SAAS

SaaS or Software as a Service Applications

SaaS, software as a service, enterprise applications emerged with the advent of the internet as third party hosted applications. The software app is hosted as a service by a software provider via the internet. The appealing feature of hosted software it they are simple to deploy throughout the company. Saas applications do not need to be integrated with a company’s legacy systems and consequently they don’t need an army of technical resources to implement the application.

Microsoft Hotmail and Google’s G-mail are examples of hosted applications in that a user logs in to a hosted site and uses the application. When finished using the app, the user simply logs out and becomes disconnected from the application. Nothing resides on his personal computer or his company’s network. This is a benefit If something is a bug or virus within the software. The user knows that the trouble it not on is end and that there is nothing to fix internally. The maintenance and management of the software application is handled by the host. As described, SaaS based solutions are also referred to as hosted management, applications service providers (ASPs) or software on demand (SOD) solutions.

SaaS solutions offer powerful tools to small to mid-sized companies to manage their information and operations. For example, next to salaries, an accounting firm’s largest expense is software implementation, integration and maintenance. The rapid deployment, less required resources, no maintenance costs, more flexibility, more enhanced features and no capital investment requirement make SaaS based solutions a winner for small and midsized businesses to increase their profits and performance.

However, because SaaS solutions are not on premise, getting the applications synchronized company-wide with every department is difficult. Typically, SaaS solutions only offer a applications for a specific departments or business functions rather a comprehensive enterprise-wide application. Salesforce.com is an example of a SaaS based application. Considered by many to be one of the most popular SaaS companies in the marketplace, the company is focused primarily on the sales and support function, specifically customer relationship management or CRM.

As enterprise application and development evolve, however, the SaaS based solutions are beginning to offer complete ERP applications to companies. On the other side, software vendors who are currently full ERP solutions are looking to offering a SaaS based solutions as well to capture smaller sized business market and the mobile PDA consumer.

Written by :

aniseo