Hi Chris,

You might want to take a look at the "SaaS Showplace": http://www.saas-showplace.com/. It's a little bit more than a blog but I tend to like it.

Outside of that, we are a SaaS enterprise that arose from trying to solve very specific problems in large enterprises. So if there are any questions I can help you address, please feel free to contact me offline. I'll do my best to give you an unbiased view of how many different SaaS products are being used, today, in large enterprises to make a difference.

Primary reasons we're seeing SaaS be used in larger enterprises:

- Cost/Price. SaaS is almost always cheaper. For small to medium sized enterprises, it might be the only option, since they don't have the big IT budgets that larger enterprises can afford.
- Time Savings. SaaS solutions are helping enterprises avoid long rollouts that are associated with doing things, themselves.
- Quality and Richness of Service: Since the SaaS providers focus 24x7 on the solution they provide, it means that the solution gets constant attention. Many IT organizations will roll out a solution and leave it alone until they can justify having to touch it again (upgrade, patch, maintenance, etc.). With traditional local SW installations, this is why installations can fall many versions behind a vendor's most currently release. With SaaS, this doesn't happen, since the vendors take care of everything as part of the service. The constant attention means that new and better features are being built in constantly and that there are fewer service disruptions.
- Decommission Strategy: Since most large enterprises traditionally have many tools and technologies already deployed, which they're managing themselves, bringing SaaS solutions into their enterprises allows them to start putting plans in place to decommission existing solutions.
- Gap Filler: Since SaaS solutions are so much cheaper than implementing and owning and managing solutions, themselves, enterprises are using them as a quick way to get solutions that the otherwise couldn't have justified the spend for.
- Outsourcing: Since SaaS is an evolved form of outsourcing, the right SaaS provider will actually act as a seamless extension to an enterprise's staff.

The fact is that there are issues, concerns, and risks in any soluion someone implements, whether they're SaaS or traditional. The key is simply to understand and weigh all options for a healthy decision.

Anyhow, I hope this helps.

My Best,

Frank Guerino, CEO
TraverseIT
Frank.Guerino@TraverseIT.com
http://www.TraverseIT.com

Links:

• http://www.saas-showplace.com

posted June 26, 2007