Several software application experts have predicted, in as early as 1995, the onset of a new application model that will end the desktop application era. Due to unprecedented technological advancements that flooded in, desktop applications have become unable to support innovative application models such as Software as a Service or SaaS. In the same way, enterprises seemed less ready to welcome the new concept that SaaS brought as a business application.
Premised upon various factors, on-demand software service has arrived. A major factor in the market is the significant increase of consumer applications online, such as Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and Gmail by Google. These new Web products dramatically change the perception of the consuming public regarding Internet-based applications. Users realize the benefits they gain from software applications that are acquired as a Web service.
In addition, Salesforce.com and Netsuite have become an overnight sensation with the revolutionary Web-based products they offer. Salesforce and Netsuite’s offered applications such as CRM and ERP have marked the significant shift from the traditional desktop application as far as software products are concerned. The server-based/client model gave business organizations a difficult task to extend to an entire enterprise the value of their adopted programs. In the opposite, on-demand online applications allow organization to achieve this goal in a quicker and easier way.
It was in the 1980s to the 1990s that client and server-based system models, as well as desktop computers, were developed for vendors to create business applications. The desktop application model turned over the responsibilities relating to software application, such as customization, support and integration. This package was aptly called the “off-the-shelf” business applications.
The 1990s became the advent of online-facilitated technologies, which consisted of the web browser and the Internet. This new breed of computer technology enabled SaaS. Due to the SaaS model, general business applications may be delivered anywhere to users who are connected with a standard Web browser.
The on-demand generation of software effectively addresses business enterprises in their search for ways to provide data to their employees, partners, vendors and customers.
Research analysts have tagged SAAS applications as “cost-effective alternatives” that do away with the often dragging and costly licensing requirements of in-house software acquisition. This trend has hurt small and medium-sized enterprises.
As organizations embrace the concept of SaaS, they are able to focus on investing for software in more critical aspects, including those that concern service efficiency, process definition, support, and other software concerns that necessitate more attention. Companies have said that SaaS provides a better deal than what desktop applications demand — a bulky investment for the mere implementation of technology.
According to experts, the SaaS model also lets an enterprise focus on a significant goal — automation of processes over periods of time that are shorter than in-house deployments.
Certain significant drivers of technology have paved the way for the most glaring improvement with respect to user experience. As a recent application model, SaaS delivers are characterized by fast feedback and rich user interface that are similar with desktop programs. The customary online service was not fully emphasized on security features including, among others, encryption and message signing. However, communication on the Web is arguably more secure and is premised upon stronger industry standards.
In comparison with the traditional desktop application, the SaaS model offers the better advantage as it allows what experts call “stateless” computing. Simply put, SaaS allows a user to take the data everywhere. With SaaS, data synchronization is a thing of the past. Moreover, SaaS virtually runs any application on Web browser-supported computers. At the business level, SaaS adopts solutions that have been standardized, allowing configuration around specific processes. SaaS also offers innovative ways to develop fresh applications minus supposedly indispensable Information Technology resources.
In addition, SaaS offers seamless integration of platforms, replacing the customary Enterprise Application Integration and Service Oriented Architecture that embrace Web services that are standards-based. As results, SaaS offers longer flexibility terms, as compared with desktop applications.
Desktop software application is characterized by the selling of licenses for end-users, compounded with hefty professional charges. Once the licenses are sold, the vendor-customer relationship ends. Meanwhile, SaaS makes the vendor a customer’s partner who provides complete business solutions.