by Billy MacInnes
2 April 2008
Only a tiny handful of resellers are engaged in ASP and SaaS activity in Europe according to a study published by compuBase.
The study found more than half of all telecom services companies, such as telecoms operators and ISPs, provided ASP and SaaS olutions, compared to only 2.8 per cent of resellers.
The figures also revealed resellers accounted for only 6.9 per cent of all businesses engaged in ASP and SaaS activity.
Another finding was that only five per cent of the total number of 14,826 software solutions on the compuBase database were available as commercial ASP or SaaS products.
The most popular areas for ASP and SaaS solutions were networks and telecoms, as well as training/teaching (both on ten per cent). Seven per cent of management and production software was available as ASP or SaaS solutions and the number of office utilities and office automation and DBMS software was 5 per cent.
The study found very little variation in the percentages of solutions adapted for the ASP and SaaS model across different groups from individuals to large corporations, although medium to large firms had the largest number with 15 per cent.
According to compuBase, the ASP and SaaS model posed a threat to some resellers because it undercut the "client capital" of account knowledge and contacts they had developed.
It suggested software publishers and online service companies would need to put in place strong communications strategies to create long-lasting relationships and ensure they had a "well-defined indirect distribution policy".
Commenting on the study, Mike Lawrence, managing director at Bentpenny, said: "I’m all in favour of SaaS but - and it’s an awfully big but - you’re totally dependent on a good quality and low contention broadband line. It’s not going to be practical until we get a full fibre optic backbone."
As long as there was the potential for broadband connections to fail, providers would be unable to meet the service level requirements of their customers with ASP or SaaS solutions.
Noting that Switzerland had emerged as the leading country for ASP and SaaS solutions, Lawrence said that the infrastructure was much better than in the UK which, along with Ireland, came bottom of the table. "The whole infrastructure is not just the bit of cable that comes up your drive," he added.
