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We are developing online software for aircraft maintenance records geared towards leasing companies.

SaaS makes sense for many reasons:

No Oracle or SAP deployment negotiations and costs which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
No SAP or Oracle 'consultants' cost to manage the software once deployed. No in house IT department. Independent IT services (on call) will start to take the place of IT departments, thus creating more jobs in a leaner and meaner economic environment.
No extreme training costs, training curve, Most SaaS is straightforward and easy to use. No huge manuals and cheat sheets for employees. No employee frustration.
SaaS, you pay for what you need.
Mobility!!!! People can work at home or Starbucks.

In many cases, storage can be done on the users servers instead of cloud data centers so the user retains 'control' over the security of the content.

With cost cutting measures in place at every business level, SaaS and other online services make sense

Hi Luckiest

I have just got back from holidays with my family, I hope you also had a great festive period and are enjoying 2009, I will update my profile with more information and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the topic.

The concern that I have with a online server is the internet connection. Maybe I am a worry wart, but having only one way of getting the information to my shop scares me. My DSL line goes spotty when we have quite a bit of rain and then I have to wait for the water in the line to dry out before my connection becomes good again.

I am in a suburb of St Louis and the lines were put in during the 1950's and still have paper insulation. We do not have metro wi-fi here so DSL line is the only way that I can get it .

This is why I have not changed to a internet based system. I can see the benefits by far, like being able to input and check on orders from out of town or be able to wrok from home.

ATT says they will be putting fiber optic lines in soon. However, when I ask, no one can define the word "soon".

Jim

Hi Jim, I'm also in St. Louis and may have a "solution" for you if you're still interested. Verizon Wireless aircards are as fast or faster than DSL and versatile enough to use outside the office in a laptop. Some of my customers even use a primary router - a backup if you will - using an aircard which makes for a solid backup and persistent connection. (my day job is in wireless).

If you are interested in using an online server, but concerned about the spotty connection, consider getting an aircard.

Thanks.

Wow.., what a great conversation. We recently moved to a managed service, StreetSmart Office, the company is www.infostreet.com, and is miles better then open source that my IT guy talked me into. We had spent 4 months customizing Jomla (I think it's called) to create a simple task/workflow system for our jewelry design company.

So far I like using an Internet software.., although moving our data did take longer then expected. This is where I agree with others about customer support. You HAVE to find a company in the US. One that has solid support.., and are willing to customize their sytem to address a specific workflow for the industry you're in. Otherwise your employees will always complain.

Great topic... keep it going.

Samson

I use a custom software solution that visualizes drug use in America by maintaing a database of reported drug uses and making snapshots of the database on a map that shows each county of the United States. The database reports real-time drug use statistics in 3,140 U.S counties. The software I use was developed to remotely update up to ~16000 images.

http://www.DopeStats.com

How many of the solutions listed as SaaS are OpenSource or are Proprietary? With propretary software, you are using it only the way they offer it to you, "off the rack' so to speak. with OpenSource You can customize it, have it 'tailor made' to fit your needs specifically.

Also to consider, Internet bandwidth is not 'unlimited' the more web based SaaS sites pop up, overall performance will eventually decrease.

Who is to say which of the unscrupulous providers will be combing through client data to sell information because the data is on the providers server and not on the customers?

By the way, interent content is provided by way of hardware servers. It is not a magic app that has no connection to physical hardware. ANY app that can be run over the internet, can also be run from your own, secured, private server for your business, school or non-profit group. You provide the hardware and OpenSource can provide the software for little to no cost on top of it. No license fees, no monthly costs for access.

Once the server is running, it's up and available to you and your staff and customers at your discretion and under your control. Not someone else's.

The best part is, if you are a small business, a school or a non-profit group and you are not sure how to set up a server or maintain it, you can get help with that for free at BEL Project.

Big Bear