The Hindu Business Line : ‘Software as a service’ poised for growth in India

Software as a service (SaaS) is poised to make inroads into India initially with small- and medium-sized enterprises taking to this option to stay competitive.

While system integrator Satyam Computer Services Ltd recently announced its new initiative in partnership with Nasscom and trade body Federation of Andhra Pradesh Small Industries Association, to offer various SaaS services for a cluster of companies that will help address this business opportunity, enterprise software makers — Oracle and SAP — through their global partners, are set to follow suit to tap this opportunity.

The Director and Senior Vice-President, Manufacturing and Automotive Business Group, Satyam, Mr Subu D. Subramanian, said that SaaS may be new to India but is a tried and tested approach for enterprises to streamline their business process while focusing on their core competencies.

Salesforce.com and RightNow are a couple of successful examples of how this has made a difference to enterprises in the US and more companies, particularly small and medium, that do not have the capability to spend on separate IT teams, opt for this approach, Mr Subramanian told Business Line.

SAP’s offering

German enterprise software maker SAP AG recently announced its move to play a larger role in what it refers to as Business ByDesign, which is particularly targeted at companies with 100 to 500 employees. This would be offered through its partners.

The SAP Business ByDesign includes SAP Business All InOne and Business One frameworks and is being introduced in a phased manner in the US and Germany, China, France and the UK.

It will not be long before it is offered in India too.

Oracle model

Oracle is among the early initiators of the SaaS model with its range of customer relation management (CRM) solutions.

It is also looking at the possibility of extending these services through its partners for other verticals such as retail, where small- and medium- sized companies could take ready-to-deploy solutions and gradually ramp up.

Wanting to stay competitive is driving the growth of SaaS, which allows companies to reap the benefits of software at a lower cost. And, the company that hosts these solutions takes care of all the upgrades.

Satyam has announced that it is in talks with several States, particularly with industrial clusters, for SaaS solutions.

This could be in areas such as electronic manufacturing in and around Chennai, semiconductor companies and auto ancillaries.

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