Let's start with the basics. What is SaaS? First, SaaS stands for "Software as a Service". Basically, what we're talking about when we discuss SaaS, is software that you don't physically own. And that means you don't have all the issues that accompany software ownership such as: purchasing (and maintaining) hardware to run the software; and keeping the software upgraded and patched. These are two very real headaches associated with software ownership, and SaaS is a true blessing of relief in these areas. Using SaaS also let's you hire more people to do what it is you do, which is most likely not IT. If you want to learn more, there are some great neutral resources on the web about SaaS, and here are just a few:

• Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service
• SaaS Showplace: http://www.saas-showplace.com/
• InfoWorld: http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2007/02/saas_not_so_fas.html

One very real drawback of SaaS is the fact that it sits outside an organization's firewall, and therefore, its jurisdiction. As a result, the data in the SaaS application is isolated from the rest of the business. While this might not be such a big deal for a small shop, it can be a show stopper when it comes to the enterprise. The fact that SaaS apps can't get at the rest of the enterprise's data can often slow down an employee's productivity, when the original goal of the SaaS app was to do just the opposite.

The solution to this problem is to open the SaaS app up so that it can communicate directly with the rest of the enterprise, despite the physical separation. As SaaS apps begin to proliferate with the success of large companies such as Salesforce and Google, as well as the migration from on premise solutions to SaaS apps by traditional players such as Microsoft and Oracle, the space between SaaS and the enterprise will begin to blur and grey out. Soon we won't know what in our organization actually sits in house, versus beyond the firewall. With improved security, seamless diretory integration and bidirection flows of knowledge, SaaS may carve out a much larger piece of the enterprise than anyone anticipated. Let's take a couple of examples:

(1) A customer calls a support line and gets a service rep... the customer has billing questions, technical questions and service questions. Traditionally, call center reps have segmented jurisdiction over data and would have to transfer callers from one department to the next. By having a full view of the customer that extends the enterprise enables the rep to address all of the caller's questions in one go around. The result is a more productive call center and a happier customer.

(2) What about the sales guy that's about to call a big customer for a cross sell? Wouldn't make sense for that account executive to know if the customer has any payments outstanding or any open support tickets? Most of this information can only be accessed by calling another department or e-mailing a request for a report. These types of tasks take a considerable amount of time... At best, you might have to log in to a number of different systems and then piece together information (we call that the 'swivel chair affect'). Regardless, a single customer view across the enterprise solves this problem efficiently, yielding a more productive employee.

In summary, don't dismiss SaaS as being unable to hang with the those more costlier enteprise systems which seem to come packaged with months of implementation time... Instead, give SaaS a chance and leverage its open ability to hook into your other systems to give you new insight where you thought it was previously not possible.