New Delhi: Business users in Asian enterprises have emerged as key influencers in SaaS purchase decisions, according to the latest research by Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry. Per Springboard’s report titled “ Software-as-a-Service in APAC: The Momentum Continues,” the SaaS market in APAC (excluding Japan) in 2007 was an estimated $274 million and the same is expected to register a compounded annual growth rate of 59 percent during 2007-2011, reaching an estimated $1.8 billion by 2011.
Based on a survey of 530 CIOs and IT managers in India, ASEAN, China, and Australia & New Zealand, the study found that awareness and familiarity of SaaS across the region has reached an all time high. However, the report cautions that the APAC SaaS market is rather immature as customers are still grappling with issues like finding the right application and ensuring reliable connectivity. Concerns about data reliability and security are also impacting the growth of the market.
Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, senior manager of emerging software for Springboard Research, said, “Although Saas awareness has reached a peak, deployments in the region demonstrate that the market is still in its early stages as most customers have deployed SaaS applications in isolation and have not integrated these with other enterprise applications. Vendors must therefore continue to invest further in educating customers on the best ways to derive the benefits of SaaS, especially in China, ASEAN and India.”
The report also revealed that in terms of penetration, the technology, manufacturing and financial services industries have emerged as the leading verticals in the region to adopt SaaS applications. The survey respondents point to their investments in existing on-premise applications as the biggest impediment to SaaS adoption.
Michael Barnes, vice president of software research at Springboard Research, stated, “SaaS’ traditional value-propositions of low upfront investment and ease of use and management are no longer enough to lure existing customers with on-premise applications. Vendors will have to offer applications and functionality that existing on-premise applications do not offer, and they also need to greatly expand local partner channels and delivery capabilities to appeal to these customers.”
Ms aggarwal, added, “There are opportunities for SaaS across many applications, but Springboard believes that on-demand collaboration will emerge as the most pervasive SaaS application as more and more enterprises seek to both leverage and empower an increasingly distributed workforce.”
www.springboardresearch.com
