Back in February I provided some context about the growth of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model in my post entitled, "The Enterprise Software World is Getting Sassy-SAAS". This gist of my post was to show that the overall market demand for SaaS is high and that SaaS is displacing traditional software in aggregate.

But that sort of depiction really masks some things. For example, my original macro characterization does not highlight mistrust laying just below the surface. To what degree are people switching to SaaS as we know it because there are no better options? Hard to answer that question without targeted research, but Christopher Koch, CIO Magazine's Executive Editor has some interesting thoughts when commenting on another IDC study (posted trimmed a little with "..." indicated):

But the question is, how to escape this co-dependency of mistrust? Software as a service, at least as it is currently being offered, is not the answer, according to the survey. It was interesting to read between the lines of the results. For every major category of enterprise software, IT executives in small and large companies ... said they wanted software delivered as a service. Twice as many wanted to buy by the drink rather than owning it outright. Until you get to the one category where software as a service is really being tested: CRM ... when the IT executives were asked whether they wanted CRM as a service or wanted to own it, the numbers reversed. Twice as many wanted to own ... And probably the biggest resistance point of all: you can't integrate the internal, usually customized CRM stuff with the service.

And Koch's closing thoughts:

... Integration is holding it all up. An independent integration layer in the architecture could make it easier for CIOs to want what they say they want.

Breaking it down, baby.

Steve Shu