Why Software-as-a-Service?
From a post by David Coursey comes this list of what makes a good "Software as a Service" (SaaS) and its benefits:
"1. The app provides functionality many businesses need, but isn’t terribly different from one company to the next.
2. The service allows customization, but the SaaS model prevents clients from doing too much reinvention. This saves money and grief. It also encourages best practices.
3. The service brings together information from several sources and presents it to the user in a friendly, web-based interface.
4. Hosted services are easier to get running, partially because of the limited customization potential but also because there’s no hardware to buy and no software to install.
5. There’s also no software to manage, fix, upgrade, etc. All that is the responsibility of the vendor. Customers get a semi-custom application without having to hire developers and people to keep it running.
6. SaaS costs are predictable and typically usage-based.
7. If the vendor doesn’t meet your needs, there usually is no long-term commitment and it’s easy to switch. This keeps SaaS vendors responsive."
