ward busting at the seams, and a family clinic’s pharmacy. The pediatric ward experience is almost impossible to describe. It was truly one of those times where “you had to be there”. At the family clinic, we listened to the pharmacy administrator’s stories regarding belligerent patients and how they treat her employees and got a chance to see a senior citizen getting to the end of a 3 hour line for the second time in a week only to find out she had to come back another day because her medicine was not available. We were there for about an hour and in that span, I would say that at least 80% of the patients left with partially filled prescriptions.

The purpose of our visit was to understand some of the client’s inventory and efficiency issues and how we could help to solve them. On our way back from the visit we agreed that the issues are not just technological but social and political. And yet, I believe this is one of those rare occasions where software can truly be used if not to solve, at least to alleviate a social problem.

I don’t know if we’re going to get the contract or not, that decision is above my pay grade. However, it is my humble opinion that, if done right, this could be an opportunity to do something really good. I mean, it isn’t every day that you can go home with the feeling that the software you’re writing could allow someone to:

• Be able to heal as many children as possible.
• Assure a senior citizen that she’ll do a shorter line and receive her medication.
• Turn a once belligerent patient into a grateful and most important, a healthy one

If that’s not the meaning of Software as a Service, I don’t know what is.