• Technology Reviews
• From the Experts
  • Exploiting Bandwidth
  • Going Mobile with Blackberry
  • Information Management
  • Introduction to Mobile Applications
  • Managing Email
  • Managing Email - Part 2
  • Software as a Service
  • Using IT
  • Web Portals: Business or Pleasure?
  • Web Portals: Changing Business - Part 1
  • What is CRM?
• Press Clippings

Software as a Service?

Software as a Service is a term that has been in circulation for some time now (since around 2000), at its simplest, a delivery method providing access to software for end users. The software is written to specifically be delivered over the web and is paid for based on usage (normally a monthly subscription) rather than having to buy it out right. The difference between SaaS and Web 2.0 is the target audience; SaaS is generally the term for business applications. This is a slightly grey area, but generally you pay for SaaS rather than being exposed to adverts to generate revenue for the company providing the service like Web 2.0.

Monthly Cost

SaaS provides a multitude of benefits to businesses who adopt this approach to implementing their often mission critical business applications. The obvious benefit upfront is the lack of capital expenditure both in terms of software and hardware infrastructure, avoiding a hit to cash flow whilst gaining definite tax advantages by making your software provision an operating cost.

Flexibility

Due to the delivery mechanism of SaaS people in your organisation can theoretically work anywhere they can get a decent enough internet connection, the practicalities of this may be different but are more down to your flexible working policies than the technology. This does also lend itself very nicely to disaster recovery, given the recent flooding around the UK, the ability to move your company to a serviced office for a few months while your current office is sorted and your furniture is replaced after floating down the road is a very useful position to be in, it may even keep you in business...

No Hassle

One of the things that I find most when I talk to people about IT and technology is that they love the benefits they get but they don’t want the hassle of having to run and support a system that they really don’t understand. This is one of the major benefits of SaaS, it is being run by people that know what they are doing and there are likely to be quite a few, it essentially gives you economies of scale but from a technology perspective, five IT bods are better than one at keeping your mission critical system in working order.

Added Value

The majority of the benefits for SaaS have been about stopping you losing money, but probably the most important one is about generating added value, the ability for you to work collaboratively in realtime with your partners and clients can generate a vastly increased proposition and give you real competitive advantage.

SaaS is a very interesting shift for the software industry, Microsoft has recognised this and has recently changed its mantra from “providing the best software” to “providing the best software and services”.

At SpiderGroup we like SaaS because it allows us to do what we do best, provide you with technology that allows you to do your best without having to worry.

James Cook, CEO