We have reached SaaS 2.0 stage and yet many of us don’t know what I am talking about right now. This post is to give brief and basic introduction to the new phenomenon known as SaaS.

What the does SaaS stand for?

SaaS stands for Software as a Service.

What is SaaS?

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.

What is new in SaaS?

The traditional way of dealing with software for example a CRM was that a customer would buy software license from the creator of the software and then setup his own infrastructure and IT team to customize and maintain it. This concept is popularly known as Software on Premises or Software as a product.

SaaS offers a fundamentally different way of dealing with software. In SaaS computing resources are made available to the user as needed. So, to put it in more simple terms you just say to software vendor that you need these many licenses of the software and it is vendor who sets up the infrastructure and IT team to maintain it and you just get a URL of the application to access it. You can ask for more licenses or reduction in licenses as per your demand hence you are saved from trouble of setting up complete infrastructure which is expensive and full of botheration.

Have I heard about SaaS earlier also?

Yes, I believe you definitely have. The concept of CRM on Demand and Hosted CRM are quite similar to SaaS.

How SaaS affects CRM?

Right now SaaS can cater needs of small and mid size businesses which is good news for people in CRM field because that would lot of customers who couldn’t think of going in for CRM implementation will start deploying CRM on Demand as it offers cost benefits for them. SaaS has a long way to go before Large Enterprises start looking for that option

Who offers SaaS service?

Some of the popular SaaS or On Demand Vendors are
Salesforce.com
NetSuite
RightNow.
 

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