A report from Scottsdale, Arizona-based market researcher In-Stat is predicting that the number of SaaS installations for enterprise applications like CRM and ERP in the US will match the number of installations deployed using traditional software licenses within the next 18 months. The report is called “SaaS Slowly Displacing Installed Business Applications” and surveys the potential of the market through 2012.
In-Stat is also predicting strong demand for SaaS office productivity software — software that would compete directly with Microsoft Office products. To date, most interest in on-demand office productivity applications is coming from small businesses that have very basic needs. The In-Stat survey found that 15 percent of companies with more than 100 people are ready to give hosted office productivity solutions a try over the next year.
A big benefit in the move to hosted applications is the ability to better support employees that are often out of the office. Companies are interested but remain cautious of SaaS — many are worried about security issues and the risk involved in keeping company-sensitive information outside their own IT infrastructure.
But those users that have already made the jump to SaaS are generally satistified with the move. 80 percent of SaaS office productivity applications users say that they would recommend it and are open to expanding their use of SaaS.
