05/07/2008

More than half of Fortune 500 and other large enterprises expect to spend more than previously or the same on SaaS solutions for their organization in the future. More than seven out of 10 (73%) of the 100 executives interviewed stated that their enterprise has adopted SaaS or plans to adopt SaaS within the next 18 months, according to a national survey conducted by Kelton Research.

ebizQ received the following:

In the survey titled "On Demand Software Survey," confidence in SaaS solutions in the largest global enterprises is gaining ground.

The On Demand Software Survey conducted by Kelton Research was commissioned by Acumen Solutions, a leading business and technology consulting firm, as a means of gathering insight into today's Enterprise IT preferences and buying patterns. More and more Enterprises are considering adopting SaaS because of the benefits it can deliver to their organizations in a relatively short amount of time.

Among the findings in the survey by Kelton Research are:

-- Subscription Costs? No Big Deal. Just over one in five (21%) execs say the subscription fees are an issue vs. the old model of a one-time cost that depreciated over time. -- They are Budgeting For It. In fact, a majority (55%) plan to spend the same amount of money -- if not more -- on their on-demand software in the future. -- SaaS Wins Over Executive Gatekeepers. They won't be held back by what some have viewed as the traditional gatekeepers in getting approval to adopt or upgrade on-demand software. Just 35 percent of those surveyed worry that IT will stand in their way, and even fewer (25%) are anxious that their CFO won't let them make a go of it. Advantages of On-Demand

Large enterprises such as global financial institutions or multi-national telecommunications companies have invested heavily in technology over the course of the past decade to support software implementations from "cradle to grave." Expensive software licenses, months of development time to create customized applications, quality assurance testing and then on-going maintenance and hosting of business applications involve millions of dollars and a large part of their on-going budget expenditure every year. Championed by such companies as Salesforce.com, Webex, Oracle and Google, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivers services on demand over the Internet on a subscription basis.

Software-as-a-Service allows organizations to launch software for business functions almost immediately while maintaining the ability to customize the software in the future for their specific business needs. With a pricing model based upon monthly user fees, the initial cost of entry for an organization to launch a new software application is often significantly lower.

Large Enterprises Are Finding Unique Solutions to Their Concerns

The Kelton Survey found that these large enterprises have unique considerations when making a buy decision about SaaS.

-- Stressed About Security. Over six in ten (62%) executives admit that they still worry about the security of sensitive data outside their firewall. -- Integration of Information. Many (56%) also express concern about how easily all of their information can be integrated into new applications. However, these concerns have not stopped their plans for incorporating SaaS into their enterprise IT infrastructure:

-- Fifty five percent of Fortune 500 and other large enterprises expect to spend more or the same on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for their organization in the future. -- Seventy three percent of the executives stated that their Enterprise has adopted SaaS or plans to adopt SaaS within the next 18 months.

"Done properly, SaaS can be a very effective tool in the corporate IT arsenal for rapid launch of technology solutions and a flexible approach to development," says Shally Bansal Stanley, Managing Director of Acumen Solutions Global Services. "Over time our clients have become much more comfortable with SaaS as both a software solution and a platform for rapid development. We have developed unique ways to keep their sensitive data safe and secure, even while interacting with existing stand-alone software systems."