April 21, 2005
A Field Guide To Hosted Applications
Hosted applications are gaining in popularity for two reasons: It's cost effective (pay monthly, as a service, no huge upfront costs) and it's easy to install (every user with web access can immediately leverage the hosted app).
The drawback to hosted applications is that if one can't get access to the Internet, one cannot access the hosted application. Taking things a step further, if you are using a hosted application for a mission critical aspect of your business and something goes wrong with your Internet connection - the results are not going to be too good.
Infoworld Writes For whatever such estimates are worth, IDC recently forecasted that worldwide spending on SaaS will reach $10.7 billion by 2009. But there’s so much SaaS running around already that we couldn’t help but wonder: Could you run a business entirely on hosted offerings?
That somewhat playful question was the genesis of this buyer’s guide to SaaS -- although we already knew the answer. Healthy enterprises need to develop their own unique applications, and any modern IT infrastructure needs to be fully integrated in a manner that can’t be achieved with SaaS solutions today.
But an urgent need to stop piling cost and complexity on IT is sowing the seeds of change. Although enterprises may not be replacing effective, large-scale systems with SaaS alternatives, the SaaS option suddenly becomes perfectly viable when it comes to adding new functionality. And, as Salesforce.com discovered, SaaS can be particularly successful at replacing in-house or off-the-shelf software that has failed miserably.
In our survey of hosted software offerings, we’ve divided the SaaS universe into four parts: back-office applications (ERP, purchasing, HR, and so on), messaging, integration, and CRM.
Get Small Business Technology Report
Via Email Every Tuesday
What is Smallbiztechnology.com?
Smallbiztechnology.com helps small-medium sized businesses strategically use technology as a tool to grow their businesses and provides news, articles, discussion boards, resources, analysis & events for the owners of small to medium sized busineses.
Subscribe to the Smallbiztechnology feed.
Recent Posts
- Lookin' Good on Paper While Being Green
- Are You Paying Too Much for A Business Cell Phone Plan?
- Social Data Backup: An Interesting Perspective
- Finally - An Easier Way To Select A Printer
- Products, Tech Reviews and Local Experts for Business
- The Secrets and Lies of Email Marketing
- QuickBooks 2009: Do More. Get Help. View Insight.
- Relying On Startups: Smart Move. Reckless Endeavor
- It's a Smartphone, Not a Petri Dish. Keep Your Tech Devices Clean on the Go
- 6 Tips for Boosting Sales in a Slumping Economy
Join our Facebook Page
The Third Annual Small Business Summit 2008 was a smashing success. Check out the Summit site for what you missed. See the 2008 Summit presentations, video and photos!
Post a comment