Panelists at the session discussed in detail about the future of SaaS and the challenges that come in way of adoption. Data Security, reliability, lack of customization, resistance to change, buying pattern, bandwidth problems etc were amongst these challenges.

“I don't believe that IT as a service business model is a technology innovation at this point of time, but we can see a lot of businesses that can leverage SaaS,” said Venguswamy Rangaswamy, head of SMB business, Tata Consultancy Services.

He further said that when they speak to their SME customers in India, what is understood that the complexity of IT in terms of upgradation, maintenance etc is what bothers SMEs. Giving them a cloud solution with combination of all necessary things that are required by an SME to run their business would make a difference in near future.

Security Concerns

Data security is one of the crucial concern for SMBs when it comes to SaaS deployment. But the panelists were of opinion that if you need to secure data effectively, then you need to go for SaaS.

“Data residing on customer premise is more vulnerable than keeping it in your provider's data center, because most of the SMB's do not have effective security policies in place when compared to large companies,” said Rangaswamy.

He also mentioned that data security is not a problem but a sales objection and it will take some time to convince the SMBs.

Oppurtunity for SaaS

The panelists at the session opined that creating and adopting innovative business models is the need of the hour. “Lots of aggregation with SMB associations, private equity firms would have great influence on reaching them,” said Rangaswamy.

According to Shekar Kirani, VP, India, Verisign Inc, another way of making SaaS happening is by creating a scenario where there is no choice but to use as well as make it a demanded option for gaining information in real time. Some of the other measures discussed was making mobile as an access device.

“Usage of SMS as a communication device to interact with your system can be thought of,” added Rangaswamy

Being very optimistic about SaaS in India, Kishore Mandyam, CEO , PK4 Software Technologies Pvt Ltd, said, “India market is very phenomenal and SaaS is absolutely the way to grow.”

Further indicating the opportunities he said that the number of the number of people who searched for CRM applications online last month was 3068 in comparison to 2028 of last year. The scope is phenomenal in India and there are going to be more and more web-savvy companies. The growth of entrepreneurship itself is a major platform.

Adding to what Mandyam mentioned, Kirani said that within five years there will be a titanic shift where all the business would be on cloud, giving huge opportunity for SaaS.