SaaS Market In APAC Grows At 46% Through 2012: Springboard Research

Enterprise spending on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in Asia Pacific
(excluding Japan) region is expected to grow at 46 percent between 2008 and
2012, pushing the market to $2.25 billion by 2012, says the latest report from
Springboard Research.

Springboard's report, 'Software-as-a-Service in APEJ 2009/2010', revealed
that more than 50 percent of SaaS adopters had evaluated an on-premise
application before ultimately choosing a SaaS solution, indicating that SaaS
applications have begun to eat into the on-premise applications market across
APEJ. Nearly a third of adopters claimed to have had a SaaS application replace
an on-premise one. Report findings are based on Springboard's survey of 530
technology and business leaders from large, medium and small enterprises in
ASEAN, the People's Republic of China (PRC), India, Australia and New Zealand,
as well as extensive secondary research and interviews with leading SaaS
providers in the market.

“The ongoing economic slowdown and interest in Cloud Computing have emerged
as the primary factors driving increased interest in subscription-based SaaS
solutions throughout the region,” said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Research
Manager for Emerging Software at Springboard Research. “Going forward, SaaS-related
services and consulting revenues will grow substantially over the next 18-24
months as more partners enter the ecosystem,” added Aggarwal.

Large Enterprises Report Higher Adoption

Springboard's survey found that the highest SaaS penetration in Asia Pacific
(excluding Japan) is amongst large enterprises (more than 1,000 employees). This
runs contrary to the popular belief that SaaS primarily appeals to the SMB
sector. In terms of verticals, SaaS penetration is strongest in the telecom
sector, and then evenly spread across other major sectors, including education,
infrastructure & construction, professional services and retail.

“Large enterprises are typically more experienced and IT savvy and are hence
better prepared to leverage innovative technologies or approaches like SaaS to
reduce costs,” said Michael Barnes, VP-Software Research, Springboard Research.

“The widespread presence of on-premise applications will force SaaS vendors
to compete more fiercely to justify replacing these previously deployed
solutions with SaaS-based offerings,” Barnes said.

CRM and Salesforce.com are market leaders

Based on the number of adopters surveyed by Springboard, CRM continues to be
the most widely deployed SaaS application, followed by security/compliance and
collaboration tools. However, in 2009, Content and Collaboration surpassed CRM
in terms of overall market size in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan).
Salesforce.com continues to dominate the SaaS market with other leading players
including Citrix Online, Cisco Webex, Microsoft, Netsuite, Oracle, and RightNow.

DQC News Bureau