'Huge Jump' in CIOs Considering SaaS

ZDNet on November 08, 2006

According to a McKinsey survey, there has been a "huge jump" in CIOs who are considering adopting software-as-a-service applications, from 38 percent in 2005 to 61 percent in 2006. Even consulting firms are warming to SaaS, with one Accenture exec telling attendees of the recent SIIA OnDemand Summit that his company sees a business opportunity in building complementary application services for its clients. SaaS removes much of the technical risk from an implementation, which allows Accenture to focus on change management and other types of business risk, he says. This blog entry wraps with a list of six best practices that a venture capitalist says he looks for when considering whether to invest in a SaaS company. The list should work just as well for CIOs evaluating SaaS providers.