Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the most recent software delivery model, which came to popular only in last two or three years. With in this short period, business applications following SaaS model have contributed for many success stories, of those most are small business success stories. Software-as-a-Service products have enabled small businesses, with less number of employees, to do business tasks with same perfection like big corporate ones for fewer costs. Small businesses now have access to most advanced software solutions for managing and performing their business tasks.

The success of SaaS industry is readily noticed from its above 12 percent growth rate and the decision of many traditional software providers to offer their products as SaaS applications. The major contributors of this SaaS success are the high-speed internet and a development of a number of applications enhancing communication, data sharing and analysis. Today there are a number of SaaS vendors offering a variety of products for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Enterprise data management, customer contact management, web conferencing, enterprise account management, etc.

The SaaS model of software delivery offer many advantages over traditional software purchasing model. SaaS solutions require no large upfront investment for purchasing software license, for building support infrastructure like database and internal network, and hiring/recruiting technical staff; SaaS involves no maintenance costs or budgeting for solving system crashes; no cost for updating the system – most SaaS products are updated automatically; most SaaS vendors offer wireless and office solutions; SaaS products can easily be customizable with minimum technical knowledge; SaaS have much more user adoption rate; solutions can be accessed online across the globe at any time; many SaaS products are open-source and you can change them in the way you want; and SaaS products can be integrated with most recent techniques and existing systems.

The success a company can reap with SaaS solutions depends on the product they chooses and how they implement it. When choosing SaaS solutions, there are two options, companies can choose either a pre-customized or industry-specific solution, which are a few in number and are unavailable for some industries, or a general customizable solution. When choosing general solutions, one must make sure that he/she has enough knowledge to customize it in the way want. If your company has enough technical skill, it is a better option to subscribe to an open-source solution.

The main factors to consider when looking for a SaaS vendor include data security, data ownership, data sharing methods, privacy policy, responds to recent software developments, data backup, disaster recovery policy, etc. It is better to demo or trail run the solutions for a considerable period of time.

About the Author

Praveen Ortec recommends eSalesTrack hosted CRM software, which is a leading example of CRM Software as a Service. eSalesTrack is also an Open Source CRM software.

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