Archive for 3. June 2009

Software as a Service

One of the options in selecting software is to select software that will be “hosted”.  One public sector provider of tax billing software, Civica, offers a hosted solution for many of its smaller customers, and are looking to increase this business.  On the utilities side, the Australian energy retailer, Origin, is apparently outsourcing its SAP-based solution to Wipro.  Whether outsourcing the platform or the software (or both) a whole new dimension arises - the reliability of the telecoms or Internet infrastructure that supports the hardware and software being located far away from (and by another business altogether) the core retail business, whether it’s electricity, water, your local Council or an airline. Hosting however is only a stepping stone to software-as-a-service (SaaS), where the user doesn’t own the software at all.

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