Why SaaS?

Vigna choose SaaS because it is associated with business software and is typically thought of as a low-cost way for software providers to deliver the same benefits of commercially licensed, internally operated software without the associated complexity and high initial cost. Many types of software are well suited to the SaaS model, where customers may have little interest or capability in software deployment, but do have substantial computing needs. Application areas such as Customer relationship management (CRM), video conferencing, human resources, IT service management, accounting, IT security, web analytics, web content management, e-mail and now SCM are some of the markets showing SaaS success. The distinction between SaaS and earlier applications delivered over the Internet is that SaaS solutions are now developed specifically to leverage web technologies such as the browser, thereby making them web-native. The data design and architecture of SaaS applications are specifically built with a 'multi-tenant' backend, thus enabling multiple customers or users to access a shared data model. This further differentiates SaaS from client/server or 'ASP' (Application Service Provider) solutions in those SaaS providers are leveraging enormous economies of scale in the deployment, management, support and through the Software Development Lifecycle.

In addition to the characteristics mentioned above, SaaS software turns the tragedy of the commons on its head and frequently has these additional benefits:

• More feature requests from users since there is frequently no marginal cost for requesting new features
• Faster releases of new features since the entire community of users benefits from new functionality
• The embodiment of recognized best practices since the community of users drives the software publisher to support the best practice