Software-as-a-service market set to double

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 22 February 2007 08:28

Business IT - Technology

A new report claims the software-as-a-service (SaaS) market is set to double in size during 2007, with 41 percent of respondents planning to spend part of their current budget on SaaS applications, yet only 23 percent currently do so.

While only 8 percent regard SaaS as a straategic direction, a further 77 percent of respondents said they are open to considering SaaS on a case-by-case basis.

CRM, salesforce automation and finance are expected to be the major growth areas.

Substantial growth is also expected in the use of business applications via mobile devices - a field well suited to SaaS. Fifty eight percent of respondents expected to see an increase during the the next 12 months, with a 105 percent increase in the number of staff using business applications in this way.

Of those using SaaS already, 82 percent said the applications met or exceeded their expectations and business needs.

"Fifty eight per cent of respondents using SaaS recorded significant gains in operational efficiency. Forty per cent have experienced increases in revenue,” said Dr. Catriona Wallace, director, ACA Research.