CIOs and IT administrators will increasingly find themselves sitting at the table with companies providing SaaS solutions, from enterprise software vendors to local value-added resellers and managed services providers. Gartner predicts worldwide SaaS revenue to hit $14.5bn this year, a nearly 18-percent boost compared with 2011 sales. The market watcher forecasts "healthy growth" through 2015, with a $22.1bn market that year.

The shift from traditional, on-premises software delivery presents a different twist on contracting. Moving software to the cloud raises performance and security concerns; organizations may need to articulate their specific needs to the SaaS provider. Another consideration is managing SaaS contracts once the ink dries. Large enterprises, in particular, may need to establish vendor management programs as the number of SaaS partners proliferates.

You need to ask upfront what the vendor can do to meet your needs.

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Keywords: saas, supply chain management, saas contracts