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