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Software as a service (SaaS) is a revolutionary approach for building web applications. As organizations today want to focus on their core business, they usually outsource other work to specialized organizations. Besides being a cost effective option, companies expect their business portals to be handled by a specialized third party IT firm who can take complete responsibility and ownership. SaaS redefines the software deployment model from packaged applications with upfront licensing fees and lengthy implementations to one subscription based internet delivered service relationship.

The benefits of SaaS for any company are numerous. Some of them are:

• Zero Infrastructure

Expensive infrastructure is not required as the application is hosted by the service provider. All large initial investments on hardware, licenses and databases, ongoing overhead of employing and training IT staff, software and hardware maintenance and upgrades are managed by the IT Team. Aging technology does not have to be upgraded as there is no local infrastructure, and there is also total protection from unforeseen expenses.

• Reduced TCO

Most licensed software models incur huge costs in deployments. The total cost to operate in SaaS is fixed and known in advance. SaaS vendors typically will bundle all of the necessary hardware, software and support advisory services, such as implementation, training, help desk, troubleshooting, upgrades, security, and business continuity, into a single fee.

• Pay for What You Use

IT organizations generally overestimate the actual software utilization by the end user community. With SaaS, corporate buyers only pay for the active users of the system and not the forecasted user community.

• Easy to Switch Vendors

The corporate buyer has significantly more power and control with SaaS as these applications are sold on a subscription basis for a monthly recurring fee. Clients that are not satisfied have the option of cancelling their subscriptions and transferring to different applications without purchasing and licensing costs.

• Easier Upgrades

As SaaS vendors manage the upgrade process, they are responsible for administering any new releases and future enhancements. Users of SaaS-based applications can always be certain that they are using the latest version of the software provided by the vendor.

• Improved Security

As SaaS application provides uninterrupted and reliable services, vendors understand that data must be backed up religiously and that information security is of top-most priority. Skilled resources, network redundancies, stand-by power, up-to-date security and intrusion detection are mandatory infrastructure required to provide an enterprise class service.

SaaS has the potential to totally change the way in which companies run their IT infrastructures. Mobile application development also allows companies to streamline and simplify their IT infrastructures, improve application deployment in geographically dispersed locations and realize significant cost savings that are traditionally used by larger organizations.