| Software as a service, which is also known as SaaS, | | | | business you would need to have technical as well as |
| is generally considered being software applications | | | | marketing skills in the team. Even if you are |
| which are hosted by a vendor on the Internet which | | | | considering in contracting out a large portion of the |
| could be shared by different users under on-demand | | | | software to a third party, you would still be requiring |
| terms. In some cases the package could also be | | | | a technically savvy director or manager with your |
| downloaded by users which would run till the end of | | | | company. Considering that you have outsourced your |
| the term period. As an underlying technology, SaaS is | | | | software development part, you would still need to |
| growing to be one of the most prevalent delivery | | | | have the supervision by one of your experienced |
| models which support Web services and | | | | manager to find out if the development is going on |
| service-oriented architecture (SOA). With the growth | | | | well. |
| of broadband services, SaaS is being made available | | | | Marketing your software as a service should start |
| to more users around the world. | | | | long before you take up development of the |
| The On Demand Computing software delivery | | | | software. This would especially be directed towards |
| models and ASP (application service provider) are | | | | your competitor research and into SaaS already in |
| closely related to software as service products. SaaS | | | | the market, and the traditional software that your |
| has been identified as two slightly different delivery | | | | prospective customers use. You need to do |
| modules, the first one being the hosted application | | | | extensive customer research, looking into the |
| management (hosted AM) model which is similar to | | | | demographics of these target users. The information |
| ASP, which is a commercially hosted module available | | | | out of these two researches done is the most |
| and delivered over the net to actual users. The other | | | | important data to have before you launch your |
| one is software on demand model, in which the | | | | development program. |
| service provider gives network-based access of a | | | | Concerns of SaaS customers: |
| single copy of the software application to users. This | | | | Software as a service is not an answer to every |
| application has been created specifically for SaaS | | | | type of application and is not applicable to every user. |
| distribution. | | | | For hosted services, some customers have |
| Software as a service has several benefits, and the | | | | reservations. They are reluctant to store their data |
| few important ones are as follows:- | | | | on a remote server via the Internet, which were |
| * Easier administration | | | | being stored in their hard disks before. There are |
| * Automatic updates and patch management | | | | specific security risks involved for sensitive data, and |
| * Compatibility: All users will have the same version of | | | | these customers worry about the privacy as well. In |
| software | | | | order to convince the customers of your services, |
| * Easier collaboration, for the same reason | | | | you should be prepared to answer to all the |
| * Global accessibility | | | | questions raised by them and also convince them |
| What if you want to start developing SaaS? | | | | about the security that your service offers. |
| If you are having an ambition to start a SaaS | | | | |