Important Tech Trends: SaaS

Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the most important and pervasive technology trend today. We are seeing large on-premise application providers like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM embracing the SaaS trend with acquisitions.

The acquisition of WebEx by Cisco last year not only raises SaaS awareness but also validates the fact that the SaaS market is here to stay. This key acquisition is the beginning of more acquisitions to come from other companies and should significantly benefit any stable and profitable company with a SaaS business model.

It should also be noted that Abhijit Dubey, associate principal for McKinsey, told attendees at the Interop Conference in Las Vegas that in a survey of IT buyers found that 62% believed the SaaS industry was at the beginning of the innovation cycle and that SaaS ranked as the most important item for their businesses this year.

Dubey also mentioned that the value of a SaaS model is tremendous: companies deploying traditional software spend 60 to 70 cents on every dollar invested on software over a five year period on the underlying platform driving the applications. For SaaS users, that amount drops to 20 to 30 cents on the dollar.

Goldman Sachs said it perfectly, "SaaS solutions solve many of the problems that traditional software faces, including large upfront license fees, long time to implementation, and access issues by mobile workforce, outside of the company network." In many instances, customers prefer this style of delivery and the large incumbents have to adjust their strategies accordingly. Over the next several years it will become pervasive in almost all areas of the software market."

Key SaaS Players:

- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Salesforce.com, Oracle On-Demand and PeopleSoft Enterprise On-Demand, RightNow, NetSuite, Kintera, SugarCRM, Intacct, SAP Business ByDesign, Zoho.com
- Learning Management Systems (LMS): SumTotal, Learn.com, GeoLearning, Saba, Blackboard
- Supply Chain Management (SCM): Digital River, Manugistics, SAP
- Content Management: EMC eRoom, Vignette, Interwoven
- Business Intelligence: Business Objects, WebTrends, DemandTec
- Web Conferencing: Cisco/WebEx, Adobe, Microsoft, Centra
- Web Analytics: Omniture, Google Urchin, CoreMetrics, WebTrends
- Human Capital Management: Taleo, Salary.com, SumTotal, Kenexa, SuccessFactors, PeopleClick

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Comments

[Web Conferencing Consultant]

I noticed you missed out a few other key players in the list such as Zoho which is a great service for CRM - Project management and Batipi for all different aspects of collaboration...
Great article non-the-less...
Regards,