Software as a Service Goes Mainstream Assignment

Software as a Service Goes Mainstream - Assignment Example For all of these reasons, the organisations are coming up with different strategies and solutions in order to manage the business effectively and efficiently. One of the biggest changes or innovations which has been implemented by different organisations is of the different software for improving the business operations, like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) system (Holsapple & Sena, 2005). These software and Management Information Systems (MIS) allow the organisations to integrate the all components of the value chain and provide the customers with high value at the end of the process (O’Leary, 2004). There are different companies and organisations in the market which are providing the solutions of software and Management Information Systems (MIS) (Oz, 2009). However, a recent development in this regard is the new Software as a service (SAAS) model introduced by the salesforce.com (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). In this case study analysis an attempt has been made in order to explore and analyse the new software as a service (SAAS) model of salesforce.com. Along with this, the case study analysis presents different advantages and disadvantages associated with this new business model for software providers. Different challenges being faced by the management of salesforce.com in the process of providing this innovative service has been discussed along with the strategies and methods used by the management to overcome them. The report also outlines the different factors which should be kept in consideration while going for this new model and innovative service. Along with this the report also defines the businesses and organisations which can reap additional benefits by switching to the new software as a service (SAAS) model offered by the salesforce.com ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE SOFTWARE – AS – A – SERVICE MODEL: Salesforce.com has come up with a completely different model for providing diff erent software solutions to the customers. This new and innovative model is known as the Software as a service model (SAAS). The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) services are provided by the company through online in the form of ‘software as a service’ (SAAS). This is totally oppose to the traditional concepts of the software solutions being provided by different companies in the industry, as customers are required to purchase those software and install them on the respective computer or machines. The software solutions provided by the traditional software solutions providers require a whole set of different hardware, operating system, servers for maintaining database, application servers for installation, and several other additional accessories (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Another advantage of the Software as a service model (SAAS) of the salesforce.com is that it has been priced comparatively low than the other software solutions. Apart from this the installation o f the normal or traditional software includes the additional cost of the licensing along with the regular maintenance cost. Along with this the installation of this new model of software only requires 0 to 3 months time period and there is no need of additional staff or consultants. On one hand the software is priced appropriately and on the other hand the organisations can avoid all additional hassle and cost associated with the installation of the software. The software is managed through a website online, which is regularly updated.