The Economic Times (Bangalore edition)
Gartner’s principal analyst Asheesh Raina defines SaaS as “application owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more service providers.”
Munindra Kumar Bharatee, the India MD of Serena Software, which provides software as a service, says that there are numerous benefits in the model because there is no infrastructure to manage or software to install and the pricing is very competitive. Cnergyis, a Mumbai-headquartered provider of HR and payroll solutions through the upcoming model, says it has been recording strong growth. The company’s founder, Prasad Rajappan, observes that with SaaS there is no capex by the buyer and it frees up a lot of resources to focus on core business activity.
According to Springboard Research, the India SaaS market is expected to exceed $48 million by 2008, from $7 million in 2005.
Given the challenging economic environment now, when companies are holding back capital expenditure, SaaS has emerged as the most viable model of implementing software solutions. Gartner’s Raina says that the market is evenly poised between the large and small vendors. The big vendors are not letting go of an opportunity to provide an alternative form of software delivery while the smaller ones include SaaS as a key business enabler and differentiator.
While there are concerns about confidentiality and loss of control, providers of SaaS say that corporates are waking up to the new reality. Rajappan feels that a successful SaaS strategy rests on combining technology and service effectively.
SaaS has been gaining momentum in India, though the market is still behind the West in terms of awareness and adoption. The initial adoption of SaaS has mainly been by small and medium- sized businesses, Bharatee of Serena says.
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