« Lumen Software Launches Commercial Open Source SaaS Portal | Main | Symantec Introduces Security as a Service »

The demand for automated incentive compensation has brought it into the on-demand world. Implementing a world-class enterprise incentive management (EIM) system is essential given todayas fierce global competition, and as Software as a Service (SaaS) gains momentum, more and more companies look for EIM in a SaaS model.

The mission-critical, confidential nature of EIM differentiates it from other applications and requires specific SaaS capabilities. Organizations examining EIM applications with the goal of leveraging SaaS must evaluate prospective vendors on a number of counts. Starting with a best-of-breed EIM application is most important, followed by a careful scrutiny of the vendoras SaaS architecture model and other contracted provisions. The model should minimize privacy and security concerns, maintain or improve reliability, and ensure availability, scalability and performanceaall while effectively containing costs and accommodating application complexity. The ideal architecture helps accomplish these objectives via physically separated client databases, a shared infrastructure and multiple application versioning.

Value of SaaS for Supporting Effective EIM
As the numbers of SaaS deployments expand worldwide, many analysts forecast a strong upward trend in outsourced applications. According to analyst firm Gartner, Inc., aBy 2011, 25% of new business software will be delivered as SaaS (0.7 probability).a

Economic pressures, information technology (IT) prioritizing, fierce competition and a heightened emphasis on core competencies are making SaaS more and more attractiveaand it is effective for an increasing number of business processes. The growing popularity of Web 2.0 collaboration and SaaS technology improvements make SaaS a sensible next step.

Abhijit Dubey of McKinsey revealed that a new survey by his organization has found that the proportion of CIOs considering adopting SaaS applications in the coming year has gone from 38% a year ago to 61% nowa|. Itas an indication of a sea-change in acceptance of SaaS over the past year,a stated software industry trend strategist Phil Wainewright.

• EIM systems management is usually outside an organizationas core competencies. BusinessWeekOnline recently published a commentary on the myths of SaaS, indicating that atodayas economic and competitive pressures make nearly any form of outsourcing fair game. Many companies now consider various IT functions and business applications commodities and not core competencies. This has made SaaS, essentially an outsourced application management business, more attractive today than ASPs and hosting services of the past.a

• EIM does not require on-site deployment because it operates effectively outside a corporationas walls. SaaS efficiently manages well defined tasks and business processes that can be performed externally and integrated into the enterprise. EIM fits this category.

• EIMas purpose is positively impacting the bottom line, not escalating costs. According to Information Week, aSoftware as a service is starting to gain favor for several reasons: Itas relatively easy and inexpensive to implement; itas flexible; it doesnat require as much infrastructure; and its costs are more predictable.a

About the Author:-
Jeffrey Saling is Vice President, Managed Services for Callidus Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALD) Jeff Saling came to Callidus Software with a successful history of building and managing professional services organizations and operations of technology based businesses. He has extensive experience in starting up and the management of services based business units with a high degree of large volume production operations with software technical architecture focus. Prior to joining Callidus Software, Jeff worked for Chordiant Software (Nasdaq: CHRD), where he served as Vice President of Field Operations for North America. He successfully directed the professional services and sales engineering units for Chordiant in North America with a team of 100+ people servicing dozens of software installation and engineering projects for Chordiantas customers, plus managed the team providing technical sales support required to sell into hundreds of Chordiantas prospective customers. Prior to joining Chordiant, Jeff served as General Manager (Senior Manager) for Accenture (then called Andersen Consulting) where he started up the first ever firm owned and operated outsourced call center for a top 10 Fortune 500 company. Jeff also served as Vice President and Director of Operations for Vehicle Information Network and Consumers Car Club, consumer focused electronic classifieds and vehicle buying, financing, and insurance services based start-ups. Jeff holds a BS in Business Administration, Production & Operations Management from California State University, Hayward.

Posted by ebizQ in General |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ebizq.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2612