September 26, 2011
SaaS or Software as a Service “is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.” (1) I researched two companies that use SaaS and are extremely successful and they are Salesforce.com and Verizon.
Salesforce.com is a company that provides different services to help customers and employees build a stronger relationship and connect easier. Salesforce.com uses SaaS for a number of reasons a few of these are “High adoption, lower initial costs, painless upgrades and seamless integration.”(2) Having lower initial costs are very important in this economy because many people are out of work and cannot put extra money towards fees, this a simple but very beneficial attribute.
Verizon’s new “Asset Assurance Service includes device-monitoring, alarming, fault isolation, root-cause analysis, service-level reporting and IT service management to help corporate customers quickly pinpoint the cause of problems in their private IP networks.”(3) Verizon is obviously a very successful company and having them join the SaaS service really says a lot about it. Whether it is a small company or large firm they can benefit by using Verizon business assurance service. Having software to protect your company and make it easier on them is what a company needs to do and SaaS service provides these benefits. SaaS benefits Verizon because it “Enables customers to provide a high level of IT service performance and availability, Monitors health of network devices, Helps you align IT operations with business service delivery and management requirements and Three service options to meet your budgetary requirements.”(4)
An article written by Jimmy Duan explains the challenges when using Software as a Service. “The most critical issue to address is a lack of trust between customers and their vendors. Without a strong relationship between both parties, it is difficult for SMBs to get the long-term values from the SaaS model.”(5) Technology is tough sometimes on customers because you feel like you’re not close to your vendor. A SaaS vendor must make sure to stay loyal and close to their customers in order to receive a high renewal rate and make money in the end. (5)
In order to approve SaaS service they need to come up with a plan to ensure that your applications will never be lost. If your SaaS provider goes out of business so does your application. They have to come up with a way to save your application even if something happens to the provider.
Work Cited
1. "What Is Software as a Service (SaaS)? - Definition from Whatis.com." Cloud Computing Information, News and Tips - SearchCloudComputing.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Software-as-a-Service>.
2. "What Is Software as a Service (SaaS) - Salesforce.com." CRM, the Cloud, and the Social Enterprise - Salesforce.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://www.salesforce.com/saas/?fromSearch=true>.
5. Duan, Jimmy. "SmartBiz.com: Small Business Resources - Overcoming SaaS Challenges." Small Business, Information, Resources, Articles - SmartBiz.com. Web. 26 Sept. 2011. <http://www.smartbiz.com/article/articleview/1589/1/42>.
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