By 2010, Gartner predicts that 30 percent of new software will be delivered via the SAAS model. In a report in March 2007, Gartner Inc. estimated that the global Software as a Service (SaaS) market will grow to $19.3 billion by 2011, tripling in size from the $6.3 billion it was in 2006 .

So what is SaaS and On-demand and how would it impact your organization - whether you are a consumer of On-Demand or a developer of on-demand applications.

Avankia LLC provides an extensive set of services to help you navigate through SaaS adoption to minimize your total cost of ownership as well as position you to gain from architecting your SOA and on-demand to meet mature SaaS standards.

What is SaaS? Software as a service (SaaS) is a model of software delivery where the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client. SaaS is a model of software delivery rather than a market segment; it assumes the software is delivered over the internet. Software can be delivered using this method to any market segment, from home consumers to corporations. The term "SaaS" was coined by John Koenig for the SDForum Software-as-a-Service Conference in March of 2005 and has become the industry adopted reference term, clarifying and replacing the earlier terms "On-Demand" and ASP (Application Service Provider).   How does it differ from ASP The reason for moving away from the term ASP or application service provider is that the ASP generation was merely traditional client-server applications with HTML front-ends added as an afterthought. These applications were hosted by third-parties who ordinarily did not have application expertise, but were only managing servers. Because the applications were not written as net-native applications, performance was poor and application updates were no better than self managed applications. By comparison, current net-native SaaS applications or independent portions are updated regularly, many daily. This gradual shift in the terminologies also is a direct reflection of the change in the business requirements demanded by clients. The focus in SaaS is more on what the customer wants rather than what the vendor could give as was the case in an ASP. Early SaaS approaches were application service providers (ASPs) who ran a turnkey application on behalf of their clients. But ASPs generally did not build the application themselves; rather, they took an off-the-shelf application (such as a messaging platform, an enterprise requirement planning tool, or a salesforce automation package) and ran it for customers.   Drivers for SaaS Everyone has a computer Computing itself is a commodity Applications are standardized Parametric applications are usable- Many SaaS providers allow a wide range of customization within a basic set of functions. A specialized software provider can target a global market Web systems are reliable enough Security is sufficiently well trusted and transparent Availability of enablement technology Wide Area Network's bandwidth has grown drastically Lower total cost of ownership Focus on core business and not IT * Adopted from wikedopia

Business On-demand adoption: The three legs

So what does it mean to you and your organization. As a consumer of SaaS or On-Demand application organization, you should do your due diligence to see which on-demand application would be a good fit within your organization. As a vendor or company building applications you should understand the complexity of building highly scalable systems, security and business model.

The Four Stages of SaaS Maturity Model: Which one is right for you?

With the evolution of technology and web standards, and the aggressive adoption of SOA based architecture, it has become necessary for company to evaluate the right SaaS strategy for their information architecture.

Broadly speaking, SaaS application maturity can be expressed using a model with four distinct levels. Each level is distinguished from the previous one by the addition of one of the three attributes - scalable, multi-tenant-efficient, and configurable.

The Four Stages

Avankia Service and Offering

We provide a complete service on developing your Business Strategy, Application Architecture, Implementation, Training and Support in your effort to provide or consume an On-demand service.

We have extensive experience in developing, maintaining on-demand applications. We have close working relationship with Salesforce.com, a visionary company in On-demand application development and delivery and we were one of the first few companies to be included in their incubation. Our close working relationship with them has enabled us to gain insights to best practices in SaaS and On-demand application development and On-demand adoption for enterprise. Our practice includes experts in US and India who are well versed in the challenge of architecting, implementing, roll out and support for such application.