Great post by Tim Minahan over at Supply Excellence talking about the realities of on-demand (software as a service or SaaS) and debunking many of the myths out there about such solutions.  As an on-demand vendor, we know all too well that many of these myths still exist – but it’s changing.  More and more companies are open to on-demand/SaaS solutions and, in fact, many are embracing it and viewing the fact that we are an on-demand service as a key advantage.

I posted a comment on Tim’s site and have included it here also.

** My comment **

Tim – great post.  It’s great to see someone putting some facts out there to counter the many myths that exist about on-demand/SaaS solutions.  We’re an on-demand service provider with a supply chain management solution so we see a lot of this everday.  It’s interesting, as you noted, that many companies have higher expectations for an on-demand service around security, reliability, etc. than what they have with their on-premises solutions.  Yet, we and other on-demand service providers are able to meet those demands with our offerings as you accurately pointed out.

The tide is turning.  As you noted, most large companies do have several on-demand services that they use.  We’re seeing this across the board with all types of manufacturers – the interest is growing to the point that the fact that we are an on-demand service is viewed as a distinct advantage now for many IT organizations.  As you point out, we’re able to deliver the reliability, security, and capabilities they need while completely reducing their need to procure hardware, install and manage upgrades, manage the systems infrastructure, etc.

The myths are mainly perpetuated by those on-premises vendors that don’t see that the future is about on-demand services that can deliver the functionality companies need at a lower overall cost of ownership.  Posts like yours and the growing body of companies that have successfully leveraged on-demand services will eventually overcome these perceptions.

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