Survey Indicates More Than 95 Percent of Organizations Expect to Maintain or Grow Their Use of SaaS Through 2010

More than 95 percent of organizations expect to maintain or grow their use of software as a service (SaaS), according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. Survey respondents cited significant integration requirements and a change in sourcing strategy as the top two reasons for adoption followed by high total cost of ownership (TCO).

However, Gartner found that most companies still do not have policies governing the evaluation and use of SaaS with only 39 percent of respondents indicating that such a policy or process exists, up just 1 percent from 38 percent in 2008.

The survey was conducted in December 2009 and January 2010 and involved 270 IT and business management professionals from a variety of industries in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific who were personally involved in the implementation support, implementation, planning and/or budget decisions related to the purchase of enterprise application software.

The scope of functionality of SaaS applications has broadened significantly in recent years. In terms of popularity for SaaS usage, the survey showed that e-mail, financial management (accounting), sales force automation and customer service, and expense management are the most popular in terms of current use, with more than 30 percent of the survey base using these types of applications.

In terms of expected investment levels in SaaS solutions over the next two years, survey respondents gave generally encouraging responses for software and service providers, with on average 53 percent of organizations expecting to increase investment levels slightly and 19 percent significantly. However, not all buyers intend to increase usage, with almost one-quarter of all respondents expecting investment levels to remain about the same, and 4 percent looking at a slight decrease in investment levels.

In comparing current with new investments in future on-premises and SaaS investments within their organizations, 72 percent of respondents believe SaaS investments will increase, while 45 percent hold the same notion about on-premises budgets. Regionally, North America and Asia/Pacific respondents indicated a stronger interest in procuring solutions via a SaaS model, and, compared with those in Europe, showed greater confidence that their organizations will increase investments in products offered as SaaS or through a subscription model through year-end 2010.

However, the survey found that some organizations have found SaaS solutions to be less than optimal for some buyers, and 16 percent of respondents said that they are transitioning from SaaS to on-premises solutions. Although there was no single outstanding reason that caused respondents to shift to on-premises, in general, the majority of organizations in this position were facing significant integration requirements and became unsatisfied with a TCO that became too high.

Despite the continuous adoption of SaaS across regions, more than one-third of the respondents have noted concerns on their recent SaaS deployments. Most respondents with these issues are located outside North America, specifically in Asia/Pacific where high-speed high-availability networks, are not as readily available as in North America. Issues with integration and customization were some of the primary issues cited by respondents overall.

More information on SaaS can be found at http://www.crmindustry.com