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Please contact:
Jeff Claudino
Director of Sales, Insider Research Services
619-229-9940
or via email at:
claudino@lightreading.com |
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| more news |
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| A TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH SERVICE |
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| A CABLE/MSO SECTOR RESEARCH SERVICE |
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| A SILICON & SUBSYSTEM RESEARCH SERVICE |
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| A SERVICE DELIVERY RESEARCH SERVICE |
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| A WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE RESEARCH SERVICE |
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| REAL WORLD RESEARCH |
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| SaaS for SMBs: Gauging Market Opportunities |
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The basic concepts that underlie software as a service (SaaS) have been around for a while – especially if you consider SaaS as an offshoot of the application service provider model that developed in the late 1990s – but SaaS has only just started to gain market traction. Momentum behind SaaS is now building rapidly, however, as participants throughout the telecom and IT supply chain focus on the positive aspects of the SaaS model.
While telcos have been slower on the uptake, as they struggle to figure out how to best integrate SaaS applications over existing infrastructures, enterprise users – especially SMBs – are eager to pick up SaaS services. The primary driver for SMB adoption is cost savings, especially in the contact center, unified communications, unified messaging, and general IP telephony arenas. With SaaS, customers don't have to purchase and maintain software systems, and they can utilize a pay-as-you-go model, making initial up-front costs and ongoing costs much lower. SaaS also reduces the company's IT staff requirements compared with a premises-based solution.
It's not that SaaS isn't without its challenges, including reliability, security, and compliance. However, concerns about such issues continue to fade as SaaS vendors respond to the need for more customization and integration and as SaaS software performs to service-level agreement (SLA) requirements. Furthermore, many enterprises overcome their aversion to SaaS when they realize that it provides better access and collaboration for dispersed workers and better communication with customers.
Some market watchers see SaaS as an emerging industry with great promise for the future, while others see it as a necessary weapon that can be used by service providers and SaaS suppliers to help SMBs maintain growth in a weakening economy. And current economic conditions might just be the force that pushes many organizations to forgo heavy investment in on-premises software and turn instead to SaaS.
SaaS for SMBs: Gauging Market Opportunities evaluates the market strategies of more than a dozen leading SaaS suppliers, focusing on their approaches to the SMB sector and to key vertical markets. The report outlines the development of the SaaS market, including a clarification of the SaaS sector, growth strategies, and the benefits of SaaS. The report also addresses the primary challenges facing the SaaS market's continued growth.
This report provides critical data and analysis for a range of industry participants, including:
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SaaS suppliers needing independent market analysis of the SaaS sector |
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Network operators and SMB network planners evaluating deployment of SaaS platforms and applications |
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Investors needing a better understanding of the scale of the opportunity that SaaS presents in the SMB sector, and which types of companies are best positioned to seize that opportunity |
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| Sample research data from the report is shown in the excerpts below: |
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 Table of Contents (vsi0608_toc.pdf) |
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| Well over 100 companies now offer some type of SaaS product in their portfolios, covering dozens of application types and vertical markets. SaaS suppliers are adopting different strategies regarding the key markets they are targeting: Some see SaaS as being used predominantly in the SMB marketplace, while others are putting more emphasis on large enterprises. The vertical markets being targeted by SaaS providers can also vary widely. The following figure outlines which market segments leading SaaS suppliers are targeting. |
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| [click on the image above for the full excerpt] |
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 Companies analyzed in this report include: Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU); Avaya Inc.; Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO); EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC); Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ); IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM); Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM); Jamcracker Inc.; Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT); Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL); Sterling Commerce, a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA); and Verizon Business, an operating unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ). |
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| Other companies mentioned in this report include: Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN); Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE); BT Group plc (NYSE: BT); EVault, a wholly owned subsidiary of IQNavigator Inc.; Intacct Corp.; Escrow Associates Inc.; Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE: NT); Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM); SAP AG (NYSE: AG); Seagate Technology LLC (NYSE: STX); and Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC). |
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| Total Pages: 12 |
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| AUGUST 2008 |
 VOIP Service Security |
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| * Calendar subject to change |
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| - Derek Sheeler, Analyst, Olayan Group |
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| - Barry Kantner, Vice President, World Wide Packets |
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