There's no doubt that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions are a smart option for small and medium sized companies, no matter what economic conditions we are facing. It allows you to buy the software applications you need as a service from a specialist provider, which means they are quick to implement and do not require deep technical skills to administer. Your apps can be scaled up as you grow and can help reduce your organisation's impact on the environment. And importantly, if you think about Salesforce.com and Google Apps as examples of SaaS, it's clear that businesses already have confidence in SaaS's reliability and ease of use, to the point that companies of all sizes have started using them.

In the current recession, however, the benefits that SaaS solutions deliver are becoming even more significant. Budgets are under intense downward pressure and the majority of businesses are focusing hard on improving their competitive advantage, productivity and customer service. This puts pressure on companies to optimise their IT budgets, remove waste and ensure that all their essential business applications such as email, collaborative software and CRM are working smoothly.

The cost structure and flexibility of the SaaS model makes it an especially smart choice in a time when every penny counts. Let's look at the benefits in a little more detail:

1. Increase flexibility and reduce costs - both capital and maintenance costs

SaaS is a great solution for businesses that wish to stop owning and operating IT software and hardware, in order to focus on their core business. SaaS solutions provide software applications as a service so you buy ‘seats' for the number of employees that require the applications on offer. This flexible model allows your business to reduce costs, whilst maintaining and improving the way in which you use IT applications. Essential desktop applications relevant to your company can be used on-demand, whenever and wherever you want, without having to worry about licences or maintenance agreements from the software vendor.
SaaS is a great solution for businesses that wish to stop owning and operating IT software and hardware, in order to focus on their core business

2. Focus on your core business - no need to worry about deployments and software upgrades
Unless you're an IT company, IT shouldn't soak up any great proportion of your time, energy and people resource. There is no comparison between deployment time of SaaS solutions and traditional software deployment. Companies who deploy software in-house must have IT staff, a computer area for the server or servers, budget for the procurement of the IT infrastructure as well as the applications themselves. All this in-house activity leads to a project which is both capex and opex hungry. SaaS makes deployments and upgrades much easier. In-house IT management may also cause stress around when to and how to upgrade to the latest software version of your current business applications or the hardware platform they run on. With Saas, the solution provider looks after all IT hardware and software upgrades and patches. Life could not get easier!

3. Reduce risk - and environmental impact
SaaS can also mitigate risk. You no longer need to worry about critical administration tasks or long-term software license costs in case of business down-turn. Also, in 2010, governments across Europe will be pushing harder than ever for companies to make their IT requirement environmentally friendly. By leveraging the efficiencies that SaaS providers have gained, SaaS solutions will bring your company closer to a green IT usage.

The immediate benefits of a SaaS solution:
  • Guaranteed high quality service and security, supported by a service level agreement
  • High-availability IT infrastructure without capex demands
  • Savings on capital investment and maintenance costs by out-tasking the IT applications needed, and as a consequence, the IT hardware platform on which the applications are running
  • Flexibility to increase or reduce the number of employee accounts, thereby ensuring IT resource is aligned with the business needs
  • Mobility in that SaaS solutions can enable home office workers and mobile workers to have access to their applications and documents no matter where they are
  • Overview and control of the IT environment and complete cost transparency
  • Shorter IT project durations with improved clarity on the project output.

Further information on COLT's SaaS solutions - COLT Managed Workspace, visit the COLT website by clicking here