At a recent event I chaired “Mobilise your Workforce”, a panel session was held to attempt to demystify the hosted/rented software world which is normally referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS) or Software plus Services (S+S). During a quick straw poll of the attendees the majority of the audience had heard of SaaS, however only a few knew exactly what this term means or how SaaS could have a positive impact on their businesses.
Obviously in the current global economic crisis, it is becoming increasingly important for all businesses to be fit and efficient to face the challenges 2009 will bring. I see SaaS based Enterprise Mobility solutions being the “low cost of entry” facilitator for businesses with mobile field workers, to improve their efficiency and reduce their fixed costs. This new way of owning an enterprise mobility solution will deliver a return on investment within a month of rollout, whereas the equivalent CAPEX model could take many months to deliver.
Over the last 18 months SaaS, or renting hosted third party software applications, has become more prevalent with major software organisations such as Microsoft offering a rental model for the majority of their software applications which are hosted and managed on third party servers.
Software as a Service (SaaS) has become the industry term used to describe the delivery of software applications using the Internet or a wide area network as the delivery mechanism. The SaaS model can be implemented rapidly and removes the need to purchase, manage and support expensive server infrastructure. The SaaS model is being used to provide a whole host of software applications from email to enterprise mobility solutions.
Benefits
Revenue based payments
Software as a Service (SaaS) has become the industry term used to describe the delivery of software applications using the Internet or a wide area network as the delivery mechanism. The SaaS model can be implemented rapidly and removes the need to purchase, manage and support expensive server infrastructure. The SaaS model is being used to provide a whole host of software applications from email to enterprise mobility solutions.
Third party hosted
Investing in expensive infrastructure is no longer required since SaaS software applications are now third party hosted. As a result there are no capital costs for hardware, licenses, databases or ongoing overheads of either third party or internal IT support staff or software and hardware maintenance and upgrades. Software applications are accessed via a web browser or a mobile device via a wireless network connection keeping your user IT requirements simple, low cost and easily managed.
Predictable costs
Rented software and services provide agreed pre-defined fixed charges. This enables you to project and predict your annual costs and helps with annual budget provisioning. They do not result in large capital outlay, therefore reducing the time to return on investment in most cases to the month the solution is deployed,
Multi-tenant effciency
Rented software and services tend to use secure multi-tenant architecture (for example Microsoft Exchange email). This means that the cost of all software, infrastructure and expertise is shared by a large number of customers. This multi-tenant architecture offers reduced implementation times and economies of scale making the overall solution more cost effective to small and large businesses.
Increased flexible accessibility
Being Internet based, your applications are accessible not only in the office but from home a hotel room or from any of your businesses international locations if you have them. Work is no longer becomes a place!
Flexibility and scalability
Rented software and services provide businesses with a high level of flexibility. Since the software solution is delivered via the Internet it completely eliminates installation and setup at the customer’s end. Users can be up and running very quickly. Also as your business grows all you need to do is request your service provider to add more users. As hosted solutions are designed to scale, initially you could start with 10 users and after one month add say another 3,000 users without any issues, thus providing your business with ultimate flexibility or conversely if times get hard, you can reduce the number of users.
Availability and security
Third party service providers are in the business of providing uninterrupted reliable services. Vendors understand that data must be backed up religiously and information security is a paramount concern. Skilled resources, network redundancies, stand-by power, up-to-date security and intrusion detection are a necessity in providing an enterprise class service.
General
The rental software application market is starting to mature and offers businesses a flexible low cost entry option delivering instant return on investment which must be a major consideration in today’s economic conditions. But do not forget to ensure that you have a secure and available internet connection to ensure application continuity.
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