SaaS Technology and Microsoft Offerings

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)—meaning delivering software as a service over the web—is increasingly popular for its ability to simplify deployment and reduce customer acquisition costs; it also allows developers to support many customers with a single version of a product. SaaS is also often associated with a “pay as you go” subscription licensing model. It has some demerits too. Customer cannot customize the software as per his requirement. They have to run business process as per the software service.

SaaS comprises a wide spectrum of software services. Sometimes these software services provide stand-alone application functionality, and sometimes they are used as building blocks for more complex services. They can either provide core infrastructural capabilities, application functionality, or enhancements to existing functionality on servers and clients. Microsoft provides a range of services that can be leveraged to build your Software-as-a-Service solutions.

Core Services offered by Microsoft

Windows Live and Microsoft AdCenter

End-User Services offered by Microsoft

Windows Live OneCare, Digital Locker, Xbox Live, and Media Center

Business Services offered by Microsoft

Microsoft Office Live Small Business, Hosted Exchange and Exchange Hosted Services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, and Hosted CRM/Dynamics

With SaaS an entire finished software application can be available on-demand from some SaaS service provider. The application exists in the cloud and can be consumed from any browser. Therefore, the customer of a SaaS service provider is the end user. SaaS service provider is not only offering an entire application to the end user but that the SaaS service provider is also responsible for providing the compute power, storage, and networking infrastructure necessary to run the application. The software application may be implemented in such a way that it directly consumes resources without the need for third party infrastructure services or platform services. As a matter of fact, most of the popular SaaS offerings today are built in this fashion.

Read information on CRM For FMCG Companies and CRM Trends in India. Copyright Ryan Mutt