Springboard Research‘s Rishi Seth has been in touch with a press release announcing major findings from their latest research report, Software-as-a-Service in APAC: The Momentum Continues, which also has some good news for those, like me, interested in the collaboration field.
According to this report, simplicity and ease-of-use of SaaS are encouraging many business users in Asia to adopt SaaS applications independently, sometimes without the involvement of their IT departments. Buoyed by this support from actual users, the SaaS market in Asia is expected to soar between 2008 and 2010, reaching an estimated US$1.8 billion by 2011.
SaaS awareness in the region has reached an all time high, but customers are still grappling with issues like finding the right application, ensuring reliable connectivity, data reliability and security.
In terms of penetration, the technology, manufacturing and financial services industries are the leading verticals in the region to adopt SaaS applications, particularly for CRM (customer relationship management). Australia remains the largest and the most mature SaaS market in the region, while SaaS momentum has demonstrated strong growth in many parts of India and China as vendors have started focusing and investing more in these markets. Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Springboard’s Senior Manager of Emerging Software says:
“There are opportunities for SaaS across many applications, but Springboard believes that on-demand collaboration will emerge as the most pervasive SaaS application as more and more enterprises seek to both leverage and empower an increasingly distributed workforce.” [my emphasis]
Related posts:
- SaaS: The business solution (6 September 2007)
- SaaS growth in Asia (7 December 2007)
- Asia Pacific SaaS market (20 April 2008)
