futures.
A new study from Aberdeen Group shows that companies of all sizes have begun
adopting SaaS in order to get solutions implemented more quickly, achieve
faster ROI and lower their IT costs.
The study shows that businesses are also adopting SaaS for a greater variety
of applications than ever before.
“More than half the companies we surveyed are using or are interested in
exploring the possibility of using software as a service in the future,” said Beth Enslow, senior vice president for enterprise research at Aberdeen.
“It’s no longer a minority of companies.”
Enslow told internetnews.com that 2006 marks the first year that this
is the case.
SaaS is now considered a quick way to resolve a pressing business issue, with
quick ROI and lower total costs of ownership (TCO).
According to the study, 74 percent of companies said they implemented a SaaS
customer relationship management (CRM) solution in two months or fewer.
These same companies also reported achieving ROI in six months or fewer.
“Those numbers are two to four times faster than what we’re used to seeing
with traditional on-premise enterprise applications,” noted Enslow.
Moreover, said Enslow, this type of metric is not limited to CRM.
“It’s not like these benefits are a fluke limited to CRM. We’re seeing these
types of results consistently across all the major application areas.”
The Aberdeen study also puts the lie to the conceit that the market for SaaS
is limited to small and medium sized business (SMBs) needing a CRM solution.
She credited the success enjoyed by early adopters of the SaaS model with
changing minds among executives at large enterprises.
“It’s the track record. They see their peers start to use it, and see people
get consistently solid results,” said Enslow.
That said, CRM remains the most widely adopted SaaS solution, with 84
percent of SMBs and 69 percent of larger enterprises using or considering
the adoption of an on-demand CRM solution.
Such areas as financial management, product
lifecycle management (PLM), procurement and sourcing, and supply chain
management (SCM) are adopting SaaS.
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