SaaS, which stands for Software as a Service, is software that is hosted, updated, and supported by a vendor and that software is usually accessed through the Internet (either through a website, or widget, etc.).  When you’re considering adding services to your business website, you will probably run across SAAS vendors and it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages before you make a decision:

Advantages

• No software and hardware to maintain - The SaaS vendor provides all the support.
• Frees up internal support resources for other tasks.
• Ongoing fees mean you can quit using the system at any time.
• Usually get enterprise-level services for much lower costs.
• Often SaaS vendors have a large customer base to provide feedback, which can be beneficial for quality assurance.
• SaaS vendors are often able to roll out new features (and bug fixes) very quickly since the software is running on their systems.

Disadvantages

• No control over updates - The software will automatically be updated by the vendor, giving you little control over whether you want those updates.
• Harder to maintain change control - If you have other systems that interact with the SaaS product, updates and changes to it may cause problems when the changes are unexpected or unexplained.
• Little control over new features - While SaaS customers certainly have some input, you will have much less than software developed in-house.  But about the same level of input over vendor software installed and running internally.
• Ongoing fees may be difficult to budget compared to one-time fees.
• No ownership of software - must continue investment with ongoing service fees.
• Lack of flexibility - You are at the mercy of the vendor.  Jeremiah Owyang has a good article with more information and a good discussion - The Problem With SaaS - Lack of Flexibility.

If you use SaaS services, what has your experience been?  Any advantages or disadvantages I missed? Please share in the comments below.

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