Here are some thoughts on the subject to spark off discussion:
The SaaS (Software as a Service) model is an interesting development in the enterprise software segment. My predictions are that:
We could see investment in SaaS companies in the India-US corridor with a lot of development and support located out of India.
I also think the SaaS model offers an opportunity for Indian IT companies to enter the software product space. Indian IT companies have hitherto acquired niche consultimg companies. They may acquire enterprise software product compoanies and morph them to a more managed services organizations.
Some more detailed thoughts are here
www.myopen-window.blogspot.com
I would love to connect with folks who are thinking of these opportunities.
- Building the Green Entrepreneurial Ecosystem city by Indian city - February 3, 2010
- The Largest gathering of Cleantech companies in India - January 8, 2010
- TiE ISB Connect 2009 is on October 22-23 in Hyderabad - September 25, 2009
SaaS is definitely future direction in Enterprise market, people are frustrated in upgrading software and paying consulting bills, but any change takes, so is the SaaS. But I really appreciate Salesforce.com, which is trying to build the Ecosystem using AppExchange.
As per as Indian companies are concerned, they are still followers, although IT has grown so much, but still few players in product space and SaaS is much more risky than products, it takes longer time to see money, I think those reasons will again hold back, although there are lot of opportunities, but I dont think any leader will come up.
Regards,
Bhaskar, fan of SaaS, started own in SaaS area – http://www.chikpea.com
Hi ;
Read your last blog and yes, we are looking into SAAS based development for hte Indian markets infact as Sameer mentioned in his comment.
Regards
Eva Shah
Hey
Couldn’t agree more with you. To take an example my own company Drishti (www.drishti-soft.com) provides a hosted service for our own product DACX Contact Center Suite and the first client I signed up was in the US.
There are obvious advantages of having development and support from India so all it takes now is develop a world-class product and host it as a service.
My own vision is that sooner or later, broadband would be omnipresent and then it will make more sense specially for SMEs to get applcations as service instead of having there own infrastructure.
Keep blogging !
– Sachin
SaaS is definitely looking promising both from a user point of view and from a service provider perspective,
i have put up a couple of posts on the topic from and Asian / Indian context, you can check them out here, here & here.
HCL is one of the Indian companies who see that there is potential here, in a whitepaper IDC mentions “HCL playing a crucial role as enterprises move toward utility computing and software as a service (SaaS), and he is making the investments today to make this a reality.”
Another company which is going very well in the on demand space is ofcourse zoho.
Interesting topic and relevant thoughts!
Why just the India US corridor ? India’s growth as an economy will need and mean more investment in IT – its just not likely to happen as big chunks of purchases – but more of a ‘rental’ story. SaaS is a huge opportunity for Indian IT to start developing a home market – and also calculating costs, salaries, programming and program-office efficiencies without the comfort of the dollar arbitrage. The Indian customer will ensure efficiencies, and a market at home will ensure this sector grows beyond its “misc.” contribution to the GDP, and reduces dependence on external economic cycles alone.