Software-as-a-service (SaaS) adoption by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increased by 58 percent to 15 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to Forrester Research, as the market's early adopters flocked to the SaaS siren song of lower costs, quick deployment times and mitigating IT staff constraints. During that same period, however, non-users' skepticism widened, with increasing concerns about total cost of ownership (TCO), integration, security and application performance. "To ensure that SMB SaaS adoption glides smoothly into the early majority phase, marketers will need to address skeptics' concerns head-on," says Forrester's Michael Speyer. "Marketers will need to clearly demonstrate the TCO advantages of SaaS, ensure that their products have well-defined data integration and conversion procedures, show price transparency, and have well-articulated security and data-protection stories."
Source: News Factor, http://www.newsfactor.com