SaaS Survey: Software as a Service Usage in the Enterprise

Baseline reported this month on the results of an Enterprise SaaS Survey conducted in April 2008 by Burton Group and Ziff Davis. They interviewed 252 CIOs currently using SaaS. The CIOs confirmed "that SaaS delivers robust applications - typically at a lower cost."

Some other results from the survey:

• 67% of those using SaaS have been doing so for more than two years, so these were IT users who have had the opportunity to fully try out and use their SaaS solutions;
• 76% had a positive enough experience that they plan to expand the use of SaaS within their businesses;
• 65% reported that SaaS lowered their software costs compared to in-house applications, although still a little over 20% continue to express concern over the long-term costs of SaaS;
• 57% said they were more satisfied with SaaS than their other in-house applications;
• The main issues they encountered were (1) the lack of access when users are offline, and (2) the application being less customizable than the in-house option;
• Before implementing SaaS, they anticipated more information security risks, but they did not end up experiencing as much risk in this space as they had expected at the beginning;
• Most preferred a flat-fee enterprise payment on a monthly or quarterly basis, rather than by user or usage (of course, this is going to depend greatly on the application...).

With the growing adoption, albeit still limited, of SaaS solutions in the enterprise, many software vendors are now considering how this new delivery model should impact their business strategy moving forward. If you sell software or services, and have not considered the possibility of a SaaS strategy, now is the time to give it some serious thought and work on updating that business plan.

RETURN FROM SAAS SURVEY TO INDUSTRY TRENDS

RETURN FROM SAAS SURVEY TO SOFTWARE MARKETING HOMEPAGE